Most games involve some form of resource management. Shooters have ammo and health, RTSs have assorted building materials, RPGs have potions and skill points... you get the idea.
This is fine and dandy. Resource management is a solid base for game mechanics. My problem is that damn near every game I can think of insists on giving me too much of whatever resource they deal in, promptly removing any requirement or incentive for ingenuity on the part of the player.
Allow me to employ an example: Skyrim.
The most fun I had with Skyrim was in the first 5 hours or so immediately after the game removed the training wheels and set me loose on the world. A significant part of that fun came from the fact that I was skint broke. This meant I had to improvise, I had to make do with whatever was available, I had to use everything at my disposal to survive. So I stripped enemy corpses for every penny and sold their gear, I retrieved my precious arrows, I pick-pocketed shopkeepers, I hunted animals for their leather to improve my equipment, I lured enemies into traps, I came up with solutions based on the situation at hand.
However, twenty dragons later that was all gone. I was level fifty-something. I was decked out in smithed-up, double enchanted gear. I had 30+ uber-potions of health on hand. I had 90,000 gold. I could kill a dragon with three of my 200+ arrows. I could effectively turn invisible by crouching. All of a sudden everything was boring. Why bother with loot when I can already purchase anything in the game? Why come up with a clever and inventive way to take down that Draugr Doomlord of Deathmurder when I can just calmly shank him to death while mainlining health potions? Or one-shot him from hiding? Or, hell, just walk past him while slurping the aforementioned potions?
The same applies in so many games. Like, say, Bioshock (and don't get me wrong here folks, I fucking love me some Bioshock.) At the beginning I am scrounging for each and every precious pistol round and searching through cash registers so I can maybe afford enough electric ammo to take on that Big Daddy. Two levels later I am firing ammunition into the walls just so I can pick up the stuff at my feet.
Or Human Revolution. (Or the original Deus Ex, come to think of it.) I start out hunting down every drop of XP I can find because, damn it, I want that slow-fall augmentation. Come the mid game and I have praxis points coming out of my ears and enough equipment to trivialise any obstacle the game can come up with. Should I try and circle around that heavy security bot, or should I find it's control hub? Nah, why bother? I'll just toss one of my ten EMP grenades at it.
When you aren't working within restraints there is not reason for you to try and find a clever way around them. When every problem can be solved by throwing resources at it, there is no reason to do anything else.
So... games, please stop making me rich. Turns out it's more fun to be poor.
This is fine and dandy. Resource management is a solid base for game mechanics. My problem is that damn near every game I can think of insists on giving me too much of whatever resource they deal in, promptly removing any requirement or incentive for ingenuity on the part of the player.
Allow me to employ an example: Skyrim.
The most fun I had with Skyrim was in the first 5 hours or so immediately after the game removed the training wheels and set me loose on the world. A significant part of that fun came from the fact that I was skint broke. This meant I had to improvise, I had to make do with whatever was available, I had to use everything at my disposal to survive. So I stripped enemy corpses for every penny and sold their gear, I retrieved my precious arrows, I pick-pocketed shopkeepers, I hunted animals for their leather to improve my equipment, I lured enemies into traps, I came up with solutions based on the situation at hand.
However, twenty dragons later that was all gone. I was level fifty-something. I was decked out in smithed-up, double enchanted gear. I had 30+ uber-potions of health on hand. I had 90,000 gold. I could kill a dragon with three of my 200+ arrows. I could effectively turn invisible by crouching. All of a sudden everything was boring. Why bother with loot when I can already purchase anything in the game? Why come up with a clever and inventive way to take down that Draugr Doomlord of Deathmurder when I can just calmly shank him to death while mainlining health potions? Or one-shot him from hiding? Or, hell, just walk past him while slurping the aforementioned potions?
The same applies in so many games. Like, say, Bioshock (and don't get me wrong here folks, I fucking love me some Bioshock.) At the beginning I am scrounging for each and every precious pistol round and searching through cash registers so I can maybe afford enough electric ammo to take on that Big Daddy. Two levels later I am firing ammunition into the walls just so I can pick up the stuff at my feet.
Or Human Revolution. (Or the original Deus Ex, come to think of it.) I start out hunting down every drop of XP I can find because, damn it, I want that slow-fall augmentation. Come the mid game and I have praxis points coming out of my ears and enough equipment to trivialise any obstacle the game can come up with. Should I try and circle around that heavy security bot, or should I find it's control hub? Nah, why bother? I'll just toss one of my ten EMP grenades at it.
When you aren't working within restraints there is not reason for you to try and find a clever way around them. When every problem can be solved by throwing resources at it, there is no reason to do anything else.
So... games, please stop making me rich. Turns out it's more fun to be poor.
