Most of the time, it’s probably safe to say that people like convenience. Driving for two minutes is usually better than walking for ten minutes, and paying for things via credit card is always faster than trying to pay with cash. Convenience makes everything faster and often easier, but is that always a good thing? Opting to drive can rob one of a nice walk on a sunny day, and paying by card can make it easier to spend more.
There are drawbacks to convenience in real life and it’s the same for video games. Despite their photo-realistic looks and often good gameplay, many modern games fall into the trap of being too convenient. With the games handling so much, little is asked of players, and that’s kind of a shame. Some of the best experiences in gaming come about when players have to do things for themselves.
A great example of this can be seen in the differences between The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind andThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.On a technical level, Skyrim is clearly superior. It looks so much better than Morrowind that it’s almost silly to compare the two, and its combat doesn’t suffer from pure RNG like Morrowind’s does. Skyrim’s point-to-point fast travel opens up new options for combat and exploration; annoying mechanics like stat drain spells have been removed entirely and character building is practically automatic. All one has to do is play the game. These are all things that make Skyrim much more convenient than Morrowind, but they don’t necessarily make it better.
Morrowind’s pure RNG combat is a relic. It was even annoying at the time, so it’s no wonder that Bethesda moved away from it in subsequent games. Even so, it paired with the game’s character development process and gave players a reason to stick closely to their chosen classes and skills. If one didn’t either think of ways to quickly buff/build up their skill or invent tactics to give themselves an edge, then they weren’t going to getanywhere in Morrowind.
It was tough and inconvenient, but it also made for fun and interesting adventures. The game routinely asked players to seek out unmarked locations on foot, locations often far away from the nearest city. If one got there and found themselves outmatched, they only had two options: turn around and walk all the way back or get creative with what was on hand. Many a cool story comes about in such circumstances.
Some of that can happen in Skyrim too, but players have so many more options in that game. Ever-present fast travel makes retreat a much more attractive option. Easily-trained skills mean always having a strong backup option, with little need for either planning or improvisation. The same goes for having enemies that rely almost exclusively on dealing pure damage rather than attacking through debuffs and drains. It’s not necessarily easier, especially on higher difficulties, but it’s more convenient for the player. It’s not 100% bad, but it does come at the cost of a potentially more rewarding and memorable adventure.
This is also true of online gaming experiences. Modern online shooters likeDestiny 2give players a staggering amount options when it comes to weapons and abilities. Players have their choice of several classes, with many sub-classes and even more abilities within those. One can come up with any number of combinations on those alone, and that’s without complimenting pieces of gear.
This means Destiny 2 has an ever-changing meta-game, and players are always trying to find the build that gives them the best edge. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of system, as it still has plenty of allowance for skill and team tactics at its higher levels. Outside of the upper-tier though, Destiny 2 is still very much about sifting through a multitude of build options in order to find an edge. It’s a very different game compared to the likes of classic Halo.
It must be said that classicHaloisn’t necessarily better than a game like Destiny 2. It had matchmaking issues and a progression system that was at least a little, if not very, broken. It also offered players little reason to play outside of simply enjoying multiplayer. It also suffered from feeling “same-y” after a while. Players didn’t have their own personal armories and, until Halo: Reach hit the scene, everyone always had the same basic abilities. Compared to Destiny 2, Halo offered players little in the way of personal options. If one was to find an edge, they had to either do it through power-ups, clever team tactics or just pure skill.
A common complaint about Halo at the time was that matches were always about map control and power weapons. This was true, and it made turning the tide of battle difficult. Halo matches were won purely through map knowledge, coordination and often just out-playing one’s opponents. There was no gear/build meta to keep track of and no rock-paper-scissors element outside of challenging power-weapon users. The team that made the best use of the common tools was the team that won. Turning a match around was difficult, yes, but it could be done with enough effort. The result: a feeling unmatched by most modern multiplayer shooters.
Games like Destiny 2 give players more chances to do cool things thanks to the wealth of options they make available. Still though, cool things tend not to stay cool when they come so easily. Taking down three or four players in four seconds with a Titan Slam or Golden Gun looks amazing and feels great at first. A few dozen time later though, it still looks cool but its just routine at that point. Limitations may makes these sorts of games feel more difficult most of the time, but it can be worth it for those moments when one overcomes those limitations and does something awesome.
Convenience can be a good thing in many situations. It gives people more free time in their daily lives and, when it’s thoughtfully implemented, can make games feel good to play. Just like in real life though, too much convenience has its downsides. In some games it can rob players of chances to apply themselves and craft more interesting adventures. In others, too much convenience can quickly turn amazing moments into standard, perhaps even dull experiences. Too little convenience can make a game unenjoyable too though, so both gamers and developers alike should be careful of letting things go too far in either direction.
