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GoNintendo Thought: Why don't more games remind of where you were/what you were doing in-between play sessions?

Refresh my memory...
by rawmeatcowboy
08 May 2020
GN Version 5.0

Writing this piece made me realize how old and lame I am. Oh well, I guess it happens to all of us. Hopefully my sentiment still resonates with a few people! As always, thanks for reading.

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Video games have come a long way since they first burst onto the scene. The first video games were experiences that could show you everything they had to offer in 5 minutes, if not less. You had one screen, one objective, and that was about it. Sure, there were exceptions to the norm, but by and large, most games were simple "high score" affairs that could be easily understood by even the most uninformed player.

As the game industry ventured forth and hardware became more powerful, developers started to stretch the limits of what was possible. Games could be sprawling, scrolling adventures instead of single-screen affairs. Game stories went from non-existent to rivaling the amount of text found in novels. Players were given multiple objectives to tackle, along with plentiful side-quests. As technology was improved and developers learned more, the limits of gaming became nearly impossible to foresee.

Fast-forward to the industry today, and games are bigger and more involved than ever before. There are certainly games in today's age that can be played in a single sitting, but by and large, the vast majority of titles offer up hours upon hours of content. Gamers didn't want to pay $60 for a 3-hour game long ago, so developers started to cram in as much content as possible, and then tack on even more through paid DLC. It's very rare to have a game nowadays where there's not enough to do, and instead, its become about the player having enough time to do it all.

I remember cranking through games like none other back in my childhood. Outside of school and a few household chores, I had a ton of free time to do as I saw fit. If I wasn't hanging with friends, I was playing games. There simply weren't enough games to keep up with my insatiable appetite. Even games that offered multiple hours of content would be done and dusted in a week, and I was already looking for the next big thing. I honestly remember being frustrated with there not being enough games to rent!

Now as a 38-year-old man, I am on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Free time is an all-time low, unfortunately. There's work and other obligations to take care of, and finding those free moments to play games is becoming harder and harder. Sadly, as much as I don't like to admit it, I sometimes lack the energy to play games as well. I absolutely love playing video games...probably more than ever, but sometimes the day is so long and you're so spent at the end of it that taking a nap/going to bed is an option too good to pass up.

I know I'm in the same boat as millions upon millions of people. There are more gamers than ever before, but so many of us lack the time/energy to really sink our teeth into an experience. Sometimes we get an hour or two during the week to play something, and then we have to hope that next week we can squeeze in another session or two. I've felt that motivation countless times. I'll think about getting through the work week just so I can have a few more hours to sit down and play a game.

If I do get to hop back into a game a few days after playing it, I consider myself extremely lucky. Sometimes it's a week or two before I can dive in again, which leads to the big problem. I can't tell you how many times I've finally found a moment or two to return to a game, and once I fire it up, I realize I have no idea what I'm doing. In a matter of days, I've completely lost all clue as to what's going on, and I'm left with very little to figure out my path ahead.

I used to hear older family members talking about this when I was a kid, and I thought they were crazy. Uncles and aunts who would be playing a game/watching a TV show/reading a book, only to have something get in the way for a few days. They'd come back to it and find themselves unable to pick things back up. They'd lost the plot somewhere along the way, no matter how much they thought they could sneak back in. It just didn't make sense to me as a child, but nowadays I can see just how dumb I was!

There are some options you can turn to in the hopes of getting back into the game, but they're not perfect. If you find that you've forgotten a game's controls, you can usually head to an options menu and get back into the groove. If you've lost your path ahead on the next objective, or have no idea what you just completed, you might be in worse shape. Sure, you could hop online and look for a FAQ/guide to help jog your memory, but sometimes that's just not enough to do it. You'll read snippets and end up even more confused than you were when you sat down.

Game developers have had the ability to fix this for years now, yet it's something that is pretty much a rarity. Some developers have taken pity on those with little free time and bad memories by including elements that recap what you were last up to. While I know there are a handful of games out there that do this, the one that comes to mind most recently is Dragon Quest XI S. I cannot tell you how helpful that feature has been.

Every time you jump back into Dragon Quest XI S, the game will give you a recap on the major things you did last time you played. There's a ton of snippets the developers wrote to chronicle the player's journey, as all players will have to go through the same main story beats to get to the end point. With that in mind, Square-Enix was able to keep track of what you last did, and feed you a refresher when you got back to the game. In just a matter of minutes, you're back up to speed with what you did, where you need to go next, and why.

This feature is an absolutely godsend, and has saved my butt countless times. There were times I would play and have plans to jump back in the next night, but three weeks would pass before I'd get a chance. It didn't matter one bit though, as I knew that reminder would be there for me when I finally had another chance to play. These little reminders took away a big fear that comes with playing games nowadays. When I do have a chance to play, I worry that the next time I come back to the game, I'll be too lost to pick it up again. Dragon Quest XI S makes sure that's never the case.

I understand not all games can have this feature, but I'd think that the vast majority could implement some aspect of this reminder. Also, while I love the feature and would like it in all games, I believe it should be an option that can be turned on or off. There are players who have plenty of time and don't have to worry about losing their place. They don't need to be reminded of what was going on, and these features would just get in their way. Let the player turn these reminders off, but make sure the data is still kept track of in the background. That way if a player does end up needing a bit of help, they can just flip a virtual switch and have their recap ready.

With so many games aiming to be more inclusive nowadays (and rightfully so), I'm shocked that we haven't seen developers addressing this issue. Free time is always at a premium, and anything that'll help me remember what I was doing gives me more time to actually play the game. With how system updates work nowadays, sometimes you don't get to actually play a game until hours after you expected to. You hate to go through all that, get the game ready to go, and then waste even more time because you're drawing a blank on what's next in gameplay goals.

It really does seem like such a simple fix, and I can only hope this feature becomes more standard as time goes on. Video games can provide hundreds of hours of gameplay, along with so many different ways to play. Sometimes it's a bit too much to ask players to remember everything they did, keep all the characters in mind, recall complex controls, and dive back in without issues. A few helpful hints and reminders could go a very long way to easing players back in, and will also make sure they're not afraid to revisit after weeks have passed. It's a quality of life feature that's long overdue, and would no doubt be applauded by the majority if included.

...and yes, I know this post makes me sound like an old man!