Why do people HATE quest markers?

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

snip

I disagree about skyrim
when given a quest most ncp's are basically saying "retrieve X that is in that one of the countless crypts/cave fill with draugr/bandits in skyrim. Since I assume your mind reader; I won't have give any hints or directions for the location of X"
If your lucky you might randomly stumble upon X at point less then 10 hours(in real time) later when not using quest markers. Maybe X is a cave/crypt you cleared in the past and you will mostly likely will never randomly stumble upon it.

X=fetch quest item

 

[white_wolf]

I think people hate them because its handholding and while I do get that argument I enjoy them its a handholding feature I don't mind for once because if I'm lost in a free roam like Skyrim or a less sandbox but still can be confusing on the level design with say mountains in your way like Borderlands the quest marker gets me on the right track when I want to complete the game for me its simply I suck with internal naviation if there is a town to my right I will always go left. But with a game like the original Tomb Raider if it had a quest marker would I use it? Maybe it would of course take away some of the challenge in navigating the terrain because the big arrow allows me to scan over the canyon cliffs faster and find the actual landing platforms I missed the first 15 tries I did this part of the mission it would've helped me get unstuck a heck of alot sooner in that game. In the case of Dues Ex HR they had multiple markers which cluttered up the screen but toggling one or all of them off fixes the issues and a toggle feature for it is really the only fix you need a simple quest markers on/off in the options menu makes everyone happy.

 

[AgedGrunt]

The dumbing down on the player experience is part of the argument. Often markers are used in place of designers actually writing an adventure (i.e. wanting to take you through their game and encourage exploration and supply all kinds of ways to make their quests interesting), and instead take an extremely lazy and hollow route of just pointing the player where they need to go to advance the plot.

If you play a game without quest markers and instantly become lost, stumbling and left without an idea of where to go, either you are hopeless or the game is poorly designed. I'll add that, in most cases, you don't even have an option to turn them off. It's either a lazy player or a lazy developer. I want to play the game, not the UI.

 

[dyre]

Hmm, I don't hate quest markers, but if I did, I do know how I'd argue against them.

Quest markers are often used not merely to supplement investigation and exploration, but rather are used to replace investigation and exploration. Let's say you have a quest in which you are solving a murder mystery. At the scene of the murder, the only piece of evidence is a strange dagger. In an older game without quest markers, you might have to ask around to see if someone could identify this weapon; at some point the town blacksmith might tell you that he's never seen anything like it but one of his old military friends stationed in a nearby city has served all around the world and has an interest in that sort of thing. At which point you would have discovered for yourself that you ought to head towards the next city, etc etc. In a newer game, these steps might exist, but it's just as likely that the devs don't bother adding this at all, and instead just point you directly to garrison headquarters in the next city, as if you were some kind of psychic and knew exactly where to look.

Simply turning off quest markers is not going to bring all the clue-finding and detective work back...because all that stuff has simply been replaced by quest markers.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

I feel it works well in open sand box games where you drive, but ehhh it can break a game

 

[newfoundsky]

Reason: because it destroys all sense of personal discovery and, for me, immersion. Simples.

I'm on 360, so I'm forced to completely disable the entire HUD on Skyrim just to get shot of those cheat-oh-markers. I've played through it enough now that I can orient myself just by using the terrain, but still, trying to pick up small items is sometimes an exciting will-I-get-a-fine mini-game, and I rarely have any clue as to how much health I've actually got left in combat.

Bethesda! Masters of design, I salute thee! (it does, however, make me a crack shot with bows, as I can nail moving targets without a crosshair, turning something - at long last - into a matter of skill in a TES)

For most games it doesn't matter as much, but I also believe every game should allow the player to fully tailor their HUD. If world immersion is important to a game, the player should be allowed to get rid of everything on screen if they wish, and not be punished for it, Skyrim stylee.

Highlight the quest in your journal and hit "A". The marker goes away, man. You can keep your HUD on.

I do agree with you on HUD customization though. I like to play Skyrim with the HUD off, but it also does not make sense to me that my guy can be an expert blacksmith, hardened adventurer, master explorer, and not, at some point, have a compass.