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[MikeyB]

Tracking play stats. Large open world games track play time, completion %, and a wide variety of achievements. This does two things rather immediately - compels me to increase that % and reminds me of how much of my life I have dumped into games.

Less directly, but more importantly, it negatively affects my enjoyment of gaming. I don't engage as much with the game world because I'm chasing the next collectable or side mission. For example, the stunning scenery and we'll constructed town is at best no longer within focus and at worst an obstacle to the next location on my minimap. It also makes me feel that gaming is shallow. The obvious manipulation of psychological need for feedback and progress and collecting makes me feel, well, manipulated. Finally, it makes me feel that I am wasting my life. Seeing that playtime and realising that I could be well on my way to learning one of the many languages spoken by an enemy I just stabbed makes it clear how hollow the accomplishment of gaming can be.

You certainly don't have to look at the stats, but once I did, I haven't stopped thinking about them.

I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Here's the result and my question. I can't play epic games any more or even ones that require time investment. They seem like a waste. Short distracting bursts seem like the only justifiable gaming. Has anyone else had the same train of thought?

 

[Manu]

That's why you either don't go for 100% completion, or you do it on your second playthrough.

 

[FlyingIrishMan]

That buzzfeed title..

Seriously though, you're getting too hung up over some meaningless stats.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Either a game is fun or not, regardless of the numbers set on the screen. Sounds like you have a weird mental barrier that you need to get over.

 

[Yusaku]

sorry about your autism

 

[stan423321]

One example from Epic (Mega)Games please.

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

sorry about your autism

Fucking really?

 

[Always-honest]

Or you just stop caring and have fun

 

[mcz117chief]

That is exactly why I have disabled trophies and achievements in games. Totally ignoring them has helped me to enjoy games a whole lot more.

 

[SerTapTap]

I hate this shit too. I wish you could turn off playtime tracking. I leave my console/PC idle a lot while I do other stuff too so it's always super inflated as well, but it still bugs me. GTA SA was the first time I got really annoyed with a completion %. I also think it was bugged, I was missing one gang territory that absolutely did not show up on the map.

Anyway, the extrinsic carrot on a stick to finish all the useless extra crap harms games more than it helps for me. I'm not enough of a completionist to go and do all of that stuff, but I'm enough of one to be bugged to high heaven that I can't do it all.

That is exactly why I have disabled trophies and achievements in games. Totally ignoring them has helped me to enjoy games a whole lot more.

Unfortunately a lot of games build this into their UI in a way that's not as easy to ignore.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

That buzzfeed title..

Gamers hate him!

 

[Bright-Light]

I don't engage as much with the game world because I'm chasing the next collectable or side mission. For example, the stunning scenery and we'll constructed town is at best no longer within focus and at worst an obstacle to the next location on my minimap.

Yup.
My ten hours or so with the witcher 3 i spent not looking at the world, but staring at my mini map, waiting for points of interest to pop up.

 

[MikeyB]

One example from Epic (Mega)Games please.

This the quotation marks. I like that company's games.

 

[Leafhopper]

That buzzfeed title..

sorry about your autism

Anyway OP, if it bugs you that much you probably just need to learn to ignore it otherwise you will just not have fun with those kinds of games anymore.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

ITT OP thinks he'd be a more interesting person if he didn't play video games. "Epic" games have nothing to do with insecurity.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Or you just stop caring and have fun

This is some good advice. Don't feel bad if u have to play on easy either. Customize the experience to work for you.

 

[Glass Shark]

For me, completion progress bars just highlight how empty and meaningless most AAA games are. When I complete a story mission and see that number go up 1 or 2 percent, it just tells me that there are a bunch of dumb collectibles and other stuff the game wants me to do. I dunno, I'm mostly over AAA at this point.

sorry about your autism

Sorry about your ban

 

[RavenH2]

As long as I don't feel like getting 100% in everything is a chore (or that to get 100% you have to do lots and lots of boring, repetitive chores), I will gladly do it. Also, who's rushing you to finish the game right away? I've taken months, and in one case a year to finish a game, and it did not change how much I enjoyed it.

 

[RipperGrim]

Stop playing Ubisoft games. Problem solved.

The Witcher 3 is how openworld games are supposed to be done, you play the game because you want to see what happens and each side mission is actually interesting.

No percentages or stupid collectibles to keep patting you on the head with.

 

[Ape]

Just wanted to say that your title is terrible, there's literally no reason for it. Websites do it is to create traffic for ad impressions. That's not really applicable to you, right? You can represent your thread with an accurate title and still get responses by interested posters without the click bait inspired titling. To me, this is just a strange thing to do.

Anyway, tracking play stats isn't the worst thing. I think it's sort of a good thing.

 

[Lashley]

What a peculiar title.

Honestly, I'd just have fun and ignore the trophies and % progress. I never worry about them.

 

[Leafhopper]

He put quotes around the word Epic, I don't think it is that misleading.

 

[JDSN]

Go PC gaming

sorry about your autism

Classy.

 

[rhandino]

sorry about your autism

 

[mcz117chief]

Unfortunately a lot of games build this into their UI in a way that's not as easy to ignore.

Yeah, but on consoles you mostly can. On the other I do look up trophies every once in a while for inspiration on how to play the game. For example when I was playing Helldivers when they released I looked at the trophies and genuinely enjoyed doing some of them. Of course most trophies in games today are just depressing, with stuff like "be the best player on the planet".

sorry about your autism

 

[TheSpoiler]

sorry about your autism

 

[RoadHazard]

That's why I disabled POIs on the map in TW3 very early on. I could feel that I was just gonna be chasing them, and miss out on actually experiencing the world. As soon as they were gone, and I no longer knew where all the interesting places were until I stumbled over them by exploring, the experience became much more rewarding.

 

[Pinko Marx]

If I worried about completion percentage my backlog would be so big I'd still be playing games back from the PS1.

 

[gdt]

Damn breh you need to chill out

 

[Wavebossa]

Gamers hate him!

lol.. this

 

[nkarafo]

Statistics and achievements are ruining games for me too. Especially WoW.

There was a time where i could duel for fun, go BGs for fun, etc. Now everything is logged so i can't do BG for fun because a low win/high loss ratio will look bad. I'm now doing BGs to win for the ratio to look good. I can't help it and it sucks.

 

[Kazerei]

I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Fucking yesssssss. A lot of AC mini-games are boring shit (I'm looking at you, checkers) but Nine Men's Morris is my jam.

 

[Mat-triX]

sorry about your autism

Oh cool, I got to see the moment before ban.

On topic, I get that problem; It makes games less about exploration and discovery, and more about checklists. I'm playing MGSV: Ground Zeroes and the reason I keep coming back isn't just because I enjoy playing it, but because I want to do all the trails for each level (Mark all enemies, Collect all claymores, etc.). Since it's post game stuff - you need to beat the level to be able to do trails - I feel it's fine and doesn't upset the flow of the main/side missions.

 

[Maggots]

I like stat tracking ... but where I can relate is that games use large environments as a crutch for game design... Spacing objectives out really far away only makes me hate wandering through such vastness. Game design is changing that's for sure... But I'd say it's not so much that large games are a waste of time... but if done correctly they can be some of the greatest experiences... But as you mentioned... there was a lot of game design packed into that ACIV board game... and it was far more compelling than running around getting feathers or whatever.

 

[Con_Smith]

Gamers killed the will to just have fun.

 

[SuperDowns]

sorry about your autism

Enjoy that ban, buddy. Not cool.

 

[Maggots]

sorry about your autism

HAHAHA I think it's funny... let this man alone

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Tracking play stats. Large open world games track play time, completion %, and a wide variety of achievements. This does two things rather immediately - compels me to increase that % and reminds me of how much of my life I have dumped into games.

Less directly, but more importantly, it negatively affects my enjoyment of gaming. I don't engage as much with the game world because I'm chasing the next collectable or side mission. For example, the stunning scenery and we'll constructed town is at best no longer within focus and at worst an obstacle to the next location on my minimap. It also makes me feel that gaming is shallow. The obvious manipulation of psychological need for feedback and progress and collecting makes me feel, well, manipulated. Finally, it makes me feel that I am wasting my life. Seeing that playtime and realising that I could be well on my way to learning one of the many languages spoken by an enemy I just stabbed makes it clear how hollow the accomplishment of gaming can be.

You certainly don't have to look at the stats, but once I did, I haven't stopped thinking about them.

I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Here's the result and my question. I can't play epic games any more or even ones that require time investment. They seem like a waste. Short distracting bursts seem like the only justifiable gaming. Has anyone else had the same train of thought?

I put more than 100 hours into both Persona 3 and 4 only playing about 30-90 minutes a day. Some days, I'd just grind and level up. I don't have time to sit and play for hours on end any longer so this is my recourse.

 

[fedexpeon]

The problem is that you are associating epic games with open world game.
Open world game pacing moves at snail pace, and are padded with useless contents.
You might think 1000x useless contents=epic, but epic means great moment and pacing from the story and plot of the game.

You should stop playing open world game tbh. Open world game also makes me question why am I wasting time playing videogame, and that gaming is a worthless hobby.
So you aren't alone in this mentality.

 

[-COOLIO-]

Congrats! It sounds like you've learned to value your own time more and only play parts of a game that are inherently fun instead of 100%ing things for no real reason.

 

[Subaru]

I understand OP, and I also hates games that you have to explore the stages to find meaningful items but that exploration isn't exactly... fast.

My example here is Bioshock Infinite, I got bored because there was so many stuff in the stages that could have items that I couldn't leave them behind, SPECIALLY because it makes difference in the gameplay.

I don't know, maybe is my perception, but I think that first person games makes exploration really boring. I think it's because characters in 3rd person usually have more movement, they roll, they can dash, etc... I mean it, I don't think it's boring to explore the stage in God of War or Bayonetta, or even in a Mario game. But in Assassins Creed or Batman? Jesus... it's fucking boring!

Ok, you really don't have to explore in Batman, but in Bioshock I felt that I really was missing important things if I don't search in EVERY TRASH CAN placed in those stages. I don't know, there is a problem with that game's pacing and I think that items is one of the culprit.

Exploration in confined places (Resident Evil, Bayonetta, Final Fantasy IX) = good. Exploration in big stages = boooring.

For me, of course.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Maybe you just need a break from gaming? Or better yet, maybe you need to stop playing Ubisoft games?

Don't continue playing games when you feel like they're a chore, you'll likely just end up souring on them more. Come back when you're genuinely excited.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Being able to see that stuff (along with mini-maps) does have an effect on your perception of the game, and, in turn, your actions. That is true.

 

[Jiguryo]

sorry about your autism

... really?

 

[Tye The Czar]

sorry about your autism

If you want to make off-color jokes like that, please take it back to 4chan, or even 8chan.

 

[Tarsul]

well, mikey. Isn't it good that these stats are showing you that you're not really having fun? That you could indeed invest your time in things that would be more rewarding in the end? As long as you feel so, there's truth to it. Don't deny it. Those games where "the hunt" for 100%, completion or 1000 Gamerscore is not shoved right into your eyes, aren't necessarily better but probably, yes (it could be that they just hide their psychological tricks better).
Thing is: Spend your time with things that you enjoy. If it isn't in certain games anymore, don't play them. Maybe you'll come back to it in a few years and enjoy them for what they are.

Really, I don't necessarily disagree with you. Many epic games are just timesinks with very little sophistical story or gameplay. "Just follow the carrot", they say. But, really, it comes down to doing what you really want, not what the game tells you to do. Either you enjoy the experience and can live with a little grind, a little psychological tricks or just stop.

Play Go instead. Like I do.

 

[bigbaldwolf86]

sorry about your autism

Wow really?

OT: If I ever had an OCD ot's for stuff like this. I have to get that 100% and I try to do things systematically so each section is 100% as well.

 

[vpance]

Don't play the mini games and do the collectables and you'll realize these "epic" games aren't so epic anymore.

 

[Randam]

Always weird when even "gamers" consider their hobby a waste of time.

 

[Beaulieu]

I agree with OP
That's why Gwent is the best part of Witcher3