I'm going to be reasonable when I should not be. I know very well that all forumers -- in fact anyone -- can do is argue back, but, I'm gonna waste time. This little topic is going to merely be a list. That's it. It's what no one wants, but what everyone needs: A list of commands -- not a "discussion" where all anyone can do is talk back to everyone else, plugging their ears and yelling at the top of their lungs like morons. No, it's up to you, the forumer, and the developers to agree or disagree.
There are very intellectually illiterate people who think: The more, the better. This is false. Sometimes what makes a thing good isn't about what it does have, but what it doesn't. The purpose of this thread is to post a list which makes things clear, not just about Dwarf Fortress, but about gaming in general. I gave up on video games, but in the back of my mind I had heard about Dwarf Fortress, when I had played Dwarf Fortress for the long while, I realized it does have some good qualities, but came around to have disappointments as well. All I can do is state the truth, and it's up to you to believe it or not, and no, it's not my fault if you don't listen. I'm also not held responsible because you want to whine about how I "present" what I write -- the content of what's being said, and the objective purpose thereof, is what matters.
A game is a set of functions, and a competition. The earliest games are like when the wolves race each other across the taiga. In a competition/game, your adversary is often equal or superior, and therein is great challenge. The game is strife, without strife, it is not a game. And in that strife, there is risk and reward: Loss and success. It's not a game if there's nothing to lose and or no reward.
What a game must never have -- the curses of modern gaming that ruin games:
Difficulty settings (Path of least resistance, bad gameplay)
Tips, hints, tutorials (Intel, bullshit)
Cutscenes, cinematics (Bullshit)
Maps, compass, GPS (Intel, bad gameplay)
Radar, displays (Intel)
Stealth meter, awareness meters (Intel, bad gameplay)
'Fast travel' features (Path of least resistance, bad gameplay)
Predictability (Bad gameplay)
Turn-based (Bad gameplay)
Anything which gives the player intel, without them actually having to see it for themself, should never be in a game, period. An example is FPS games where for some reason, there's always some "radar" on the bottom left-hand side of the screen, showing where all the enemies are.
Anything which has to explain the game to the player, should never be in a game. It's not learning if someone tells you how to do it. The game secrets are also going to have to change everytime, this way idiots can't just write a wikipage describing away every secret that the game has. Certain gameplay aspects will also have to change, so that the game cannot be explained.
Anything which allows the player to take the path of least resistance without outright hacking the game, should never be part of a game.
The less the player knows, the better. The less that is explained, the better. The less that CAN be explained, even better.
In addition, Dwarf Fortress is remarkably simple. There is no 'high-learning curve' or anything which people have talked about. I have already set out, a long time ago, a flawless system, which would give greater complexity and depth than the Dwarf Fortress game with 1/1000th of the work output, however I am not a game developer, and am not a producer, I merely take the content that is about and ripe. I would not give away these good mechanics, as they would just go to waste on some game full of tips, hints, tutorials, too much intel, "easy difficulty" (not like the hardest difficulty is any more difficult), cutscenes, fugly characters (like the new Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be full of...), and other nonsense. I wrote all my perfect graphs on paper, however I could also remake them with computer image-editing software. Of course for a 3D game, not birds-eye-view.
It is a shame, when I saw such things as 'easy start' crap in the game start settings, due to the graphics mod, my mind sank, almost like a strong "depression", though I do not get depressed. I knew then that it happened again: There can never be anything good. Everything's just gonna be fucked up bullshit because of idiots. Even my brother, who I rarely speak to, and he is avid on "gaming", rarely plays games anymore, cause it's just the same shit over and over again: Tips, hints, tutorials, easy mode, cinematics, story crap, linear gameplay, et cetera. I saw the Dwarf Fortress developer mention making a tutorial and I deleted the game. I was done. I knew then that it's hopeless. Only I can make a good game, and I don't care about making games. I'll just go play golf or something. Everyone I know is stopping playing games, and even people I see about, because developers can't get their shit straight, like with Crysis and World of Warcraft. As if the first Crysis game didn't have enough flaws, the 2nd and 3rd gutted every good thing that the game had. World of Warcraft just gets worse and worse, and I was a top player who quit, though I'm not sure how many of you know about WoW. The gaming environment is a wasteland.
Author
Topic: Suggestions About What the Game Needs to Not Have (Read 47477 times)