“Tears of the Kingdom” rescues me from my obsession with checklists.

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The Compulsion to Optimize: How Games Encourage Checklists and How The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Helps Break This Habit

Many gamers have developed the habit of turning everything into a checklist, in an effort to optimize their time and experience. This is bred by games that parcel out objectives, checklists, and collectibles in a digestible structure, similar to the structure of gamified apps designed for micromanagement. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, like its predecessor Breath of the Wild, is a massive game with an incredible amount of content to explore. Despite being overwhelming, the game encourages players to break free of the urge to optimize by allowing for freeform, organic play, real exploration, and adventure.

The Urge to Optimize and the Influence of Gaming

Modern life is busy, and the urge to optimize and achieve as much as possible with the precious little free time that we have is overwhelming for many individuals. This habit has been influenced by the design of modern games that utilize a structure of objectives, checklists and collectibles, resulting in gamers treating games like a real work. As the influence of gaming seeped into gamified apps, this urge to optimize found its way into everyday life as well.

Turning Everything Into a Checklist

Despite modern games often being designed to encourage players to break free from their habit of creating checklists, there are gamers who continue to create optimized lists to complete their games. Even games that are not necessarily built for checklisting, such as Octopath Traveler 2, can fall victim to the habit of creating checklists. Many gamers feared that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would enable this habit but are delighted to find that this is not the case.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Breaking the Habit of Optimizing

A Mindful and Organic Play Experience

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a game that encourages freeform, non-objective play, and real exploration. The game is so immersive and exciting that gamers can easily become sidetracked and forget about their intended objectives. The game invites players to take a naturally inquisitive and experimental approach, and the result is a fun and genuinely enjoyable gameplay experience that has been described as “mindful”.

The Art Behind The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Nintendo designers of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom utilized a design tactic of sightlines. This tactic creates a natural, beautifully crafted world that encourages players to explore every corner. The map features clear silhouettes and colorful highlights to highlight points of interest while simultaneously creating a visually astounding environment. Each enemy encampment, minigame, or cave system has been uniquely built and fits in naturally with the landscape, further encouraging players to explore the world naturally without a list or objective guiding them.

The User Interface and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The user interface in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom provides the player with minimal guidance, leaving them to explore the game organically without being tracked or guided by an objective. This approach allows players to enjoy the game without a checklist or an obligation to achieve certain objectives, similar to how some games were played decades ago.

Conclusion

While it might seem like it is easy to optimize everything in life, including games, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offers a different kind of experience. The game allows players to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride without having to make progress or achieve any specific objectives. It is an open-world game that encourages exploration and adventure without the need to complete checklists or objectives, making it a refreshing change from the numerous games that rely on checklist-style gameplay.

FAQs

Is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a game that encourages achievement?

No, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom encourages organic play and is not designed to force players to complete objectives or achieve certain goals.

What makes The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom unique?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is unique in that it is an open-world game that encourages exploration and the natural progression of gameplay.

What design choices did The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom use to encourage organic play?

The designers utilized natural sightlines and created a colorful, well-crafted world that encourages players to explore without being tracked or guided by objectives or checklists.

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