Ok... I am going to describe a phenomenon that I get when I play certain rpgs, and I would be interested in two things: if other people get this sensation too, and if they have a name for it.
When I am playing an rpg with non-random, but complicated dungeons (the standard ones with chests, random encounters, boss fights, secret rooms and such) I often come across the following situation:
Reaching a fork in the path, I can either go left or right. Choosing one of the two, I come to another fork, up or down, and so on. I now have 1 path that I am *on*, and potentially three unexplored paths. Since any rpger worth his or her salt does not want to miss the super cool equipment, or spell etc. that may be in any room in the dungeon I feel the need to make sure I have traversed every path. This is when the feeling comes up: a vague uneasiness which accompanies these missed choices in path. It even gets to the point where I subconsciously feel relieved when the path I choose is a dead end, because I think "Thank god, I don't have to remember this path... on to the next one!". Often I will even backtrack when I see a room is too open to see if I can't knock out the dead-end paths to start with (to reduce the number of 'choices taken' that I have to remember.
And if I get to a *third* intersection (7 unexplored paths now), I actually begin to feel somewhat stressed out.
So as I said, two questions:
- Do you ever get this feeling? If not, what do you do in the above situation?
- If you do feel this anxiety, care to give it a name?
When I am playing an rpg with non-random, but complicated dungeons (the standard ones with chests, random encounters, boss fights, secret rooms and such) I often come across the following situation:
Reaching a fork in the path, I can either go left or right. Choosing one of the two, I come to another fork, up or down, and so on. I now have 1 path that I am *on*, and potentially three unexplored paths. Since any rpger worth his or her salt does not want to miss the super cool equipment, or spell etc. that may be in any room in the dungeon I feel the need to make sure I have traversed every path. This is when the feeling comes up: a vague uneasiness which accompanies these missed choices in path. It even gets to the point where I subconsciously feel relieved when the path I choose is a dead end, because I think "Thank god, I don't have to remember this path... on to the next one!". Often I will even backtrack when I see a room is too open to see if I can't knock out the dead-end paths to start with (to reduce the number of 'choices taken' that I have to remember.
And if I get to a *third* intersection (7 unexplored paths now), I actually begin to feel somewhat stressed out.
So as I said, two questions:
- Do you ever get this feeling? If not, what do you do in the above situation?
- If you do feel this anxiety, care to give it a name?
