re: .

quote:

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the player feels patronized or the player feels dumb for not realizing what the visual queue was telling them to begin with.

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I can appreciate being in that position and I understand that it's subjective to say what is the right balance with a visual cue, but I just prefer them to draw me the street and not the whole map. It also depends on the objective in mind. sometimes the reward is worth it, and feeling stupid is fine with me because it's always the satisfying "man, i'm such a dumbass"

for example in Metroid prime (because that's the series I've played most recently) you have to find the 12 keys hidden around the world, they give you a ballpark area to start and kind of briefly describe where in that area to find it, and because each room is so well designed you remember these areas you at least have a ballpark idea to start. so they combine telling you and showing you and the task is very manageable but not "frick this game" difficult.

I hate that it feels like it's either "nope, not giving you a damn thing" or "let me tell you precisely what you need to do"

though I agree with you, I like the former better...IF it is rewarding.