Blog The decline of memory challenges in games

[brumgrunt]

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/gaming/...-dairy-farmer/

[Edwards]

One of the Skill Points in the Asura starting area in GW2 is a memory puzzle. The NPC makes a speech, and then asks you questions on what they said a minute later. I was pretty disappointed with just how many attempts it took me to get the answers right!

Edit: tried to post this directly to the comments section at the bottom of the article but got 'Invalid Thread specified'.

[brumgrunt]

Sorry, fixed that!

[mi1ez]

First thought that crossed my mind (after Monkey Island of course,) was the Wind Fish's Egg in Link's awakening. left up right up left up right up left up right up!

[Griffter]

"no matter now simple that information is" paragraph under 2nd image.

i wish they brought more puzzles into it. what i find being and old school gamer, using the arrow keys still to move :-), is that i remember the code and get to the door and the sad feeling that the code pops up again cos i saw it earlier and takes away a sense of accomplishment or epic win feeling. i feel cheated at those times.

[steveo_mcg]

Just discovered this while looking for somthing else:http://www.scummbar.com/community/games/swordfighting/

A real test to your long term memory. You're no match for my brains, you poor fool.

[Raptorkid]

Originally Posted by Article

In fact, I can think of not a single modern AAA game that presents you with a unique piece of information at one point, and then requires you to recall that information at a different point to continue, no matter now simple that information is.

What about Fallout 3's ending where you're given the password to the purifier at the beginning of the game?

[MjFrosty]

The thing is with these is that...

What were we talking about again?

[pimlicosound]

Originally Posted by Raptorkid

What about Fallout 3's ending where you're given the password to the purifier at the beginning of the game?

That was my first thought, too. Pathetically, I couldn't remember it and had to look up the solution. I suppose I've just got used to games not requiring me to use my memory, so I hadn't engaged it at all while playing the game.

[Shirty]

Years of substance abuse have left many of us unable to remember what we had for breakfast, so the decline in intellectual standards in gaming aren't a huge shock.

[Griffter]

a thought... maybe its not just the way games are made but google itself?

gone are the days of getting through a stage required u to actually think, now u try once, maybe twice then alt tab, google it, and continue. so maybe both are to blame, games stopped working like that cos gamers stopped trying and vice versa.

damn you google!

[Sloth]

Reading this article immediately reminded of playing Final Fantasy IV, getting decently far, then stopping for a few months. Forgot where I was and what I was doing. Uh oh. No in game helping notes, all the NPC dialogue had already told me where to go and was now spouting lines like "Good luck! We're all relying on you!" just to make me feel even worse about completing about their plight. Ended up starting over again.

Try selling an RPG without a quest log of some sort in today's gaming world and you'd be getting death threats!

[Jacob-86]

Ico was a great puzzle game. Very minimal dialogue which required you to use the environment around you and experiment. Another great puzzle game (of a slightly different style) was Shadow of the Colossus. Both of these created by the same group of developers. Both available on the PS2.

I highly recommend them if you haven't tried them out.

[dolphie]

Yeah well these days everyone has ADHD and the average gamer starts a sentence and

[lepre]

Most of the people nowadays would just google the information needed right away.

[Dwarfer]

I miss challenges in games. I have to go back & play Mario Bros or Zelda to get a challenge nowadays

[Nexxo]

It isn't hard if it isn't Nintendo-hard.

[TWeaK]

Am I the only one who kind of liked Dr. Kawashima’s?

[dolphie]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

It isn't hard if it isn't Nintendo-hard.

Aargh my heart, it's sad when I read that. It's amazing how not just Nintendo games but most games in general back then really were hard. Even kids games, game design just generally seemed to be all about making tough challenges for gamers to overcome, and we had to try to beat it, whether it was saving a princess or solving PC Adventure Games or getting to the end of Contra, or getting to end of Doom or whatever else. And just to think that nowdays, there are hardly any games left like that. Just a small percentage of games, and those are mostly only retro ones anyway, like Trine or Legend of Grimrock or whatever.

Nowadays gaming is all about instant gratification instead.

[oliverr97]

I never really liked memory games (mainly due to my terrible memory), but its a shame that they have declined so much.