Does anyone else sometimes feel overwhelmed by (big) games?

I've recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I'm a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.

As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I've come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there's such an enormous amount of content to see that I'm constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I'm not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.

This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I'm posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.

Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I'm an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!

stergro,

As a casual gamer who only plays once or twice a month I completely agree. I want small and relaxing games that do not need hours of training until you can even start to have fun. Or small and extremely hard games. I really enjoyed "Getting over it with Bennett Foddy" for example.

yesdogishere,

ya im not a fan of games with too much open world. reading a novel is far more educational than playing an mmo, so i would only focus on playing an mmo when it improves my mind (basically only through RvR open pvp). you have to choose between being a producer or consumer of products. the more you just consumer things, the more you become a blasted shit-for-brains useless fool (most fps players and top tier mmo players are such fools).

pushka,
@pushka@beehaw.org avatar

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

RadDevon, (edited )
@RadDevon@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

Cartendole,

Oh, that's interesting that you feel that way about sandbox games. I get that it can be irritating to not have a clear goal or end to the game. They're more about making up your own challenges and by that your own gameplay experience on the way. Reminds me of Minecraft!

Somehow, sandbox games don't induce that kind of anxiety for me because I never feel like I'm "missing" something if I tackle a challenge one or the other way because there's always another playthrough up next to explore the other route.

TIN,

Don't worry, you won't get to 1000 hours in dwarf fortress without your world ending in magma fuelled mega death while the survivors get eaten by some zombie bull yaks.

sharksrtrans,

Absolutely.

I'm playing Street Fighter Five until I started Diablo 4. Now Final Fantasy 16 is out. Uffda.

IndeterminateName,

Yes, I never finished BOTW because of the size, same for Skyrim and although I'm excited for Cities: Skylines 2 I'm also a bit intimidated by the scale of it and learning all the new tools again!

kilgore,

I feel the same way about big games, and just yesterday I was feeling the same anxiety after the tutorial island in TOTK. I usually feel I need to find every secret and every korok sees etc. But this time I'm trying a new strategy - letting the game lead me. Some NPC says "go do this now", OK I do that and try not to get side tracked. Supposed to visit a certain town next? Then I go there! The game (so far) does seem linear or at least it offers that option*, so when I'm overwhelmed, I follow that line.

a1studmuffin,
@a1studmuffin@aussie.zone avatar

I used to have this feeling often with open world games, and it put me off playing them for a long time - it was just too overwhelming, and an activity that was supposed to relax me was having the opposite effect. Now when I play them I don’t care so much and just enjoy whatever I come across.

So what changed? I started taking medication for my anxiety, which I never thought was an issue until a few family members gave me a gentle nudge to talk to someone about it.

Not saying you’re in the same boat, but thought I’d share my story in case it’s helpful.

min0nim,
@min0nim@aussie.zone avatar

Off topic, but can I ask how & what about the anxiety meds? I deal with it all but it’s exhausting sometimes. The last time o spoke to a GP about it (5 years ago) they talked me out of taking things any further because of impacts to insurance/etc.

a1studmuffin,
@a1studmuffin@aussie.zone avatar

Absolutely! I spoke to my GP because I was completely functional with my stress and anxiety levels, but I just wasn’t feeling great - I was whiteknuckling my way through each work day, despite nobody knowing or my job performance being affected. I tried to justify the feeling to myself as “well, it’s just busy, I’ll be more relaxed once this rough patch is over”. But the “rough patch” would never end, it was like chasing a rainbow. Once I finally realised that it didn’t matter why I felt shit, if I still felt shit all the time, I spoke to a psychologist and tried some CBT. That didn’t make a huge difference, so my GP suggested trying out an SSRI. I’m now on a low dose of escitalopram and it’s been pretty life changing. If you’ve considered meds before, I’d highly recommend revisiting that idea. Modern anti-depression and anti-anxiety drugs are a lot more targeted than the older generations. You don’t need to be on them permanently either, you can try for 3-6 months and see how you go.

But you’re right - the one downside is potential insurance implications. For example, my life insurance no longer covers me for anything mental health related, which is quite a broad stroke considering I’ve got it under control and it was just garden variety mild generalised anxiety. I’m apparently one of “the crazies” now to them. But considering how much better I feel now, I’d make the same decision a million times over.

Happy to discuss more if you have follow-up questions, more people should chat about this stuff!

matt,

Yes I have, but I have to remind myself that they have added way more content than they expect one person to engage with, and its on purpose. YOU know best what you are intrigued by and interested in, and for large open worlds can ignore as much as you want, but if you are enjoying yourself chasing the threads you find engaging then they have succeeded at what they set out to build.

freebread,

Well said. What makes this game so special is the journey is your own. Part of the magic for me is watching others' playthroughs and seeing them do something entirely different to what I did. It's been almost two months and I'm still regularly surprised!

Cartendole,

Very well said, you're right! There's definitely too much to see for a single person in a single playthrough.

z3n0x,
@z3n0x@feddit.de avatar

i remember this overwhelming feeling when first playing Witcher 3. At some point I just said f it, ignored the thoughts and had a blast

Cartendole,

That's probably the best way to go about it!

sylverstream,

Yep, Witcher 3 is one of my favourite games despite not having tons of time. Whenever I play it, I just dedicate all my gaming time to it. With smaller games I play 2 at the same time. Quick Resume.

bob_lemon,

The game would be better with 75% less of the random map markers. I find them hard to ignore even though they're often not worth getting.

tlf,

I spent so much time trying to clean up map markets that I was not high level enough to deal with

z3n0x,
@z3n0x@feddit.de avatar

This! I had to turn off most of them to make the game enjoayable.

PrimAndProperPauper,
@PrimAndProperPauper@kbin.social avatar

I really loved Divinity Original Sin II, but I've never finished it. At a certain point I lost momentum and afterwards the idea of trying to pick back up where I left off is just too daunting, and the idea of starting over again is even more daunting.

Cartendole,

I feel this 100%, I'm also currently playing it with a friend (well, we've been at it for more than 6 months) and I'm so so glad he's pulling me through the game, I'd never ever finish it on my own.

Tencha,

TotK is a bit of a weird game. I’m still not sure what the "correct" way to play the game is. I did too much of the underground at first because I got a lot of maps. But when I had gotten all the treasures that I found the maps for, I had already explored a lot of the depths. Then I found up I could upgrade my battery more than 30 times, but I still had only five hearts, so I felt like I was playing the game wrong. So up to the surface I went. I thought I will mainly explore the underground after getting the map in that area. But after I learned how to make a aerial vehicle and the fast-building mechanic, I now feel like I skip everything, even places where I feel like I’m supposed to do something clever. But at the same time, I already explored this world by horse in the previous game, so perhaps skipping every obstacle by flying is what I’m supposed to do? Unfortunately, flying from shrine to shrine is pretty boring, and the shrines are ridiculously easy. Not sure where I’m going with this, but I think my point is simply that after probably a hundred hours I’m still confused about how to play this game in a meaningful way, even though I like this game a lot in many ways.

TheRtRevKaiser,
@TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org avatar

I think there's no real "correct" way to play TotK. The game almost always gives you one obvious way to accomplish a task but puts very few guardrails to prevent you from bypassing things. It's definitely a challenge for me to get out of that mindset of trying to guess the intended route so I don't miss things and instead just enjoy encountering whatever content and situations arise from playing the game the way that I want.

Cartendole,

Glad to see you're also a bit confused about TotK! It definitely feels like it has less of a direction it pushed you in than BotW. There was another comment that suggested completing a bit of the main story first, I think I'll try that for now.

feidry,

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.

sincle354,

You might find a sweet spot with tech mods. When there's an established hierarchy or crafting automation you plainly must do, it becomes a lot more engaging and you can usually focus on one mod at a time. For example, Mekanism asks you to stack factories upon factories to progress, and AE2 makes that a lot more simpler. I get the crafting and storage mods first before I focus on other mods, personally. That's what gets my ADHD fix on.

feidry,

I’ve been trying to focus on ones that have quests, so I have a clear path to follow. But it seems like, if there’s quests, there a bajillion quests which is also overwhelming. I’ve made some custom modpacks and those suffer even worse because I have no clear goals. After you’ve put a few thousand hours in a game, it gets hard to define any achievable goals that you’ve not done yet.

TwoMindsQ,

Yeah I get, sometimes I just want to experience a story not forge my own adventure.

SyperStronkHero,
@SyperStronkHero@kbin.social avatar

With open world games, I don't care where I go or what I do most of the time because it's just a giant sandbox for me. My issue though is when I return to something so vast, like in Pillars of Eternity, after a while I don't know what to do and I'm overwhelmed by all these quests to keep track of. Even with games like Subnautica I need to focus on just beating it in a few weeks. Then theres Factorio... I'll never understand what I was previously up to because suddenly all my previously laid out plans seemed so dumb.

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