No game should have a game world map readily visible

[SwagLordYoloson]

I like the Morrowind Handled this, the map was there, but it didn't mean much if you didn't pay attention to quest givers

 

[El Luck]

What I would love to see in terms of a world map on a game is this:

You have your map, and on it are the villages, towns, cities, roads and places of note (such as a rock formation that looks like a middle finger)

If a quest giver gives you your quest, the general area where he/she/it wants you to go is marked on the map with a circle, so you have the rough idea of where you've got to go. It doesn't give you the exact idea but an extremely rough one.

There is no 'you are here' bullshit. You've got to figure out where the fuck you are and where you need to go using the map and your sense of direction and your ability to pay attention to your surroundings.

I dunno..it would be interesting to see something using this rough idea.

edit: forgot to mention, this idea would only really work if no fast travel system existed.

 

[omicron1]

o.o? why wouldn't you have a map of the area? what adventurer worth a damn would go anywhere with out a map?

Spoiler: Bear Grylls that's who.

And he survives on only his own piss and boiled orc feces.

ok, some one needs to explain this guy, i've seriously not heard of this dood till this meme popped up

He's a "survival expert" with a Discovery show. His schtick involves squick in that what he nicks to pick would make you sick.

 

[taiwwa]

Even for shooter games though, there's a reason why they are FPS games and not tactical RTS games.

Soldiers don't really have GPS systems while they are doing combat operations IRL. And having it in the game IMO takes away some of the mystery of combat and of the unknown. It also makes it a little too easy, since people can use their "game sense" to figure out movements and they should get an advantage for this.

Really the only games that should have a little minimap are RTS and strategy games.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, those maps only show you a representation of where you are.
And well, not everyone can read a map, but maybe your character can.

Though it would be nice to have a game in which the map isn't fully visible from the beginning, so so you have to update it by buying maps or exploring.
And in the beginning you have to go off directions npcs give you until you've explored a certain area.

And if you really don't want a map, you can alway... I don't know... Not use it maybe.
It's not that because it's there that you have to use it.
You don't use crack either just because it exists, do you?

Hell, you can just explore and hand draw you're own map as you do that if you really want to.
That would definitely increase the amout of time it takes to play a game too.

 

[Snotnarok]

Well there's a simple solution to this, if you don't want to have maps in the game just don't use them.

Personally I don't feel like stumbling around missing a painfully obvious door. I had a few problems in ME3 since sometimes it doesn't let you get a pointer. So instead of progressing I'm looking for this obvious thing I missed for 5 minutes.

Edit: On the topic of immersion breaking, just think of it as a hint to YOU and not your character. Your character probably has this cloth map and instead of having you figure out some scribbles on a stained map you get "Go here stupid".

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

It also makes no sense to have a large ! over a quest giver's head. Also: try playing say... Morrowind with no maps at all. I dare you.

 

[gigastar]

I prefer having maps.

You can thank Elder Scrolls games for that.

 

[rebelscum]

I reckon the best example of a map in a video game is the Silent Hill games-you pick up a map, it has the area on it, and your character scribbles on it important objects, which doors you've tried and where to go (if known). An RPG could incorporate that by having your character need to purchase maps and then just scribbling mission markers on it, and if you really want a mini-map you can make the map an equippable item, making your character sheathe whatever weapon they're holding in order to look at the map as they go.

Just an idea.

 

[Lilani]

This is especially jarring in medieval fantasy settings since GPS definitely does not exist within the fantasy universe. Dragon Age 2, I'm looking at you. And worse, you can't disable it in the game settings.

In a "realistic" fantasy universe, you also have to pee, poop, sleep (frequently), drink (frequently), eat a balanced meal 3 times a day, sharpen your swords and knives, work dents out of your armor, stitch up holes and tears in cloth, replace and repair shoes when they get worn, and you can't run for miles and miles on end. Not to mention hygiene and keeping your belongings dry and cared for. So a bit of suspension of belief is necessary in order to deliver an engaging and feasible gaming experience. Personally, I have never been jarred out of an experience by a "GPS" style map, because I think if I'm in a world where I can shoot fire out of my hand, or summon a magical beast, or carry 99 bottles of a liquid that will instantly heal broken bones and severed limbs, I don't think it's a bit too far off base to imagine there is someone in this same world who can make a map that tells me where I am.

 

[distortedreality]

I think I'm going to sort of side with the OP here.

I think, in majority of games, there is no need for an always visible world map in the HUD, I think it's unnecessary and can take too much away from the visual impact of the game world. I think a system where you can stop, pull up a map, take a bearing from a landmark, then put the map away and continue running is the best system. Far Cry 2 comes to mind.

You can't completely do away with world maps, and i wouldnt want that to happen, but giving the player an option to take them out of the HUD would be a great thing.

 

[KeyMaster45]

o.o? why wouldn't you have a map of the area? what adventurer worth a damn would go anywhere with out a map?

Spoiler: Bear Grylls that's who.

And he survives on only his own piss and boiled orc feces.

ok, some one needs to explain this guy, i've seriously not heard of this dood till this meme popped up

We could explain it to you, but the fine folks at ED do a much better job. http://encyclopediadramatica.ch/Bear_Grylls

 

[Yosato]

o.o? why wouldn't you have a map of the area? what adventurer worth a damn would go anywhere with out a map?

Spoiler: Bear Grylls that's who.

And he survives on only his own piss and boiled orc feces.

ok, some one needs to explain this guy, i've seriously not heard of this dood till this meme popped up

He's most famous for his show 'Born Survivor' (or 'Man vs Wild' in the US) in which he travels to a different region in every episode and shows the audience how to survive. People slate him a lot for his extreme antics that seem unnecessary; a frozen river greets him, instead of finding a way around he'll get bollock naked and swim across it. He's thirsty, screw waiting for rain, he's gonna drink his own piss. I love him though - his actions might seem unnecessary but the idea is that he's showing the audience how to survive if there's no other alternative.

OT: To be honest I know I'd have a much harder time enjoying Skyrim without its map system. I get the point that it's supposed to be a roleplaying experience but I just think the pros outweigh the cons. Not knowing where to go for missions would be a real pain in the arse and I'd hate it if I got a compass point out by a fraction of a degree and ended up passing right by a town I'm headed towards.

 

[Otaku World Order]

Everyone does remember what happened when Fable did away with maps, right? That stupid crap with the glitter trail?

My feeling, I'm all for sacrificing "realism" if it makes playing the game less awkward.

Captcha: cookie cutter

Wow, it knew I was going to talk about Fable!

 

[Deathmageddon]

I think the OP is right in some cases, like KoA: Reckoning. Although, I may have paid more attention to the environments if the camera wasn't pointed at the ground...

 

[Dethenger]

I prefer maps that filled in over the course of the adventure; if you've been here, the map's clear. Like in just about every Zelda game. It doesn't have to be like in Wind Waker where you have to sail the entire goddamn sea to fill out the chart, but it should be something like Majora's Mask (or OoT) where the Great Bay is blank until you've actually been there.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

I'm sorry but there would've been no way I could play GTA 4 or Red Dead Redemption without the mini map being there. The worlds in a lot of games with open sandbox elements are way too big to expect someone to navigate them with no immediate guidance. Pausing the game at every turn breaks flow a lot more than a HUD map in the corner of the screen.

 

[-Samurai-]

This is especially jarring in medieval fantasy settings since GPS definitely does not exist within the fantasy universe. Dragon Age 2, I'm looking at you. And worse, you can't disable it in the game settings.

In a "realistic" fantasy universe, you also have to pee, poop, sleep (frequently), drink (frequently), eat a balanced meal 3 times a day, sharpen your swords and knives, work dents out of your armor, stitch up holes and tears in cloth, replace and repair shoes when they get worn, and you can't run for miles and miles on end. Not to mention hygiene and keeping your belongings dry and cared for.

.....I want to play a game that makes you do that...

It sounds soo tediously fun. Damn this "simulation" kick I'm on!

 

[Amaror]

Okay, slight exagerration, but in games where you are navigating your little avatar through the game world, a game world map is a negative to the experience. The reason is that you end up looking at your little arrow on the map instead of looking at the game world. This is especially jarring in medieval fantasy settings since GPS definitely does not exist within the fantasy universe. Dragon Age 2, I'm looking at you. And worse, you can't disable it in the game settings.

I totally agree in the case of Dragon Age 2 but that game just did it wrong.
1. You got just loaded with quests every minute of the first hours of one chapter. It was rediculous. After some time you had like 50 Quests, so it was impossible to keep track of what you were supposed to do and why it was neccessary.
2. They made the game so there was no other possibility. You would have found the quests, because the maps were just too large and without good points of interest, meaning when you have a map with 5 really special places, then they could have said, it's left from Place A and you would have been able to find it.
But to be fair the fact that you don't look on the enviroments wasn't that bad in DA 2 because they all looked the same anyway...

I ended up just looking at the map and visiting the places were a quest should be done, without knowing why i was doing the quests.

In other games i don't think it's that bad. Like in Skyrim i just look if i still got the direction right and keep on walking.

 

[Amaror]

I think the OP is right in some cases, like KoA: Reckoning. Although, I may have paid more attention to the environments if the camera wasn't pointed at the ground...

That is a real shame. I thank god that i played that game on the pc, where you can easily control the camera with the mouse, because the enviroments are actually really pretty in Reckoning.