A little chat on another site made me wonder how other people on here look at this topic, as a whole. Basically, what do you count as a convenience and what is actual hand-holding? I feel a lot of people get the two mixed up myself (mostly in one way where they think certain conveniences is hand-holding) and curious about your thoughts.

Now, before I go on with my own thoughts... Here's the definitions of the words I believe are true (in a gaming sense, I mean). Correct me if I'm incorrect with these definitions.

1. Convenience - A mechanic added to make the game less stressful and flow better, but is usually (not always) optional.

2. Hand-holding - A mechanic that guides the player through an action, or set of actions, so that they are playing the game successfully in the means that they've chosen, without thinking much on their part.

Now, I know not a lot of people enjoy certain conveniences for whatever reasons, as usually they can ruin immersion but that's a problem in itself. A game is really meant to be fun. If you aren't enjoying it, then it is failing and making a game TOO immersive will make it not fun (though the opposite is true as well). Gotta be a balance. So that's why there are certain conveniences in games. The most common one I've seen, especially in open world games, is fast travel (and it's optional too!). Ye'h, it might ruin the immersion but a lot of times, some players just like the idea of just quickly getting back to a specific destination over running all the way through...

The second most common convenience I've seen would be markers. Now usually these are the ones people like to complain about and honestly, they shouldn't. In my opinion, they are helpful and have their place (though I have preference to set them to only be on my map/compass, so that they aren't floating above doors, or NPCs) but they help a lot. In a lot of games, the other thing to do would be to allow the characters provide directions, which not every player will be good at following (there's a reason why there's maps) and are stressful to follow anyways, since you will have to keep going back to that piece of paper to read the directions (if you don't have good memory). Plus the chance of the directions being "outdated" or bad. (Being outdated means that they've changed the landscape AFTER adding in the quest, rather through the original developing time or an update)... Now, sadly, these aren't always optional but I do hope a lot of developers will at least make it a bit more immersive. (For example, have the NPC point to the location on your map so it makes sense why you have a marker there).

In the end, both of these are just conveniences that helps players enjoy more of the actual game itself, and be more into the game rather than bothering with silliness. Plus the former is totally optional, so for those who enjoy exploring the world more so than doing quests, or missions, don't have to do it.

Hand-holding on the other hand...

I'm probably gonna get a lot of confusion but (due to me playing RPGs the most), the most common hand-holding mechanic I've actually seen are Classes... Now, please listen out. I'm not necessary saying classes are a bad thing but they are, most of the time, holding your hand... Bethesda does a good job at making sure that classes in their older games don't have TOO much of an effect on you, but in a lot of other RPGs, it's a different story.

Classes are what I called a "soft hand-holder". Meaning, it's a mechanic that tells you what you can/should do, what you can't/shouldn't do, etc but doesn't necessary guide you fully, and will punish you if you do something you shouldn't do. (If you can't do it at all, you just can't do it though!). Basically, if you choose a specific class then the game will tell you what you should be doing as that class, or even FORCE you to do specific things as class by locking the other content out. (For example, if you play as an Archer, it will make it impossible for you to learn spells, wear heavy armor, etc), meaning that it's helping you to be that class... But it isn't helping you to be GOOD at that class (which is why it's "soft"). In some games, I don't mind this as it is required for balancing... But in singleplayer games... No (There's a reason why Arena is my least favorite Elder Scrolls game).

Now, a stronger case of hand-holding? This is a bit harder to say, cause honestly... I've never really played any games with a HARD case of hand-holding... Soft cases are common enough to find them here and there, but not much of hard cases. At most, the hardest cases I've seen are only used during tutorials, which makes sense. Tutorials are suppose to be that one hand-holding part of the game to give you the feels of the game (and usually are fine if skip-able or at least fun). Other than that, I can't really think of any hard cases. Or at least really bad hard cases that aren't necessary or toggle-able. If you guys can think of any really good ones, please let me know.

What I am about to say is my own interpretation, I cannot speak for anyone else.

For me, Skyrim falls into category number one, Convenience. I did not have to stop ever so often like I did in Oblivion and Morriwind to change items in my hand or to repair equipment. The game was a lot more convenient because I spent less time opening menus and more time playing.

For me, the Mass Effect games and Dragon Origins fell into hand holding. I never felt that I controlled my character, only that I felt like i was being led down a hallway with paintings and voice activated displays on the walls during a tour.

Again, this is only how I feel. I want to stress that before someone goes Jihad on me.