discussion Do you think hand holding in games is ruining the games we play ?

[MattShizzle]

I am a “lazy” gamer. If the game is in any way, deliberately difficult, I delete it. I hate games that are overly difficult, not because of the difficulty but because of how they get in the way of me just enjoying the game. I feel every game should have a “god” mode where you can’t die. If I die 20 times because I can’t figure out how to beat a boss, solve a puzzle or react to some stupid “quick time” button combination, I delete the game. The reason I play many of the games is for the story, not the stupid difficulty, number of people I kill or all of the stupid “achievements” that mean absolutely nothing to me.

Similar. I've gotten games refunded on Steam for being too difficult (and it's a legitimate choice for doing so when they ask why.) Only others I did was when they didn't work right. Or 1 that was RPGmaker years ago before I knew what it was (and how bad it is nearly every time.)

 

[Ant28jsp]

I think we should leave the choice to the player, even if it means having an option to discover it ourselves or get help. In general I don't like it but sometimes I can't refuse help

 

[Gigaty12]

Depends on the game

 

[BruhAce]

I think we should leave the choice to the player, even if it means having an option to discover it ourselves or get help. In general I don't like it but sometimes I can't refuse help

Totally agreed, something similar to the universal hint system where you slowly get more and more detailed hints if you really need it would be great. If I'm completely lost in a game, whether this be due to shitty design or me being stupid, I'll just end up looking up a guide online anyways and those tend you spoil completely. Incrementally more detailed hints would be great.

 

[dweeb213]

having too much of it ruins the game imo

 

[master cruss]

I personally love the hand holding but you should be able to disable it.

 

[kodex]

Considering how dumb the average user is, no amount of handholding is too much these days. And yes, it should be optional, disabled from settings.

 

[HandholdDegen]

It goes both ways.
If your game needs hand-holding, then you have fucked up as a designer and failed to communicate to the player what they can do and what they should do.
That said, some players like independence and struggling against the wind, and they should not have to feel patronized by markers and signage, so you should be able to disable the hand-holding and guides.

 

[thenumber34567]

I am a fan of letting gamers turn the yellow paint off and on in the settings.

 

[MattShizzle]

It's better to have a built in walkthrough that can be turned on/off. Or for games that are other kinds having an easy mode. And that means EASY, not "easy for someone who has spent 8 hours a day for the last 10 years playing this sort of game."

 

[F00F00]

makes the experience much less immersive sometimes
but i like the ones that are available if you turn it on, especially when theres no walkthrough online and im stuck on something im trying to get done

 

[solaris22222]

Hand holding has its place, but it shouldn't be the be-all-end-all in games nowadays. If you want to make a difficult game, go ahead and add some kind of Superguide feature so the newbs don't feel discouraged. Or you could do what Undertale did and mock the very concept of handholding in games.

 

[O&M's]

I like it when a game points you towards your next objective in a questline, or lets you know how close you are to "100%ing" an area's exploration (via achievements or an in-game catalogue). I like fast travel; it's a great feature that has a place in almost every game, and it's a great way to avoid accidental padding. I like easy crafting/recipe menus that let you skip the tedious chore of clicking multiple materials to create an item. I like having NPC companions that aren't useless or overpowered.

I DON'T like it when a game trivializes things like fluid action-based combat, strategic battles, or puzzles that can be solved using nothing but logic and in-game knowledge. I absolutely love a challenge in the games I play, and if something's too hard, there's plenty of solutions even beyond just giving multiple difficulty options (e.g. God Mode, an instant-win skill, or a button that lets you skip a complicated puzzle).

Hand holding is great for many things, but I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy games if they were nothing but easy.