- Joined
- Jun 25, 2013
So this thing has been on my mind for the past couple of days. I notice a lot of people complaining about how a lot of modern games have an annoying tendency to "hold the player's hand". Whether it be constant tutorial pop ups, preventing exploration for the sake of moving the game along, or providing the answer to puzzles relatively quickly, sometimes straight away.
I can see the frustration people have with this and I mostly agree with them. Taken to an extreme, we have games like Skyward Sword, where Fi, the game's equivalent to OOT's Navi, pops up several times to tell the player what to do and how to do it. Or a game like The Last Story where someone keeps yelling at the player on what to do on certain bosses every few seconds. (In that case, that's probably more like lazy programming and not making it so that the character doesn't shout every few seconds) It's both annoying and can take away some sense of satisfaction from figuring it out on your own.
Lately however, I can't help but feel there's some kind of grey area to this kind of thing. I've recently completed Grim Fandango twice and am currently playing Shadow of the Colossus again. Grim Fandango gives you your basic goals and the puzzles can be solved out through a little experimentation and logic. Even then though, some of the puzzles I couldn't really figure out on my own and I ended up resorting to a guide. I'm not saying that they're impossible to solve, guides exist online for a reason. I just noticed how some people complain about how some of the puzzles can be too vague or abstract. Which I notice seems to be common within Adventure games. With Grim Fandango however, most of the puzzles seem logical or at the very least make sense within the context of the story, so I can't really criticize them too much.
Shadow of the Colossus follows a somewhat similar mentality, the difference being that if a player spends a long enough time not progressing on a Colossus, (around ten minutes) Dormin will give the player a hint on what to do. Some are vague, others are somewhat direct. This would probably be considered hand holding by some people, and I can see what they mean. But to me, it makes sense in context in the game's story and some of the puzzles in that game can be a little obtuse. But then I wonder, did the creators not convey enough information to the player on screen so they have to resort to using hints? How much is too much or how little is too little?
Finally, I'd like to talk about guides. Guides have been a thing for a long time. Whether it be through something like Nintendo Power, official strategy guides you find in stores, to places like Gamefaqs. I notice some people say that you shouldn't use a guide or at the very least not use it the entire way through. I'll admit, as a kid I'm guilty of doing the latter, but now I try to only to use guides if I'm really stuck somewhere. And even then, I wonder how people view that kind of thing.
TLDR: How much information should be conveyed to the player in order to solve a puzzle or challenge? And should or shouldn't they be given hints to solve it? If so, how much information should be given out? What are your opinions on guides?
I could just be over thinking this kind of thing, but I'd like to see what you guys think.
I can see the frustration people have with this and I mostly agree with them. Taken to an extreme, we have games like Skyward Sword, where Fi, the game's equivalent to OOT's Navi, pops up several times to tell the player what to do and how to do it. Or a game like The Last Story where someone keeps yelling at the player on what to do on certain bosses every few seconds. (In that case, that's probably more like lazy programming and not making it so that the character doesn't shout every few seconds) It's both annoying and can take away some sense of satisfaction from figuring it out on your own.
Lately however, I can't help but feel there's some kind of grey area to this kind of thing. I've recently completed Grim Fandango twice and am currently playing Shadow of the Colossus again. Grim Fandango gives you your basic goals and the puzzles can be solved out through a little experimentation and logic. Even then though, some of the puzzles I couldn't really figure out on my own and I ended up resorting to a guide. I'm not saying that they're impossible to solve, guides exist online for a reason. I just noticed how some people complain about how some of the puzzles can be too vague or abstract. Which I notice seems to be common within Adventure games. With Grim Fandango however, most of the puzzles seem logical or at the very least make sense within the context of the story, so I can't really criticize them too much.
Shadow of the Colossus follows a somewhat similar mentality, the difference being that if a player spends a long enough time not progressing on a Colossus, (around ten minutes) Dormin will give the player a hint on what to do. Some are vague, others are somewhat direct. This would probably be considered hand holding by some people, and I can see what they mean. But to me, it makes sense in context in the game's story and some of the puzzles in that game can be a little obtuse. But then I wonder, did the creators not convey enough information to the player on screen so they have to resort to using hints? How much is too much or how little is too little?
Finally, I'd like to talk about guides. Guides have been a thing for a long time. Whether it be through something like Nintendo Power, official strategy guides you find in stores, to places like Gamefaqs. I notice some people say that you shouldn't use a guide or at the very least not use it the entire way through. I'll admit, as a kid I'm guilty of doing the latter, but now I try to only to use guides if I'm really stuck somewhere. And even then, I wonder how people view that kind of thing.
TLDR: How much information should be conveyed to the player in order to solve a puzzle or challenge? And should or shouldn't they be given hints to solve it? If so, how much information should be given out? What are your opinions on guides?
I could just be over thinking this kind of thing, but I'd like to see what you guys think.
