Do I just not have the skill to play 3D games?

I dunno, maybe there is a reason why I don't like 3D FPS games in general. I get lost easily. I'm one of those people if you spin me around a few times in a 3D first person view, I wouldn't know which direction is which. I'm one of those people who have to check the map every 10 seconds to know where I'm going in a 3D game.

Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe it just takes a certain sort of 3D-spatial-orientation skill or something to be able to play FPS games? Maybe it's a skill that needs to be developed, just like any other gaming skill?

I don't think our natural senses of direction help us navigate virtual worlds, so I think everyone has this problem, to some degree. I'm always getting turned around and checking the map - generally, however, I'm pretty patient about it. I don't play frantic/competitive FPSs very much, though, because I don't have time to get my bearings.

What games are you playing?

I can get lost in AvP, but I know every inch of some Q3 maps. Some first-person games just don't have enough variation in maps, and it can be hard to navigate.

It's a skill, for sure. I started ages ago with Doom, and Descent made me violently nauseous. Now I could fly through those tunnels in Descent spinning the whole way without any problems, and I pick up and destroy basically any fps that I'm interested in, from years of playing them.

That said, some people just have a hard time with fps games period (motion sickness, etc).

I think they're worth it personally. There's a lot of great games in that little niche (System Shock 2, Undying, Deus Ex, Halo, Metroid Prime, and many others). Heck, even first person rpgs, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc. More PC games than console in general I'd say...

Well if the area you're playing in is overly confusing, like a maze or something, then of course. Otherwise, no, you just need to familiarize yourself with the area, and if you can't figure out which way goes where after that, then you sir are an ignoramus.

Well right now I'm having problems with Metrodi Prime, I keep going down the wrong way and keep getting stuck, because I keep losing my sense of direction. I have this same problem with most FPS games I play like Quake/Doom etc, unless the stages/levels are really simple and flat. But when you have multi-level complex stages like the one in Prime, I just become hopelessly disoriented. I even get headaches. In fact I think Prime is giving me a headache right now. I might have to stop playing it.

Just get used to using maps and on-screen radar (Prime has both) to reorient yourself quickly if you get lost. If that doesn't help, then uh, that sucks.

Rotate the map to a top view, pan around it to figure out where you can get to next that you haven't gone.

But if you're getting headaches, that's a physical thing, not much you can do about that...

The only problems I have in 3D games involve judging the depth of things for jumps and such. This is probably due to my real-life depth perception problems.

Well, are you talking about any 3D game or just First Person games? If it's the latter the subject is deceiving. I don't have any problems with 3D games. It really depends on the specific game and the quality of the programming and camera. In a well made game I don't have troubles. :)

I do have a friend who can't manage to play any 3D games well though.. and I never could understand it. He says he can't get the hang of it, and it's been quite a few years since 3D games began. Very strange...

As for First Person games.. I really cannot say. I simply don't like those games very much. It feels like what life would be like if you walked around looking through the cardboard at the end of a toilet paper roll.

but I liked doing that as a kid :(

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Originally posted by Victrix
but I liked doing that as a kid :(

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Actually I did too, but I never looked though them when I was playing my Atari. :p

hmm, a point I had not considered

(some hours later, my gf is going to come home to me playing prime while wearing a paper towel tube eyeglass contraption and leave me for good)

:lol:!!!

Sounds like lack of skills. If you have to look at a map because your lost either means, you don't know the area, or have no memory of the place you just were.

Its just like in the real world, people use landmarks and street signs to guide them to places, just like in a 3D game.

Do you have trouble getting around in the real world? After all its 3D.

you don't have to hit a button to look up or down in the real world :P and you usually don't jump around on platforms and roll into a ball and... sigh, nevermind

it's harder to navigate in most 3d games than it is in the real world, for a variety of reasons

(besides, plenty of people suck at getting around in a car don't they? :P)

Descent... wow, I would get confused whenever I'm upside down... that was the only game to get me completely lost.

Otherwise, I've been playing Doom and Wolfenstein and Quake for most of the time it was out so I'm pretty good at navigating my way through FPS games. Some people can do it, and some don't, you can't "force" yourself to get better at it if you're getting sick... of course, it usually happens to older people... ;)

It's kinda like why some people can't draw... I'm by no means a good artist, (after seeing some great works of art in the Galleria), but I could never understand how someone could never draw any better beyond a stick figure... I guess our brains just act a certain way and it's tough to adapt...

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Originally posted by Clash_Master
Do you have trouble getting around in the real world? After all its 3D.

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In real life you can see soooo much more than you can thru the narrow scope of a first person videogame.

It's like the example I made above. If you walked around the real world while looking through toilet paper rolls - you might have a bit more trouble getting around!



Anyway, I am not saying FP games are bad or difficult. I can play them w/o problems. They simply don't appeal to me. But the point here is that a FP perspective is not very similar to the real world.

Hey, I started with Wolfenstein, and that ain't got no map. Nice and flat, though. By now, I can find my way around pretty easy. I think being good at videogames is the same as being good at anything else in life: it takes practice. And if you like it as much as I do, you'd have plenty of practice by now.

About the headaches and motion sickness... I dunno. I always thought it was weird that it happens to people when playing games, but sure. I also don't get sick on boats or when reading in the car or anything like that, so maybe I'm the weird one.

MP has a great map, showing off every corner of every room, with a big ass arrow showing you where Samus is and what direction she's facing. If you have trouble with that, then I don't know what to tell you.

I just wish Metroid (or most FPS games) had a compass. At least with that you can always tell which direction you're facing.

Finding your way is simply a matter of remembering landmarks, something insanely important in multiplayer FPS' (weapon locations: NEED memorization). The best way for most FPS' is to play a level over and over again (easy to do online), and most single-player tend to follow a fairly linear path.

It's easier to get lost in Prime thanks to running back and forth through areas so quickly and unlocking new places, so there are only a few key areas that you actually spend much time in for memorizing. I know the door locations in probably only 1/10 of the game, but I'm slowly learning all of it. The map is your friend.

And I tend to get lost easily as all hell in all of the Metroid games, so that's nothing new to me in Prime.

i've been getting nauseous in metroid prime occasionally..

i find that it's usually when i don't know where to go next.. it's not that i have trouble finding my way around.. the maps are very useful..

but sometimes if i'm in a corner, facing the wall, and i have to spin around and the wall is flying past my face, that gets me kinda sick sometimes..
if only she could turn a bit quicker.

I've never had any real issues with 3D game design. In-game camera programming...now that's something I have issues with.

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Originally posted by Mzo
Hey, I started with Wolfenstein, and that ain't got no map. Nice and flat, though. By now, I can find my way around pretty easy. I think being good at videogames is the same as being good at anything else in life: it takes practice. And if you like it as much as I do, you'd have plenty of practice by now.

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Man, Wolfenstein was a pain in the ass to memorize the areas because everything looked the SAME! I remember when my friend was watching me play and we would waste an hour going through the entire level pressing the space key hoping a goddamn secret wall would open. Annoying as hell! Ah, those were the days... FPS's have really evolved. ;)

I'm with ya Opa-Opa...I first noticed this with Doom, which I liked but just couldn't handle any more. That shit gives me headaches and makes me break out into sweat...I just don't enjoy myself. Hence, i'm not into FPS (which is why I think Metroid Prime is FANTASTIC but I would never buy it) and 3D adventure games (which everyone calls platformers). I'm more into action and 2D stuff and then ironically, traditional RPGs. :P