Bad sense of direction - do you suck at video games?

[slackerinabox]

I'm talking modern, FPS and map/achievement based games, not Pong. I've always had a terrible sense of direction and would get lost if someone blind folded me and dropped me off 10 blocks from my house. Don't know why, but I get lost all the time and rely on my gps far more than any human should...

The odd thing is that I find any game that requires navigating an open environment really frustrating and dull because of this - am I the lone, crazy person with this problem?

 

[Anubis]

am I the lone, crazy person with this problem?

no im pretty sure all women feel your pain

 

[Printer Bandit]

are you asian woman?

 

[moshquerade]

no im pretty sure all women feel your pain

I was actually going to say something like this. My sense of direction is pretty bad. Mehugs my GPS.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I can't remember, is OP one of the gay members on AT?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=never-ask-a-gay-man-for-directions

When my wife and I would switch off for Oblivion, we found the only time quests were actually getting done was when I was playing. She was always wandering around trying to find the damn places. She probably killed more bandits on the roads than I killed enemies on the quests.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm useless at directions.

(as I noted here)

I started driving at age 26 (almost a year ago) and am terrible at finding places. Without a GPS, I'd be in rough shape.

Without a GPS in the Grand Theft Auto games, I would have been useless.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

no im pretty sure all women feel your pain

This.

Man card, nao

 

[ViviTheMage]

I know places/maps very well, especially in video games, because they are always static.

 

[DrunkenSano]

Pfft, GPS. Just print me a page or two from google map and I'm good to go!

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'm terrible with directions and getting lost. I'm ok at games (not bad, not good... just ok).

 

[Platypus]

I can't remember, is OP one of the gay members on AT?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=never-ask-a-gay-man-for-directions

When my wife and I would switch off for Oblivion, we found the only time quests were actually getting done was when I was playing. She was always wandering around trying to find the damn places. She probably killed more bandits on the roads than I killed enemies on the quests.

lol... I have an awful sense of direction but I am great at navigating video games. go figure

 

[blackdogdeek]

i have good sense of direction. my wife does not. but she claims she used to be good with directions.

every day i doubt that more and more.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

I am a visual/kinetic learner, so all it takes is one time for me to drive to a certain destination to remember it. Every time I move to a new area or even vacation somewhere, I will be able to navigate anywhere within that area within a couple of days. I will even remember it years later. Must be that Apache Indian in me

 

[moshquerade]

I am a visual/kinetic learner, so all it takes is one time for me to drive to a certain destination to remember it. Every time I move to a new area or even vacation somewhere, I will be able to navigate anywhere within that area within a couple of days. I will even remember it years later. Must be that Apache Indian in me

<---- jealous

 

[2dt Drifter]

Here's a question then: My fiance' is from NJ and everything she knows is by a Landmark. Here in Colorado, we say North, South, East, West.
ie
she would say: "take a left at the wendy's"
me: so head South?
her: I don't know!

She gets lost using my directions, I get lost using hers.

Who else goes by this? (Landmark vs. Heading)

Drives me batshit...

 

[lxskllr]

I don't play too many wandering games, but I'm generally good with directions. I can't remember street names, and I have a hard time telling other people how to get places, but I can get around myself. I'm also good at finding my way when I only have a general idea of where I need to be. I can get twisted around on confusing one way streets, and still find my way back to where I need to be.

 

[lxskllr]

Here's a question then: My fiance' is from NJ and everything she knows is by a Landmark. Here in Colorado, we say North, South, East, West.
ie
she would say: "take a left at the wendy's"
me: so head South?
her: I don't know!

She gets lost using my directions, I get lost using hers.

Who else goes by this? (Landmark vs. Heading)

Drives me batshit...

I use the landmark method. Out west your roads may be closer to the cardinal directions, everything tends to be square. Here in the east, you can travel north on a road marked east :^D

 

[DrunkenSano]

Here's a question then: My fiance' is from NJ and everything she knows is by a Landmark. Here in Colorado, we say North, South, East, West.
ie
she would say: "take a left at the wendy's"
me: so head South?
her: I don't know!

She gets lost using my directions, I get lost using hers.

Who else goes by this? (Landmark vs. Heading)

Drives me batshit...

I'm from Jersey too and I use landmarks for directions as well.

 

[mav451]

I use the landmark method. Out west your roads may be closer to the cardinal directions, everything tends to be square. Here in the east, you can travel north on a road marked east :^D

Heh I use a combination landmark and contextual (i.e. 3 roads ahead and 3 roads after). Written instructions alone are useless b/c there's no context...and if you miss a single turn, you are officially lost.

That said, I will give some lee-way for getting lost in suburbia. I've seen neighborhoods look the same for a stretch of dozens of miles.

 

[2dt Drifter]

I use the landmark method. Out west your roads may be closer to the cardinal directions, everything tends to be square. Here in the east, you can travel north on a road marked east :^D

lol that's very true... she's pretty good at getting around out east. I would have no clue how to get back to her place if I had to drive out there. We have it easy; Mountains = west.
One glance at google maps is the most I ever need looking for a place.

Games are another matter, I think I just get lucky :S

 

[slackerinabox]

are you asian woman?

South asian man, but my wife (of european bloodline) is much better at directions, and is the designated driver most of the time. I think it has less to do with gender and more to do with me being a city boy who takes the train everywhere (which is, you know, linear - "a train to X and then the F to Y") and didn't even start driving until i was in my 20s, while she's mid-western and used to drive everywhere from 16..

 

[blackdogdeek]

Here's a question then: My fiance' is from NJ and everything she knows is by a Landmark. Here in Colorado, we say North, South, East, West.
ie
she would say: "take a left at the wendy's"
me: so head South?
her: I don't know!

She gets lost using my directions, I get lost using hers.

Who else goes by this? (Landmark vs. Heading)

Drives me batshit...

i remember reading an article that stated that men use vectors for directions while women use landmarks for directions.

http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/ep047584.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702043.html

 

[MJinZ]

I'm talking modern, FPS and map/achievement based games, not Pong. I've always had a terrible sense of direction and would get lost if someone blind folded me and dropped me off 10 blocks from my house. Don't know why, but I get lost all the time and rely on my gps far more than any human should...

The odd thing is that I find any game that requires navigating an open environment really frustrating and dull because of this - am I the lone, crazy person with this problem?

Are you female?

 

[MJinZ]

Here's a question then: My fiance' is from NJ and everything she knows is by a Landmark. Here in Colorado, we say North, South, East, West.
ie
she would say: "take a left at the wendy's"
me: so head South?
her: I don't know!

She gets lost using my directions, I get lost using hers.

Who else goes by this? (Landmark vs. Heading)

Drives me batshit...

North South East West is useful when there is clear sun in the sky or you have a compass, or you know which way the streets/roads lead. Or, if you're in Manhattan, you can't get lost.

If you're in an area where you don't know whether the road you are on goes in which direction, then landmarks can be more useful.

But the answer is that you should be able to find your way using a map and any type of directions.

 

[Crono]

Bad sense of direction, but fine in most games.

But that's because video games almost always have the equivalent of GPS: maps with current position marked.

I have no problem getting around by map, but I am horrible at remembering multiple locations spatially, and I am terrible remembering sequences of directions.

I remember scoring closer to a female brain on that quiz that was posted here a while back, though in total I was both male/female for my brain.