Discussion What kind of Gamer Are You?

Which Camp are you in?

  • Worlds to Explore

    Votes: 7 30.4%
  • Focused Experiences

    Votes: 16 69.6%

  • Total voters
    23

Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
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Growing up I always thought it was clear where games were going, what we all dreamed games would be. For me playing Zelda I could envision myself one day playing games that had freer worlds, more immersion and when VR back in the day started to become a thing, I knew that's where we were heading, to have games that were so near to virtual worlds as possible, as realistic as we could make them(within the rules of the world). Every console generation with it's boost in graphic capabilities it seemed we were getting there.

Then, we lost our way and everyone seemed be about "cinematic set pieces" and movie like stories to tell and I was like "what no what are you doing?"

I started to realize that who I am as a gamer and what I wanted for the medium isn't what everyone wanted all along.

So which camp are you in? As I see it, there are two main camps.

Worlds to explore where a predetermined story is minimal and it's mostly about freedom. This can be both your standard openworld games but also many RPGs and hell even point and click games can be this since those allow you to just run around the world and explore.

Focused experiences, here you have your linear games, cinematic experiences, corridor shooters, choose your adventure type games like tell tale games.

How do you see either going in the future? For me, the goal for the medium is to be as reactive and adaptable and to have as much freedom and possibilities and within that be able to create experiences. I am a firm believer in the concept of "emergent story telling". The story would be the framing and "rules" for the world and then everything is just set to play out.

Also why I don't like focused experiences is because if I can't play a game at my pace I get super stressed. I can't play COD games anymore. Tell tale like games I can barely play because how linear they are no matter how many dialogue option I have. In games, I really don't care about story, of course its nice to have a good one.
 

fantomena

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Dec 17, 2018
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I enjoy them both a lot, but focused experiences is something Ive grown up with so that. Some of my favorite games of all time, Alan Wake, Crysis and Bloodborne are focused experiences.
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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Focused experiences. I'm terrible at making my own fun, that's why I never could get into Minecraft, Terraria, look for every nook and cranny in games, etc.
 

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
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I can fit in any camp, just depend on my mood.

Sometimes I just want to wander around a world discovering more about its story and their inhabitants but sometimes I'm just without any patience and I just want something short and linear.
 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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I hate corridor levels.
I hate open world bore.

I prefer a Deus Ex, Prey and Dark Project approach to game design.
Story driven games with hand crafted large levels that invite exploration, filled with puzzle like scenarios that can be approached from many directions and allow you to vary or use different strategies.
 
OP
Le Pertti

Le Pertti

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I hate corridor levels.
I hate open world bore.

I prefer a Deus Ex, Prey and Dark Project approach to game design.
Story driven games with hand crafted large levels that invite exploration, filled with puzzle like scenarios that can be approached from many directions and allow you to vary or use different strategies.
Yeah I would count them in the first camp, since it's more about systems than telling a story.

I'll post the meme that shows a FPS in both camps.;D

 
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ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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My dream game is one that has the same sense of possibility that I had as a kid and played DND.
That can only be achieved through an active community.
The closest game that got there (in some regards) was Star Wars Galaxies: A completely player driven mmo.
Build your own cities, elect a mayor, build your own shops, play together any way you see fit. Some player were just musicians, some were dedicated master crafters, some were bounty hunters, some were doctors making a living from buffing players, some were hunting and taming wild animals. It was glorious. But the quality of your experience was determined by the quality of the community you joined.

Yeah I would count them in the first camp, since it's more about systems than telling a story.
Sort of, but worlds to explore has a different meaning today.
You are also misjudging the importance of story in the original Deus Ex. It's half of the appeal, the other half is the game design.
I want both and it is needed to build an above average game imo.

I'm actually very interested how people will react to the remastered Mafia game in that context. It's an open world map, with a very movie like, narrow story experience.
 

Rogue Agent

Takes too damn long to finish games
Apr 4, 2019
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I grew up with Nintendo so I'm more a fan of games where it's about minimal story and more gameplay-focused experienced. If 'Worlds to Explore' includes things like Metroid, Zelda, Dark Souls, Mario, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, etc. and not just open worlds and RPGs then I'm more a fan of those, even though I do have a lot of RPGs I enjoy. Also, my top 5 games are more gameplay-oriented than story so that pretty much makes it clear where my preferences align.
 
OP
Le Pertti

Le Pertti

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That can only be achieved through an active community.
Yeah that definitely is one way but I think AI is the biggest importance here, just putting in systems that are flexible to adapt to what the player does is the way. That and procedural generation of what's needed. As I said, dream game since it is in no way possible today or in the near future but seeing what AI can do today, I fully believe we can get there.

Sort of, but worlds to explore has a different meaning today.
You are also misjudging the importance of story in the original Deus Ex. It's half of the appeal, the other half is the game design.
I want both.
Sure but also a huge part of Deux Ex is the exploring of it's world. Like all the memories I have of any Deus Ex game is what happened to me during gameplay, I can't remember the story or story beat of ANY of them. Then there are story beats like the ending in Prey(the immersive sim) that augments your experience with the game.


I grew up with Nintendo so I'm more a fan of games where it's about minimal story and more gameplay-focused experienced. If 'Worlds to Explore' includes things like Metroid, Zelda, Dark Souls, Mario, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, etc. and not just open worlds and RPGs then I'm more a fan of those, even though I do have a lot of RPGs I enjoy. Also, my top 5 games are more gameplay-oriented than story so that pretty much makes it clear where my preferences align.
Oh definitely most of them I would count in the first camp, well maybe not 2D Mario, but yeah to 3D Mario.

Funnily I think Half-Life is little to blame for games going more linear. It's after Half-Life when everyone started to talk a lot about scripted events and even back then it was seen as kind of a bad things.
 

Rogue Agent

Takes too damn long to finish games
Apr 4, 2019
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Oh definitely most of them I would count in the first camp, well maybe not 2D Mario, but yeah to 3D Mario.
In that case, I'm more in the first camp even though I like experiences such as 2D platformers like Mario and Donkey Kong. I do enjoy more linear experiences if they're crafted really well like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Funnily I think Half-Life is little to blame for games going more linear. It's after Half-Life when everyone started to talk a lot about scripted events and even back then it was seen as kind of a bad things.
I agree. Even though it's more game-y, it did open up to other games having those kinds of linear experiences. At the time, I was blown away though after playing games like Doom and Quake where the only story you got was through text.
 
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fearthedawn

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Apr 19, 2019
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I like "Worlds to Explore", but i don't mean "open world games", i want painstakingly handcrafted experiences where the main driving force for exploration is learning more and more about this handcrafted world.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I like Focused experiences and handcrafted Worlds to Explore.
I need a story and some sort of end, I'm not too big on open-ended never-ending games.
 
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Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
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I'm honestly in both camps. I love a world ripe for exploration, but at the same time with a game that knows what it wants to be and provides its own answers to its design questions. What I do not like are tiny games that are one thing, over and over again such as roguelikes. It takes a lot for me to become invested in them.
 
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LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
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Only two options? I'm in both camps so no vote from me.
Same here. It depends! I have fun with both. But I am VERY picky with games, and I dont enjoy a whole range of genres and subgenres.


I hate corridor levels.
I hate open world bore.

I prefer a Deus Ex, Prey and Dark Project approach to game design.
Story driven games with hand crafted large levels that invite exploration, filled with puzzle like scenarios that can be approached from many directions and allow you to vary or use different strategies.
Yeah! Deus Ex HR and MD are among my favourite games, and I really like that kind of level design. Also Dishonoured, and Hitman, but we dont speak of that again.
But I do like corridors and open worlds too. Just depends on the game, and my mood. As long as it is not a game from my genre blacklist :p
 
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Fluffynov

I worship Godd Howard
Dec 9, 2018
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For me it's always been worlds to explore. I know I sound like a broken record because I keep fawning over TES Oblivion but this game was the first one that made me fall in love with exploration in games. I love the sense of discovery especially when I come across something that I didn't expect. I like it when games create little mysteries you come across. For example, you stray from the path to your next quest location and wander into the woods where there's an abandoned hut with a few dead bodies and a letter. It doesn't always have to be actively rewarding by giving you a new item, skill point, or what have you. It's best done when the developers create this believable story that has nothing to do with anything you're currently on track to do just to make the world you're in feel lived in and believable.

This is also one of my biggest gripes with a lot of MMORPGs. The devs have created this huge world often spanning over several continents, biomes, and regions but most of that world is empty with a few hot spots where there are quests to find or mobs to kill.

An MMORPG that did it somewhat right was ArcheAge (especially pre 1.0) because it gave the players several reasons to explore the world. ArcheAge was special in that regard because crafting was a very huge part of the game and planting crops, trees animals and more was possible inside a player's own farm but the space was very limited so a lot of players ventured into the fully traversable open world to find little off-the-beaten-path areas where they could plant a lot more trees, however, the downside to that was that any tree planted outside a players farm was fair game to be chopped down by any player that came across them. So players were actively searching for these hidden forests in between mountain ranges or in valleys tucked away in the most distant regions of the world.

Another way they managed to incentivize exploration was by hiding away silver coins that could be used to purchase crafting blueprints for ships, land vehicles, etc. This was similar to an achievement system because these coins were only awarded the first time a player found the hidden location. They also hid away NPCs that gave optional quests or items that were hidden that would start quests or questlines.

It's a shame that a lot of open-world games do not capitalize on this more and release uninteresting and uninspired open worlds that aren't much fun to explore :pensive-face: