A bachelor thesis on navigational aids in action adventure video games (google forms survey)
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Link to the survey:
My name is Lucas and I am in my last year of studying game art and 3D animation in Frankfurt.
I am currently working on my bachelor thesis, investigating if in action adventure games navigational aids like a compass or a map are always necessary or if game designers should rely more on the design of the world and characters itself, guiding the player subconsciously. I want to find out why more and more developers tend to use quest markers, arrows or x-ray vision to guide players through their games. In my opinion action adventures have gotten a lot easier and more generic because of it.
Here is a thought provoking quote that might help you understand why I chose this topic:
"If you get lost, refer to the metaphor as you would check a map on a journey. But don't mistake the map for the journey. You don't drive with a map pasted to your windshield. You consult it before setting out or when you get disorientated. The joy of a journey is not reading or following a map, but exploring unknown places and wandering off the map now and then. It's only by getting creatively lost, beyond the boundaries of tradition, that new discoveries can be made."
- Christopher Vogler, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
Because this is a rather personal opinion I decided to make a survey on it, trying to get as many different results on it as possible.
I hope you don't mind answering these very quick and simple questions.
Thanks for helping me out. It means alot to me!
Feel free to ask me any questions or giving feedback down below.
Thanks once again,
Luc