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Author Topic: We need Real Life: The Game  (Read 815 times)

Aichuk

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We need Real Life: The Game
« on: December 14, 2013, 06:33:11 am »

No, I'm not talking about those funny reddit threads (insert "Graphics are great, but gameplay sucks" joke). I'm talking about a roguelike game, kind of like Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode meets Unreal World Meets The Sims 3.

The problem with real life is the difficulty, the element of random chance (you can be spawned as a peasant or a billionaire) and the fact that it's permadeath (unless you believe in some religions). I was thinking of some game where you control this guy and just... live. I don't need the entire world, just a city or a town will be fine. However, I need complexity and features. The first update should just focus on the physics engine and the biology of your character. You just stay locked in a room with very little things and just interact using the game engine, which should allow you to do little things like pinch yourself in specific regions, lick everything (even the walls).

Eventually new updates include more feature such as items, being allowed to roam around in your house, the procedurally generated town and so on. Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode focuses on fantasy medieval times and is mainly adventure but this one is in modern times and is pure sandbox. You should be able to have job (where you actually work) and so on.

Now most of you are thinking, sounds boring, if I wanted this game, I would just live in the real world. But the fun would come from the little random breaks from reality. If you're bored, suddenly you kick your co-worker in the face, smear chocolate on your genitals and walk around the entire town naked. Knowing how twisted Bay12 members are, I won't be shocked if one player cuts open a baby in the park and eats them (anything possible in the game engine is allowed).

As long as you use ASCII graphics, such a game is possible. I just wish I knew how to program well, or else I would've tried it myself.
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miauw62

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2013, 07:27:03 am »

Sounds boring and unrewarding. Games are (generally) escapism.
"oh yeah I just came home from work I'll go to work in this game"

The physics engine isn't all that possible either, since you'd have to hardcode chemical reactions and such. You want to use ASCII for distraction but then you go the other direction and want to simulate things pointlessly detailed.

Adding more features gradually will eventually have you running into a wall where you have too many dependencies and can't continue, unless you anticipated every one of these beforehand (hint: you can't).

Even the first versioncould take upwards of a year to make.

So you have the first version with a bunch of abstractions and later you want to make chemistry a thing, good luck rewriting half your code to make that happen.

For accurate physics, tile-based (as implied by ASCII) is fairly horrible, since you can't simulate physics on a grid very accurately. 3D is less suited towards mutability, but more viable than ASCII.

We don't need it and we can't make it anyway.
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

scrdest

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2013, 07:57:31 am »

Sounds boring and unrewarding. Games are (generally) escapism.
"oh yeah I just came home from work I'll go to work in this game"

I disagree - IMO this game would be supremely escapist. Sure, you COULD go back and forth from home to work, both IRL and in-game, but how often do you kick a co-worker in the face or start licking tree bark in the park?

Most games are a single-frame escapist fantasy; they simulate a single aspect of all possibilities. What the idea in the OP is is basically all the games at once.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2013, 08:47:17 am »

I disagree. I think we need Kim Jong: The game

This could be the intro
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Aichuk

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2013, 08:51:58 am »

Sounds boring and unrewarding. Games are (generally) escapism.
"oh yeah I just came home from work I'll go to work in this game"

The physics engine isn't all that possible either, since you'd have to hardcode chemical reactions and such. You want to use ASCII for distraction but then you go the other direction and want to simulate things pointlessly detailed.

Adding more features gradually will eventually have you running into a wall where you have too many dependencies and can't continue, unless you anticipated every one of these beforehand (hint: you can't).

Even the first versioncould take upwards of a year to make.

So you have the first version with a bunch of abstractions and later you want to make chemistry a thing, good luck rewriting half your code to make that happen.

For accurate physics, tile-based (as implied by ASCII) is fairly horrible, since you can't simulate physics on a grid very accurately. 3D is less suited towards mutability, but more viable than ASCII.


First of all, I don't expect the game to be finished soon. If somebody works on it, I'll expect them to finish it after 50-60 years.

Second, I don't need chemical reactions in the first version. I mixed up my words, I was talking about the game engine not the physics engine. I want the first version to be able to do basic stuff in the game.

Third, video games are not necessarily escapism, maybe for you, but not for all. And I already mentioned your statement in my post. It is a form of escapism because in here, you can do all the kind of stuff you wanted to do to people or things in real life, but are afraid to do. I mean, many of us imagine suddenly bitchslapping everyone in the room for no reason and seeing the reaction.
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miauw62

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2013, 09:04:20 am »

First, I doubt anyone is going to work on one game for 60 years. But we'll assume that it's a group project or whatever.

Second, your second point is what I am trying to say. In 60 years, computers will change, programming languages will change, OSs will change. Can you imagine rewriting 20 years worth of code? Implementing new features is going to get harder and harder as you need to remove previous abstractions and make other systems (of which there will be more and more) interact with your system properly.

Tl;dr: your code will become harder to maintain and to improve.

Thirdly,  there's a bunch of things we can't model. Human interaction and various other things.

Lastly, accurate models of certain systems do exist. ON HIGHLY SPECIALIZED SUPERCOMPUTERS.
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

ChairmanPoo

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2013, 09:04:49 am »

You know, the reason I find "Papers, please" boring is that it's an accurate simulation of a customs burocrat's daily grudge-work. For that very same reason, I find the perspective of playing a game in which I carry out an average joe's daily tasks very unappealing. I'd rather do my own daily job routine, if it comes to that. At least they *pay* me for that one.

In fact, one of the things that DF has over minecraft is that it does not force YOU to do grudge work, even at the start. You just plan it, and your dwarven slaves do the rest. Whereas in Minecraft building a gigantic phallic monument requires you to dig and place every stone.
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Darvi

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2013, 09:18:27 am »

RL is terrible enough as is. We don't need any more of it.
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Leafsnail

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2013, 11:06:00 am »

I disagree - IMO this game would be supremely escapist. Sure, you COULD go back and forth from home to work, both IRL and in-game, but how often do you kick a co-worker in the face or start licking tree bark in the park?

Most games are a single-frame escapist fantasy; they simulate a single aspect of all possibilities. What the idea in the OP is is basically all the games at once.
And that's the problem.  If you have a fun idea for a game, you shoild make that game.  Programming a straight simulation of life is a waste of time because a lot of your coding won't be making it any more fun.

I would really like to see a science based Roguelike though.  By that I mean the laws of the universe are randomly set and you have to try and work them out in order to get stronger.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2013, 11:07:50 am by Leafsnail »
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Itnetlolor

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2013, 11:27:50 am »

I think God already developed the game, and we're currently playing it right now; we're just not 'fully-aware' of it right now. Lately, I've been noticing some bugs with the weather system. I mean, this is one of the warmest Winters I've experienced so far, and I think Summer lasted for the entirety of last week. Then again, I live in one of the glitchiest places on the planet.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2013, 11:30:13 am by Itnetlolor »
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Remuthra

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2013, 11:53:22 am »

Thankfully, we already have a perfectly accurate simulation of Real Life!

Get it for free right here!

miauw62

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Re: We need Real Life: The Game
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2013, 11:56:59 am »

Sounds boring and unrewarding. Games are (generally) escapism.
"oh yeah I just came home from work I'll go to work in this game"

I disagree - IMO this game would be supremely escapist. Sure, you COULD go back and forth from home to work, both IRL and in-game, but how often do you kick a co-worker in the face or start licking tree bark in the park?

Most games are a single-frame escapist fantasy; they simulate a single aspect of all possibilities. What the idea in the OP is is basically all the games at once.
"you lick the tree bark, nothing happens"
Wow, very exciting.
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.