I know you are busy saving the world, but...

Side quests. 

It's a mechanism seen in so many games because it achieves the goals of lengthening play, letting the player put their stamp on their character through choices outside of the main campaign, and with chances to personalize (and improve) their gear, and of course to explore the world and the lore.

Like James Bond Plotting, it seems like a natural fit for novels as well.

Really, most of a plot is this already. There's two major forms going on; first is actually plot-related, but takes form as various odd errands that seem to be necessary just to get the clue or the part for the magic demon-defeating weapon or whatever. Second is stuff that builds character, builds world. The biggest difference is that even in games with a Reputation or Morality meter, non-game stories can build all sorts of important character growth into these side stories.

I had already intended the plot for The Early Fox to be heavily on having to do a thing for a person to get the thing to give to some other person so they would tell Penny the next clue. But now I'm thinking about the second kind.

C plots.

But it might just be that I manage to get a chest cold and spent a week out of work with a nasty cough and no energy and no brain. I'm slowly coming back to the book, and staring at my plot wondering what the hell it was that I was thinking -- something that must have felt so clear then I didn't put it in my notes, but now that fever has burned out more of the remaining brain cells, can't remember now.

But I got a lot of HZD done. And watching another Let's Play.

Aloy -- gets a lot of side quests. By Forbidden West she's got not just main quests, quests which grant weapons or armor, and collectibles, the new upgrade system requires so many specialized parts those become a quest form in and of themselves.

At least it has broken slightly with the "go here and kill everything you see" of Skyrim. Instead, it is "go here and shoot these specific parts off some of these machines." Which makes combat a lot more complicated and strategic as you are trying to balance getting all that useful loot against, well, surviving the encounter as well.

Aloy even lampshades this at least once in dialogue. "I get it; you want me to go there, shoot some machines, bring you back some parts."

At least the game has more excuse for the quests which are doing errands for random people. As opposed to people walking up to the full kitted-out assassin in black armor and a really bad reputation and asking him if he'd mind making a run down to the chemist for some sticking plaster.

Aloy, on the other hand, has a huge reputation for helping people. As of the start of Forbidden West she is the Savior of Meridian and Anointed of the Nora (she hates both titles. And don't bow, either. The Anointed doesn't like it). Plus Seeker, Thrush of the Lodge, and Chieftain of the Werak.

Well before the second game is over, she's also Savior of Plainsong, Champion of the Tenakt, and Ancestor Reborn. Take the last just as one example; the Quen worship the Legacy of the Ancestors, those figures of mostly-lost history who showed the way for their tribe to grow and prosper. Aloy is one of them returned in flesh. Yeah, maybe not exactly the person you'd turn to to pick up your laundry, but absolutely a person to do the impossible and save some lives doing it.

All of the titles above are basically titles of "wandering do-gooder." Seriously, though, she could be getting a lot of "help us out" quests just with her Focus alone.

Which does happen more than a little in the first game, as people come to her as "the Nora who can see the unseen." Yeah, welcome to being the only person after the apocalypse with a fully functional Google Glass.

Also one of the greatest diagetic excuses for a HUD that I know of -- because even as there are some clever ones out there, going back to at least Half-Life where the HEV suit contains the display unit that shows you that game data, the Focus is also a key part of the story. Not just a tool, but the way discovery of the Focus changes Aloy's life, and also as it turned out changed Sylens' as well and led to the awakening of HADES (and thus the plot), and of course quite a lot of plot-related "who has a focus, who can listen in to another focus" stuff.

By about an hour into the game, Aloy has the only gliding wing (sure, Gruda had one, but she killed him...and took it), and also (unusually for any tech left within eyeball range of the Oseram) the only grappling hook.

So they really should be coming to her all the time with "Hey, my cat got stuck in a tree. Could you grapple gun your way up there and glide back down with it? Only take you a moment."

But, no. They'd rather ask her to beat up a few machines.