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Why Babysitting Item is a bad thing?

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I wonder why babysitting items is a bad thing?
I though the babysitting items like a puzzle!!
Same issue "flat" levels have really; many consider them boring and uninspired. There are better ways to make fun and interesting puzzles than forcing the player to do nothing but carry around items over large distances.


 
Item babysitting is exactly what the name says; there's no challenge, only tedious back-and-forth-tracking and downgrading of Mario's normal abilities, which isn't really a whole lot of fun. There's nothing wrong with creating an original puzzle and having to carry stuff around a bit, but going overboard with the "carrying" part and not being hard at all is what ticks people off.
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Because extended item babysitting makes a level feel bloated and carry on to be longer than it should be. Puzzles make the player think about what the solution is, not arbitrarily make them go find Item X placed at Location A do it can be used to get Item Y and that's used at Location B to get past Obstacle/Barrier Z.

Using SMWCP as an example, a puzzle would be something such as Switch of Many Hues while item babysitting would be the Cave Void (extreme example) or Oh Man, It's Hell! (lighter example).


It's basically a crutch to support poor design and far too many people use it.

It's really just an artificial way of extending levels. Making the players have to repeat lengthy sections of the level while carefully keeping an item in tow is not fun, and instead is just tedious and repetitive. Level repitition isn't just applicable to item babysitting. You'll also have hacks that will block you off from proceeding past a certain point unless you hit an ON/OFF switch at the other end of the level, or some similar gimmick.
Basically, a good rule of thumb for games (not just level design, but games in general) is to always have the player making forward progress, and when you item babysit, you halt forward progress.
I think a small portion of item babysitting (kinda one screen) is ok, though, because it also occurs in the original game. The most horrible example of item babysitting is OUTRAGEOUS level: you have to carry a springboard for some screens to proceed.
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Personally I wish I didn't have to worry that every springboard or p-switch I found would maybe probably be necessary for progress later down the level and need me to lug the thing around.
One of the most annoying parts of item babysitting for me is figuring out where to use the item. In some hacks, I carry a springboard or a P-Switch throughout the level, only to find out it was for a yoshi coin or some other measley reward.
Because you have to carry an item for a long time,
then it gets really boring. #smw{-_-Z}
But it's great for kaizo hacks.
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It does nothing but adds artificial length to a level without a proportional increase in new content. It shows poor level design, laziness and forces players to carry items all over the place to progress. For many players that's a boring and irritating thing to do. What's worse is that most of the time there's no indication of where to use the item.
Originally posted by Iceguy
For many players that's a boring and irritating thing to do.


But what if you, as a player, like it? Do you include it in your level or not? This is something I've been wondering ever sense this thread came up. I mean, nobody says that you can't make a Kaizo level anymore.

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Kaizo targets a completely different audience than the average offender of item babysitting does.

I feel like the biggest problem is, item babysitting often forces you to redo parts of the level over and over again (which is boring), and also, while carrying an item you can't spinjump, which is a pain.

One other thing, item babysitting "puzzles" don't really make you think that much. The simpler ones are child's play to solve, and the more complex ones just require you to pay attention to what item you need to get other items and so on and so on. Not very challenging or fun.
To me the worst part of item babysitting is that it limits Mario's abilities. You can't spin jump, you can't ride an Yoshi (yeah, you can carry it on his mouth, but there's a risk of swallowing), if I'm not wrong you can't wall jump either in hacks it's enabled. That decreases the fun of the level, somewhat.

Plus, like others said, if you lose it, you'll have to commit suicide (unless there's a reset door or something, although it's boring to redo the level a bunch of times).
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So why the empty numb?
Originally posted by Austin
if you lose it, you'll have to commit suicide

If it's a shell or pressing a P-Switch at the wrong time, yeah, but I think springboards and keys respawn if thrown down a pit, but you have to be careful to not accidentally place them in unreachable places where they're still onscreen.
Also, you can carry items while on Yoshi, but it counts as glitch abuse and it's sometimes not possible depending on sprite slots (not sure what that means).
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Originally posted by Austin
if I'm not wrong you can't wall jump either in hacks it's enabled.

Strange, in the hacks that have wall jump that I remember by heart (Drama Mistery and Secret of The Seven Golden Statues) it was able to do it while carrying things.

I really don't bother item babysitting, except if:

1) you have to face strong enemies or cross complicated gaps, etc.
2) you have to walk all around the level (if it's up to 2 screens or so it's okay for me).
3) it's used as an excuse for uninspired puzzles or bad level design.
4) it's used in a great number of levels. Using it in ghost houses doesn't bother me, dunno why, I think it's because they were originally used as "item puzzle levels" in SMW.
Originally posted by Iceguy
[...] What's worse is that most of the time there's no indication of where to use the item.

I think this is probably the biggest issue. If you see a p-switch you can't usually tell if you're supposed to press it right away or carry it somewhere, and if so, where. Perhaps it'd be better if more hacks made use of fixed p-switches.
Well, technically if you use the multiple item carry glitch it won't happen.

However, you probably shouldn't make the player abuse glitches to make things tolerable
Item babysitting has basically ruined P switches. People will carry them to the end of the level, afraid to use them for fear they'll be needed later, missing out on the bonus stuff they could have got right there.
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