And if there's a fishing mini game, you can forget about me progressing anything

This is me in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Plot mission: They kidnapped my SON! Arthur, we're forming up a posse and riding into town to get my son back! [yellow mission marker appears on the map]

Me: Oh, that's awful. I'm sorry to hear about that. [Ok, so I still need to find and kill a cougar for my satchel. Let's see, the best spawn point for cougars is a few days ride away up north...]

--

So many of the missions in that game are cliffhangers and imply that you need to do something now. But, I'm always off picking flowers, hunting rare beasts, looking at treasure maps, and so on.

It actually ends up ruining the plot to a certain extent. Like, the plot missions are all about how the gang is desperate for money, meanwhile I just finished a treasure hunt and brought back $1000 and donated it to the camp. I'm financially supporting this group of 20ish people, plus I'm feeding them with all the meat I bring back for the stew (even if I'm only allowed to have stew every couple of days). Dutch keeps saying we need one last score so we can get on a boat to Tahiti. I'm like "give me a couple of days and I'll buy first class tickets for all of us."

I get the feeling that by Chapter 6 you're supposed to be losing confidence in Dutch (as a player, as Arthur you still seem to have confidence in him for some reason). But, for me, he was an idiot many chapters ago because he was suggesting all these illegal schemes to make money, when my hunting, herbing, etc. was bringing in the big bucks.

And, I've barely played the fishing minigames yet, let alone the legendary fish fishing games...

I would love an RPG where time actually matters. If some NPC tells you to meet him under that tree tonight, and you're not there, he should get mad and refuse to help you. And if a mission is urgent, there should be consequences if you go off doing something else, maybe even failing the mission. It would be awesome if there are multiple missions but you only have time for one or two.
Related, how about no radar and mission markers? So if you get directions, you actually need to follow them. And you need to actually explore instead of simply following a quest marker with half an eye on a minimap. IIRC one of the early Elder Scrolls did this?
- Sounds like you'd really enjoy Pathologic 2 - it does everything you described! It's not a classical RGP, but it's an incredibly unique and impressive game. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the story since I first experienced it ~2 years ago!
- Majora's Mask
- I mean, Morrowind did this to an extent. But the result is that some vital NPC would get randomly killed by a bear halfway across the map, and you’d get the dreaded “you can’t beat the game anymore lul get fucked” message. Then you’re stuck reloading your last save, desperately hoping to find whatever NPC it was.
- Baldur's Gate 3 has tons of time-sensitive missions where your decision to do something else results in changed circumstances. Didn't work out well for me as a player that wants to explore EVERYTHING, which I did in Act 1.
- Sometimes I wanted this, but thinking back again that kind of mission just doesn't fit open world games. Like, I can't imagine Elden Ring with any deadline in it. So I just swallow my disbelief and accept that open world games also means open time games.
- My first impression was that this puts an awful lot on the player to remember, that wouldn't even be a thing for somebody who actually lived in the world.
  I think I could tolerate some of this though if games would stop having main storyline plots that revolved around rush rush rush. Looking at you, cyberpunk 2077.
- Time actually mattering is what I'd like to see in an MMO. Like, instead of a repeatable weekly raid that everyone gets to do multiple times, once a dragon / monster / supervillain is dead, if you weren't part of the event killing it, you missed out. But, there will be more threats to the realm / universe.
  Basically, I'd like to see the actions of players mattering the way it does in say Eve Online, but in a world with powerful NPCs and some story.
Mmm, Arther, you've been gone a long time... Come back to camp. Please?
Nah, I'm good, I still have 11 different fish to catch and this mutant one around all these hillbillies is bugging me.

Look, it's simple. If the game has a fishing minigame, it's a good game. If it doesn't, it's bad.

thank you for finally validating my stardew valley ~~obsession~~ hobby
The latest Yakuza game has a fishing game and segas bass fishing emulated in it. It's an amazing game so this checks out.
- Don't most of them have a fishing minigame?
  I rememer spending most time in Yakuza 3 on the beach collecting ~~free money~~ whatever the most expensive fish was just to enjoy the game.
  I can't recall if there was any fishing in 4.
Does Minecraft's fishing mechanic count?
- The only rule is, you must use a traditional fishing technique or implement to aquire fish or fish material.
  So yes, Minecraft is a classic example of a good game!

Nah, I don't get distracted so easi... oh, a nirnroot!

My issue is I want to complete all the side quests but don't want to save them till the end so I try to mix them in as I go, slowly start to lose interest in the game and even tho I put in 150 plus hours I never finish the main story line....

"Geralt, it's me, Yennefer, you haven't seen me in a long time and Ciri is back and in danger!"

"Oh wow, that's the biggest thing that has happened to me in a long time, so I'm going to become the best gwent player in the north"

I knew I wouldn't have to go too far down in the comments to find someone mentioning Gwent. I spent more time in Gwent than I did playing anything else in The Witcher 3. Same goes for the Triple Triad game in FFVIII, except I actually finished FFVIII lol
- One morning I was playing and realized I had about 100 hours played according to my save files. 12% complete. So I am like WTF. Until I checked my inventory. Man, some of that fish has got to have gone bad, right? Been in that sack for weeks.

I’ve got 170+ hours on my Fallout 4 save on Xbox and another 80 hours on my PC copy.

The other night I spent the over an hour trying to build a bathroom for the bar in my settlement. I had to make it, destroy it, and make it again out of different material. I only actually put a toilet and sink in one of them…

That's why Sim Settlements was a godsend
- I did just look up SIM Settlements 2 and after dealing with vanilla for so long, it seems overwhelming.
- I’m making a push right now to get the story finished (both sides) so I can grab those achievements, and then I’ll be adding lots of mods.
I have over 500 hours on mine, still haven't finished the main storyline.

I found all 900 pinecones

I spent quite some time trying to catch the biggest fish I could in Orcarina of Time

Anybodybknownthe source of this painting?

Me starting yet afuckingnother Baldurs Gate 3 playthrough

I spent so much time at the Gold Saucer in FF7 that Sephiroth had to check into a retirement home before the final battle.

Minecraft has fishing.. one of my metrics for me "beating" Minecraft is getting a pole that is enchanted and pulls other enchanted items out of the water.

Ive ~~wasted~~ enjoyed so much time just listening to music and fishing in that game.

Hahaha me in Xenoblade. I just started it and got to district 9 and haven't done any of the main story. Just talking to every NPC and exploring around trying to fill in the map as well as do side quests. Still no idea what this games about

Twilight Princess had two separate fishing minigames, you get a fishing rod and can use a few things you find around the world as bait and can just...fish in any bit of water (I think you can find a loach in some obscure room in the water temple, of all places) and then there's the fishing hole chick who's the sister of the boat ride chick and the lantern oil guy, what's her name? Where you go out in the boat.

Sidequest and open worlds are the reason I often don't finish games and I actually hate that. it's hard enough for me to get immersed in the stories but the free roaming makes me lose interest pretty fast.

Sounds like you'd love Dredge

There was a solid 6 months where i think i was the only enhancement shaman in TBC with the blacksmithing hammers (on the server) and i used to absolutely terrorize STV during the fishing extravaganza. I never lost and no one even so much as emoted to me when that event was live.

RIP Rinkles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4P2N5fyqbo - facing the final boss after doing every single sidequest

https://youtu.be/c4t7JnCW-48
Exactly
- Had a good laugh at the "Leonie" 😄

Damn, those wounds look lethal.

Destiny 2 added fishing and it was a game changer

this meme applies to a long range of games, from the coffin of andy and leyley to read dead repdemption to mabye a civ game

And then there's Dark Chronicle 2, that added golf into the mix.