Taking Notes and Drawing Maps While Gaming; How it Changes the Gaming Experience.

Taking notes and gaming is a phenomenal experience and an experience that many gamers share. It used to be a necessity. Paying games and taking notes while gaming was the norm due to the nature of games back in the day especially the 80's and 90's computer games. Games such as Myst required much of the player in a way that games today do as well if you know which games to look towards. Yes platformers were a popular genre and didn't usually require pen and paper to progress and to get to the next stage or solve the next puzzle. Metroidvania games however did require intimate knowledge of the area and drawing a map was usually quite helpful. Puzzle games as well required the player to memorize certain parts of the game as the game progressed. It was often helpful to write down what you thought you would need to know later on in the game. Any clues you would write down and then go through your journal to see if any of it was helpful later on when you were stuck.

Writing while gaming provided another way to experience the gaming world. It provided a tactile feedback to what you were experiencing and provided another way to interact with the game.

There are many games today that use the same features and provide a way for the player to benefit from writing down certain notes while playing the game. Many gamers today still keep a gaming journal that they use while gaming. Although many others don't even know that this is something that can be extremely helpful to the gaming experience and to progression in the game. Steam which is the king platform for pc gamers as of December 2019 still does not have an integrated journal or notepad that can be used by it's users for easier note taking. Although on the Steam subreddit such a suggestion has over 2,000 upvotes as shown here in the link below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/cfcpm6/could_we_get_a_notepad_in_the_steam_overlay/

Many gamers above in the post have expressed how useful a notepad would be if integrated into the Steam system and the steam overlay which is an popup tab that allows certain functions and access by pressing alt + tab while playing a steam game.

Many gamers above have expressed how they use notepads and journals to write down notes while gaming.

I personally own a notebook that i use only for gaming notes. That way if i need to look up a crafting recipe for a game such as in 7 Days to Die, Project Zomboid, or Graveyard Keeper I have it handy and nearby. It's helped me time and time again when I had forgotten what ingredients I had needed for my recipe and instead of having to go across the whole map to talk to an NPC about it, etc I saved myself a considerable amount of time by having written it down. I find time and time again that it is the same for me. Crafting recipes can get quite extensive with lots of different items from different areas of the game and checking the wiki for where to get them then writing it down is great because you can then go through the list like a checklist aas you check off and get each item you need for the recipe. This way you know you are making progress and you have a visual indicator of your progress. This is important as some games that require lot's of crafting lack this indicator.

Writing down gaming notes is now just as much of the gaming experience as is playing the game. It is about the organizational aspect of it, being able to store important information in a book and being able to organize the writing and make it look nice. It provides a tangible dopamine hit as you know you will be using the information later.

Gaming without a notebook or notepad is like gaming without your best tool. Games such as the ones i listed above almost necessitate having a notebook by your side. There are also games such as Binding of Isaac: Rebirth that have hundreds and hundreds of items that one needs to remember the purpose off so as to know which items to pick up and which to leave behind. If I'm having trouble remembering the purpose and use of an item or how good it is I will write it down in my notebook and the very act of writing it down helps me remember it in future runs. I also list items that are game winners so that I know to pick up those items in future runs of the game. All of this is sometimes done without looking up any of the characteristics of items in a wiki and other items is done while closely looking through a wiki as it makes the game more interesting and because there is no other way to find out without great difficulty.

Taking notes while gaming is one of the greatest pleasures of gaming and it makes a visual indicator of the progress you are making in the game as you list your objectives, and check off as you finish each one.

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