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Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

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Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#11

Post by ckolderup »

extension wrote: post #10
ckolderup wrote: post #8

It's interesting that Rohrer played around with the idea of taking Chain World online-- when I heard about Chain World, the first bit of sacrilege that came to my mind was "well, why should this be restricted to a USB stick? There's no reason a multiplayer server couldn't be governed to do this." I wrote Lonecraft as a way of replicating the Chain World idea, but using an Amazon EC2 instance as a multiplayer server w…

As long as they keep playing and don't cheat, those careless mistakes will happen. It may take months but the game is great at dealing random misfortunes. I've been struck by lightning. And future versions will likely have more dangers and more things to tempt you into danger.

You're right. The project just ended up being underwhelming when we only got 3 players deep after a month or two of alpha testing. :P

Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#14

Post by AdamTReineke »

ckolderup wrote: post #11
extension wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as they keep playing and don't cheat, those careless mistakes will happen. It may take months but the game is great at dealing random misfortunes. I've been struck by lightning. And future versions will likely have more dangers and more things to tempt you into danger.

You're right. The project just ended up being underwhelming when we only got 3 players deep after a month or two of alpha testing. :P

What if the game was driven by a countdown clock? For example, you only have 60 minutes?

Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#15

Post by spiralganglion »

fuzzythinker wrote: post #12

Not so sure about rule #9. Maybe never play the game in a long time like 9 years may be better. It's like visiting a new country, if the experience is good, I would definitely like to go back and experience the old and the new variations of it.

Isn't it obvious? The game is supposed to be a simulation of life. You only live once, and when you die you leave the world forever, with all of your contributions to it remaining for others to build upon.

Without that absolute rule, the game wouldn't have nearly the same symbolic/religious significance, notwithstanding all the meta-game that unfolded hence. Rohrer's son was upset by his father's death specifically because of the significance imparted by this rule.

It makes your time playing the game paramount. You will never play the game again. You will never have another shot at life, so you'd better enjoy it while it lasts.

EDIT: He's an atheist, I'm an atheist. There's an argument to be made for reincarnation, I suppose, but that's hewing close to respawning and it makes me uncomfortable.

Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#16

Post by ckolderup »

AdamTReineke wrote: post #14
ckolderup wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. The project just ended up being underwhelming when we only got 3 players deep after a month or two of alpha testing. :P

What if the game was driven by a countdown clock? For example, you only have 60 minutes?

I considered it, but to me part of the impact of the meaning of your "life" in the game being a "life" would mean that it would have to last long enough for you to carry out some meaningful work before you die of "natural causes" (i.e. a timer running out). In that case, the timer would probably be long, on the order of months, and I was just hoping that something else could be done to make the game harder to survive (there are lots of server plugins to do things like require you to eat to stay alive, etc; I looked into those a little bit but then got busy with other things).

Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#17

Post by extension »

Games are usually not profound and thought provoking for the same reason food is usually not profound and thought provoking. That's just not the path to enjoyment that the medium is naturally inclined toward.

Food, above all else, must be tasty. Likewise, games, above all else, must be fun to play -- or more precisely, must provide unusually fulfilling analogs of the plights and labours of real life.

If you manage to make food that is both tasty and cerebrally stimulating, that's pretty awesome. But food that is strictly cerebral is always going to have marginal appeal at best. And you can't accuse chefs of being lazy and unimaginative just because their food isn't cerebral.

(For the nitpickers: yes, food is an extreme analogy. There is more room for expressiveness in games than in food, and it's probably underexploited. But you see the point I am making?)

Re: Chain World: a game that exists on a unique USB flash drive

#19

Post by r0s »

extension wrote: post #17

Games are usually not profound and thought provoking for the same reason food is usually not profound and thought provoking. That's just not the path to enjoyment that the medium is naturally inclined toward. Food, above all else, must be tasty . Likewise, games, above all else, must be fun to play -- or more precisely, must provide unusually fulfilling analogs of the plights and labours of real life. If you manage t…

> Food, above all else, must be tasty. Likewise, games, above all else, must be fun to play

For broad appeal this is true, but says nothing of real value or artistic merit. Expression in every medium is mostly banal schlock, with a few shining examples of quality.

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