On Wed, 2010-07-14 at 10:14 +0200, david blanchard wrote: > I would not say that players are not interested in controlling the > web, from what I've seen of playtests and discussions.
That's not what I meant. When I talk about "controlling the biggest part of the Web", the emphasis is on "biggest" - controlling 2-3 sites makes people react, but owning as many websites as possible is not something very interesting in itself. > I've seen that players are not interested in chain hacking web sites > and earning hack points, that is right. > But given that to do that, currently in the game, there is no reward, > no challenge, no perspective, weak accessibility, it is hard for me to > jump to the conclusion that players are not interested in the whole > concept of gaining control on the web. Gaining control, yes - but then after 20 seconds, the question that always come up is "what can I do with the websites I've hacked?", which I'm trying to answer now. I don't think just adding rewards, challenges, perspective and accessibility alone will do the trick. > Usually, the 'promise', even if the word itself can be discussed, is > the sum up of the experience of the player, what the game offers him, > this is why it is put first in documents, before the description of > the game exp in length, the target, of the features. > And, to keep discussing word choices, I don't think our game should > have a global 'message', the game is providing an experience where > the player will find the message he wants. Providing a 'message' is > politics for me, and our game should provide ambiguity and freedom of > choice according to me. Ok, maybe "message" is the wrong choice of word - what about "point of view" ? A good point of view provides with ambiguity and freedom, no? > All in all, I think that "Things you own end up owning you" is an > interesting line that can cover some part of the game, but it's not > the message/promise/catchline (whatever the name we give it) that > describes the overall experience. > For me the overall exp is still an adventure on the web where I > discover and interact with AIs and, in the process, gain control over > the web which provides me resources and knowledge that will in return > enrich my relation with AIs... Well, this is absolutely not yet a > catchline, just trying to gather my thoughts on what I see currently. We're not necessarily very far away here - the overall experience you are describing seems compatible with what I wrote, and I like it. For me, this could very well be incarnated in a gameplay point of view with a Sims-like/ARG hybrid, with Farmville-like mecanisms to make you come back the next day. No? > I'm not sure about the AI incarnating a web site, I still think it is > interesting to keep the distinction between the web sites that the > player owns (which act as resources, a little bit like apples or cows > in farmville - not same mechanism though) and the AIs, who can exist > as NPCs, or mission givers, or tools that help me own sites. Yes, exactly - both are not the same, but an AI can't exist without a website. They literally live "on" the Web. > It's interesting. I agree with the fact that the ARG is great as an > upper layer that provides adventure/storyline and part of social (not > all social, because I see exchanging resources/fighting for > resources/teaming up for control of sites as possible social > features). And that below this ARG layer, we need basic mechanisms > that make the player come back everyday, based on exploiting > territory, using the resources that are produced on this territory, > expanding this territory, etc. Yes this is a sim, but I'm not sure > between a sim life like sims, or a sim like simcity, or something > different. I need to think more about the overall objective for the > player in order to get back to you on this with more ideas. Sounds good - I think we are getting close to something very good! Xavier. _______________________________________________ Hackit Bar mailing list - [email protected] Wiki: http://community.hackit.cx/ List: http://community.hackit.cx/ml/ Forum: http://community.hackit.cx/forum/ Ideas: http://community.hackit.cx/ideas/ IRC: irc://irc.freenode.net/#politis
