I’ve recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I’m a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.
As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I’ve come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there’s such an enormous amount of content to see that I’m constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I’m not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.
This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I’m posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.
Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I’m an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!
I do not. I feel no particular obligation to finish anything, and most of the time I do I feel let down that there isn’t more. I want enough to be able to play until I feel the desire to play something else, then have plenty more to explore next time that game scratches the right itch.
I think of games like books. I read for pleasure, if I’m not enjoying the book after a decent try I start a different book. I only have so much time in my life to play games and read, no need to spend it on something I’m not enjoying.
Lol books I’ll read (mostly listen to) series from start to finish and reread the full series (occasionally with regularity). I just finished the 26 books of Karen Rose’s Romantic Suspense Series and 5.5 books into CJ Archer’s Glass and Steele series. I love longer form story arcs. I will cut out of truly bad books occasionally but it’s rare. I do more often decide after finishing a book not to read the next one.
But I don’t really do video games for the story telling, so I don’t have anything to be hooked to.
This describes me perfectly. As an example, I have had Skyrim since the original release and never beat it. I enjoyed playing around in the world until I went on to other things. I can always go back and play some more when I want. I like having a large world there for me to explore and interact with on my own time.