Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra :: I don't agree with this

[quote name="jeep"]<a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40266/Twisted_Metal_man_David_Jaffes_Skyrim_theory.php">this blurb</a> from an interview [quote]Many point to Skyrim as a hallmark of open world design, but Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe says that it's the system and resource management that players really find attractive. Speaking to Gamasutra about his belief that the key to developing games is creating "experiences that speak respectfully and powerfully, using the language of interactivity," he discussed what he thinks makes the chart-topping RPG geat. "Well, a lot of people look at Skyrim and they say, 'Oh, the graphics' -- or the music or the sound effects -- 'that's what makes it immersive.' And sure, that's true to an extent. It is a combat game, there's fighting, but it's more of a simulation of an experience. So is Twisted Metal, but [Skyrim is] more of a simulation, like, live this character's life," says Jaffe. "In that game, your brain is engaged in so much stuff that speaks to what we're talking about, which is the language of interactivity," he says. These in-game interactions and choices may not make for sexy box copy, but they engage the brain, Jaffe argues. "Walking through the forest, going 'I need to get this shit back to the armorer, so I can sell it, so I can make money, so I can go on this side quest I've been trying to earn enough shit to go on successfully, but I can't go much faster because if I pick up another item, I'm going to be going really slow, and I'm going to get my ass killed going through this forest, getting back to town. How do I deal with that?'" "If you read the back of the game box, it will promise you that you get to live this great adventure. But in essence, you're really dealing with mechanics -- which is great. And I'm not saying of the box should be like, 'Look! A game of resource management!' You need to live within the world you live in, and appeal to a level that the people can understand."[/quote] The very first thing I do when I play a Bethesda game is open the console and type "setav.carryweight 20000" because that inventory system, and running back to town in general, is dumb as shit. I agree that it's 'simulation,' but precise simulation is failure when setting aesthetic goals for making a game. Their stubborn adherence to that goddamned inventory system is almost as bad as the 'boring gate back to doom 2 outside of every town' horseshit that wrecked Oblivion. I play these games because it's fun to blast things to pieces with fireballs and screw around with physics via the magic system. That other <a href="http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=143309">argument thread</a> where vested id and I had a short disagreement about whether narrative was important or not vs the design of gameplay also plays a part here. Starting from gameplay and working 'up' to find a narrative map is critical because it keeps the game's first focus on what's fun to play while still offering the player a cohesive narrative, because <i>people think of everything in terms of narrative</i>, even the rules of a game, but they play in terms of 'challenge with surprises,' and working 'down' from narrative leads to all kinds of bad choices w/r/t smooth challenging gameplay and design, leading to anime tards making dating sims or whatever. The same thing happens with simulation in both tabletop and video games, people who try to shoehorn in details by designing 'down' into the gameplay from 'simulating real life' are, just like narrative-down designers or film-down designers (like square) and shitty fanservice-down designers (like bioware), basically are leaving their success to chance. They'll make a gameplay decision because the story/film sequence/fanservice bullshit calls for it rather than doing what's best, and that means whether the thing is actually fun or not is random. Starting from gameplay and going up to narrative (which loosely maps back to the gameplay) is the old Nintendo way. That's how we got fucking plumbers fighting turtles to save a princess. I've read the rest of the interview and some other stuff from that dev...elsewhere, and I think he knows the way to get to good gameplay consistently is to focus on the 'challenge with surprises' part of the design and then 'decorate' the other stuff on top of it. I'm 100% sure that he and I are on the same page with that at least, but that blurb doesn't represent his idea clearly.[/quote]