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IronCretin

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..drained outta thrill each time consulting walkthough(s) ?

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I think the vast (instant) availability of walkthoughs all over the internet (invention) Laughing has taken away much of the adventuring experience that would have lasted for days and long nights until discovering puzzles solution.

I can go further dealing with it as an issue that has to do with how the genre been less exciting than it was when communities had been involved in giving hints or having inquires for puzzles, but i wont, as it not the issue here, i am just wondering how does feel each time someone refer to a walkthough, and does it feel like it takes away some of the game’s joy, or is it just me?

     
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UHS hints is man’s best invention since the wheel - there should be law for designers writing one for each of their games (unless the game itself has uhs-like hints in itself).

Of course, nothing beats the joy of solving it all “by yourself”, but there’re limits - when “being stuck” becomes frustration. Also, it purely depends on the game - if I’m amused (even while being “stuck”) I won’t look up the walkthrough. Community playthroughs are great for exchanging hints, though I noticed people hesitate to ask for help in such threads. It seems easier to open the walkthrough, because of the time needed before someone answers your question on the forum, and the internet walkthrough is just seconds away - handy, especially when you’re enjoying the game and want quickly to overcome that one obstacle.

     

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diego - 26 November 2019 10:19 PM

if I’m amused (even while being “stuck”) I won’t look up the walkthrough.

I think that’s it exactly for me. Using a walkthrough isn’t my first choice, but if it’s an area/puzzle in a game that I am not enjoying - like that ‘Chinese Checkers’ puzzle in Shivers - then I will reach for a walkthrough and get back to the good stuff quickly.

     

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The other thing about a puzzle like that is that giving up on that one and looking up the answer doesn’t erode your faith in the game’s fairness in the same way that it can for an inventory puzzle (or something similarly involving lateral thinking). Generally the biggest danger of looking up the answer is that you can skip the thought process that would have led you to the solution; this can mean that it’s not obvious why that solution is right, you simply think you wouldn’t have come up with it. So the next time you’re stuck you’re quicker to reach for the walkthrough and you end up with a bad impression of the game.

UHS style hints (or Invisiclues, for us old Infocom fans, or getting specific hints from a friend who’s played the game) help a lot in that respect because they can help guide your thinking to the right solution rather than just telling you the required actions. That way you understand how you were meant to find the solution, and don’t just curse the designer.

Unless the puzzles actually are terribly designed, of course. There’s no easy fix for that Smile

     
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solving puzzles feels great, but messing around with puzzles or being stuck and unsure what to do next for hours is absolutely no fun. I like in game hints that don’t give direct answers but point you in the right path. I’m not going to have fun playing a game for a few hours here and there when i get free time if I’m just going to be frustrated and stuck in the same spot forever. I think the fun of adventure games is playing through the stories, interacting with the characters, absorbing the world and enjoying the artwork. Solving puzzles all yourself definitely feels rewarding but being stuck isn’t worth sacrificing the rest of the enjoyable aspects of gameplay imHo… especially if you’re really into the story and just want to keep going.

     

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Ya, I mean, it depends a bit on what type of game you play, but for me with adventure games it’s usually classic point&clicks;, so there’s a story, with characters, and a setting, and so on, and it’s a lot for me about that. I don’t play puzzle games that are only about puzzles, with barely any pretense of a story, and I don’t like the 3D free-world puzzle stuff either.

So puzzles are only one component of the fun for me, and if they are getting in the way of having fun, then I have no problem grabbing a walkthrough. I’d say on average I do it about once per game, and it can be for something like in, hm, Shardlight, where I missed the rope that could be taken, and although I suspected that I needed a rope, there’s a ton of ropes in the background art everywhere, and I wasn’t motivated to click on all of them to figure out which one I needed. So I took a shortcut (or tried to, if I remember that right the walkthrough happened to be not to be very helpful, which also happens sometimes ^^; ) to get back to the fun parts.

     
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For me the level of confidence I have for the developer’s ability to create fair puzzles dictates at which point I reach for a walkthrough. Having encountered one puzzle that I consider unfair even after finally solving it with the help of a walkthrough means I reach for a walkthrough sooner when stuck at the next one. And it becomes a downward spiral and the enjoyment of “playing” the game is ultimately lost. So I really try to stay away from using them as long as I can.

     
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Veovis - 29 November 2019 08:24 AM

For me the level of confidence I have for the developer’s ability to create fair puzzles dictates at which point I reach for a walkthrough. Having encountered one puzzle that I consider unfair even after finally solving it with the help of a walkthrough means I reach for a walkthrough sooner when stuck at the next one. And it becomes a downward spiral and the enjoyment of “playing” the game is ultimately lost. So I really try to stay away from using them as long as I can.

I think this much it for me too.
What most new adventurers do not get is that the greatest amusement in adventure games is while you are being stuck (with faith in devs) backtracking and exhausting everything to find the solution, but if after all that you still not; therefore after consulting a walkthough and you find it too ridiculous and not fair, your faith in the the game, and the devs behind it drops much and so the next puzzles, and your appreciation to spend more time with it.

So in the end there are mostly two options there, either run for a walkthrough each time you are stuck, or just forget it, and uninstall the game.

     

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