I have always liked open world games as a concept, but I have a very bad sense of direction. So whenever I play open world games I keep getting lost and frustrated. Eventually getting bored and dropping the game. I am curious how other people with bad sense of direction cope with this problem.
Open world games usually give me a killer map that shows my exact location and heading. I can navigate the real world, too, when handed Google Maps. But I remember playing Minecraft back before the maps update and it was mostly just an exercise in nomadic survival. I’d leave my home for a 20 minute mining run and then never ever find the mfer ever again. Eventually I started a habit of creating a huge pillar of cobble near my home that stretched up to the map height limit and dumping lava buckets around it to make a literal glowing waypoint that I could follow back home.
Maps. Compasses, mini-maps, world maps, map pins, GPS systems.
I have a poor sense of direction in real life, but games are workable with the same crutches that make real life workable, for the most part.
I used to make maps by hand. Over time I got better and better at holding on to where I was. I’ve read studies that playing 3d games increases spacial awareness, so it might get better over time.
Other options I do when I’m too meh to bother is mods to add maps and quest tracking if the game doesn’t already have it
Yes as long as the game has a good map system. I hate it when some games don’t have an option to rotate the map to where you are currently facing.
This would be the worst tool for someone with poor sense of direction. The best would be a map fixed north to the top, so you don’t have to keep track of your direction at all. Spinning maps make even us peeps with a decent sense of direction a bad time
I can navigate game worlds more effectively than I can the real world. I can struggle to visualise a local route but could probably walk you through several zones of a Souls game.
I’m the same way! My partner was surprised when we played a game together and I always knew where to go and they kept getting lost.
I think it’s because video games do a lot more useful sign posting than real life. Plus a mini map (in some games).
