This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. “Clearly that’s where the final boss is. Let me just check what’s down this way first…”
“…oh no wait, there’s a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I’ll go back…”
“…hmm, there’s another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and…ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path…”
“…ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That’s frustrating…”
“…THEY BOTH. LED. TO THE SAME. EXACT. PLACE.”
This is why I have 120 hours in 40 hour games.
I play games this way too, but I feel like the bigger factor in my playtime way higher than necessary is that I don’t want to miss any dialogue so I talk to every NPC until they repeat themselves. Most of the time that’s the second time you talk to them so I definitely get a lot out of that.
This, plus looking at a tiny little toe-sized piece of unexplored minimap on the opposite side of the world and thinking, “but what if there’s something important there?!”
This, plus dragging every scrap of loot back to town to sell, no matter how bad the value/weight ratio is.
Borderlands 3 added an “auto-sell loot below [x] rarity” option, and it is amazing.
Oh this one’s not me. For the first hour maybe but I get really picky really fast because it’s more efficient to just find a new place to take the best loot from. Especially in something like Skyrim where the goons just respawn forever.
Only in games that make it clear what you’re supposed to sell. I know games these days usually don’t allow it, but all it takes is selling a necessary item once…
…during the bg3 character creation
this is the first time I realize where that sentence comes from. jumped ship from Facebook so long ago I didn’t even know this was a thing
In Breath of the Wild after the tutorial plateau, players are supposed to go between the two big mountains that are easy to see and easy to pass for a beginner. There they find a steed and this weird korok guy.
I on the other hand decided to go the direct route up a steep cliff where two guardians wait to tell you that this is not the way. After I snuck past them, which took me about 2 hours and like 20+ retries, I nearly stopped playing cause “the game was so hard”.
I have a bachelor in game design btw…I have a bachelor in game design btw…
This is why I like saying “average person” when I talk about specific topics.
People who study the art are much more attuned and go out of the ordinary. Like directors when they watch movies.
There’s an old adage that says “doctors make the worst patients.”
I wonder if the same is true for game devs making the worst players.
Having a degree isn’t the same as being good at your job
WTF I don’t come here to be attacked like this
It’s ok. We’re all here for each other.
No we’re not. You two are on your own.
Accidentally going the right way is so infuriating.
Especially if you get too far and the game takes control of your character to start a cutscene before you can turn back around.
Modern games have gotten super “hand-holdy” to the point where it’s fucking annoying… but one QOL improvement that I will take every time is when games prevent you from moving forward in a story because you missed something and moving forward means you’ll miss it forever.
I get it, and when I was younger I was all about that shit… But I’m too old for that shit lol
“But what if the developers don’t think it’s important but I’m going to wish I had it? I’ll go ahead and check anyway.”
I still remember being really mad I missed the “added effect” materia in the original FF7. You can never ever go back to that cave, so if you don’t turn around to pick it up you never get it. Pain.
I never even saw the “Alexander” summon materia until I played the game as an adult. Despite having the official Brady Games strategy guide.
Yeah… I felt that. Hard. I need to actively tell myself it’s not worth wasting so much time. Other times I just can’t be bothered and I mindlessly waste time checking everything cause it somehow feels like less work.
That’s why I find idea that no gamer in Ready Player One tried running a car backward offensive.
There’s a little explanation in that it costs to get in to the race. So naturally people wouldn’t want to waste the attempt, except there’s always someone that will pay the fee and try just about anything.
That might buy you a few days, but not the absurd amount of time in the story.
except there’s always someone that will pay the fee and try just about anything.
Especially when the prize is that big.
Its like, people rub against every square inch of geometry in say, Destiny 2, just to get out of bounds. It’s insane that no one just…tried cause they’re bored even.
I always remember back in world of warcraft, before you had flying mounts, there were spots you could spam jump on to slowly climb the barrier mountains and get up to the flat area they never meant for you to see. Good times.
or getting under stormwind, haha. good times.
I was a frequent flyer in mod chat because I got stuck out of bounds a lot back in the day.
Or old 3D platformers that didn’t disable collision on visual detail bits, so you could do skips or get out of bounds.
Actually not that unprecedented https://youtu.be/gPagHHIfvlg
Very cool.
The book had a much better story for the first key.
I mean, how did he have the foresight to know that almost everyone would go to school inside his videogame?
He didnt, the intent was to put it somewhere that everyone could and should access, a place of learning. No gatekeeping, no financial or age restrictions.
How dare that person not plant some pies in there every now and then
Aren’t sweets like really bad for dogs?
Edit: Don’t hate me, I was just asking a question. I know nothing about dogs.
They’ll mostly just get sick to their stomach and or fat. Dogs don’t process sugar very well, but it’s not that horrible for them usually. Worse for small dogs with bad constitution. Chocolate specifically is poisonous for dogs, but again… bigger dogs can often just tank the damage.
Depends on the pie though, dogs are still somewhat omniverous so something like a berry pie without any sugar but what’s already in the berries shouldn’t be too bad.
a berry pie without any sugar but what’s already in the berries shouldn’t be too bad.
Wolves have been observed to subsist on almost exclusively blueberries during the height of the season in Yellowstone, so I’d say the glyphosate residue in the flour is much more of a risk than whatever fruit is in the middle.
Sweets are really bad for people too, but that doesn’t seem to stop them.
Doesn’t mean they don’t love them!
Same for humans basically…
Meat pie baby
Yeah it took me like ten seconds of confusions to understand what about a pie was being considered sweet. And then ohhhhh maybe they thought it meant a FRUIT pie?
“A pie” is a meat pie around here
My dog would occasionally get into a bag of Hershey kisses, he lived to be 18 years old
my wife’s childhood dog - schnauzer mutt - ate an entire basket of chocolates and sweets that was from valentine’s day. like multiple pounds of assorted fancy chocolate. lived for another 10 years (this was the 80s, I don’t think people grokked the choc / dog thing).
Around 2009 a neighbor lost their pyranese (sp? long haired tall dog) when it ate a single chocolate bar (it was dark and high cacao whole foods stuff). It was just dead when they got home from work, apparently ate it the night before.
seems like a bad gamble to make. but holy hell I can’t keep my dogs from eating random biohazards, dead birds, snails & slugs and god knows what, it’s a miracle they survive as long as they do.
frankly, that just tells me about the quality of 80s “fancy” chocolate
That’s because Hershey’s chocolate isn’t actual chocolate, it’s milk mixed with vomit.
Good to know, I’m cooking chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, I’ll try your homemade substitutes per your suggestion 😁
FYI, the vomit thing is very real: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd
I also had a childhood dog that got into a bag of Hershey’s Kisses and was just fine. I’m nearly certain it’s because the amount of actual cocoa in it is basically negligible.
Oh damn, I thought you were just taking the piss out of Hershey
Developer: here’s a fun little thing people will be excited to find!
Player: I will never trust anyone again
I love it, when Devs anticipate that players might break their levels and reward them for it.
E.g. when I played Supraland, I had it happen several times, that I managed to get to places that were obviously not intended to be reachable - you know the drill: Low poly terrain, low res textures, holes in the terrain, invisible walls everywhere,… You keep exploring that wasteland, carefully managing to not fall of, go around a corner and… There’s a chest there waiting for you.
Or some of the coin stacks in Super Mario Odyssey, that you’ll never really see or collect, until you do some crazy trick jumps or so to get on top of $building.
Super Mario Odyssey is such an amazing game. If the sequel is anywhere near as good, I might get a Switch 2 just for that.
IIRC the team behind SMO is the team that made Donkey Kong Bananza. So… Either another team is responsible for a new 3D Mario, or it will take quite a while before we get another 3D Mario. So far, there’s no announcement for a new 3D Mario (yet).
But Donkey Kong Bananza looks dope. Also I like that Ceave Gaming video where he overanalyzes the Donkey Kong trailer and goes over all the bits that have been revealed so far https://youtu.be/xc_YjHqqTm0
I thought I recall them talking about working on SMO2 like several years ago (before Switch 2 was announced, obv). I’ll see if I can find a link…
But I didn’t know that about the DK game, that’s good to know.
Edit: ok, found what I was thinking about. Apparently, back in like 2019 or something, Nintendo confirmed on Twitter that they were hiring for a new 2D, and a new 3D Mario game (I imagine the 2D game was Super Mario Wonder).
So they never confirmed or denied that the 3D Mario game was SMO2, but it seemed likely at the time.
Maybe they ended up changing course and doing DK instead?
As a Wolfenstein 3D player that checks every square centimeter of every wall for secret passages, I feel this pain.
There was some amazing stuff in some of those hidden passages. It was well worth it in that game. Doom/Doom 2 had a lot of that, too.
I always try to figure out which direction the game wants me to go so I can try going the opposite way first.
It’s almost frustrating to play something with no intended path because it takes away my option to deliberately take the wrong one.
There usually is an intended path regardless. Signposting is definitely something that’s done even in open world.
New Vegas shining brightly in the distance…
And that’s how I ended up at level 30 before finally taking out Benny… main quest, main… schmuest.
It’s not always explained though. A lot of games use flames/torches/lights though. Vast majority of games follow the same tropes unfortunately.
I mean, we can’t risk advancing the game and leaving unexplored areas behind
For me it’s waterfalls - have to check behind every single one for a hidden cave.
This has proven to be problematic in real life, like when I visited Niagara…
There are tours that take you behind the falls near the turbines. Or at least used to be.
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.
Bonus points for your appropriate username
Kids these days didn’t know how to video game.
not one game at all, it’s pretty much tradition.
In Serious Sam there was a secret you could only reach by starting running backwards while the level was still loading. The hint was that you heard a “door closing” sound from behind.
There’s also the one in the very first map, where you have to run for several minutes out into the desert behind you. You find a rocket launcher and a health powerup… which immediately spawns a whole bunch of monsters
Fun times!
Serious Sam mentioned!!!
Lego Star Wars instilled this as well as leaps of faith
Donkey Kong Country did this to me forever
Also at the end of the level. I remember 3 had balloons n stuff there.
Mario world has some secret exits you had to access by going under the goal and past the ending as well.
Super Mario World has to be one of the most creative when it comes to hidden exits and worlds.
I remember when a friend showed me the “Super Secret Area” that you can mine for 1ups and capes and it blew my mind.
Fuck, what an amazing game.
SMW is what got me, a hardcore computer gamer, to buy an SNES.
I was pretty into the kaizo romhack scene a few years back.
I got surprisingly good at shell jumps and other crazy tricks… So fucking hard, but the rush you get when you put the work in and finally beat a level was amazing.
Literally the only reason I was able to stick to it long enough to beat levels (seriously, have you ever seen SMW kaizo hacks? Shit is madness) is because From Software (specifically Sekiro being the first) trained me lol.
It’s actually surprisingly similar to Sekiro, despite being entirely different genres.
Still my favourite nintendo title of all time, you can go back to it years later and its exactly as good as you remember it.
Mario bros 1-2
Some of the levels seemed like you could jump over the flag pole, but it would grab it from the other side. Then Mario lost levels had one where you could get passed the flag and it felt so good finally being able to do it.
Tap for spoiler
Until you got to the end and it turned out to be a warp zone that brought you backwards instead of forwards lol
Super Mario Bros. 2/Lost Levels is full of fucked up stuff like this. Probably why they initially didn’t release it in the US lol
Metroid.
The morph ball is to the left to show you that the screen scrolls both directions, as most games at the time didn’t let you go “backwards”
Yup.
Old school Armored core gamer here. This is me.
Wasting ammo on random sections of wall, or vents, or shipping crates…
Doom 2
