Kind of a boring dystopia we have here. People enjoying the great outdoors from their climate controlled bedrooms. Good thing they only kept the cute animals in the game and not the mosquitos or black flies.
Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
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Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#12The RDR2 environment is an amazing horseback camping simulator. Fishing, hunting, beautiful vistas... bliss
Side question, do you think there's a market for this sort of game? Outdoor simulator I suppose?
I loved the outdoor simulator aspect of RDR2. It might be my favorite part of the game. But I would get bored of it very quickly if it was the only thing I could do. Hunting and fishing and scouting were fun because they gave me a break from grinding missions, and it let me customize my character. But I wanted a customized character for when I was playing missions and working the story.
So the hunting and fishing and birding is fun because the rest of the game contextualizes it.
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#13I think this is pretty neat, not just that so many species are featured but some of the other natural behaviors (e.g. fox and turkey vultures feeding on just-shot mallard carcass) are replicated. Showed the article to my teen son, a big RDR2 fan, who was less impressed, calling it "sad" that someone would play a birder in that world. YMMV.
I wonder what he would think of the World of Warcraft panda pacifist: https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcrafts-pacifist-panda-ha...
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#14I think this is pretty neat, not just that so many species are featured but some of the other natural behaviors (e.g. fox and turkey vultures feeding on just-shot mallard carcass) are replicated. Showed the article to my teen son, a big RDR2 fan, who was less impressed, calling it "sad" that someone would play a birder in that world. YMMV.
Coupling those natural behaviors with the games audio cues let me hunt specific animals by listening more than walking.
I didn’t think it would work but it seemed to.
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#15Kind of a boring dystopia we have here. People enjoying the great outdoors from their climate controlled bedrooms. Good thing they only kept the cute animals in the game and not the mosquitos or black flies.
Back in my day, we had to enjoy the great outdoors uphill both ways!
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#16This kind of tiny piece by piece interaction with the world is something I desired in the late 90s, dreaming as a teen, but my rudimentary O(n) skills showed me was beyond the computers of the time. It's gorgeous & I love the potential that brims here. What if something was this complex and well built, but the storyline was removed - the player simply builds their own story, ala DF Adventurer mode.
I'm sure we'll get there eventually, its just much more difficult to write for. Even in Westworld, the interactions were semi-scripted, with packaged "quests" along the way.
Some games come close though, the Witcher 3 includes choice-based gameplay with real consequences that last thoughout the game. However the developers still had to explicitly write each scenario as it unfolded.
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#17The RDR2 environment is an amazing horseback camping simulator. Fishing, hunting, beautiful vistas... bliss
Side question, do you think there's a market for this sort of game? Outdoor simulator I suppose?
See Euro Truck Simulator. These kinds of simulation games have a pretty decent niche community, though I'm not sure they actually constitute a decently sized market. They're really relaxing though, in the right vein.
But it's still a balance between reality and the interesting subset of it; having to manually brush your horse with a mouse would be awful, while requiring that you take your horse to a stable every night would be fine.
The main issue is that to design a decent simulator like that though, you have to avoid basically 90% of modern gaming trends. Fast travel, mechanically-intense play, grinding missions, small-but-numerous subquests, etc are exactly what a modern (A)RPG pushes for, and are exactly how you ruin a game like euro truck simulator. It's the mundanity, scheduling and (some) repetition that makes the game satisfying.
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#18The RDR2 environment is an amazing horseback camping simulator. Fishing, hunting, beautiful vistas... bliss
I first got a PlayStation (1) when I was about 9 years old, and we got Road Rash 3D with it. Looking back the graphics were pretty shocking (though cutting edge at the time). But my main memory is how liberating it felt to leave the race route and just ride around aimlessly for hours and hours, exploring the countryside and the towns and cities you'd discover. I got a lot more out of that than trying to keep up with the race. Now I think I might try RDR2 some time if it offers a bit of that buzz again.
Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#19Kind of a boring dystopia we have here. People enjoying the great outdoors from their climate controlled bedrooms. Good thing they only kept the cute animals in the game and not the mosquitos or black flies.
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Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game
#20Kind of a boring dystopia we have here. People enjoying the great outdoors from their climate controlled bedrooms. Good thing they only kept the cute animals in the game and not the mosquitos or black flies.
Back in my day, we had to enjoy the great outdoors uphill both ways!
Back when I was a lad, we used to get up before we'd gone to bed to go down the mines!