Gaming

I do feel overwhelmed and intimidated by certain games, and sometimes it's paralysing (right now I'm a struggling with what job to level in Final Fantasy XI), but whether that's a bad thing depends entirely on the kind of "big" we're talking about.

If it's big in the sense of mechanical depth, I adore that. It's like a drug for me. I adore learning and games that reward that are often great for my mental health. Thinking of things like Project Zomboid, Dwarf Fortress, Loop Hero, Noita, or most of Zachtronics' titles. With those it really isn't about the scale of the world or the number of quests (often those metrics aren't even relevant).

My personal problem when it comes to some games like that, is that I know I'll love them -- like Factorio -- but I simply don't get around to them quickly, if at all; because I also know learning those systems will be a not insignificant time commitment. Ironically, that sensation of being overwhelmed with things to learn is part of why I love them, but I often fail to get around to actually playing many such games out of concern I won't be able to give them the time and attention that 'they deserve'. I'm not sure if that's the same as that FoMO you describe.

When it comes to the more conventional meaning of a "big game", it depends entirely on two things: the originality of the content, and the quality of the storytelling; i.e. the difference between Red Dead Redemption 2, and a modern Far Cry title. I would absolutely worry about missing stuff in RDR2, but would struggle to care much at all about modern Ubisoft titles in the same way.

To have fun instead of trying to see all content is way to make most of the experience. In ToTK I just turn off the UI and try to get lost.

Personally I love breath of the wild and adore tears of the kingdom more

There's so much to do and explore and I want the game to keep going forever

I do not. I feel no particular obligation to finish anything, and most of the time I do I feel let down that there isn't more. I want enough to be able to play until I feel the desire to play something else, then have plenty more to explore next time that game scratches the right itch.

Hehe I know exactly that feeling! Honestly I found the same with Skyrim, GTA5 and Witcher 3 - I can't imagine spending 100+ hours on a game like that, knowing I'll probably not finish it! I know it's irrational but I'm the same. :)

I loved Disco Elysium and Life is Strange 1 because I truly did feel that I left no stone unturned in my playthroughs - it felt very "complete" and had such a satisfying ending that didn't leave me wandering around a progressively more empty hand world.

I guess that's a type of game preference - I love watching other people play big games like that, but can't do it to myself as I feel it's never "done." :)

And yet... I'll play a wrestling game for probably hundreds of hours, knowing fully beyond unlocking everything, there's a game I can't "finish" - weird really! :)

Man this post made me think about why some games that seem right up my alley (fallout, cyberpunk, etc) I just can't seem to finish. I have a perfectionist issue where I feel I need to do all the available side quests before moving onto the next mission/level/boss. I might try to pick up cyberpunk again after I complete my fallen order replay and just stick to the larger missions.

I am really looking forward to starfield but I really don't know if I'm prepared for it.

I can certainly understand that! I kind of am the opposite though; I like not knowing the exact extent of the game, or where everything is, because to me it then feels more like a real place that I'm really exploring. I don't need to see everything, and honestly I hope I never do see everything because then the magic is gone. I like feeling like a small fish in a very big ocean.

I guess I'm an anti-completionist in that way.

For me since I quit smoking weed something in my mindset changed and it just seems like too much effort overall to play most games, especially bad with open world with hundreds of quests. The quest log tends to remind me of my ticket backlog at work too.

I mainly play some small and quick to pick up and put down games with tight gameplay loops atm.

Yeah, I've felt this at times, but games are meant to be fun and low stakes. If certain games make you feel this way I think it's worth reflecting on what about the game triggers this response. Perhaps there's a way to avoid that thing or reframe your thinking around it. Otherwise, there's no shame in not playing a game that makes you feel bad!

Absolutely! I just picked up the Mass Effect collection and the Dragon Age collection when they came in a bundle a couple of weeks ago. I am really, really intimidated having like 7 big games all in my backlog now. I'm just playing Bioshock Infinite and Hades in my happy little box.

A little, but I kinda love it. It's a feeling of so many options and I find it kinda exciting.

I think TotK dropped a lot of hints about not playing it like BotW, but most probably didn't pick up on it. I made the mistake of exploring a lot on my own and ended up skipping several of the quest stories as a result. When the world is so large, you really need a GPS for your map to constrain your path. It's kinda hard to tell the user "this time is different, follow the guides" when it seems so familiar a place.

There was a lot of effort made to ensure there was guide based content posted online immediately upon release, but this assumes the user will go looking for it.

I have this with big Minecraft modpacks. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed with all the stuff to do, and I get none of it done. I wonder if it's related to ADHD or autism. I've not been diagnosed with either because I avoid doctors like the plague but when you check literally every box for a disease... Welp.

Yes, I recently started no man's sky and at times I find I have to swap to a more simple game because it feels overwhelming.

I never used to feel this way in games, I think it's a lack of time as I get older. When I was younger I could afford to spend days and days figuring out a game, now it feels like I have limited time and need to use it efficiently.

I greatly prefer games that wrap up in thirty minutes or less... you know, fighting games, old-school arcade games, puzzle games, that sort of thing. Sometimes it's fun to just wander around in an open world, but big video games are big time sinks that require a big commitment, especially at the start when you have to learn the ropes. Sometimes these big games aren't well explained and you have to fumble your way through their complicated play mechanics, an issue I had with Biomutant. Struggling and confusion are not a part of the gaming experience I particularly enjoy.

Not overwhelmed so much as after awhile the content in these open world games starts to feel too similar and I lose the motivation to finish. I think going forward I may stick to the "main quest" and only tackle side content if it's genuinely interesting rather than trying to complete everything, which can feel like a chore. I think a lot of it behind being overwhelmed as well is just sheer bloat/filler in some of these games.

I don't feel this way about open-world games because they do usually have an end and you can skip a lot of the open-world filler content. I get this anxiety about sandbox games. I hate it because I really enjoy games like Cities Skylines and I'd love to get into Dwarf Fortress, but I can't play them anymore because I could spend 1,000 hours in one of them and never finish. That open-endedness keeps me from playing.

Felt the same way in BotW. I wandered for a while and had fun with it for a while before resorting to a walkthrough. I don't have a lot of time to game anymore and it became a sort of treasure hunt and was still fun having the walkthrough available as needed.

The older I get the more I just appreciate the story. If I get any busier I'll probably start watching others play through on youtube.

I've never really been great at open world games, with Minecraft being the "exception" for me (and even then, I don't spend nearly as much time in Minecraft as I used to). I tend to struggle finding out what exactly I need to do - and in BoTW I especially hated the fact that tools/weapons/gear would break after so few uses, it pretty much ruined the game for me.

Which, that's perfectly fine - clearly its not the game for me, I know plenty of others who've spent countless hours in BoTW+ToTK but I just can't.

It's funny that you got that in Skyrim, really felt like that game was terrified that I'd miss some random quest and shove it in my face