Stupid Things in Videogames – Episode 3: Invisible Walls
It’s not an issue quite so prevalent in gaming these days – advances in technology have meant that game worlds can be the largest they’ve ever been – but every once in a while a great conundrum still transpires for the protagonists of our favourite entertainment medium: invisible walls.
From adventure games to arcade racers, they’ve all got them, and though some manage to hide them better than others they’re still there, abruptly confining your activity to predefined areas. They’re simply a bane to gamers’ pursuits.
I find it hard to believe that there are any serious gamers out there that haven’t recoiled in despair at some point or another as their characters grunt upon impact with some kind of impassable force in the middle of an open field, or simply run on the spot as they fail to even acknowledge the unseen barrier that stands before them. It’s stupid – ridiculous, even – and it totally spoils your immersion into the gaming world you’ve entered.
Whilst it’s irritating to us gamers however, just imagine how alarming it must be for our unlucky in-game avatars. I’d be scared shitless if I was driving my car when all of a sudden – whoosh! – the air bag had gone off in my face because I’d crashed into an invisible entity. I’d feel like Jim Carey in The Truman Show. “Just why are there invisible walls everywhere? What purpose do they serve? Is this real? Am I real?” I’d ask myself, worriedly.
Obviously game worlds have to have a limit. There has to be boundaries as to where and how you can explore. Surely, though, there’s got to be a better answer than placing in invisible bloody walls. I mean, how hard is it to put in a fence or a big bush or some brick and mortar?
Hell, just surround the map with a poisonous swamp filled with ill-tempered mildly mutated piranhas for all I care. But please, please, can we do away with invisible walls?
