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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

#2
I 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.

Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game

#4
post #2

I 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.

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Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game

#6

The 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?

Honestly, if VR improves its immmersion VR horseback rides could be quite therapeutic for the right individuals.

Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game

#8

The 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?

There's definitely survival games in this vein that have done quite well, The Long Dark is probably one of the better ones. Quite playable before they even had the story for this kind of thing.

Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game

#9

The 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?

Reminds me a bit of Jeff Vogel's blog post about the first Red Dead Redemption:

"What was more surprising, though in retrospect it should not have been, was how instantly attached my eight year old daughter became to the game the moment she caught an unlucky glimpse of me playing it. Of course, it makes perfect sense. This is a game where you own a horse, ride your horse, take your horse out into the brush, find wild horses, capture and tame wild horses, and make one of those horses your new horse."

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2010/12/red-dead-redemption-a...

Re: Birding Like It’s 1899: Inside a Blockbuster American West Video Game

#10
This 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.

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