Has Anyone Conquered Astarri in Weyworld?
Oct 29, 2014 14:30:34 GMT
morsealworth, Gmr Leon, and 1 more like this
Post by Danjal on Oct 29, 2014 14:30:34 GMT
The key lies in good design.
Lets look at The Elder Scrolls (or Fallout) series for a second.
While it is true that a large portion of the playerbase will dabble in pickpocketing and overall theft aswell as outright murder.
In general there are enough alternate ways to earn your keep quite admirably.
You don't *NEED* to resort to theft or violence (atleast not violence against the innocents) to keep the game going.
The game offers a good balance between the good and the bad - moreover, if you look at both games they offer a counterweight.
Fallout has the Karma system, which causes people to look at you in a different light depending on how 'evil' or 'good' you are.
Elder Scrolls marks items as stolen and upholds a bounty system.
Now its not to say that the systems don't have their flaws, and that a player with a mind to do so can't work their way around it ('The bucket trick' springs to mind) - but the game does attempt to offer the player a choice.
Do you play the "good" way? Are you an outright evil bastard? Or are you perhaps somewhere in between?
A good point to note here is the games that go too far (Mass Effect anyone?) and that only reward the true black or white playstyles.
But anyone who isn't 100% Paragon or Renegade is stuck without the 'reward'.
Now back to Godus? Godus does not currently offer that choice.
Oh sure, you can choose not to sacrifice your followers for gems and play at a pisspoor slow-paced speed.
You can choose not to massacre the Astari and grind your way through the game getting slapped in the face every time the Astari take your followers away (or otherwise being ball-and-chained to keep your happiness up constantly).
But for what? What does Godus offer you to do this? Not even a pat on the head or a treat. The game simply does not care what you do - the developers do not care what you do.
So before we lay claim to evil being the obvious or easy route, we need to acknowledge that for Evil to be a valid 'easiest' path, there needs to be an alternate route to take that is equally valid, just not as easy.
And Godus does not offer this alternate path.
Its like with the cards. Choosing NOT to pick a card isn't a branching timeline with valid choices.
Its just the player choosing not to play the game.
Lets look at The Elder Scrolls (or Fallout) series for a second.
While it is true that a large portion of the playerbase will dabble in pickpocketing and overall theft aswell as outright murder.
In general there are enough alternate ways to earn your keep quite admirably.
You don't *NEED* to resort to theft or violence (atleast not violence against the innocents) to keep the game going.
The game offers a good balance between the good and the bad - moreover, if you look at both games they offer a counterweight.
Fallout has the Karma system, which causes people to look at you in a different light depending on how 'evil' or 'good' you are.
Elder Scrolls marks items as stolen and upholds a bounty system.
Now its not to say that the systems don't have their flaws, and that a player with a mind to do so can't work their way around it ('The bucket trick' springs to mind) - but the game does attempt to offer the player a choice.
Do you play the "good" way? Are you an outright evil bastard? Or are you perhaps somewhere in between?
A good point to note here is the games that go too far (Mass Effect anyone?) and that only reward the true black or white playstyles.
But anyone who isn't 100% Paragon or Renegade is stuck without the 'reward'.
Now back to Godus? Godus does not currently offer that choice.
Oh sure, you can choose not to sacrifice your followers for gems and play at a pisspoor slow-paced speed.
You can choose not to massacre the Astari and grind your way through the game getting slapped in the face every time the Astari take your followers away (or otherwise being ball-and-chained to keep your happiness up constantly).
But for what? What does Godus offer you to do this? Not even a pat on the head or a treat. The game simply does not care what you do - the developers do not care what you do.
So before we lay claim to evil being the obvious or easy route, we need to acknowledge that for Evil to be a valid 'easiest' path, there needs to be an alternate route to take that is equally valid, just not as easy.
And Godus does not offer this alternate path.
Its like with the cards. Choosing NOT to pick a card isn't a branching timeline with valid choices.
Its just the player choosing not to play the game.
