I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately, regarding the dichotomy between “sandbox” and “theme park” MMORPGs. The conversations boil down to this: nearly all MMOs are like theme parks; they’re carefully constructed experiences that funnel everybody through the game in the same way and ensure that every player is exposed to the same content. It [...]
Posts Tagged ‘procedural rhetoric’
Gen(re)ic
Sunday, September 20th, 2009Fair warning: today’s post consists almost entirely of me ranting.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to think that changing a game’s setting is tantamount to changing the game itself. I cannot count the number of times I’ve read through articles or forum threads and encountered lengthy discussions on “how you could [...]
Getting the third degree
Sunday, September 13th, 2009So yesterday, I came to the potentially underwhelming conclusion that the term “level” would be replaced in Atma by what I deem to be a slightly more appropriate metaphor for a character’s advancement, that of degrees. Today, as promised, I’ll be following up this concept with a list of the implications it carries in my [...]
Complexity and the gamer
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009There’s always been a bit of a conflict within the human mind: those things which are interesting to the human brain tend to be those which are also difficult. The conflict here arises due to the fact that the more difficult a thing is, the less accessible it is to the majority of people; as [...]