To Save or Not to Save…

To save. Most definitely to save! To me, this answer is so mind-bogglingly obvious that it seems ludicrous to be writing a blog that address the question. But apparently there is a question, because when my boyfriend is playing a game and I accidentally turn his Xbox off because I think it’s mine, or when the TV channel somehow gets changed so that the console resets itself, or when The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim crashes on him as it so often likes to, he lets out the most ear shattering scream; the scream of a man who’s just lost over an hour’s worth of game progress.

So my question, really, is why would someone do this? Why, when you’ve defeated a boss and explored a cave or two, would you not save that progress so that it doesn’t matter if the game crashes, or if someone changes the channel, or if someone sits down on the floor and in so doing accidentally turns the Xbox off with their bottom? Is that bottom really to blame, or is it the fault of the player for failing to ensure that progress is safe?

Personally, I save as regularly as I can. For example, I frequently save when in the middle of a fight. Saving is always on my mind – the idea of losing that hard-earned progress to some avoidable incident is unthinkable. But I guess I actually feel a little lame about this. My Skyrim save file could give Walmart’s data cache a run for its money, and it interrupts my flow a great deal. So am I being too harsh on people like my boyfriend? He certainly thinks so and has insisted on making a statement on the matter. He has this to say:

“How can I even think about saving when I’m so immersed in the game and concentrating so hard on what’s going on? It feels so real, and every time you stop to save, it takes you out of the game. It’s worth the risk of not saving so that you can lose yourself. Even though you’re frustrated when it all goes wrong and you die, you still gain so much from it when you don’t have to stop every five minutes to save. It’s not a macho thing. I don’t think to myself I don’t have to save because I’m too damn good. It’s not about that for me, certainly. The game should challenge you, and you should be taking calculated risks; if you think you’ll die if you charge headlong into a battle, you should back off a little bit. So it changes your strategy; you play in a slightly more realistic manner if you know you’re going to lose something by dying. You try to be more tactical with how you’re playing.”

So should players have to take more accountability for their actions? I agree that my resolve to save so regularly prevents me from losing myself in the game. It also makes me feel rather pathetic – a little wimpish, if you will – and this really doesn’t fit well with my Skyrim Dark Elf self-image.

But my problem is that if I can save, I will save. I guess I feel that I have to. To lose progress simply because I neglected to save would make me so incredibly mad with myself, and I’d begrudge doing it over again. And when my boyfriend has to redo a chunk of game play because he didn’t save, it’s because he knows he could have. I think he partly blames himself and ends up frustrated as a result.

Should developers prevent players from saving so regularly, or should players be able to save as regularly as they choose? The ability to save whenever you want to sounds like perfect player-centric game design, but perhaps it removes the player from the game in some ways. I’m not sure. I just know that as long as I can save whenever I want to, I’m going to do it.