Focus and Purpose in Games

[BrianRubin]

Hey friends, this week's discussion topic is the need for focus and purpose in games versus just being dumped in a sandbox. I'd love to get your thoughts.

https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/oped/the-need-for-focus-and-purpose-in-games/

[KINGS GUARD GAMES]

games need to tap in to the part of your mind that gets a reward when you achieve somthing, if things are meaningless, without purpose then there is no point doing them. even if the purpose is virtual its still something you achieved :-)

the best example of this for me was completing super metroid, what an amazing ending boss fight! what a dramatic finish and what a sence of achievement. i have remembered it my whole life, thats somthing i can say of only very few games...

[BrianRubin]

I keep hearing how good these Metroid games are...

[KINGS GUARD GAMES]

there not all good, as a big fan i only recomend 2 games

super metroid for the snes, you can play on switch if you sighn up for a nintendo account.

and metroid prime 1 is also amazing on gamecube, also playable on wii and 3d the later games miss the mark.

one of the best things is the atmosphere, the music, its incredible :-)

[Agathosdaimon]

everyone is drawn to the potential now of sandboxes even if we dont have the time to explore them very much at all. A sandbox without any kind of overarching objective or one that its vague, is okay as long as you arent limited too much as to what you can do and where you can go and who you can interact with - that was no man sky's initial problem, a massive world but nothing to do in it, no one to speak to
games with a purpose are probably still the better experience htan sandboxes and can be enjoyed by the most people, yet the "sandbox" allure represents the possibility that the game is not a play once and discard product, - it can be justified with whatever its price is in ones mind and
no one speaks of it, but something in us is all looking for the fabled perfect game that will end the searching and purchasing - at least thats what one part of our psyche is carrying as a motivating factor

its funny that you just mentioned Sublogic and FS - as i am just interested in getting a few civilian and commerical flight sims at the moment, having ignored the sub genre in the past,- and i just found a copy of Flight Assignment ATP from Sub logic recently which is flight simulator but now all about carrying out specific flights, and even though it sounds super bland, i am interested in it

[BrianRubin]

Hah, nice find!

[Huitzilopochtli]

I prefer a sandbox game with little or no goals like the Total War games, EU4 (which I haven't even played yet but will eventually get around to it) and Kenshi (which also I have never played but will someday). Some games have optional victory conditions like the Civ games so I turn them all off except domination which I know I will never achieve. If I play a game that has goals or ending of story like in RPGs, I feel sad and worried as I approach the end and usually stop playing before I get to it. When a game ends on me, it is like a beloved pet dying, that feeling of wanting something to continue but being irrevocably denied. The only game I remember finishing was Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, and after gunning down the evil queen, I immediately started a new game of it to keep the flow.