This post is about game dev but also gaming in general. Growing older made me go behind the scene as a gamer. I started playing less and coding more. I recently plugged in my ps4 to play some games for a bit just to change my mind and then it hit me. The reason i stopped playing games is those tasks. I feel like every game now needs to force you to complete chores every time you log in and it makes the player stray from the actual content. For exemple: I played the new Skate game and i was having a blast just skating around exploring the map then i went on reddit and i was flabbergasted by the amount of people trashing the game. Fast forward a couple weeks later and i find myself doing boring tasks every day. I get bored by the time i complete those tasks and then i magically find the game boring because i dont play. I just perform tasks and chores.

Another exemple would be a game from my favorite franchise: Fallout 76. Whenever i play this game, i find myself getting ready to play all the time and i never actually play. I just prep my character for something i dont have time to do because i need to perform tasks before time runs out.

I am working on my own little open world game and i wanted to add some daily quests to keep the player active but i now understand that this is a lazy auto destructive approach that got hijacked by AAA companies.

I dont want people to feel like they need to work on my game after their 9 to 5 lol. I want them to have a good time and not just turn it off once this and that is completed.

What approach would you use as a dev to give the player something to do everyday while staying far away from the boring daily/weekly tasks that are everywhere now?

P.s. i tagged the post “Discussion” because its a personal opinion thing and no answer is wrong or correct. I just want to know what you guys think!