Playing GTA4 and thinking about how much a minimap can ruin this type of game. GTA and Red Dead 2 both become whole different games when you turn it off, in a weirdly instantly-refreshing way. In RDR multiplayer, I got a friend to turn it off as we were just riding our horses around, and not even 5 seconds later he went “holy shit”.
The downside is that Rockstar’s mission design, which has changed 0% since 2001, can’t really accommodate this. You need the radar blips, because they can think of no other way to direct your attention. But GTA4 has an option to show only blips, no GPS route or street layout, and it’s amazing. The city has a ton of interesting shapes and verticality, and even if I’m trying not to look at it, the minimap stops my brain from absorbing that. On some level, I just stop thinking in 3d.
That’s what the “holy shit” reaction is, I think. With a map onscreen, your brain passes every input through it automatically. The second you disable it, it’s like a whole different brainchunk is engaged. You get a different brain-sensation. Losing the overhead layout and GPS route reframes the blips and they’re suddenly not in your way. You start to find find the places you’re looking for based on general direction and context clues, which are plentiful. You can learn the street and suburb names and know the general area an NPC is talking about from their verbal directions. Most of the missions actually remain playable this way, even though the designs are always so simplistic, and now you’re actually present in the world.
It reminds me of something I talked about in my video about Half-Life 2’s AI – where at the last minute, some illconsidered system blocks a ton of great work from falling into place. In HL2 it’s the resupply crates keeping the AI from getting to execute, in GTA it’s your eyes and mind getting constantly pulled away from the env art that’s most of the game’s appeal. Both things make the game worse, and both undeniably are why most players are able to complete it at all.
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