testing newest release. I spawned in some kind of library... all the books were shelved on a single bookcase. literally every single book in the damn building.
is reality really so bureaucratic? isn't it the case that your maximum carried weight depends on subtle variables such as how much water one has consumed in the past few hours? or food eaten in the last days? isn't it the case that a person might happen upon a sudden understanding of a concept, avoiding the usual slog of studying and review of material? Similarly, when a person aims a firearm, how many different things affect this person's ability to steady and align the rifle? how could one ever hope to refine these subtleties into coherent, self-assuring variables?
I question realism these days, mostly due to the above line of questioning. where do you draw the line for your simulation? where is the proper simulated realism? does it truly reside in these infinitely metricized variables? objects galore and parts strewn across the apocalypse, each with a specific list of uses? never ending lists of things, yet never a chance to make your own way?
importantly, this 'list of uses' is determined not by a player's creativity (aka the human's input as a brain) but instead two factors:
1. the relative knowledge of the player character (book reading, int, etc)
2. the relative knowledge of the programmer who designed said 'list of uses'
So when I sit for a moment and design a perfectly interesting roleplay-able character, set out on my adventure, in the hopes that the simulation will support my imagined reality... time passes but eventually I run into a particular situation where a normal, realistic human would be able to circumvent the various contexts (read: zombies, water boiling, etc) and find a solution. yet the game does not support this creativity.
supposedly the solution to this event is to join the project and modify the game to suit my perception of the world.
that is somewhat of a joke of a solution.
in a way, I think the character generation is a flaw here. we are tasked with selecting basal statistics, fewer stats that DnD even, a single 'intelligence' stat to take care of all the permutations of human subjectivity
so. the game itself roleplays for us, simulating these interactions between character and world according to statistics, skills, other contexts. only if you have the stat or the skill or the weapon or the thing, can you build the craft or perform the attack or construct the device or do the action.
but where do WE step in and roleplay? is that even part of the game? as participants in a shared simulated world, does this chain of actions remain an interesting life to live? gaining statistics through rote aquisition and repetition of activities?
are we limited to various mechanical orgies, constructing deathmobiles? becoming super-hero-villain-aliens through mutagen abuse? essentially, the only interesting player output from this game is the breaking of the game's rules. players are thrust into a battle against the game's mechanics, with victory achieved only when a b*tch is made of the generated world. the stories of failure are interesting, sure.
but get this. pure survival is a joke. tedium, infinite tedium. consider the mentality of a zombie survivor - a quiet life in the woods with no interlopers is exactly the kind of life one might want to live. yet, C:DDA as a game does not reward this lifestyle. . . the purification of water is a good example. you start the game with this need for water, and securing things like funnels, jugs, a fire source, and an object to boil water is perhaps the most important thing to do in those first days. yet, this only leads to a chore loop, involving your filling and emptying of various jugs and barrels and whatnot. upgrades to your water purification system become enticing, enthralling... you dream of finding a water tank... a stove....
yet, this gameplay loop is not interesting in any way. you are merely reducing tedium through collection of unique, RNG objects. sure, the securing of that water tank can be it's own story. perhaps I do not give enough credit to these small stories generated from the larger quest for these upgrades. however, it remains a fact that these upgrades are in service of avoiding chores that were generated by the game's mechanics.
another example of where C:DDA becomes silly. roleplaying a survivor, spawning in the forest, and stumbling apon a perfect hideout. a shelter with a well and fuel. or an unlocked gun store. or a hidden basement with pickled food. these things are boons, right?
WRONG. the game becomes boring once you can survive with little thought. The well provides easy water, so you never leave. the fields grow crops... the forest is full of game. so what now? where does the interest come from?
the game becomes - get this - not a survival simulator, but something else entirely. . how powerful can you get? how ridiculously excessive can your individual become?
do I have a point? no. but maybe a slight edge here. C:DDA disagrees with your sense of character as a rule. You think one thing, but encounter another perception of that thing when you go to interact as you might expect. someone else thinks a funnel is used for these specific purposes and no others.
these grandfathered programmatics get in the way of interesting stories.
you say this game goes against the practice of game-i-fied mechanics but I disagree. C:DDA is the worst of the worst: what awaits you is endless memorization of someone else's idea of reality, a ready-made physical mechanical interpretation of the basic objects and tools of our modern civilization. the ultimate game, since no object remains uninterpreted: even the simple rock has an associated list of uses. outside of this list none exist.
obviously I myself have no real clue how one might make a realistic game ... i can only stare in confusion at the detailed simulation that is C:DDA and imagine the thousands of different-yet-the-same permutations that might exist in alternate universes, each of which manage to make eating food and purifying water horrendously tedious.
i write this essay every few years but, honestly, my god, I do believe what I say. realism is misapplied for any game, C:DDA especially.
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Topic: The Cataclysm games thread. (Read 114003 times)