xhekros i think games are too restrictive in how they allow people to explore them, and that this is a holdover from when games had to be that way because they had to stretch a few levels into something worth $50 or so.
i understand that a novel is meant to be read starting at the start and ending at the end, but every novel i read, the first thing i do is read the last sentence.
so if there’s an urgant task for me in a game and i can do sidequests, it could be:
- the game has given me the actual choice to goof off when there’s an emergency, which will send me down a different narrative path. cool!
- the game hasn’t given me a choice. since what comes next in the narrative doesn’t really have anything to do with me, then if for right now i just want to win the eating contest or find my neighbor’s lost cat, then that’s my business, isn’t it?
people accomplish this with multiple saves. i’m just wondering if they shouldn’t be saved the trouble. let them thumb through the narrative line like they can thumb through a book.