#i think it needed more narrative/substantial payoff for some of the exploration it invited! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pagesofkenna · 1 year ago

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I finally played Firewatch the other day and it wasn't what I expected but I still enjoyed it, and I felt a little conflicted at the end but ultimately decided I liked what it was doing even if I think it didn't do it perfectly

and then when I was looking up an answer to a plot question I had I kept finding people whining and groaning about it being a bad game, and two things

why is it that when I don't like a short indie game for specific reasons I cannot find anyone who seems to share that opinion with me, but when I do enjoy a short indie game all the gamerbro reviewers are climbing out of the weeds to explain their specific reason for not enjoying it??

one of the negative comments I saw said something to the effect that it 'did not give [them] any reason to explore around' and i just-. i dont-. i need gamer bros to understand that if they're not naturally curious, if they're not naturally driven to explore the spaces around them, maybe stop playing games that use exploration and natural curiosity as one of the main driving mechanics

#like they werent even saying that firewatch doesn't reward you enough for exploring which COULD be a statement i agree with!#i think it needed more narrative/substantial payoff for some of the exploration it invited!#but it DOES openly invite you to explore and rewards you with interesting details if you do so!#one of the best payoffs for that game was getting to the ending and going 'aHA i KNEW i heard metal chimes earlier!!'#anyway the exploration thing is also a huge driving mechanic of Outer Wilds #and Ive seen negative comments on that being like 'idk what to do theres no clear goal blahblahblah im a boring gamer'#like. look around!! explore!! thats literally how the game works!!#i know gamers love being given tasks to do but one of the great things about OW is that it DOESNT give you tasks to do #it just presents a space and a reality and you get to decide what you want to do within that space #and due to the genius of its design almost every player is going to end up with the same end goal!#which the game NEVER assigns but which you naturally gravitate to due to the results of your exploration!#anyway. exploration games. love them. cant understand the subset of gamers who hate them but i know they exist

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