Why are AI allies always nagging you to go faster?

I've been playing a bunch of different games lately, and they all seem to have 2 things in common. A) They feature collectibles. B) They feature AI allies who nag you incessantly to speed up while you're looking for collectibles.

Why do developers think this is a good or fun idea? I know that dumb, bad, developers seem to think that having characters nag you about how urgent everything is helps build a sense of urgency (It doesn't) but if you're going for urgency why even put hidden collectibles in your game? Either you want people to search the environments or you don't. When achievements and in game bonuses tell me to search for stuff while characters are incessantly nagging me to move forward that's you, the developer, asking me to do two contrary things at once, and it sucks. I generally hate being nagged, but being nagged while trying to engage with a game mechanic you put in there? I shake my fist at you.

It can be useful to have AI people go to where the next area is so you don't get lost (though most modern games are too linear to get lost in) but why the nagging? And why is it so widespread? Are there a bunch of developers who played Ocarina of Time and thought Navi was the absolute best part of the game?

Maybe they think if you look at the game too closely you'll realize that it sucks.

What games are you talking about?

The developers intent is to give you a sense of urgency. I believe Valve was the first to actually experiment with it in testing and found that players hate it when the AI does it, but for some reason no other developers (hyperbole- I'm sure there's one or two others) seem to have taken anything away from that.

You will notice in Half Life 2 you are never rushed more so than spoken to about the urgency of your current situation (such as when you have to follow dog and split up from Alyx (sp?)). They let the situation dictate your urgency and not the AI.

That game didn't have collectibles, though, which are the worst form of padding in most games that do it. Most (not necessarily all) games that use collectibles are just trying to pad out the playtime because they aren't smart/capable enough to make the game last as long as they feel they need to.

I feel like they are trying to cover up for the insanity of wandering around in these story driven games, but they need to realize these aren't movies or super guided experiences most of the time so you, yes, are just annoying people.

There was actually a developer commentary in Half-Life 2: Episode One where they talk about this, and they ended up removing all of Alyx's "hurry up" variation lines as a result, because players found them to be annoying. More developers should follow this trend.

that's not AI, that's scripted dialog

Most of the time the AI is telling you what to do next, the developers are providing tips without having a big text on the screen. When the AI says come on move, or something like that I just yell back "shut the fuck up, I'm trying to grab this thing!"

I agree that it's terrible design when there are other things to do.

If the way forward is absolutely clear and there are no collectibles or things to grab then it's all right, I guess, especially if it doesn't last long. But there are still better ways of making things urgent without making NPC's annoying.

The first thing that turned me off of CoD4 was when I decided to dick around the environment in an early level, specifically shooting a chair and being irritated that it was unaffected by any sort of physics (in a post HL2 world no less), only to be chastised by my comrades for not moving forward quick enough. That sort of "WE NEED TO GET GOING, NOW NOW NOW". If your game's narrative is not interesting enough to make me move forward of my own volition, that's not my fault, so don't yell at me for it.

As the first reply said, its because if you stop and look around too long the whole illusion falls apart and you remember you are playing a videogame.

And also, yes, most games like that you are generally in a situation that in real life would be pretty urgent, so they have to try and make you feel that way, but they also don't want to actually impose any repercussions if you don't act quickly enough because that would be really irritating game design.

I think it's because if, in a game, you stop doing anything it quickly becomes apparently that the game wasn't, and usually can't be, designed to account for how you're playing it. Suddenly you as the actor have broken all expected pacing, narrative integrity, and the whole thing structurally falls apart. I guess you could think of it as the developers passive-aggressive will surfacing to ensure you're playing their game correctly.

The concept just makes me more interested in the games that actually are capable of contextualizing either entirely player-driven pacing, or alternatively: entirely game-driven pacing (think about how weird Dead Rising's clock is in relation). The weird middle ground you get with games focused on melded story telling gives cause for a pretty shaky reliance on the player to not make a mockery of everything, be it through their action or inaction. And you can also extend beyond styles of pacing and think more about general agency and context and stuff.

This topic made me think of that as well. You can imagine how the tone and progression of the game would be changed, and in pretty much an unequivocally negative way.

Seriously. I get that the guy who is waiting at the door would eventually say "yo man hurry the fuck up" in real life, but video games have not found a happy medium. Especially when you get the ones that repeat every 10 seconds or so. There's no way to make me hate an AI partner more than have them have repetitive, accusatory dialogue.

I feel like I've played a few games where if the game kind of detects that you're looking for crap, your avatar will say "hold on, I want to look around". I feel like that's happened in at least one Naughty Dog game. Maybe I'm making it up.

The worst is when you're stuck on some simple puzzle, whether it's a traversal puzzle or some kind of crank bullshit, and you have some AI giving you shit for being stupid. WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!

If playing your game 'correctly' is playing it fast then don't hide stupid collectibles for me to find.

A lot of people have mentioned narrative urgency, but I doubt anyone ever hears the nagging and feels like "Oh wow, there's a real sense of urgency from this guy nagging me every 20 seconds, especially since he doesn't do anything but cycle through lines." Narrative urgency comes from caring about the characters and what's happening to them, or from real consequences (like if the story branches depending on how quickly you finish the level.)

It's not AI, but I thought Claptrap could be a bit annoying at some points - "over here!" - but that was surely to give newcomers a clue where to go. To illustrate my example and for anyone who doesn't know (like there's anyone left) there's some loot in the initial area where you leave the bus in Borderlands 1, but you have to look up and around for it. It does give a slight advantage to someone who's been through the start before and knows what to look for and where. Similar thing with the start of Borderlands 2, although I was already tuned into the idea of ignoring the robot.

I just think it helps make a game more replayable in that scenario for new players..

@bigsocrates: Nobody said it was a good solution, but it's a pretty easy addition to help encourage the player. And obviously it's sometimes going to backfire, particularly when it's clashing against elements that aren't trying to drive you forward. Call that an oversight, most likely. I remember Alan Wake running into some especially bad disconnects between collectible searching and the actual game, where they would sometimes step on each other in a pretty ridiculous way. In fact, there was an email on the Bombcast about that exact topic once! Which I bring up for no real reason.

@brodehouse said:

That is the utter worst.

If you must have scripted barks, at least make them like the Uncharted games where it's Sully and Nate trying to figure shit out and not just someone being an annoying jackass.

Yeah, I f'ing hate this. The worst are when they repeat over and over every few seconds. Like, "Hey, come on! This way... Hey, com on! This way... Hey, come on! This way... Hey, come on! This..." SHUT UP YOU FUCK, I'm exploring!