Do you ever jot down notes while playing a game? Some games have alot of names, places, and other details that are easy to forget while progressing through the game.

I remember when I first played Riven (or was it Myst?), I jotted down maps of the world along with points of interest.

Or is this too, unfun an approach to gaming for you?

Side note: Do you ever think that some games have too little or too much information involved? I mean, does the lack of details leave you bored, or does the enormity of details leave you overwhelmed?

lol, that's what immediately came to my mind as well! Did a map of that Modron maze as well, that one can't be finished imo without a map...probably an intentional throwback to those early dungeon crawlers.
Haven't done something like that for other games, but often write down information for puzzles, riddles etc., e.g. key codes, passwords and similar stuff if it isn't automatically included in a journal.

If an adventure games too many locations and objects available at one time I'll sometimes scribble something like a flowchart of everything and everyone at my disposal and what puzzle-connections I assume - what I assume I can get from a place or a person, what I need for it etc. Just so that I can see it all at once, without going to every location all the time or repeating conversations. It helps to solve puzzles, or come back to the game if I had to take a break.

But I won't make maps in RPGs or extensive journal like logs. That's just too much. And my sense of direction sucks so the maps i'd make would suck too. I can note down some passwords or short clues, but maps, quests details and all that I expect the game to "write down" in a journal for me. Maybe I'm lazy, maybe that's hand holding for some, but I play these games to have fun, I don't want it to become a chore.

Oh I just remembered:D remember those chests in
in betrayal at krondor? I was writing down the riddles and possible letters for each position in order to solve them during the day

I don't think there's too many games that I play that I don't use a pen and paper for something. With RPG's it's usually notes to myself, writing down different character builds to try and see advantages/disavantages, etc. And with strategy games.... well... that's where I really get serious with the ol' pen and paper. lol

Funny thing is though, my nephew (now about 23 years old) used to come and see me play these games and I'd ask him if he wanted me to get the game for him or if he wanted to play it and the answer would always be the same... "NO NO NO I don't want any game where you have to write shit down." LOL. I kept telling him you didn't HAVE to do that, I just CHOSE to do that, but he was so allergic to anything resembling school work that he wanted nothing to do with it.

He's in the Army now, stationed overseas. Sure hope he's doing well. If you happen to be reading Steven... I miss you and love you man. Take care.

I do, usually a simple text file in Notepad. But other times, for more complex games, I do Excel tables for equipment, weapons or units statistics, prices and things like that. On rare occasions I do maps.

For Fallout Tactics, for example, I've kept track for the Skill books that I've found and read.

Always.

Decades ago I'd draw maps of the underground dungeons in games, such as for Ultima III. Or record all the stat changes when leveling up with each character, like with Final Fantasy (NES). Paper and pencil…and eraser.

With Myst I think I wrote in the notes section in the back of the manual, usually the bits of useful info from the various books or scraps of torn paper found within the game itself.

Nowadays I use emacs to jot notes as html files so I can link notes with maps (screenshots! cropped of course). Basic HTML has been manna from heaven. I sometimes get fancy with CSS, but basic HTML is very quick and often enough. Don't even need the html, head, and body tags; just start typing plain text and add an occasional paragraph tag or link.

As much as I often think I'd like a way to record the info within the game, ultimately that's too unaccessible between different saved games and unreliable because the game files might need to be uninstalled/reinstalled. Plain text is so portable, and marking up with basic html keeps it plain.

So, yes, note taking is part of the fun because it's part of making sense of that world I'm visiting, interrelating everything across the world(s). I'd probably do the same in real life if physically traveling was as instantaneous and effortless as in a game. Currently my life is too slow or familiar to need to make much of any notes for it.

I had a whole notebook for the original NES Metal Gear

Ah yes. Graph paper maps tucked into divider pockets of notebooks full of notes and puzzle clues. Luckily those notebooks didn't attract attention when I pulled them out to work on the puzzles during the more boring classes. Good times!

Nowadays it's usually notes on the back of an envelope before being added into a spreadsheet or database.

The last time I had to take notes on a large scale was for the DragonFable browser game by Artix Entertainment. There was one maze-like, pitch-black "dungeon" that gave me some trouble early on. If I remember correctly, there were pitfalls scattered throughout the area that would either injure my character or teleport him back to square one. There's also the tap/nick/jab/wiggle puzzle you need to figure out whenever you want to open a locked chest. It's an ordering puzzle, so one incorrect action means you'll need to start over. I had to write down the proper order as I went along, as the combinations are usually too long to be memorized. I also used a spreadsheet for keeping track of all the stat changes I'd get from new items.

I always have a pen and paper when I play games. I write down puzzle clues/quests/character names/etc... and I sometimes write down some first impressions of the game, good and bad design decisions that make the game fun or not fun. When playing adventure games and RPGs I end up writing most.

It started with pen&paper maps for Eye of the Beholder. Now I'm using Excel for different kind of notes.

I did that with Port Royale, listing all the goods and a general price range for each city. Helped to make things profitable when setting up trade routes.

But in general, if a game takes more paperwork than my day job... yeah, not gonna do it. I might make a short note here and there for a particular puzzle or quest, and might also use the game's map editor if it allows you to make entries, but beyond that I don't go crazy with notes and maps.

I honestly feel I should do this for Divinity 2. I bought the game on Steam like a week ago before discovering GOG like...yesterday...lmao. And I started playing it and I absolutely love the game, the combat is great, the visuals, the story itself. What bothers me is the quests; actually figuring out how to do it. It starts off difficult and I made it out of the ship and onto Fort Joy and one thing I'm not fond of is controlling multiple members so I went for the Lone Wolf playstyle. I tried doing the arena and got killed and I'm trying to figure out what to do and I just have trouble reading the journal and figuring out what to do next...

I feel like I have to jot down information and take things one at a time. Like I became overwhelmed with the quests and had no sense of direction like if I'm completing things correctly or not. Now I'm on GOG and I bought the Witcher 3 & Cuphead. I love the Witcher 3 so far. I haven't played Cuphead yet...

I absolutely love GOG though and the whole layout. Prefer it over Steam. I would like to bring over DIvinity 2 onto GOG but couldn't see it in the GOG connect they have. Rather keep Steam for online games only to play with my friends and all my single-player games I keep on here.