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No Man's Sky Cosmos

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Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#281

Post by an0malous »

jasonjmcghee wrote: post #11
helle253 wrote: post #5

It's amazing how, every time i come back to NMS, the whole thing feels like... nothing. It's a very cool and ambitious project, but there's fundamentally nothing substantial to it in terms of gameplay. It still feels to me, a decade later, more like a very very impressive tech demo than a video game

A big name in proc gen is Kate Compton who coined the term "10,000 bowls of oatmeal" to describe this phenomenon of technically unique but not different enough to matter - I googled "10000 bowls of oatmeal" to see if there was a good article and the second link was about it and nms https://www.challies.com/articles/no-mans-sky-and-10000-bowl...

> A procedural universe may be technically impressive but it is also bland, empty, purposeless.

Why doesn't this apply to Minecraft? People love Minecraft even though it's equally purposeless and arguably bland and empty.

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#283

Post by LarsDu88 »

porphyra wrote: post #225
swat535 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just NMS.. the "10,000 bowls of oatmeal" is a plight of all AAA games these days. Ubisfot is a perfect example, look at their "Watch Dogs: Legion" for example. They decided to get creative and give you random characters generated by AI.. it turned out to be a disaster. Another one is their Far cry games, where they copy and paste the same events but slightly different, all over the map and call it a day. I t…

Fallout 4's endgame with the autogenerated "quests" of defending settlements get boring extremely fast.

I really hated the fact that Fallout 4 doesn't communicate to you what missions are procedural and which ones are actually handcrafted. This is the most frustrating part of that game. The procedural missions lack narrative closure, so you keep playing for a payoff that never comes

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#285

Post by intreble »

soulofmischief wrote: post #110
glenstein wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still think it's a remarkable success story and they can and should be incredibly proud of what they've built. But this vision of what is meant by cosmic depth and expansiveness seems to tragically miss the point. Compare it to even our own solar system where even so much as a new high-res photo of the hexagon storm on Saturn comes with stunning new and specific detail, or the "heart" on Pluto, we're practically am…

Have you played Outer Wilds? It nails this feeling. If you haven't played it, don't read or watch a single thing about it and just play it with zero expectations.

100%. I installed and began playing Outer Wilds on gamepass thinking that I was playing Outer Worlds. After about 10 minutes I knew I was wrong, it didn't feel like an Obsidian game. One of the best mistakes I ever made when it came to gaming.

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#286

Post by wvenable »

an0malous wrote: post #281
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big name in proc gen is Kate Compton who coined the term "10,000 bowls of oatmeal" to describe this phenomenon of technically unique but not different enough to matter - I googled "10000 bowls of oatmeal" to see if there was a good article and the second link was about it and nms https://www.challies.com/articles/no-mans-sky-and-10000-bowl...

> A procedural universe may be technically impressive but it is also bland, empty, purposeless. Why doesn't this apply to Minecraft? People love Minecraft even though it's equally purposeless and arguably bland and empty.

I think because the Minecraft world is like a giant tub of Lego. You go out into the procedural world to collect your pieces and then you create from that. It's actually your creations that are interesting and without them Minecraft would equally purposeless and bland.

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#287

Post by poglet »

an0malous wrote: post #281
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big name in proc gen is Kate Compton who coined the term "10,000 bowls of oatmeal" to describe this phenomenon of technically unique but not different enough to matter - I googled "10000 bowls of oatmeal" to see if there was a good article and the second link was about it and nms https://www.challies.com/articles/no-mans-sky-and-10000-bowl...

> A procedural universe may be technically impressive but it is also bland, empty, purposeless. Why doesn't this apply to Minecraft? People love Minecraft even though it's equally purposeless and arguably bland and empty.

I suspect it does apply to Minecraft too, however Minecraft also benefits from its multiplayer communities in modding scene.

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#288

Post by rapind »

an0malous wrote: post #281
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big name in proc gen is Kate Compton who coined the term "10,000 bowls of oatmeal" to describe this phenomenon of technically unique but not different enough to matter - I googled "10000 bowls of oatmeal" to see if there was a good article and the second link was about it and nms https://www.challies.com/articles/no-mans-sky-and-10000-bowl...

> A procedural universe may be technically impressive but it is also bland, empty, purposeless. Why doesn't this apply to Minecraft? People love Minecraft even though it's equally purposeless and arguably bland and empty.

Multiplayer, demographic, community, and probably because it mainstreamed the genre. I'm pretty sure people, especially early teens, like to socialize on Minecraft with their friends. There is also the pseudo campaign of defeating the ender dragon. Minecraft is a juggernaut.

Re: No Man's Sky Cosmos

#289

Post by 1shooner »

eclipticplane wrote: post #203
asdff wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all of it is like, run around, press x. load stuff in processor. take stuff out of processor. wait. load stuff in processor. take stuff out of processor. wait. oh your crops are ready. pres x, x, x, x, x, x, x. go to sales terminal, sell crops, go to processor, take stuff out of processor load in processor again. oh hey crops are ready again, x, x, x, x..... Missions: fly to randomly chosen planet in solar system…

My hot take on why these games get popular (including some like PowerWash Simulator that are 'press x, then x again' type games): it gives people satisfaction of completing something in a world that it is increasingly harder to accomplish what the prior generation did.

I had this exact thought today, having recently been on a nostalgic Minecraft binge.

Incidentally, I can't place it, but Minecraft is an infinitely more enjoyable hangout and break/build stuff game than NMS. NMS is just very sterile to me.

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