It's a really really fun thing to look at. I don't think many developers even consciously realise why the sprint mechanic is mandatory in games these days. Once you realise the sprint mechanics is about engaging monkey-brain in the in-between parts even in the smallest way you realise that the entirety of Death Stranding is built around understanding this.
It's the same for climbing mechanics too. Climbing a wall sucks ass but Breath of the Wild added a stamina bar and a dash mechanic to it which is basically just a sprint mechanic for vertical movement and suddenly climbing up a wall is significantly less painful for the player. It's not FUN, but neither is travelling from A to B in any other way, but it's more engaging and that stops it feeling horrible.
If more developers understood the mechanics at such a deep level then we'd see more focus on expanding in these areas to really fill in the gaps that make certain parts of games boring as hell. Walking from A to B is not as tedious in real life as it is in a videogame because in real life your brain is engaged in hundreds of little ways that it isn't in a game, filling in the gaps for more engaging mechanics gives monkey-brain more juice that stops it feeling bored.
It's a really really fun thing to look at. I don't think many developers even consciously realise why the sprint mechanic is mandatory in games these days. Once you realise the sprint mechanics is about engaging monkey-brain in the in-between parts even in the smallest way you realise that the entirety of Death Stranding is built around understanding this.
It's the same for climbing mechanics too. Climbing a wall sucks ass but Breath of the Wild added a stamina bar and a dash mechanic to it which is basically just a sprint mechanic for vertical movement and suddenly climbing up a wall is significantly less painful for the player. It's not FUN, but neither is travelling from A to B in any other way, but it's more engaging and that stops it feeling horrible.
If more developers understood the mechanics at such a deep level then we'd see more focus on expanding in these areas to really fill in the gaps that make certain parts of games boring as hell. Walking from A to B is not as tedious in real life as it is in a videogame because in real life your brain is engaged in hundreds of little ways that it isn't in a game, filling in the gaps for more engaging mechanics gives monkey-brain more juice that stops it feeling bored.