one thing i think is interesting, as someone who basically grew up playing video games non-stop, is how some types of video game just donāt gel with peopleĀ
like, itās easy to forget that, even though iām pretty bad at most games, that my skill at handling video games is definitelyĀ āabove average.ā as much as i hate to put it like this, iād say my experience level is atĀ āexpertā solely because I can pick up any game controller and understand how to use it with no additional training.Ā
a friend of mine on twitter posted a video of him stuck on a part of samus returns. the tutorial area where it teaches you how to ledge-grab. the video is of him jumping against the wall, doing everything but grabbing the ledge, and him getting frustratedĀ
iāve been playing games all my life, so iād naturally intuit that i should jump towards the ledge to see what happensĀ
but he doesnāt do that.
itās kinda making me realize that as games are becoming more complex and controllers are getting more buttons, games are being designed more and more for people who already know how to play them and not people with little to no base understanding of the types of games theyāre playingĀ
so thatās got me thinking: should video games assume that you have zero base knowledge of video games and try to teach you from there? should Metroid: Samus Returns assume that you already know how to play a Metroid game and base its tutorial around that, or should it assume that youāve never even played Mario before?Ā
itās got me thinking about that Cuphead video again. you know the one. to anyone with a lot of experience with video games, especially 2D ones, we would naturally intuit that one part of the tutorial to require a jump and a dash at the same time.
but most people lack that experience and that learned intuition and might struggle with that, and thatās something a lot of people forget to consider.Ā
it reminds me a bit of theĀ āland of Puntā that I read about in this Tumblr post.Ā Egypt had this big trading partner back in the day called Punt and they wrote down everything about it except where it was, because who doesnāt know where Punt is? and now, we have no idea where it was, because everyone in Egypt assumed everyone else knew.
take that same line of thinking with games: āwho doesnāt know how to play a 2D platform game?ā nobody takes in to consideration the fact that somebody might not know how to play a 2D game on a base level, because that style of gameplay is thoroughly ingrained in to the minds of the majority of gamers. and then the Cuphead situation happens.
the point of this post isnāt to make fun of anybody, but to ask everyone to step back for a second and consider that things that they might not normally consider. as weird as it is to think about for people that grew up playing video games, anyone who can pick up a controller with thirty buttons on it and not get intimidated is actually operating at an expert level. if you pick up a playstation or an Xbox controller and your thumbs naturally land on the face buttons and the analog stick and your index fingers naturally land on the trigger buttons, that is because you are an expert at operating a complex piece of machinery. you have a lifetime of experience using this piece of equipment, and assuming that your skill level is the base line is a problem.
that assumption is rapidly becoming a problem as games become more complex. itās something that should be considered when talking about games going forward. games should be accessible, but itās reaching a point where even Nintendo games are assuming certain levels of skill without teaching the player the absolute basics. basics likeĀ āwhat is an analog stickā andĀ āwhere should my fingers even be on this controller right now.āĀ
basically what iām saying is that games are becoming too complex for new players to reasonably get in to and are starting to assume skill levels higher than what should be considered the base line. itās becoming a legitimate problem that shouldnāt be laughed at and disregarded. itās very easy to forget that thing things YOU know arenāt known by everyone and that idea should be taken in to consideration when talking about video games.Ā
jimmyeatworldofficial
prguitarman
kianamaiart
gracieabrams
titsay
2087
dailybridgerton
