Okay, now I’ve watched the second video. That’s a good one, too!
My main takeaway is that I’m a big fan of “diegetic navigation” and have now learned the name for that concept, which is cool.
I also not only agree with the author that (non-diegetic) UI elements like minimaps and quest objective markers should be off by default, I would maybe even go further and say they should be considered “player assists” in the same way as things like auto-aim, and enabling them should count as turning down the difficulty. Hopefully, that would solve the problem of the game developer using them as a crutch/substitute for immersive quest navigation instructions.
I think a (UI, not diegetic) compass that just points north (i.e. without having quest markers on it) is a special case, though, because it could be given an in-game justification and turned into a gameplay element. For example, maybe if you choose to play as a bird-person you get a compass as a racial perk to represent your ability to sense magnetic fields. Or maybe the game’s magic system has a spell to augment the character’s sense of direction temporarily, or something like that.
Okay, now I’ve watched the second video. That’s a good one, too!
My main takeaway is that I’m a big fan of “diegetic navigation” and have now learned the name for that concept, which is cool.
I also not only agree with the author that (non-diegetic) UI elements like minimaps and quest objective markers should be off by default, I would maybe even go further and say they should be considered “player assists” in the same way as things like auto-aim, and enabling them should count as turning down the difficulty. Hopefully, that would solve the problem of the game developer using them as a crutch/substitute for immersive quest navigation instructions.
I think a (UI, not diegetic) compass that just points north (i.e. without having quest markers on it) is a special case, though, because it could be given an in-game justification and turned into a gameplay element. For example, maybe if you choose to play as a bird-person you get a compass as a racial perk to represent your ability to sense magnetic fields. Or maybe the game’s magic system has a spell to augment the character’s sense of direction temporarily, or something like that.