Random Notes in Video Games

A pet peeve. Have you ever played a video game, and you keep finding these journal entries lying around that you can read? Sometimes these are just notes or discarded tape recorders with extra plot for you to digest. If the game developers have a little extra money in their budget, those written notes will actually have the voice of its writer reading it.

I'll be honest. Except for one particular instance this trope was used, I do not like this. I do not care how much people defend it, but this is an incredibly immersion-breaking thing in games. It's not something that sometimes happened; it actually became a remarkably common addition to some very popular games. It was all over the place, and we just sort of put up with it... because we liked it or something.

I just can't get it straight in my head, though. Why are people writing only portions of their journals, tearing the pages out, and then leaving them in random places as they travel around? Why am I finding torn-out pages of their journal? Sometimes, it isn't even that. I often just find entire books lying around with only one journal entry. Are they buying entire empty books for just one brief rant that happens to be on their minds?

But what about the tape recorders? Oh, these make more sense because of their convenience, right? But I just keep finding them everywhere! Why are people just tossing these things away? These have to cost more than pieces of notepaper! It also makes even less sense when these recorded messages all come from the same person. Does he just keep a pocketful of them?

Imagine a guy who takes out a recorder, records his thoughts, and just leaves it behind. Still plenty of tape left, but he does not care. He must have really taken advantage of that tape recorder clearance sale!

This trope rarely makes sense. Some of it is slightly forgivable, though. Sometimes you might find a corpse where you will find the person's notepad or something. No biggy there. You might also be in a situation where you can hack computers and read the user's personal notes. That's okay too. My main beef just has to do with these random pieces of papers that are just being left around. Why even write stuff if you are going to abandon all of it.

Like I said, there is an exception. "Alan Wake" took this trope and actually did good with it. Those notes you were finding were actually written by you outside of the story. They were integral to the story of the game itself. You wanted to find them, because each one you found gave you another piece of the puzzle.

I get it. Some people crave the extra plot they can get out of a game, but there are better more immersive ways to deliver that plot than having people leave their rotten little journals lying around. It is a lazy way to tell a broader story, and I hope to see the trope end.

By the way, in case you are wondering what game sparked this blog, it was the new "Tomb Raider" trilogy. One of the absolute worst offenders. Please stop doing this. I hate it.

This blog was written on March 4, 2026.

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