10 things that kick in our gamer instinct.
Starting off at number 10, it's red things.
Why? Well, they probably explode.
There are few things
more elemental than this in video games.
If there is something that is red,
if you shoot it, it explodes.
Usually, it'll blow up all the bad guys standing nearby
especially if they're far from you and normally hard to hit
or like if you're in the middle of a turret section.
To anyone with a gamer brain,
they just know that if something's colored red
and especially if it's barrel shaped, then it will explode.
It obviously doesn't even have to be a barrel.
Sometimes can be a pipe or a sphere or something else,
but the keyword here is red.
I mean, obviously there are exceptions
like the classic "DOOM" explosive barrel is gray.
But here's the thing, it's not gonna be red and not explode.
If that happens, that is a deep visceral disappointment.
This is such a common thing
that games that try to do something different
actually run into problems.
Like a developer diary from the "Bulletstorm" devs revealed
the play testers were confused when they ran into explosives
that were not bright red
and they didn't even attempt to shoot them.
The instinct to shoot things that are red
is so strong that the existence of non red explosive things
melts most gamers' brains.
At number nine is breakable junk.
Another classic.
If there's junk around, you can smash it.
And if you do smash it,
there's probably some kind of reward inside.
This kind of thing goes all the way back
to "Legend of Zelda"
where tall grass was there specifically for cutting
and would often drop some Rupees.
Breakable junk's basically a staple of video games.
You've got the boxes in "Half-Life"
that stored health and ammo,
you've got all the various pots and pans and piles of junk
in any given "Souls" game that you can break for rewards,
hell, even in "Batman: Arkham Asylum",
you get rewards for smashing stuff like Joker teeth.
Developers know how satisfying smashing stuff in games is
so they encourage that kind of behavior
by giving you some kind of reward.
Usually, it's nothing major, but who cares?
It's fun as long as you get something, it's worth doing.
Whether you're slashing through grass
or fat rolling through piles of debris,
there's stuff laying around,
which most gamers instinctively know
they've gotta break for rewards.
At number eight,
when the game tells you to go left, you go right.
Here's one that comes with just a little more experience.
Anytime a game tells you to go a certain direction
or gives you the golden path you're supposed to go on,
but there are alternative routes to take,
your brain is just gonna go down the optional path.
Now, sometimes it's a dead end, there's nothing there,
but in most cases, there's some kind of treasure or reward
just waiting for the explorers out there.
It's not really a whole lot of exploration,
it's usually just a path
directly to a treasure chest or something.
But yeah, when a game tells you to go left, you go right.
When you decide to go low,
Michelle Obama goes high, I guess.
it's not just for finding rewards,
it's also key to discovering shortcuts
that make exploring whatever location you're in a lot easier
and that's especially the case in "Soul" style games
or the older among us will recognize
that Metrovanias are just full of this.
There's a good reason so many people have this instinct.
Fully exploring an area can make it significantly easier,
and depending on the game you're playing,
you may not be able to backtrack
if you get far enough down the golden path,
which bars your progress.
"Dead Space" really comes to mind here,
really taking your time
and looking down every single nook and cranny
means you're going to end up with more ammo
in a game where there's not a huge amount of ammo,
unless you only use the bolt cutter,
and then that's not a problem.
I think the fear of missing out
is a big part of this one though,
and it's why it's become such an instinct to many of us.
We've been burned so many times in the past.
So even in games where there's no danger
of getting locked out of backtracking,
we still try to find every optional path there is
before moving on.
Backtracking also feels kind of bad sometimes.
So that's what makes it an instinct.
It's not rational, it's just something we do.
At number seven is part of the enemy glowing.
Well, if it is, that's where to shoot.
Games have come a very long way since the 8-bit days,
comparing NES games to an Xbox Series X one,
it's really not even fair.
It's like a black belt karate master
taking on a four year old.
But one of the most common elements of a boss fight
is the weak point.
The spot on the boss, where if you shoot it,
you'll be able to do the most damage
or perhaps even some bonus damage.
Sometimes, it's actually the only way to hurt them.
For people inexperienced with gaming,
when a giant boss shows up,
what you're actually supposed to do
might not be immediately obvious.
That's part of the reason why the glowing thing happens,
at least it attracts the eye towards that,
but an experienced gamer already knows.
That big glowing part, yeah, shoot that.
There's a ton of variation on how this works exactly.
But in practice, it's pretty much always the same.
The boss has some sort of thing on them
that's obviously weak,
so you would tag or shoot it.
Sometimes it's their eye,
sometimes it's an exhaust port or a cockpit,
sometimes it's just a random glowy bit of flesh
'cause they don't really know what to do so they use that.
Doesn't really matter, the function's always the same.
Boss fights can be difficult and even stressful encounters
'cause there's a lot going on.
So developers try to make it as obvious as possible
what you're supposed to do
without just throwing up like tutorial messages
that say, "Shoot the eyeball."
Not that that can't have any charm,
go back to "Star Fox 64" if you really want some of that.
But generally, it's better that they do this instead.
Some people don't necessarily think this is the best option
like a lot of long time gamers
are going to see this kind of telegraphing
as maybe a little too obvious, but at least it works.
At number six, anytime you see a wall with paint
or a bright color on it,
that's probably where you're supposed to climb.
This is kind of more of a modern contrivance
but you see it everywhere.
I always associate this kind of thing with "Mirror's Edge"
but a ton of games do it.
And after a while, it just becomes second nature.
If you're in the middle of a platforming section of a game,
anything off color is where you go.
"Uncharted" did it, the new "Tomb Raider" games did it,
"Far Cry", "Horizon: Zero Dawn", the list goes on.
The colors are different for every game.
But if something in the environment is a different color,
like stands out, something bright, maybe neon,
maybe something that you haven't seen anywhere else
in the area you're in, that's where you're supposed to jump.
Some games are a little more subtle about it
like using environmental lights
to draw the player's attention
to the direction they're supposed to go.
Like, if a location is dark and unlit,
it's probably not the direction you're supposed to go
or there's a hot pink neon arrow that could,
I mean, they've done that too.
Developers do all this type of stuff
to draw the players' eye to a place subconsciously,
and it really works.
Play certain games, especially dark ones,
you'll know exactly where to go
basically by looking for the light
or the big neon pink arrow.
At number five, bushes and tall grass equals hiding spots.
You play enough games with stealth mechanics
and you start to get a second sense
for where the hiding places are.
The game doesn't even need to tell you where they are
at a certain point, you just know,
hey, there's tall grass around,
that means hiding in it is the thing I'm going to do.
It's one of those things that only works
because of gamer instincts, because,
rationally, it does not make any sense at all.
You'd obviously be able to tell that someone's hiding
in tall grass, but it's a video game
so you might as well be invisible.
It's not that you can hide in certain places
that's a gamer's instinct,
it's how they're spaced out and where they are.
Usually, hiding spots are fairly evenly spaced in a game.
And like, let's say there's a stealth section,
and then there's like usually a pretty logical path
you can follow to let you through it without getting caught.
There's other stealth things
that gamers will instinctively recognize,
like any lockers around will make perfect hiding spots
and big boxes or dumpsters, you can hide bodies there.
Stealth games can become frustrating and confusing
so these kinds of recurring elements make sense.
If you instinctively know what you should be doing,
it makes it easier to follow the actual path
and focus on the skills and puzzles of the game
rather than decipher the mechanics.
At number four, when you see a crack in the wall
or it's a different color or something like that.
It doesn't matter if a game explains it or not,
if you see a crack in the wall,
you're gonna throw a bomb or an explosive at it,
this is a staple of not just adventure games,
but pretty much every game.
In "Metroid", you're constantly throwing bombs
at walls for secrets,
"Legend of Zelda" is probably the most iconic
with its cracked walls,
you can bomb those trivial passages,
or even "Duke Nukem 3D", where any little crack in the wall
can be blown open with a pipe bomb.
Those are all old examples, but every single game does it.
If a game is trying to be like "Zelda",
you just absolutely have to believe
that there's gonna be walls to bomb,
same with "Metroid" style games,
and pretty much every FPS
that has any exploration elements to it at all.
It doesn't even have to be a crack,
sometimes just a discoloration
or a wall that's suspiciously door shaped,
like play video games long enough,
you just start bombing or smacking walls
anytime you see any of this stuff.
And when it comes to secret hunting,
there's a lot of smaller things
we go after instinctively after a while.
But this is probably the most common.
If a game has secrets of any kind,
your game just tells you what to do,
and that's bomb things, punch walls,
generally, just keep in mind
that the game is hiding something from you.
At number three, anytime you get a new item or tool,
something a little more specific,
but if you're a non-gamer,
it's something you might not immediately understand.
If you've played a game like "Zelda"
or basically any adventure game with puzzle elements,
you know that if you find an item in an area
or a dungeon or wherever,
you probably have to use it to solve puzzles in that area.
There's no better example
than this kind of thing than "Zelda".
Every time you find a new tool or weapon in a dungeon,
that's the thing that you're going to be using next.
(celebratory music)
The same goes for basically any open game
with movement tools of any kind.
Once you get 'em,
you probably have to use 'em to continue.
For gamers, it's about as obvious as it gets,
like most of you guys probably didn't even think about it.
But for non-gamers, it's not quite as obvious.
If you've played a game with a non-gamer friend,
you know how it feels,
like they're struggling with the easiest puzzles,
but it's not their fault,
they just don't have the gamer instinct
burned into their brains yet.
At number two, when an NPC says something cryptic,
that means it's probably a clue.
In a game with like a heavy emphasis on a puzzle,
you can pretty easily guess
that if somebody tells you something, it's probably a clue.
Play these kinds of games long enough,
and you start to recognize 'em without even thinking,
you just know when to identify
when somebody is talking nonsense
versus when they're actually telling you what to do.
It's a more advanced skill that applies to a lot fewer games
but it's an instinct that can make getting through
more obscure and mysterious games a lot easier.
Like "Elden" game or "Tunic".
Games with not a lot of obvious direction.
And specifically with "Elden Ring",
I'm talking mostly about character quests.
There's no quest log and no real indication
what you're supposed to do next for a lot of these things.
But what the characters say can tell you a lot
about what you're supposed to do.
Like, when you ask the merchant
about the howling in the woods, near the start of the game,
even though the solution is obscure,
the guy basically tells you what you need to do
to find the half-wolfman,
even if it's couched in a lot of dialogue.
A lot of RPGs like to hide hints in NPC dialogue.
Basically, if some location is mentioned,
especially if it's relevant to your current goal,
it's probably something you gotta go to.
A lot of games try to fool you with junk
or totally useless stuff
that's unrelated to the puzzle, like "La-Mulana" games,
especially love to overwhelm you just as much
with useless information as the puzzle critical stuff.
But if you've been playing games long enough,
you just know what's the real deal and what doesn't matter.
Unless it's the U.S. version of "Castlevania II",
then basically none of it matters
because nothing makes any sense.
And finally, at number one,
boss attacks that you're gonna instantly recognize.
Bosses are where gamer instincts really kick in.
You're not just casually picking
which fork in the road to go down,
you're actually in a life or death battle
so the quick thinking is essential.
Play enough games that contain boss fights though,
and you start to see patterns and repeated actions.
After a while, you can guess what a boss is going to do
before it even does it,
just based on what bosses in other games have done,
and most of the time your instincts are probably right.
You don't even have to be in a fight
for your gamer instincts to start kicking in.
Anytime a hallway opens up to a big open area,
you just know, oh, better stop and prepare,
that's a boss fight.
When you actually start the fight,
there's so many boss moves you can probably anticipate,
they swing their weapon up,
it's gonna be a vertical attack
that you dodge to the left or right,
you swing to the sides, probably a horizontal attack,
you wanna dodge backward or forward.
If they start charging up, you just know
that you're gonna need to run away
because there's a big explosion on its way.
Or if they jump in the air,
that means you're they're probably gonna try to hit you
with some kind of homing attack or perhaps a butt stomp,
will you need to dodge the shock wave?
Quite possibly.
Like, that's even just more complex bosses.
There's even more obvious ones,
like any boss that charges at you,
anyone who's gamed along enough
knows exactly what to do with these guys, just dodge.
They don't hit you, they end up hitting the wall,
they're dazed, you hit them, rinse and repeat.
Fighting a boss, probably more than anything on this list,
really does rely on your instincts
because you have to react fast
to whatever the boss throws at you.
And if you've played enough games,
you've probably already got a good idea what to expect,
most of the time, at least.
And that's all for today, leave us a comment.
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