I found this interview with Johnathon Blow to be very interesting for a couple of reasons. But the part I found most interesting, is the section about games that respect the players intelligence and time. This starts around 4:02, in the video.
He singles out Japanese games a little, but I wasn't wanting that to be the focus of the discussion.
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I wanted to discuss games that treat players as if they're intelligent. Games that don't constantly hold your hand and allow you to discover things for yourself. I think that just recently, a game like Journey is a great example. You learn the fundamentals simply by playing and experimenting. I appreciate that not every game can afford to do this, of course. I think an MMO or Flight Simulator, without tutorials and explanations would be disastrous. But I think for genres like Adventure games or Horrors, it's important.
Discuss away. What modern games do think are the best examples? What games do you think are the worst?
He singles out Japanese games a little, but I wasn't wanting that to be the focus of the discussion.
Link
Text for people unable to check out videos.
"I want to respect my players time. So I don't want to give the player like a lot of filler. Just because I feel that the game play ought to be 60 hours long, right."
"Most modern Japanese games that i play, take the opposite stance. They take the stance that the player is afraid of your game and if you're not very careful holding the players hand, through everything. Then the player will run away or just won't be able to handle it."
"They don't just give you a simple situation and let you work it out. They explicitly tell you what to do and then say "It's not hard don't be worried go ahead you try now". And then you try and you do it, and half way when you're in the middle of doing it, it stops you and it says "now remember, during the next part rotate the block to the right". Once you've done that, it eliminates the joy of discovery. Which as I've said, is something I really value. I really value that click that happens in your head, between you see something and you don't quite understand it, then suddenly you do understand it."
I wanted to discuss games that treat players as if they're intelligent. Games that don't constantly hold your hand and allow you to discover things for yourself. I think that just recently, a game like Journey is a great example. You learn the fundamentals simply by playing and experimenting. I appreciate that not every game can afford to do this, of course. I think an MMO or Flight Simulator, without tutorials and explanations would be disastrous. But I think for genres like Adventure games or Horrors, it's important.
Discuss away. What modern games do think are the best examples? What games do you think are the worst?