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[kpopSuperstar]

If I don't read the journals and computer entries I feel like I am skipping things, so I read it all. It fucking destroys pacing, as every other room contains some bullshit.

The writers are so eager to spam every area with notes.

It's the same in games like Cyberpunk or Deus Ex. Notes and bullshit everywhere.

Once in a while, it contains important information and hints to things, but 80% of it is just bloat and drivel.

Anyone else have this issue? how do you deal with it?

 

[MidGenRefresh]

I like the world building. It's completely optional. If you don't feel like reading, you can open and close a terminal in one second, and if there's something related to your quest, the quest log will update automatically.

 

[GymWolf]

Read at least the computers, sometimes they unlock stuff.

 

[damidu]

yeah i do have that ocd problem.
they think its "content" and "world building" while most of the time its pacing fucking, low quality padding as you said. probably even llm spouted drivel nowadays.

i usually skim through first few lines and if it doesn't catch my attention, don't even bother with the rest.

 

[pudel]

If I don't read the journals and computer entries I feel like I am skipping things, so I read it all. It fucking destroys pacing, as every other room contains some bullshit.
The writers are so eager to spam every area with notes.
It's the same in games like Cyberpunk or Deus Ex. Notes and bullshit everywhere.
Once in a while, it contains important information and hints to things, but 80% of it is just bloat and drivel.
Anyone else have this issue? how do you deal with it?

It depends...in some games this stuff is interesting and adds lots of immersion/worldbuilding. In other games its uninteresting and feels completely unnecessary. Really depends how much you are into the "universe" of the game and if its written well/done good.

 

[Mownoc]

I usually start reading the side stuff at the beginning of the playthrough, quickly get bored, and then only bother with audio logs.

 

[Punished Miku]

Pacing is what you make it. I just try and find a groove and get into the roleplaying. This is assuming I enjoy the story, lore and writing.

You can read as you go, or you can collect documents and clear a level. Go back to your base and sell stuff, shop, and read all your stuff. Or obviously you can just skip it all, which I never do.

 

[Nocty]

my gaming addiction started with the cRPG genre, so I'm no stranger to egregious lore dumpage, that is basically calling card for the genre.

I don't think it's needed but it does add a level of depth to the world if it's well done. Baldurs Gate 2, Pillars of eternity 1 are good examples. They were well written.

Bad examples would be modern FPSRPGS' like fallout 4 which were atrocious. New Vegas was not the best at this, despite having good writing overall for main quests and plot.

 

[Gonzito]

Why making a new thread to say this? Weird

 

[adamsapple]

I try to skim through but if it's a story quest terminal, then I read through it all.

 

[The Cockatrice]

So you like being uncultured? I get it when the writting is dogshit, but most of the times, as some said, it adds to the world building. Reading emails is super fun for me in games like deus ex/cp2077 for example. Wukong also had so much parables for every npc, it was great. Reading helps your brain.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Depends on the game.

If there is too much of it I automatically start parsing through them.

With some games, its pretty welldone and every bit of info feels earned. Emails and audiologs in System Shock, for example.

 

[forsakkenSoul]

Sure, there are exceptions, some games manage to add depth to the story and atmosphere without feeling exhausting, but most of them fail miserably at that. Once I realize that the notes or texts around the world don't really add anything meaningful to the story or immersion, I just start ignoring all of them.

 

[DenchDeckard]

If I don't read the journals and computer entries I feel like I am skipping things, so I read it all. It fucking destroys pacing, as every other room contains some bullshit.

The writers are so eager to spam every area with notes.

It's the same in games like Cyberpunk or Deus Ex. Notes and bullshit everywhere.

Once in a while, it contains important information and hints to things, but 80% of it is just bloat and drivel.

Anyone else have this issue? how do you deal with it?

It's world building and has been in these games for years upon years. If you don't like it. Don't read it. Did you read every book in oblivion etc?

It's fine to skip 90 percent of it if you don't enjoy it.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I thinking stopping to read a paragraph hurts games, I don't know who started this trend but it's been happening for years.

 

[Outlier]

I've been doing quick run of TOW1 and it's the same situation, but I just can't tolerate read world filler content. Too much time to spend on more enjoyable things.

 

[MDSLKTR]

I hate them. Quantum Break is the worst offender because there's actual crucial plot left in notes. The only games where it was good were the first Resident Evil trilogy, and that's because they're short and moody.

 

[KimDongHwan]

I remember that The Last of Us did this in a great way, notes were very small and to the point and you could get more of what was happening from the environment itself, writings on the walls and stuff. I agree with you, it kills the pacing when not wanting to miss those contents

 

[winjer]

It's a problem in a lot of games, because most of it is just filler.
This is one of those cases, where less is more.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Ai can replace a lot of man hours in writing a lot of the throwaway world building literature found in RPG's.

 

[ComputerBlue]

For me, I like it. Because in a game like the first Outer Worlds where I didn't love the story, or the Lore, I skipped 80% of it. Where as something like Deus Ex HR, which I adored, I read just about everything and couldn't get enough because it just added to the experience for me.

Skyrim is the best for this in my opinion, because everything can be picked up if it can be read, notes, books, add them to your inventory, put them on bookshelves and you could always check them out if you don't feel like it in the moment.

I can see why feeling the need to read it all is annoying though.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Yeah it's usually lame 90% of the time, this was what made Control boring too.

 

[The_hunter]

Pillars of eternity also was way too verbose with uninteresting text.

 

[DeVeAn]

I never read any of it. I had tried once and quickly found 90% was useless info.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Nothing wrong with that. When I stumbled into the Dark Souls series after 3 was released, it was amazing being able to piece the story together gather through items. I enjoy lore through text because it goes into more detail and depth and I can get a good picture in my head of what I'm dealing with.

I love detailed story telling in games through text as I enjoy books, I guess.

Edit: Also the Witcher 3 lore was just engrossing to help flesh out the world around you.

 

[Kacho]

Pillars of eternity also was way too verbose with uninteresting text.

 

[Kikorin]

I sadly have the same problem most of the time. Sometimes is awesome, but in most games is just time wasting. It's optional, but I still have difficult time to skip anything in games.

Somehow I've the same problem with sub quests.

 

[Edmund]

I quite like it. A game is meant to be savoured but I can understand people who don't like reading all these documents/books.

 

[DarkShadowXI]

I used to be that way. When I turned 40 and became dead inside, I stopped caring about stuff like this, along with side quests.

I just don't have the time or energy anymore. I also want to play other games, so I just move on.

It's made games a lot more enjoyable, actually lol

 

[Zathalus]

I enjoy it, as long as the world building or writing is interesting. I also enjoy voice logs in immersive sims, even though it's never explained why everybody records themselves.

 

[pudel]

Pillars of eternity also was way too verbose with uninteresting text.

Thats true...Pillars1 was too much with descriptions of stuff no one gives a shit about....but this game brought back the cRPG genre after being dead for nearly a decade. So it wont be never forgotten by me.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Pillars of eternity also was way too verbose with uninteresting text.

Normally I like taking time to read text and don't mind soaking up lore, but Pillars of eternity, holy heck, that game had Wall O Text every other step.
Why make that a game, just write a 3 book novel.

 

[calico]

I don't mind it, but (and this may not be suitable for certain types of games) it would be neat if they gave you a way of knowing at a glance if it contains gameplay relevant info or if it's purely lore.

The worst is when the whole entry is just an attempt at being funny because they almost never succeed.

Pillars of eternity also was way too verbose with uninteresting text.

Some of this was fan created content related to the kickstarter, the content of which had essentially nothing to do with anything. This was not necessarily clear to the player, and caused some to bounce off the game entirely as they tried to make sense of what was just poorly written random bullshit.

 

[Braag]

I played Cronos, Silent Hill f and Bloodlines 2 back to back and all three games featured massive amounts of notes to read. They aren't even small tidbits or flavor text about the world either. These days these random notes can feature some massive story points which might otherwise be left unanswered.
I'm honestly getting tired of all games having 200+ notes scattered around.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

I like the world building. It's completely optional. If you don't feel like reading, you can open and close a terminal in one second, and if there's something related to your quest, the quest log will update automatically.

The problem is more that my brain don't see it as optional, I feel like it is something you need to do, because of how it ties into story and world building.

System Shock 2 solved this by using audio logs, so you won't have to stop the game and switch to read mode every 5 minutes like in The Outer Worlds 2.

For me, it's the same as skipping cutscenes, I can do it, but it would ruin it for me.

 

[cireza]

All of it was generated by AI.

And humanity spent the rest of its existence reading dumb generated word salad.

 

[T-Reks]

About 10 years ago game developers realized that gamers accept voice acting dialogue and text notes as "content" and given that it's lower cost/effort than developing assets/animations etc games now would rather tell a player what is happening while they walk down hallways instead of showing them an interesting cutscene.

Now we are here where voice actors sniff each others farts and give 10 minute award speeches in gold fucking suits. gaming sucks

 

[bender]

No read, just smash.

 

[Generic]

If I don't read the journals and computer entries I feel like I am skipping things, so I read it all. It fucking destroys pacing, as every other room contains some bullshit.

The writers are so eager to spam every area with notes.

It's the same in games like Cyberpunk or Deus Ex. Notes and bullshit everywhere.

Once in a while, it contains important information and hints to things, but 80% of it is just bloat and drivel.

Anyone else have this issue? how do you deal with it?

It can be OCD, you fix it by taking a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.

 

[Plague Doctor]

It's so much worse and dumber in indie horror games. Like who the fuck is writing this much and breadcrumbing these notes given their circumstances.


It's a crutch for narrative storytelling. Good in small doses but cheap and easy to Implement over other storytelling methods so devs go nuts.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

I like notes and audiologs and shit if it's interesting and actually contributes to the story and lore. Totally depends on the game really.

You couldn't pay me to read that absolute horseshit in Doom Eternal for example but I loved Returnal's Databank.

 

[Fess]

TOW1 had some golden story bits hidden on computers. Starfield has some cool things hidden in texts as well. And Skyrim has some interesting stories and journal entries too.

But in general, if I get hit by a wall of text and nothing interest me at first sight I just skip it without thinking twice.

I definitely like texts more than audio logs, I read faster than they speak so it's mostly annoying to just hear a couple words before I click next.

Great looking and motion captured cut scenes are better, I rarely skip those. Regular Bethesda-like stiff conversations is okay if lip sync is good. Bad lip sync = skip unless the voice acting is unusually good.

 

[ahtlas7]

If reading the entries help with quests or enemies or has some helpful aspect then I will read but otherwise it's useless info that I will skip.