Anyone else hate in-game radars/mini map?

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Stiler

[H]F Junkie
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Maybe I'm just getting too old, but I miss when games had no in-game radar that showed you everything.

Mainly FPS games (especially competitive ones) and mmorpgs.

In an FPS games I miss the days when you could you know, hide, be sneaky, when you actually had to LOOK for people or listen to footsteps/sounds.

It seems almost any new fps game these days gives you radar and pintpoints every enemy out to you and vice versa for your enemies.

I find a lot of the time most people watch the little radar rather then actually playing the game/looking at the screen, they just look for the little red dot and then go toward it.

In MMORPGS the radar and/or minimap seems to have became a crutch, it seems that almost any new mmo has no sense of "exploration" anymore, just a minimap telling you where everything is and where to go.

I miss playing an mmo, being dropped into this huge world (Ultima / EQ) and then making my own way around it and finding things on my own. with the game built for that (Try turning it off in any new mmorpg, you can't play them that way).

Even single player rpgs are starting to have this in it.

I remember older rpgs , you'd get a quest and they'd actually explain WHERE you needed to go or you had to "find it" yourself through clues /adventuring, now it's just "can you help me? Go fetch this many items" then you have a giant waypoint to go to "x" spot.

I really wish the radar/minmap would get back out of games, or at least that the games would offer choice to make playing without it viable.
 
I stopped playing Counter-strike Source after they added the radar. It completely ruined the game for me. It made no sense in the context of the type of game it was. When I started playing Battlefield and Call of Duty I always fell into the trap of paying more attention to radar instead of what was in front of me. I had to train myself to stop and I immediately started getting better at those FPS games again. The radar/map is the primary reason I have not played CS:GO.

I also agree with the MMORPG point. It was part of the experience when I played FFXI experiementing and needing to find your own way. In single-player RPGs I kind of have mixed feelings. The mini-map was helpful in Final Fantasy X because sometimes it was hard to pick out paths with some of the pre-rendered backgrounds and wonky camera angles. FFX was also pretty much linear in exploration, so there was really not much to explore in the first place. On the other hand I think it was completely unnecessary in Final Fantasy XII. The world was open and huge with a number of alternate and side paths that the experience could have been made more enjoyable by stumbling onto things on your own.

When it comes to single-player RPGs, and maybe even MMORPGs, I think the Morrowind style of doing things would be optimal for the genre. Give us a journal where notes are made automatically that you can peruse and study, and maybe add an interactive map in which you have the ability to manually mark it yourself (no automatic quest markers like what was added in Oblivion). But I think there needs to be a compromise. A lot of people don't have time to sink into an RPG like that, so automatic quest markers should still be available as an option.
 
I don't mind them in RPG type games, but in FPS I find them ridiculous.
I remember watching a buddy play CoD 2 back when the 360 first came out and I could swear he was psychic. Then he just pointed out that there was a radar map he was looking at.
 
Stiler said:
I remember older rpgs , you'd get a quest and they'd actually explain WHERE you needed to go or you had to "find it" yourself through clues /adventuring
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And they were sometimes very frustrating. I don't need a big arrow leading the way, but I also don't want to solve some complex mystery to find out where I need to be.

I mean, in a mystery game, that's the point, but not in a traditional RPG.

As for the radars, the purpose is to supplant a lack of team communication. It's rarely the case you'll ever be able to come across a group of players who actually adequately communicate what's going on. The radar exists as a way to make up for the fact that players generally don't comm well. People who stare at the radar as opposed to doing objectives weren't going to do the objectives anyway, so it's not really a criticism of the radars themselves.
 
its not really that I hate them..I just hate the placement..always down in the corner..Id prefer if you could move them anywhere you want..like I would like mine in the upper right corner...I just find im looking up there more often during a BF4.. otherwise..yes..it would be nice just to be able to turn them off...I know you can have it off on Hardcore..but the box is still there.
 
If the mini-map is out of the way I do not mind it. WoW's default placement and size happens to work for me. I would find in-game radars highly annoying unless I was doing something like a piloting a fighter.
 
I tend to agree with the OP...except in MWO, where it makes sense and is an integral part of the game.
 
No, not really. Most FPS games offer some kind of hardcore mode that removes all these aids and whatnot.
 
Depends on the game, but for the most part YES! There are exceptions though. I love the way they handled the map in Far Cry 2. I love the functions of the map in ArmA, and a GPS gives you the minimap that makes it easier to figure out your location when you have map markers turned off. Skyrim got boring as fuck if I played with the map icons on with the markers on the compass and everything. It would help for some of the minute stuff you had to find, but mostly it was pretty boring to be told to go to a town and have a nice arrow point you which way to go at all times.
 
Depends on game. I agree they are crap in FPS, except for games like BF where you have to call out the spot and it only appears for a few seconds. In games like Diablo 2/3 or the such you could run around in a single level for an hour without one. Can't comment on MMOs.
 
I loved Morrowind, but I felt like I was forced to use the game guide quite often. So instead of a map marker I was reading the game guide while walking around in game. Just wanted to mention that.
 
I don't mind them in RPG's and slower paced games where having a map makes some degree of sense. I just think they're ridiculous in military shooter games.
 
I'm not going to say as a blanket that I hate them, because I think in some games they have their place.

Say in an RPG, certain classes have abilities like a setinal or tracking where they can detect enemies around them. But for basic classes, no, I don't like them.
 
In FC3 I didn't really enjoy the combat until i could mod out the radar and automatic spotting of enemies. Just removing these crutches made it way more intense and satisfying.
 
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Would rather hunt then down than use help unless it's a vital part of game
 
I remember playing Crysis on Delta level ( the most difficult ). I was incredulous that the radar not only pinpointed enemies, but shows you which direction they were facing! At one point, I realised that I was playing the game by just using the radar ( and not even looking at the screen ) so I banned myself from looking at the radar.

I blame consoles.
 
Playing eyefinity, the mm is usually all the way out in a position that's not really practical. If I am seeing no action, I'll take a look to see where I need to be.
 
IN COD GHOSTS IT'S THE WORST =) YOU get power up's Sat coms ect where you can see the enemy behind walls ect.... A lot of FPS do that...
 
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