Masterful Moves: Discover the Timeless Appeal of Turn-Based Games From Board to Virtual Worlds

Key Takeaways

• Turn-based games are not inferior to real-time games; they offer different strategic and narrative depth.
• Our human brains are the bottleneck for why turn-based games exist, allowing for complex decision-making.
• Turn-based games can be more tense and exciting than real-time games, creating a unique gaming experience.

There’s an odd sentiment in the video game world that turn-based games are inferior to real-time action games in various ways. This demonstrates multiple misunderstandings that wouldn’t have happened if those people hadn’t stopped to think about it first.

Real-Time Games Are Not “More Advanced” Than Turn-Based

Games are designed with particular goals in mind, and real-time and turn-based designs each solve different problems. The type of game you’re making dictates whether one or the other is the best way to go about things. It is true that technological limitations have made turn-based designs the only practical choice at certain points in time. Consoles like the NES simply could not process things quickly enough to have real-time gameplay in many cases. However, technological limitations are not the issue anymore!

Chess is thousands of years old and has probably never been more popular, nor have we perfected playing of this seemingly infinite game. The word “obsolete” doesn’t even apply to turn-based game design.

Human Brains Are the Bottleneck

If you want to look for the culprit when it comes to the continued existence of turn-based games,you have to look no further than the inside of your own noggin. It’s our own limited brains that make it necessary to slow things down in some games. If you’re controlling a single character with a limited number of moves, then real-time gameplay is perfectly fine.

However, if you’re controlling a party of characters with hundreds of skills and move combinations, facing multiple opponents? There’s just no way our ape brains can handle all of that in real time, even if we had enough fingers to press all the buttons. So games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and XCOM will remain turn-based until we somehow upgrade our brains to do more.

Turn-Based Games Offer More Depth

Because turn-based games give us time to think, it means we can have games with much more strategic, tactical, and narrative depth. You can plan out your actions, or engage with complex challenges that go beyond simply hitting something with a bigger and bigger stick. When you’re not on the clock, and you can take as long as you want to make your decisions, it’s possible to ramp up the complexity far beyond what’s possible in a real-time game.

In real life, most decisions we make are not split-second, so there’s an immense amount of enjoyment on offer from working your way through a satisfying, more cerebral experience. There’s nothing wrong with a visceral button-masher, but you can’t live on junk food alone!

Turn-Based Games Can Be More Tense and Exciting Than Real-Time

I often hear people complain that turn-based games are boring, but that could not be farther from the truth. In fact, there’s nothing like a turn-based game to really let it sink in that you are well and truly doomed. You can see the results of your poor decision-making coming, but it won’t be over in a flash.

There are also plenty of tense moments where you aren’t sure if your carefully-planned actions will work out or not. If your opponents don’t do what you were expecting on their turn, it could throw out your entire plan. I’ve definitely felt my heart rate go up hoping my human Chess opponent didn’t realize I was doing where a game could go in any direction. Ironically, it sometimes takes a turn-based game to really make you think on your feet!

There Will Always Be a Place for Turn-Based Games

There will never be a time when turn-based games are replaced by some other game design type. Turn-based games may evolve and become more refined, but the core concept of taking your time, in turns, to make your move can never die. We’ll never be so smart (or so dumb) that turn-based games have no place.

So, the next time you’re disappointed that a major game everyone else likes is turn-based so you “can’t play it”, why not just give it a fair chance? You might have the wrong impression of what turn-based gaming is all about.

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