Dear Future Gamer

I'm sick of hearing reviewers garbling on about how a game has set new benchmarks for freedom or has supposedly chucked linearity out of the window. This seems to excite everyone, but I don't believe that it's such a good thing. Do we really want to remove linearity from our games?

Single-player games with recognisable plots are often praised for their freedom - Nocturne and The Nomad Soul are two recent examples. Apparently we're meant to love being able to choose our routes, but is this really what we're striving after? I don't think so. Too much of our games-playing time is thrown away, investigating where we have to go next. We shouldn't need to be advanced orienteers to navigate our way through fantasy worlds. Games are so much more enjoyable when the way is plotted out for you. Let me give an example - say you're playing an action/adventure game. You either want to be blasting the hell out of aliens or solving brain-straining puzzles, but definitely not mucking about between. Maybe some enjoy this, but not me.

I play games and I enjoy games, but they're only games and a better game should not be a more complex game. Can you imagine classics from yesteryear, such as Space Invaders or Galaga, having proper plots? Just because nowadays games are much more advanced, you shouldn't have to think too hard. Leave that for puzzlers - thinking makes my brain hurt. Seriously, games must not degenerate into the likes of Discworld Noir, where you need your 10-page notepad to solve even a simple problem. I have no objection to complicated games - I just don't want to be faffing about checking out the correct way to go, or even resorting to a walkthrough.

Leave the emotional and involving stuff to films, at least until games are much more realistic. Stop all this rubbish about multiple routes, choices at every corner and taxing problem solving. This type of activity is dull and boring; I don't understand the clamour about it.

Ian Massie

FG: Allowing the player a wealth of freedom is usually a game designer's way of making a game more realistic. Following a plot may be good if the plot's good and total freedom may be good if there's a point to it. It's not entirely new though - you could roam to your heart's content in a lot of old Spectrum games and yes, unless there were directions and something to guide you there wasn't a lot of point in doing it. These days though, I feel game design has moved on considerably, and though some games give you a great amount of freedom, it's usually guided.