Gaming

absolutely! I mostly only play older games for this reason. I absolutely love some of my old N64 and GBA games because I can clear them in a day or two. Even the older RPGs like LoZ:OoT seem a lot smaller than the open-world stuff out there today, and I actually like that I can learn the entire world and know almost everything about them. They're finite and I think that's a plus. Eventually, I'm either gonna get bored and move on, or I'm gonna clear a game. The first feels like defeat, like I did something wrong. The latter feels refreshing and mints the game as a nostalgic memory in my mind; I still look back at the day I finished Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with such bittersweetness; I was sad that it was over, but really proud and happy to have reached the conclusion. And I think you miss that with infinite content, and open worlds. And I also did miss things in my first playthrough of LoZ:OoT but it only took me a couple more (years apart, so nostalgia definitely washed over me every time!) playthroughs to catch them.

I think open-world games can be really fun: games like Minecraft are great examples of that, but the emphasis there isn't on a story being told to you, but on you creating whatever you want. You're not as scared to miss things because you have all the time in the world to explore and not everything is gonna be up your alley (some people don't even "beat" the game, or even go to the Nether or End). But I don't think I'd like a Minecraft where you have a definite Legend of Zelda-style story scattered out across the infinitely-generated landscape. That's just not for me.