I keep a couple notepads hanging around just out of habit, because I grew up in the NES and SNES era of games where for the most part, games like RPGs didn't have quest logs at all and sometimes keeping notes was the only way to progress.

Heck, I even use notebooks for games that DO have fairly decent in-game journals for the player.

I played The Forgotten City this last weekend, which is basically a game where you're stuck in a timeloop and you need to figure out how to fix things. I kept notes about a bunch of stuff because it was useful to keep notes about where key items were located and what specific answers I needed to give certain characters to get something I wanted, etc.

Plus, I play the Zelda ALTTP randomizer all the time and you really need to take notes when you're doing that. As much as you promise you'll remember where item X is that you'll need to come back for later, the runs can get chaotic really quickly and having those notes can be vital.

Plus, the nice thing about writing your own notes versus relying on something a developer gives you is that you can make then as short or detailed as you think they need to be. If I know I need to go to town X and see Y person, I don't need the entire backstop for it all to sift through for the info about where to find them. I can just write Volgarr, Whiteman Tavern, PM only and I'm sure the rest will come back to me when I get to it.

Or a big reason I keep a notebook handy: Item farming in games where item use is important and being able to reliably have an easy source of specific things is very useful. I'm currently playing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and there's a normally rare item which grants you a constant HP regeneration effect, which for a difficult and punishing game like it is very useful to have, as are the Tiger Seals that let you summon NPC allies. I know where I can find a consistent and fast place to snag these that I've got loads of them, which has helped take the edge off a difficult game.

I occasionally write a “journal” format on my blog posts on games. So far I’ve done it for games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Blue Prince, and Sekiro which have made the experience far better than just playing the game and normally writing about it.

I kept a to do list on Satisfactory, and Anno 1800.

I actually have a folder named "game docs" inside there are folders for dozens of games with my notes, screenshots, some guides, or tips.

For puzzle adventure games I usually just get pen and paper.

This year I played Blue Prince and ended up with several pages full with scribbling that resemble the ramblings of a madman, I don't they would even help me if I picked up the game again.

myst. Played it last year for the first time. Kept notes on index cards with addresses to link ideas. Covered my kitchen table for 3 days. after finishing the game I compiled everything into a small notebook with hand drawn annotated maps. I'll probably never replay the game but I will definitely flip through the book to relive it.

I love writing down notes for puzzle or point-n-click adventure games. Even if the game has a built-in hints system, I like the thrill of trying to piece together the clues for the puzzles myself.

I'll also take brief notes for RPGs as well. I note down: - locked doors/chests that I can't lockpick quite yet at my current level - merchants selling gear that I can't afford yet - loot stashes I've set up for myself - interesting points of interest that I've visited but haven't figured out the purpose of yet

Blue prince. The game tells you to do this and it's a must to do the side puzzles

World of warcraft. There is a mod to add a checklist for daily, weekly activities and a lot of things to track on notepad

I've always wanted to do it. But my job doesn't give me time for it. I wanted to do it with Pokémon and Master Hunter.

I read about a guy doing this for Breath of the Wild, and it really seems a great idea to further enhance the immersion. But I just don't have the time for that.

I play XCOM: Enemy Within using the Long War mod. I love immersing myself in the game as much as possible.

For every 250+ hour campaign, I keep a logbook that contains all the following sections:

• Campaign Info page, with difficulty level, starting country, date started / ended, Second Wave Options (in-game gameplay change settings), soldier build themes, monthly Council ratings, and important dates
• Every UFO by number / date / country, elevation of encounter, size of UFO, model of UFO, how many Interceptors I sent to combat it, what the results of combat were, and how much damage each Interceptor took
• Every mission by date, mission type, country, the team sent on the mission (I arrange my soldiers into deployment teams, with each soldier class getting a slot), how many soldiers were fatigued / fatigue-wounded / wounded / KIA, and how many aliens were killed
• A rookie roster, where each rookie's starting stats are tracked (helps me balance out the teams by mixing strong soldiers with weaker ones to avoid any team being underpowered)
• A section for organizing all the soldiers by class (rocketeer vs gunner vs infantry vs medic, etc)
• A section for keeping track of which soldier is on which team (five main teams plus a "Dirty Dozen" misfits team of benchwarmers)
• A section for tracking other aspects of the game I want to be aware of: SHIVs, MECs, Interceptors, Firestorms, Council and Mission Rewards by date and type
• A KIA / MIA Memorial list that gives the soldier's rank, name, class, date they died, the mission type they were on, what kind of alien killed them, and how many kills and missions the soldier had on their record.
• Finally, at the end of the logbook, there's a page dedicated to all the endgame stats you receive when you complete the campaign.

In addition to all of the above, I keep an Excel document with the following tabs:

• Base Layout - helps in planning how my base buildout will go to ensure that I don't waste space, run out of available power at key points, etc.
• Artifact Tracker - helps me stay on top of things like alien corpses and exotic materials needed for all of my research and item crafting plans, so when I complete X project my total number of required corpses and materials can be reduced. Essential for helping me know how much stuff I can sell on the Grey Market to raise money to pay for stuff.
• Research Path - Outlines my general research goals and path through the tech tree. It's VERY easy to get sidetracked with less-than-optimal choices and fall behind on Laboratory research priorities.
• Aerial Combat - A calculator that lets me estimate Interceptor and Firestorm chances against various UFOs depending on weapons loadout, level of aggression the pilot takes, and the pilot's experience.
• Skill Choices - Lists for all Soldier Class builds, Officers and Psi training choices when those classes gain experience.
• Important Mission Months - A quick-reference list for scripted game events, general notes about mission types I want to remember, and notes about specific maps.

Things I'm planning to add in my next campaign:

• Figuring out a way to track which alien types were killed and how many resources were collected at the end of the mission. The game gives an end-of-mission screen with all of these stats, but there's a lot of content, and a written log would be difficult, however, alt-tabbing out to an Excel spreadsheet would be tedious (even if it is easier in the long run).
• Doing a "Commander's Journal" that is a daily narrative of the campaign, written as I play through the game.
• A tracker of each Laboratory research project (date started, date finished, costs and materials for the project, and the number of Scientists on hand when the project is conducted)
• A tracker of each Engineering project (same as above, but includes each item built, each base structure built, each Foundry project completed, etc.)
• A tracker for each Council Request (member nations request things like alien corpses or exotic materials, in exchange for Scientists, Engineers, cash, or soldiers to add to your roster)

The closest I've ever gotten is some hastily squiggled notes for puzzles in games, unless you count some terrible fanfics written in my teenage years.

Yes. Elden Ring for me

I always take general notes of games I'm playing (I blame my media studies minor lol). But when I did a pokemon crystal clear run, I did it all as my trainer, explaining all the aspects of the open world decisions I was making. Made it a lot of fun since crystal clear being so open means that there isn't much of a plot, so I had to roleplay a sense of purpose.

i think writing as you play games is the optimal way to experience a game. it elevates everything but i typically only do it for quest or story purposes and my notes are very basic

In my recent memory Lorelei and The Laser Eyes, actually a very good puzzle game had me doing all sorts of things on a piece of paper.

Ok reading more I feel like this was about writing journals and full fledged notes, in that regard no game has made me feel like that way and made me want to write about it. I'm more about playing as many games as I want(backlogs are crazy) and also have no time to do this, I would rather just play another game.

Back when I played Minecraft, I used to keep a book of noteworthy locations in the world, mostly places that I've set up a house with crafting table and furnace. My spawn was on the boundary between a tall jungle and desert, so any creatures, plants and resources found anywhere else was also noteworthy. the closest village was half a days journey by pig along the border, so that was marked too. I'd also note what important blocks and items I had at the village house so that I wouldn't arrive and find I'd forgotten something necessary, or brought over something unneeded.

Sometimes I'd also try to keep notes about lore points in other games. Like in Gungeon, most "lore" is in enemy and item description, and I tried to clumsily figure it all out

I bought an entire notebook dedicated to Blue Prince. It's about 40 pages of notes. I used some of it for Tunic and deciphering the language as well

Satisfactory. I've got a notebook where I plan production chains, factory layout, do formal calculations, and note anything else I feel is relevant to the project. It's strange, someone I load up the game for ambiance, but what I'm actually doing is scrubbing away in a notebook for an hour.

Also, Return of The Obra Dinn. You'd have to be Sherlock Holmes himself to figure that game out without taking notes.

Blue Prince, I have a journal about 60 pages long so far and I actually feel so good going through the pages and answering questions I jotted down earlier on.

I have sketched puzzle solutions, random pictures or scenes I see and just things I have tried to do or I think I should try later when the gamestate allows.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R

The first time I tried to play Baldur's Gate 1 I meticulously journaled my adventures. Lost the thing I was playing it on in a divorce so I stopped.

I've done it a few times, and it was always a great help.

Notable journals include Mega Man 2, Castlevania 2, Morrowind, Kentucky Route Zero, and Red Dead 2.

I remember drawing dungeon maps for easier navigation when playing one of Ultima games.

I used to use The Long Dark's in-game journaling system to make in-character notes. Good way to pass time when it's too dark to do anything and it made it feel more real, in a way. I only did it on my first few playthroughs, though

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I mainly write down journal-like notes when I play games. My reasoning is I want to be able to come back months later and continue where I left off. That's why I also try to record gameplay when I can.

La Mulana is the hardest game I have ever played. Even with a guide that shit is insane.

I have a notebook by my computer that I regularly use for adventure and puzzle games to work out a solution. Some other genres, like RPGs and survival horror, sometimes get into the notebook. For the most part, it's not really anything special. Some games (e.g. Broken Age) basically tell you to get some paper and work out the solution, even giving you a nice starting point.

I think the only game that was really special was the original Riven. Along with a couple bigger puzzles, which still need a lot of notetaking, the game does a fantastic job of intertwining world building and puzzle solving even beyond what is typical for an adventure game. As a result, you often have to approach it more like an anthropologist, because maybe that cave drawing or animal interaction will play a role in a later puzzle. By the end, my notebook was filled with plenty of little observations and ideas about the world and its people that never were used in puzzles but were interesting nonetheless.

Once upon a time, this was kind of normal for big computerized RPG adventures. I still have some New World Computing notepads, as the Heroes of Might and Magic people liked to ship those with their bigger titles. In particular, the Swords of Xeen/Darkside of Xeen games got me taking all sorts of notes. They featured plenty of complex puzzles that saw actions taken on one area of the map have effects on seemingly unrelated doors or chests in a totally different area of the map. If you understood the equipment and combat systems, you could build up your party to be off-the-charts powerful and durable. Yet progress also depended on solving some of these extremely complex puzzles, solutions that virtually required those notes since elements of those puzzles would be too far apart to easily hold in mind while journeying around to all the relevant spots.

Sailwind you pretty much need to keep notes to navigate effectively, it evolved into a proper log. Funnily enough it inspire me to starting logging my IRL sailing adventures

It's not quite the same but a year or so ago I played a game of Civilization 5 and did something similar. Set it to the "slowest" speed (Longest gameplay) and wrote out little story/journal like entries for each turn/group of turns. It was pretty dang fun, not going to lie. Had story arcs for some of the units, stories about what wars happened and why, etc etc. Scratched the creative writing itch I'd ignored for years and also made the game a bit more immersive/fun than usual.

It was a lot of work so haven't done it since, but I might try to do another one this coming year.

I made a really epic excel spreadsheet to keep track of demon fusion in the original Shin Megami Tensei! I almost enjoyed that part as much as the game itself 😅

Pillars of Eternity. I took notes because I found the plot and lore hard to follow due it having an excessive amount of both important and unimportant info dumping and little way to distinguish the two. I enjoyed the plot but it was told terribly.

Oxygen not included because that shit gets complex. 

sonic cd. i actually do it quite often in my head, but i don’t put it on paper that often.

The last time I replayed LoZ Wind Waker I charted the seas with my own 6x6 grid map (or however large it was). It really helped me track what I could come back to after unlocking various abilities

Keep meaning to do it but always forget. Need a sticky note or something.

Yes, but in a different way than you described.

I play this zombie game called Project Zomboid. It doesn't really have a story other than... This is how you died.

So when I started a new character, I started a journal as if this character was writing it. And I'd chronicle their journey through the game while I pretended to jot the character's thoughts down.

Due to life and work I didn't get too far. But my idea was to try and write a full notebook's worth, with each page being an in-game day.

Riven, I pretty much wrote down anything that could possibly be a clue to a puzzle. Had like 5 full pages of random sounds, symbols and other notes

I drew a ton of pictures and notes in my notebook while playing the outer wilds. The game kind of keeps track of stuff for you but it was satisfying to solve the puzzles built into the game by reviewing my own notes. Highly recommend if you haven’t played it before, go in blind and don’t look anything up

I created several maps for subnautica. Started with a big one with notes until it became chaos and then made some extra smaller ones too. 

Back in the day there were certain games you couldn't play without taking notes. 

I definitely remember writing everything down that every NPC said in the Ultima games, starting maybe with Ultima 3 (released in 1983)?

The game was constantly referring to random things that NPCs said, and so this was key to solving the puzzles.

Similarly, with games like Wizardry (1981), I had graph paper ready to map the entire dungeon, and that was key to not getting lost and finding stuff (as game took place in a 20x20x10 cube, with most of those 4000 locations in use by something.

I don't miss having to do all that at all -- now, my gaming time is more limited, and so I'm glad to have the automap, the journal, the waypoint markers, etc.

This was just, like... how you played RPGs in the 80s.  In-game map?  Unlikely. Quest markers? Absolutely not.  In-game journal? Nooope. 

That’s too much work, dude 🧐