Mary’s relationship with open-world games is a difficult one. But that’s not because of the games, but rather because of the way they play.
I’m supposed to love open world games. I like the idea of moving freely through a world, being able to choose what I do next.
But after the initial joy of so much freedom, a certain tiredness sets in. I notice how I am increasingly putting myself into an autopilot mode and dully working through one task after the next.
I look for the shortest paths, ignore story dialogues from side quests because I’m losing patience, find quests exhausting where not every monster drops what I need, and just walk through the actually beautiful world with tunnel vision.
I used to just dismiss it as “open world fatigue” and resort to excuses: the genre is exhausted, I don’t have time for such long games anymore, all the side activities feel the same.
All along, it wasn’t the games that were the problem, it was me.
“I have to do this now”
My playing style is the problem. Because I want or need to complete all side quests and tasks in an area before I continue with the main story.
It doesn’t matter at all whether I’m not allowed to travel back to the area for a while afterwards or whether the game world leaves it completely open to me when I do what. My inner urge to complete every quest and task in the area keeps ruining my gaming experience.
Worse still, the feeling of having to take everything with me really paralyzes me, so much so that I actually leave games I love lying around for weeks because I think about all the annoying side tasks I still have to do.
For example, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth has been lying around for two weeks because I don’t feel like working through the last big area. The main story is currently approaching its climax.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – Trailer
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Take away the quest log and the icons from me
Just because I have identified the problem for myself doesn’t mean I can automatically solve it. I wish I could just skip side quests and get on with the actually fun part.
But it is not that simple. That’s why I need the support of games to get my destructive gaming style under control. How this works is shown in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which I couldn’t put down for a whopping 90 hours until the end.
Instead of long lists of quests or side activities, Zelda simply gives me a few markers that I can assign myself and my current quest givers. However, the quest givers only tell me in which direction my targets are without giving me the exact locations.
This forces me to actively engage with the open world and go on explorations. Sure: I will never find all the secrets, quests or Korok seeds. Since she doesn’t actively put the game on my to-do list, I can live with it.
Is this really just a me problem?
When I told some colleagues about the idea in the office this morning, I heard a lot of “Oh yes, I know that!” So I have a slight suspicion that I’m not alone with my open world problem.
How are you doing? Unlike me, are you strong-willed and can simply ignore side quests etc.? How do you approach open-world games and what do you place particular emphasis on in the side quests and world design?
Maybe you also have a secret super trick that solves my little problem. That would of course be wonderful. Because I really want to love open world games, but I just can’t stop ruining them for myself.