My Favorite Game Mechanic (that nobody likes)

0:00 In the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077,

0:02 things go really badly for the main character V.

0:06 After a heist gone wrong,

0:08 V implants a biochip in their head that not long after malfunctions,

0:12 and starts eroding their neural network and replacing

0:16 it with the data on the chip.

0:20 The main quest is all about their desperate search for some sort of cure,

0:25 forcing them to take on countless jobs,

0:27 no matter how risky or seemingly hopeless.

0:30 Signs of V’s neural degradation regularly pop up throughout,

0:33 and not just in the main story,

0:35 but also in tons of side missions, both big and small.

0:38 At times it occurs in places you’d never really expect it to, blurring

0:42 the line between main content and side content in an effective way,

0:46 and, most importantly,

0:47 further selling the idea that V is dying—that time is running out.

0:53 Of course, it’s not.

0:54 For most players, the amount of in-game days that will pass from just

0:59 doing the main story will exceed V’s original prognosis by a fair bit.

1:03 The data that is overwriting V’s brain is an engram of Night City Legend,

1:09 Johnny Silverhand, and when the chip is first implanted,

1:11 Johnny is openly hostile towards V,

1:13 so it could be argued that as the initial estimate came

1:16 during a time where Johnny was actively trying to accelerate the process,

1:19 it isn’t representative of how long V actually has to live.

1:22 And as the two start working together not long after,

1:25 that extends how long V has.

1:27 While this may be good and true,

1:29 it ultimately ends up being a weak justification as V

1:32 has an infinite amount of time to live in Night City.

1:35 All they need to do is to ignore the problem.

1:38 And unlike all the times I’ve tried to do this in real life,

1:42 there is no consequence.

1:43 Their spleen won’t rupture.

1:44 My spleen has never ruptured, but it could!

1:47 V can live forever.

1:48 While the weight of being in the process of dying may be felt in the story,

1:53 it isn’t felt within the gameplay itself—while I

1:55 do appreciate their attempts of having V’s terminality be

1:57 addressed in some ways as to not let

2:00 the player entirely forget what is going on with them,

2:02 it doesn’t solve the disconnect that occurs when engaging

2:05 with any activity that isn’t actively helping V find a cure.

2:09 Aside from an early mainline quest

2:10 that requires earning a certain amount of money,

2:13 there isn’t really a good narrative reason for V to engage in boxing matches,

2:16 races, and all of the other types of gigs out there.

2:20 Screw it, I’m saying: it creates ludonarrative dissonance.

2:23 Please don’t leave.

2:24 What is kind of a shame is that there is a really

2:26 good and fairly easy solution for this that CD Projekt Red

2:29 could have implemented and it would have led to the gameplay

2:31 and story actually complimenting each other

2:34 instead of conflicting with each other, and that’s a time limit.

2:37 I know that might seem counterproductive

2:39 for an open-world game where you’re meant to get lost within a massive city

2:43 and follow whatever thread interests you the most,

2:45 but I think it would have added much needed stakes to everything you do.

2:48 Also there are ways to integrate a time limit

2:51 that actually incentivize exploration and engaging with side activities.

2:55 Take UNSIGHTED.

2:55 Every character in the game, not just the protagonist,

2:58 has a set amount of in-game hours

3:00 before they become mindless husks of themselves;

3:03 however, there is a resource called Meteor Dust

3:05 that can extend the life of any character.

3:07 This not only allows you to save other people,

3:09 but it also helps keep your character from expiring.

3:12 While there certainly is still a push to be efficient in various ways,

3:16 exploring the world and engaging in side activities is

3:19 the best way to get more time to complete the game.

3:22 2077 could have had something similar—maybe a resource that you get from doing

3:27 side missions or an item you can buy if you have enough eddies.

3:30 It even could have been partly tied to Johnny’s disposition toward V,

3:33 so taking on missions he wants V to do or even just

3:36 doing missions in ways he might align with could buy even more time.

3:41 This could create some interesting conflict as Johnny’s way

3:44 of doing things sometimes can be really not good,

3:46 so players would be tempted to make choices they

3:49 normally wouldn’t make in order to help V live longer.

3:53 Regardless of the specifics,

3:54 the primary way to get it would be by doing things other than the main quest.

3:58 Not only would the mechanical pressure of the time limit align with the story,

4:01 but it’d also make it so every activity is in some

4:04 way contributing toward the primary goal of keeping V alive.

4:08 This would make it so doing some amount of side content would be mandatory,

4:11 but it’d be on the player to decide what those things are.

4:14 This would push players to engage with the game as an open-world

4:18 and not just as a linear story in a big space.

4:21 The main missions would still be more important than the side ones

4:24 as it is focused on finding a permanent fix instead of a temporary one,

4:27 but this would create a more compelling and realistic reason

4:30 for V to do random jobs despite only having weeks to live.

4:34 Like, the setting props V up as someone who needs to take

4:37 on as many gigs as possible to get by, but it

4:40 isn’t all that hard to beat the game by just doing things

4:43 on the main path—between quest rewards and drops from enemies you kill,

4:46 you can get more than enough money to keep V properly stocked and upgraded.

4:50 If the reward for side jobs had a mechanical effect that literally kept V alive,

4:55 the pull to do them would be so much stronger and fitting for the game’s themes.

4:59 When used in the right way, time limits can apply pressure,

5:04 getting players to actually feel the themes a game is trying

5:06 to explore and push them to engage with the full scope of abilities,

5:10 items, and mechanics at their disposal in order to be efficient.

5:13 It is a very powerful tool that can

5:16 incentivize player behavior in all sorts of interesting ways,

5:19 and I often find myself wishing more games turned to it.

5:23 Like Baldur’s Gate 3, which similarly to Cyberpunk kicks off with a biotadpole

5:28 being implanted in the main character's head,

5:30 with the threat that it will turn them

5:31 into a mindflayer after a certain amount of time has passed.

5:35 Pretty early on, there is an in-game reason provided as to why you

5:38 can spend as much time doing whatever you want without turning into an Illithid,

5:42 but it felt like a huge missed opportunity to not have some larger timer.

5:46 There is a whole short and long rest

5:49 system that largely doesn’t matter—there are a few

5:51 quests where if you take a long rest during them there may be some consequences,

5:55 but for the most part the system isn’t really utilized.

5:59 An actual ticking clock wouldn’t make sense here,

6:02 but some sort of day limit would have

6:04 made the rest system so much more engaging,

6:05 and they also could have done the Unsighted

6:07 thing of adding some resource that gives more time.

6:10 Maybe, it could be tied to the various tadpoles you find;

6:13 there could be two ways to consume them:

6:15 one that extends your timer and one that lets you access the powers,

6:18 so it’d be on you to decide what would be more

6:21 valuable—to have more days or have more abilities to be more efficient.

6:25 This would create all sorts of interesting choices that entice

6:28 you to make decisions you might not normally make.

6:30 I also felt it with Dredge.

6:33 While the day/night cycle does provide

6:35 some pressure to get stuff done efficiently,

6:37 the lack of any sort of overarching limits makes it a bit superfluous.

6:41 Sure, it creates a reason to go back to town and sell your stuff,

6:44 but the inventory limit already will get players

6:46 to do that, making the time mechanic a bit redundant.

6:49 Due to the player having as many days to beat the game as they want,

6:52 aside from a few times where it is mandatory,

6:53 there is never much of a reason to push

6:54 your luck and go out on the water at night.

6:57 Having a limit on the amount of days

6:59 that could pass in order to achieve a certain ending,

7:01 could have given a really compelling reason

7:03 to risk going out and facing the eldritch horrors.

7:06 In general, a timer would have made all of them way more scary,

7:10 because as the game currently stands,

7:12 encounters with them are pretty underwhelming.

7:14 It’s really only fun when you get away.

7:16 If the player does get caught by one,

7:19 it’ll either end with their ship being sunk,

7:21 forcing them to reload from the last checkpoint,

7:23 or do damage to the ship that then needs to be repaired.

7:26 The thing about taking damage and surviving though is that in most cases,

7:29 you’re better off just scuttling the ship

7:30 as then you don’t have to pay for repairs

7:33 or take the slow and tedious trip back to a port after losing your motor.

7:38 What should be the game’s most tense moments,

7:41 are undercut by having no real consequence

7:43 except for having to replay a couple minutes.

7:45 If there was a day limit,

7:47 instead of getting a game over when getting shipwrecked,

7:49 it could have cost you a few days and a decent bit of money to get a new ship,

7:53 turning those boring and tedious trips back to a port after taking damage

7:57 into ones of utmost importance and intensity

7:59 because not getting back safely would be costly.

8:02 All of this would make the themes of Eldritch Horror

8:05 in Dredge be felt instead of just being a flavor.

8:08 Ghost of Tsushima seemed like it would have benefitted from a timer as well.

8:12 After Act 1, a prompt pops up that says the Mongols are

8:15 taking back locations on the island and that Jin must liberate them,

8:18 and for a moment, I felt really excited about

8:21 the prospect of having to strategically push back the enemy invasion,

8:24 but that’s not what it is at all.

8:27 You don’t need to save these farmsteads—in fact doing so really doesn’t do

8:31 anything aside from getting you a bit of experience and a few supplies.

8:35 Implementing some sort of time mechanic could have gone

8:38 a long way in making this feel like it actually matters..

8:41 For instance, Mongol forces could keep overtaking the countryside if

8:44 you don’t liberate locations within a certain amount of time.

8:47 Not only would this have gotten me to explore more as I’d have actually

8:50 gone to the locations they took over in order to fight off the threat,

8:54 but it’d also make the invasion feel like an actual invasion.

8:57 An ever present threat that needs to be

9:00 addressed by any means necessary—calling more and more

9:02 for Jin to take the path of the Ghost instead of the one of the Samurai.

9:08 That pressure would not just be felt

9:10 within the narrative but also through the gameplay.

9:12 And failing to take things back in time wouldn’t need to end in a failstate,

9:16 it could just create consequences for future main missions that modify

9:19 their difficulty or block them off until the spreading threat has been reduced.

9:24 Now, a pretty fair response to all of these suggestions is if a time

9:28 limit would have fixed pacing and gameplay

9:30 and narrative issues within all of these games,

9:33 then why didn’t the developers add one?

9:35 And that’s because all of you hate time limits.

9:38 And like maybe not you, and maybe not all kinds of time limits,

9:42 but honestly probably you and probably all kinds of time limits.

9:46 I am positive a bunch of you paused the video

9:49 at least once already to leave a comment giving your take

9:52 on why a timer in Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur’s Gate 3

9:55 or Dredge or Ghost of Tsushima would have been a terrible idea.

9:59 It is one of the most hated mechanics in gaming.

10:02 The only thing I see listed

10:04 as a dealbreaker more often are predatory microtransactions.

10:07 And like, for old heads I guess, that comparison seems fair.

10:08 Time limits kind of were the original microtransaction—a way to make

10:09 sure arcades kept getting quarters out of you regardless of your skill,

10:09 so for those who spent way too much money on certain cabinets,

10:09 it’s not that unusual to still have a distaste for them,

10:09 but I think this accounts for a tiny portion of the people who despise them.

10:09 By and large they are not popular,

10:11 because people don’t like the idea of missing out

10:13 or failing at something due to not being quick

10:16 enough—they already deal with a life full of deadlines

10:18 and aging and only having an hour a day,

10:21 if they are lucky, to actually play something,

10:23 so also having to deal with a time limit within the thing they are

10:27 using to escape from the constant pressures of time for just a little bit,

10:30 feels bad, and this sentiment is reflected in how often they are used

10:34 in games and also the ways in which they are used in games.

10:37 Within singleplayer titles,

10:38 they lean on the side of being as unobtrusive as possible,

10:41 typically in the form of short timers where you need to kill a certain

10:45 number of enemies or get to a specific location in a set amount of time,

10:48 and while there are certainly instances of them being used in mandatory content,

10:52 these often end up being optional.

10:54 Either way, failing to complete whatever the task is just means trying it again,

10:59 and as these limits are so bite-sized, that never feels like a huge ask.

11:03 More often than not they are tolerated.

11:06 Another fairly common implementation is through the use

11:08 of some sort of day/night system which

11:10 sometimes is tied to the schedules of NPCs

11:13 or enemies becoming more present and dangerous,

11:15 but for the most part it doesn’t really matter what time of day it is

11:19 and there are an unlimited amount of days—if

11:21 you do miss something that is time dependent,

11:24 most likely you can use a wait feature that will

11:26 get you right back to the time you need.

11:28 There are more limiting variations

11:30 of this like the aforementioned Dredge or maybe

11:33 most popularly Stardew Valley where there is a definitive end to each day,

11:37 directing the players focus towards getting as much

11:39 done as possible within that time frame.

11:41 In Stardew there are also a set amount of days in each month

11:44 which impacts the types of crops you can grow and activities you can do,

11:48 so there is some pressure there as well

11:50 in planning things out to best utilize each season,

11:52 but even within that it is still pretty low stakes

11:55 as there aren’t massive consequences for not getting things done.

11:58 You can’t die of dehydration or default

12:00 on a bank loan causing you to lose the farm.

12:03 Both of these examples fall into what I’d call cycle timers where

12:06 the time limit acts as a way to establish a clear gameplay loop.

12:10 While titles centered around timers like this are less common,

12:15 they are by no means rare.

12:16 In fact, there has been a bit

12:16 of a recent surge of them within the roguelite space.

12:18 Ravenswatch, Hell Clock, and depending on how far you wanna stretch the genre,

12:22 Elden Ring: Nightreign all have timers like

12:24 this, and it feels like a natural fit.

12:27 Roguelites are all about doing countless runs

12:29 and as failure is kind of the point,

12:31 the threat of a ticking clock is easier for many to handle.

12:34 There certainly is still pushback from those averse to timers,

12:37 but less than you’d find from games in other genres that do a similar thing.

12:42 For instance, stuff like Monster Hunter Series,

12:45 Majora’s Mask, Rain World, The Sexy Brutale,

12:47 that one game I talk about too much—all of them

12:51 use cycle timers to incentivize players in various ways,

12:54 whether it be to push them towards less-conservative playstyles,

12:58 keep them up-to-date with upgrades,

13:00 create a clock-work world to base puzzles around,

13:02 or add in a bit of pressure to raise the stakes.

13:06 These cycles typically aren’t all that long,

13:07 so while the pressure of a ticking clock

13:09 is an ever present part of the gameplay,

13:12 it is contained in a way where failure generally won’t waste much time.

13:16 Not to mention, with the way these games tend to be designed,

13:18 it is unlikely to walk away from a cycle without learning anything.

13:21 And when one ends, the mere act of the timer

13:25 being reset leads to a bit of relief, which always feels nice.

13:28 With that said, even with games that I'd say are

13:31 on the lighter side of things in terms of limitations,

13:33 this kind of time limit does still overwhelm a lot of players.

13:37 Even though it is core to how the gameplay loop works,

13:40 the thought of missing out on something or not being able

13:43 to take one’s time to just goof around acts as a significant barrier.

13:46 Where the tension of needing to always be moving

13:49 is easier to digest in something like a roguelite,

13:51 it is just harder to accept when it is

13:54 in a genre that usually allows players to take their time.

13:56 Now what is becoming more and more rare are titles with game-wide timers.

14:01 Ones that hang over the experience on a macro level,

14:04 requiring some amount of management and consideration

14:06 of it with every choice the player makes.

14:11 These largely can be split into two categories,

14:16 action-based timers and real-time timers,

14:18 the first being the more common of the two.

14:22 What is probably the most popular set

14:24 of fairly recent games with a time mechanic

14:26 like this is the Persona series as well as many other RPGs developed by Atlus,

14:31 Metaphor: Refantazio being the latest.

14:33 It uses a calendar system where each day is segmented into different parts

14:36 and you’re given the choice of how you want to spend that time.

14:39 Generally you’ll have a certain amount of days to complete

14:42 a dungeon and a longer amount of time to complete the game.

14:45 Like other timers, this creates a bit of tension,

14:47 pushing players to decide what they value the most and approach

14:51 things strategically in order to work through the game efficiently.

14:54 However, as it isn’t in real-time,

14:56 there is no pressure in how long it takes to make the decisions.

15:00 There is time to stand around to appreciate

15:02 the space you’re in, to experiment with different abilities,

15:06 to properly consider any choice.

15:07 It ends up seeming more like managing a resource than fighting against time,

15:12 so while it does have a similar effect

15:14 in getting players to make impactful decisions regularly,

15:16 it doesn’t feel nearly as punishing as games with real-time timers.

15:20 Even though systems like this aren’t as a hated,

15:24 there are always regular calls by fans of Atlus games to get rid of them,

15:27 and in some ways it seems like Atlus has

15:30 taken these calls into consideration as with something like Metaphor,

15:33 the time limits are so lenient that they might as well not even be there.

15:36 In some ways it feels more like they wanted to stick

15:38 with the formula than use the mechanic in an interesting way.

15:41 Now, despite it being the more popular of the two kinds of game wide timers.

15:46 there certainly has not been a mass adoption of it,

15:50 and they generally only show up in turn-based RPGs and strategy games— honestly,

15:56 outside of XCOM 2 and Fire Emblem: Three Houses,

15:59 there aren’t tons of examples, at least in the AAA space.

16:02 When it comes to time limits set in real-time though,

16:06 offerings are even slimmer.

16:07 For instance, when I was researching recent examples

16:10 of major titles that use strict real-time game-wide time limits,

16:14 one of the most notable ones was Final Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns,

16:18 which is the third entry of the Final Fantasy 13 series.

16:21 Not only is it over a decade old,

16:24 but also it is tied to one of the least popular mainline Final Fantasy entries.

16:28 The point is, it's not exactly a heavy hitter.

16:31 It’s an experimental title outside of the mainstream.

16:34 To find more examples in the AAA space,

16:37 you really have to go even further back and look

16:39 to stuff like Pikmin and Dead Rising 1 and 2, all of which are 20+ years old..

16:44 Within the AAA space, game-wide time limits,

16:47 especially ones that involve realtime,

16:49 are avoided like the plague in single player games;

16:51 the franchises that were famous for using them like Pikmin and Dead

16:54 Rising have pretty much completely phased them out of more recent entries.

16:58 Now, obviously, the gaming landscape is much wider than the AAA space.

17:01 As indies can find success by appealing to niche audiences,

17:04 many are willing to take certain risks like using a real-time time limit.

17:07 I am sure there are some that I have never heard

17:10 of that hopefully I will hear of because of this video,

17:13 but when it comes to ones that are more in the public consciousness,

17:16 there also aren’t that many, and the ones that are tend to be pretty brutal.

17:20 Maybe most notably the Pathologic games,

17:22 and depending on what you count as a real-time timer, the Fear and Hunger games,

17:27 which essentially have one in the form

17:28 of the hunger status that is constantly ticking away.

17:31 I really can’t think of many indie games with time limits

17:35 that aren’t super unforgiving aside from a Highland Song and Unsighted,

17:38 which frankly that one still isn’t exactly a walk in the park.

17:42 The point is, even in a sea of indie games,

17:45 options for the average player are pretty sparse.

17:48 I know I’ve listed a bunch of games that center around time limits,

17:52 so it might be easy to assume that there are

17:54 a lot more of them out there, and of course,

17:57 this video is not exhaustive but honestly,

17:59 the games I’ve talked about here make up

18:01 a pretty significant portion of titles that use them,

18:03 or at least titles that have garnered enough attention to be somewhat known.

18:07 Ultimately, these kinds of game-wide time limits are a wildly

18:11 underrepresented mechanic in comparison

18:13 to the amount of discourse they generate.

18:15 The threat of their inclusion weighs heavy on players whenever something

18:18 new is announced that has theming related to time in the slightest,

18:22 despite the fact that virtually none of them ever include it.

18:25 While they haven’t been completely done

18:26 away with, they are uncommon enough where

18:28 I’d imagine that most people haven’t played a game with one anytime recently.

18:33 And you know what, maybe that’s the way it should be.

18:36 Maybe timers should only show up as small

18:38 little segments or in the form of short loops to help players not feel too

18:42 threatened or in titles made for niche audiences.

18:45 Maybe it being largely phased out and implemented only

18:49 in very specific genres was the appropriate response to player pushback.

18:54 Maybe all of you are right to hate them.

18:58 What’s hard is despite knowing how much people dislike them and being able

19:02 to clearly see the gaming landscape reflect

19:04 that, I still think on paper at least,

19:08 time limits, especially game-wide ones, do solve a lot of game design problems.

19:12 They create a wrinkle that raises the stakes,

19:15 incentivizes engaging with a character's full scope of abilities,

19:18 and provides countless impactful decisions for players to consider.

19:22 They make games more mechanically interesting.

19:25 But it doesn’t really matter how mechanically interesting a game

19:29 is if most people don’t want to play it.

19:32 A part of me wonders if people just

19:34 think they don’t like timers and that the limited

19:37 way it is utilized across the gaming landscape

19:40 has only reinforced people’s preconceived notions about them.

19:42 Like, while I love me a quick escape section,

19:45 as it raises the tension and can act

19:47 as a new sort of challenge to spice things up,

19:49 it can be pretty jarring when the rest of the game doesn’t call

19:52 for that skill set in the slightest

19:54 or even pretty much always incentivizes the opposite approach.

19:56 For a lot of players, moments like this become a roadblock that feels

20:00 separate from the rest of the game, and they see it as a thing they just need

20:03 to get through to get back to enjoying what they actually like.

20:06 The takeaway they have is that timers are bad when the main issue was

20:10 that it didn’t match their expectations

20:12 for the kind of challenge a game would present.

20:14 A similar thing could be said when a strict day night

20:17 cycle is used in a game that signals as being cozy,

20:20 making it so any sort of time pressure clashes with the expected experience.

20:24 Also, the fact that the mechanic has largely

20:27 been cordoned off to games for sickos, like me,

20:30 it makes it so even if someone who isn’t a fan

20:33 of time mechanics is willing to give one a shot,

20:35 their options will be some of the least forgiving games out there.

20:38 The time limit in something like Pathologic 2 is certainly a stressor,

20:42 but there are a dozen other aspects about

20:44 the game that also make it tense and unsettling—honestly,

20:46 getting rid of the time limit really wouldn’t make it that much

20:49 more approachable for people who fall outside of its target demographic.

20:52 As people’s exposure to the mechanic is often

20:54 tied to some of the most extreme uses of it or in a game that they played

20:58 in the hope of getting away from real responsibility,

21:00 or as a short inclusion in a title that otherwise isn’t about time pressure,

21:05 it’s no wonder people struggle to connect to it.

21:13 And I don’t know, I get that everyone

21:15 has different tastes and interests—that we all live

21:17 different lives and that shapes what we find

21:19 to be fulfilling ways to spend our free time,

21:22 but also I think there are a lot of people, maybe even you,

21:26 who could like game-wide time limits,

21:28 who could benefit from the pressure they create.

21:31 However, even if I could convince you to overcome your aversion to time limits,

21:32 there aren’t a ton of games to recommend.

21:33 However, the wider industry doesn't have much of a reason

21:34 to pursue titles for that potential audience as it is so unproven.

21:38 More casual games aimed at wider audiences are just less

21:42 likely to take the risk of alienating players in that way

21:45 even though it could be the type of experience

21:47 that gets them to change their mind on the mechanic.

21:49 Of course, I am almost certainly being overly idealistic.

21:53 As if more people would like game-wide time

21:55 limits if only there were more of them,

21:57 if only there was one in your favorite genre to play.

22:00 The reality is, that’s just not the case.

22:02 I can hold out hope that it is just a misunderstood mechanic,

22:06 but there are plenty of valid reasons to have issues with them.

22:10 It’s not just that they are stressful.

22:12 They have other downsides.

22:13 Like, if everything is not perfectly balanced and there

22:16 is one playstyle that is more effective than the others,

22:19 players will always default to that for the sake

22:21 of being able to get through the game quicker,

22:23 regardless of whether or not it is actually more fun.

22:26 Timers also disincentivize engaging with stuff that may not have any practical

22:30 benefit but does help establish the tone and detail of a world.

22:34 Sure, the conversations NPCs have with each other in Cyberpunk

22:37 2077 is not a core part of the game,

22:40 but it does provide texture to the world that no

22:42 doubt plays a role in Cyberpunk’s world feeling alive and special,

22:45 and it would be much harder to appreciate

22:47 that texture if you were always running right by it.

22:50 Also, while I do think timers being stressful is the point and a good thing,

22:56 I don’t think most people who do feel stressed by them will be compelled

23:00 by that because stress is hard feeling to hold on to for that long.

23:04 Even if we had more modern games that were

23:06 balanced similarly to Pikmin or Dead Rising where the use

23:09 of a timer is not there to create a brutal

23:12 experience but instead instead to give structure and stakes,

23:14 most people still wouldn’t want to have to hold on to that stress

23:18 for the duration of a playthrough

23:20 regardless of the mechanical motivation it provides.

23:22 And part of that is not every player

23:25 needs mechanical motivation in the way I do,

23:27 they don’t need the pressure of time to engage with other mechanics,

23:30 they don’t need to feel the themes of a game and instead

23:34 are able to connect to them just as much by simply witnessing them.

23:37 They don’t have the same problems with games that I do.

23:40 Even with those who do, if the stress is felt too heavily,

23:44 which it often seems to be,

23:45 that might only serve to make it harder to connect to it.

23:51 It is a solution that by and large, people don’t want,

23:55 and I suspect they never will,

23:57 no matter how many stellar games come out that incorporate them.

24:02 And I get it—there are already too many games to play and making time for one

24:07 that has a mechanic that is intentionally designed

24:09 to make you stressed is a hard sell.

24:12 It doesn’t matter if it's interesting if it makes whatever gaming

24:16 time you are able to carve out for yourself feel less enjoyable.

24:19 Unfortunately the types of games that are more fun to talk about

24:22 in video essays are not always more fun for the average person to play.

24:27 Ghost of Tsushima, Dredge, Baldur’s Gate 3,

24:30 and post-Phantom Liberty Cyberpunk 2077 are

24:33 all wildly beloved and well reviewed games.

24:36 That doesn’t mean they’re perfect or couldn’t

24:38 have been better with different systems,

24:40 but it isn’t as if the problems with them that I

24:42 think could have been fixed with a game-wide time limit are massive,

24:47 glaring flaws that ruin the experience.

24:50 A game-wide timer may have brought the gameplay and narratives of these games

24:55 closer together and incentivized diving into these worlds with more purpose,

24:59 but they probably would have been played by far fewer people.

25:03 I am glad some developers still find the mechanic to be worthy of exploring.

25:07 There is a lot that can be done with it,

25:09 and I really don’t think games have even come close to scratching the surface.

25:13 Maybe my idealistic side is right and if enough great games come

25:17 out that prove how effective time

25:18 limits can be at crafting incredible experiences,

25:21 people will come around on them.

25:23 I know they won’t but one should be allowed a few futile hopes.

25:28 Time is weird, and being reminded that we only have so much of it,

25:33 especially when trying to kick back and relax,

25:35 when trying to get lost in the vibes of a moment,

25:38 when trying to be okay with staying still for a bit, will never appeal to most.

25:43 When I started making this video,

25:45 I hoped to prove that the reason people don’t like time limits is

25:49 because they haven’t given them a proper chanceI do think there is truth there,

25:53 but given the current offerings,

25:55 I don't know if giving them a chance would even matter.

25:58 Furthermore, it is hard to envision a world in which there

26:01 is a big shift in opinion on them as it would

26:04 require a lot of studios to take a massive risk

26:06 and a lot of players to step outside of their comfort zone.

26:10 All I can do is hold onto the belief that time limits are good actually,

26:14 and be okay with the idea that there isn’t enough

26:18 time in the world for me to convince you of that.

26:23 Whether it be in regards to games

26:25 with time limits or just weird games in general,

26:27 it is reassuring to know that there are creatives out there who

26:30 just want to see their vision for what a game can be,

26:33 come to life, regardless of how weird it is.

26:36 Developers who aren’t afraid to take big risks

26:39 even in an industry that often disincentivizes it.

26:41 A handful of studios like this have been

26:44 the subject of books created by Lost in Cult,

26:46 this video’s sponsor, that dive into the making of their respective games,

26:50 and their latest book was made in collaboration

26:54 with one of the boldest studios working

26:57 right now Remedy Entertainment to give a deep-dive

27:00 look into the legendary series, Alan Wake.

27:03 Covering both main titles as well as its spin-off,

27:06 American Nightmares, it includes new insights, development stories,

27:09 stunning concept art, and interviews with the team,

27:12 including the creator of the series Sam Lake.

27:15 And as always,along with the Design Works book,

27:18 there is also a special Deluxe Edition available exclusively during

27:22 the pre-order campaign which is running from now to October 17th.

27:26 Along with the book itself being in a dust

27:29 jacket based on the in-game Return manuscript,

27:31 there is also a crime folder holding a Coffee World poster,

27:35 an Oh Deer diner napkin, crime scene Polaroids,

27:38 a full Bright Falls fold-out map, and a bunch of other rad goodies.

27:43 So, if any of that sounds interesting, hurry up and get your pre-order in now

27:46 as it no longer will be available after October 17th.

27:49 Regardless of if you want the Standard or Deluxe edition,

27:53 you can get 5% off by using code RAZBUTENALANWAKE

27:57 at lostincult.co.uk or click the link in the description.

28:01 Lost in Cult makes rad and beautiful books that celebrate all things games,

28:05 and this is a great way to celebrate the Alan Wake series.

28:09 Thanks to Lost in Cult for sponsoring this video.

28:12 For all of you still here.

28:13 I appreciate you.

28:14 Big shout out to my patrons who help make all of this possible.

28:18 I hope you have a great day and/or night, and I will see you in the next one.