kay was talking about dragon's dogma 2 and the general concept of fast travel on twitter and i swear i'm moving this over here because it's a better place to talk about stuff and not just bc she said she muted the thread. (although if you do end up reading this that's cool, whatever)
this isn't really about fast travel though. kayin's right that it's ultimately another game design decision that shapes the other decisions a designer might make; that "just don't use it!" isn't actually a solution to not particularly liking fast travel in most cases since ultimately the existence of it as a feature leads to the entire experience being laid out differently. so obviously i'm not posting this just to agree with that part.
there's a lot of arguments over games i see that seem to be driven by what i would describe as a content-consuming mindset. and i don't think this is like, a fully artificial product of capitalism or anything because of course we all wanna know what stuff is about. but i do think that things like achievements and modern game design signposting are emblematic of and contribute to this kind of attitude, as i often rant about. play the game to see all the stuff and then move onto the next one. and there's always another one, with the Next Big Thing landing every month or two, forever. i really think some people are in a kind of perpetual cycle where they don't want to "miss" stuff and feel like they "have to" finish things before the next thing they're looking forward to comes out. and of course the publishers love that kind of feeling. get it while it's fresh and you can pay full price!! even more than that these days, it often feels better to come to a recent game after a little while when the early issues have been sorted out and whatever follow-up kind of stuff you might be interested in has released...but i still get it. i like getting the new game and talking to people about it or playing with them when there's a lot going on too.
but i can't help but think that so many people look at playing games in terms of "backlogs" or "wanting to play [x game] before [y] comes out" and other things like that just...makes them like games less. not on the level of school homework or something, but i think there's something similar there, you know? it becomes the new reading list, an obligation, instead of the cool thing you talk with your friends about. and i could point to things about new games that exacerbate this, like the fact that so many AAA type games are ridiculously fucking long now, but it's not like you couldn't just as easily carry this attitude toward playing old games. i feel like i did do that sometimes, a long time ago, and in some cases i really wonder if i was a bit whelmed by some of those games because i was more focused on seeing something popular than on experiencing a game, and just having fun playing it. and even now, realizing how well-made and interesting those games are, i don't find myself jumping at going back to them.
i don't think that's something that's lost forever to me, admittedly. i've gone back to other games-ones i thought would be hard to return to because i might find them frustrating after spending so much time learning but then forgetting them, or because i just liked them so much-and felt that same lightness and joy i do playing something that excites me for the first time now. and those games i'm playing now are often ones i've heard about for a long time, or know are influential (on other games or their creators) or were popular in some context...i just have a freer attitude these days. i don't feel obligated to finish things, or push through them when i don't feel like it. so i don't see any reason that ones i really didn't give that kind of innocence the first time couldn't impress me now in a way they didn't before.
and i don't think everyone's like me, nor could i force people to take it all a little easier. but, y'know, there's tons of amazing games out there and you're never gonna play all of them. or half of them. that's the nature of things. that's why you should play games to love them, and not just to see what everyone's talking about, or "complete" them, or finish the series, or get achievement points, or whatever else. play a game because you think it might be interesting and leave your heart open to what you find in it. i feel like i say that all the time but i truly believe it, so i'm not gonna stop
