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Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Forgetting games
Einstein once said that education is that which is left after you forgot everything you learned at school. In the past week, I launched two games that I hadn't played for some time, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and World of Tanks. For Zelda, I was trying out the NFC cards I bought as cheaper alternative to amiibo. For World of Tanks I had received a mail telling me to log in to get anniversary rewards. The experience in both cases was similar: Although I have over 15,000 battles played in World of Tanks, and over 200 hours of Zelda, I had problems remembering all the controls. For Zelda it took some trial and error to find how to activate amiibo rewards. For World of Tanks it was more a feeling of not feeling all that comfortable remembering all the tactics for each tank on each map, so I didn't start a battle at all.
That is not to say that I have completely forgotten these games. In Zelda it just took one look at my surroundings to know where I was. The map of Hyrule is in my head, and I would have had no problems to navigate from one point to another. And in World of Tanks I had no problems remembering what the rewards I received were good for. And I know the World of Tanks controls well enough to be able to play, it's just the terrain knowledge one needs to play well that faded.
In both cases, I could relearn. However, only for Zelda do I actually consider starting a new game, in which case the Great Plateau would teach me all the controls again quickly. I might actually wait until I forgot a bit more about the game, as the fun of playing is all about exploration. For World of Tanks it takes way too long to "git gud" again, and the fun is less in the playing than in the mastering of the game. I already once stopped for years, and taking it up again was a rather long process which took a lot of effort. I don't think I would enjoy playing this casually from time to time and sucking at it. Especially since World of Tanks is a game in slow decline.
I am wondering whether I have a rather specific memory, that I forget about certain things in games, like the controls. Or whether that is perfectly normal, because we tend to remember "experiences" longer than "muscle memory" fine motor skills and game details. How are your experiences with starting old games again?
- posted by Tobold @ 9:58 AM Permanent Link
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I think you forget details in a lot of areas, even if some will stick out more at first. In RPGs you forget the plot and where you were in it, but that's fine because those are games where you will have more fun starting again anyway. In strategy or tactics games you forget the fine details, and then you realise you can't play as well as you feel you should be.
And of course in a lot of games forgetting the controls will be the most obvious thing, but you presumably forget the other stuff too.
It's another argument for shorter games that you can start again from scratch.
And of course in a lot of games forgetting the controls will be the most obvious thing, but you presumably forget the other stuff too.
It's another argument for shorter games that you can start again from scratch.
If you've been keeping up with other mmo gaming blgs you'll know that almost everyone complains about forgetting almost everything about games they haven't played in a while. It's frequently cited as one of the main reasons people can't easily slip back into games they've dropped and end up bouncing off them again. It's also part of the reason retro servers do so well. It's a lot easier to start over with the limited systems on nostalgia servers along with a bunch of other people who can't remember the controls than it is to fit in alongside current players on current servers.
I find that I always forget how to play a game if I'm gone awhile. There are two things I do to help with that. One is that when I return to a MMO, I create a level one character to learn the controls again.
The other is that I have a Razer keypad for gaming that I use. I just create profiles for various games where the commands are in the same place. "This key is always the map" type of thing. There are still some differences between games I have to adjust to, but it's about the only way I can play more than one game without stumbling over the controls.
The other is that I have a Razer keypad for gaming that I use. I just create profiles for various games where the commands are in the same place. "This key is always the map" type of thing. There are still some differences between games I have to adjust to, but it's about the only way I can play more than one game without stumbling over the controls.
I forgot most of the control schemes for games that I haven't played in a while if I've been playing other games during that time. Although I will typically remember the world similar to going back to a childhood area where I remember the streets, parks, etc. I typically do not return to a game once I haven't played it in a while if the current game that I am playing does not have a similar control scheme. I get easily frustrated with typically needing to react quickly only to realize that I'm using the wrong key for the intended action.
However, it's much easier when games share a significant portion of the control schemes. I like it when games set on a sort of "best practice" control schemes so that when I press E in one game it does the same things as another game. Of course this isn't always possible, but I like it when it's done.
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However, it's much easier when games share a significant portion of the control schemes. I like it when games set on a sort of "best practice" control schemes so that when I press E in one game it does the same things as another game. Of course this isn't always possible, but I like it when it's done.
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