The choice is yours. In defense of side quests
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You recently might have read an article by my colleague, where he attempted to evaluate different stances on video game length. I think he made a few good points, including that we often exaggerate, considering short games (5-6 hours) as inherently inferior. Quality becomes of secondary importance, losing to simple math – dollars per hours ratio. At the same time, players tend to overlook the fact that with longer games that offer 30-40 hours of gameplay, we spend about a half of it chasing ponies and repeating the same activities.
This time, I want to talk about free will and the fact that completing side quests is ultimately our own decision.
Eight years ago we anticipated that the future of singleplayer would be shorter campaigns, allowing more players to actually complete the games through. That's what you could read on, for example, CNN Tech. It looks pretty interesting when contrasted against the complaints we have today: for example, the criticism of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which was widely considered "too short." Most players don't finish the games, but those that are short and sweet are often considered to not be worth the buck... How the hell are you supposed to find any balance here?
But let's take the devs' perspective for a moment, a perspective of people who spend entire months and years working on their games. Building really large structures from extremely tiny bricks. With their help, they create complicated mechanics and diverse virtual worlds, full of more or less realistic creatures and events. It's easy to understand that they care both about high quality and the best possible opinions of players. At the same time, we can often read opinions like this quoted below, regarding Firewatch:
8/10 Great game. Very engaging. Too bad it's so short. :/
animatiV
Even if the game is excellent, like, say, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, it may turn out that it's only worth buying once the price reflects length.
TL;DR: The game is pleasant, but too expensive – 20 bucks for three hours is pretty bad ratio. Buy it at half the price.
ZygfrydQ, Steam
No wonder devs are bending over backwards to keep the players inside the world they created for longer. And that's exactly what side quests, collectibles, challenges are for – filling the game world up.
All these elements have one thing in common – they're not obligatory. If the player only wants to learn the story, the creators usually allow them to. But if eventually you feel the urge to explore, or just feel curious about the world, you will get plenty of options to fulfill these needs. The key element of this puzzle is often overlooked in ratings and reviews – it's the choice. Contrary to books and movies, the side plot in video games is opt-out.
AND YET
Of course, there are games, in which not performing side quests is tantamount to not being able to develop the character, and thus more difficulties in progressing in the main story. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the perfect illustration of this.
