Topic

Some Thoughts on Placiness

I spent some time wandering around Ur yesterday. Even though gathering resources in Shimla Mirch was more time intensive than following a resource route through Home Streets, it was much more enjoyable.

Why?

The organic design of the environment. Streets that didn't look like they came out of a cookie-cutter with evenly spaced resources. A modulated landscape that you can climb on and explore its nooks and crannies. By comparison, home streets are boring. Ur, by contrast, is full of creative, holistic environments and (formerly) neighborhoods.

Home streets have no sense of place (intentionally, perhaps, but disconcertingly). Unlike in Ur, when you wander around you see the same landscapes from the same perspective over and over, but they have no continuity. In Ur, by contrast, you see stuff in the background from different vantage points as you navigate the world and the overall environment persists throughout a region. There is a pervasive PLACINESS, which is wonderful. Things fit together.

In home streets, you can't even count on being able to go back to the street you just came from. The environment swaps wildly from one street to the next. There's no map. You're not, in fact, anywhere specific at all.

We've lost the connection between place and resources. In just the same way as you can now buy strawberries in the depths of winter IRL, you can now grow jellisacs in a mountain meadow. (Actually, I think there ought to be bonuses of some kind for having the background-appropriate resources, or penalties for the inappropriate ones. Maybe the mismatched resources could wear out more quickly.)

Now that we've lost the primary place-cohesion that was one of the defining aspects of the game, we desperately need some other set of underlying ideas/stories to give the game a meaning beyond My Glitchy Crib and My Fabu Wardrobe, fun as they are.

I dearly, dearly wish that we had been able to share home streets with others. That would have been a huge step toward creating a sense of place, socially. It's hard for me to imagine, just now, how group halls could work in such a way as to be a satisfactory substitute for a shared street, but I hope that I'm wrong about that.

I don't want to just live inside my own head (/home). I do enough of that—really, trust me, more than enough—in real life.

Posted 7 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Interesting thoughts, but I'd very much dislike it if our background had to match our resources or there'd be consequences.  No thank you please. :)
    Posted 7 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Auren

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a herb garden in my non-bog style house.

    Plus, it really wouldn't be fair to penalize us for not having the right resources to match our background when some of the backgrounds are subscriber only.
    Posted 7 months ago by Coley Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1.  Ur is beautiful.  Home streets, not so much. 
    Posted 7 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1
    Posted 7 months ago by Rook Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Pascale
    Posted 7 months ago by bhikku Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "I spent some time wandering around Ur yesterday. Even though [it] was more time intensive … it was much more enjoyable." + "Now that we've lost the primary place-cohesion that was one of the defining aspects of the game …"

    If you were just wandering around Ur yesterday, then Ur has not been lost :)

    Over time, the world will get bigger (and even more "place-y": that's one of our current design goals) and player-created streets will be much more customizable/interesting. It just won't happen all at once.
    Posted 7 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's been pretty sad lonely wandering around Ur lately :( Empty mines, empty forests, empty Ancestral Lands. The poor trees are fruitless and the piggies are starving to death! While my street is on a resource route, I'll probably never use them myself too much. I like the feeling of being a wanderer in the great wide open.
    Maybe the streets of Ur will be filled again with busy glitches when the game is re-launched and new players are introduced. In the meantime, remember that if they don't go out and about into Ur, they'll find no Qurazy Quoins! I routinely get over 20k iMG per game day just by wandering around to streets I haven't been to in a while :)

    Edit: Jinx.
    Posted 7 months ago by N2ZOrtolanaBlue Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Who knows how our home streets will be 8 months from now. And how Group Halls will change things, I know not in what ways. We are still in beta.
    Posted 7 months ago by gimmegames Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do agree Pascale, that wandering Ur is wonderful.  This is one reason that I don't bother with the resource routes, though they may be useful for many.  I like Ur!  I like to wander as you do, to look at the little details and touches, they make me smile and make me glad.  For me, this is what the game is about.

    It is not a quick grab and run, the resources are too spread out, one has to walk and look, this is the pleasure of it!  I am delighted to hear Stoot say it will continue to be expanded, I am sure there are lots of new places in the future and I am looking forward to them very much.  In the meantime Ur is a great place for a stroll.  It will never be replaced by front yards for me.
    Posted 7 months ago by Cassandria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I spend more time in Ur now than I did after housing release 1 and before iMG came out.  The quest for iMG drives my explorations.  Not sure if that's a good thing or not.
    Posted 7 months ago by Mablem Tiipot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1. The game as a whole does seem to have transformed into "My Glitchy Crib and My Fabu Wardrobe". No placiness, no point to levelling... there's no goals to the game anymore, but it isn't a true sandbox game either. It seems, at this point, to be just crafting for crafting's sake. Maybe that works for some people, but I'm not one of them.
    Posted 7 months ago by Rev. Desdemona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Pascale, I feel the same way.
    Posted 7 months ago by Violet Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rev. Desdemona, it was always crafting for crafting's sake, in a purely mechanical sense.
    Exploring the world is fun in its own right, and is basically its own reward.

    That said, resource routes in home streets make the basic process a bit too easy, and not quite place-y enough; 100% agreement there.
    Posted 7 months ago by Clockwork Rabbit Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really enjoy both aspects of Ur; my iMagined part and the Urth part. Sometimes I nip in just to do some mindless crafting and sometimes I explore.

    I think it's what makes this game great; that it's open to so many different playing styles. Both introvert and extrovert and anyone in between can find a place for themselves in glitch. There's no forced socialization nor solitude.

    I'm sure with the addition of more places and more quests and even more iMagination, there's really no stopping the creativity!

    Great topic :)
    Oh and final point - I'm actually seeing more glitchen around me after the introduction of houses and iMG than before - both inside and out in Ur.
    Posted 7 months ago by Hen vla Ham Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agreed. Very encouraged by what you say, Stoot. Just the other day I was wishing for more "hidden places" and also the ability to make some of them on my home street.
    Posted 7 months ago by chilirlw Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Personally, I think that home streets are better than Ur because there are so many types of landscapes to see, and some that aren't in Ur. You're also entitled to tons of different resources all in the same place, if that's how you choose to make yours.
    Posted 7 months ago by AwesomeCardinal2000 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i used to like the feeling that i lived SOMEWHERE.

    wen i was on groddle, i was in my neighborhood. i often went places that were far away.

    now my home is nowhere, and nothing is far away.

    it feels much more pointless.

    i don't have to plan what to take with me anymore.

    i don't have to go anywhere specific to get resources.

    i find glitch is less and less a place i spend time in and more and more a place i visit in between other things.

    i come in, harvest what;s in my yard, and go check google reader. there's lss that;s interesting about geography now that i have no actual place.
    Posted 7 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You guys are cute. It's like you don't have a choice in how you approach your play. 
    Posted 7 months ago by HeyGabe Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I actually am liking NOT feeling tied to a particular place or region.  I feel more free to visit wherever I want, whenever I want since my home is wherever I imagine it to be.  
    Posted 7 months ago by Fleep Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You are right, the idea is to enjoy the game and not to make a competitve race out of it. In that same vein, I wonder why so many of the upgrade cards are " do it faster cards" . What time am I going to save if a crop grows faster? I'm probably not going to be on long enough for it to matter.
    Posted 7 months ago by jamby Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I hear you.  But I will say, I would easily spend 100K imagination - each - for "don't look at the hoe or watering can animation" cards. 
    Posted 7 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think the problem is that home streets are too cheap. If putting a patch cost 10K img instead of 1K, the resource routes wouldn't be able to completely replace the world as they can now. And people who like having a goal to work toward could sink serious img into having the best street.
    Posted 7 months ago by jello's landscaping Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Jello - home streets seem cheap because we are so deep into the game at this point.  If we started from the beginning, it would be a long haul to get the good stuff.

    I do feel like there are two different games going on - the home street game and the Ur game.  The fact that you can jump between them freely only deepens that feeling.
    Posted 7 months ago by Jewel Stoned Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TL;DR: Someone probably ought to organize a group of /home streets that look "placey."

    You know, the resource routes developed to fill a need - primarily, when you need to harvest a LOT of a specific resource all at once (and don't really have a lot of time for it). The circuit you follow might not be as appealing as harvesting in Ur is in a visual aesthetic sense, but that's not generally why those routes were crafted. People have decorated their street how they see fit and add the resources as a kindness and a service, one that nobody is obligated to utilize.

    To be honest, I usually only use the resource routes if I need a large amount of resource X which is rare because I only do useless things in this game most of the time, like dropping wall sections on unsuspecting glitchen standing below me :D. But in those times when I do need a ton of cherries ASAP I'll go to the fruit route and harvest there. Also people on the resource routes actually talk with each other and have sort of fostered a community through it which is more consistently present than the odds of finding a group of people to work with randomly as you walk from street to street.

    However, it's worth noting that the resource routes are the way they are because that's the point - you want to get resources quickly so you find a lot of given resource X on those streets. And that's really cool! You can't harvest a given resource more than X times daily so there's no reason to be able to head backwards - it'd be a waste of time! Also, it uses up signposts - instead of heading back a street, you have the option to skip to the next resource on many signs (or head back to start of the current resource). It's really well designed!

    As for "placeyness" in /home - there's no reason a group can't emerge to form a neighborhood circuit that runs in two directions instead of one, where all the houses are themed in a certain style, and where the resources match the background. Heck, it's easier - there's no reason to do a max expansion or place as many of a single resource as you can, and no requirement to spend the IMG you've earned on maintaining resources others deplete. Instead, you spend what you want to, get the street only the size you want it, put out a rock or a tree or a clump of something that fits the style and call it a happy new day :D. On the other hand not all themes are available to non-subscribers so some of these neighborhoods would have to by default be subscriber-only. This could limit the draw of the idea for some players but, on the other hand, it's still a cool idea for those who want to opt-in.

    Afraid such neighborhoods wouldn't connect to the rest of /home? Fear not! Have one member join the Grand Circuit and you'll have a connection to a really long continuous line that connects to most of the resource routes, some tourist attractions and your themed neighborhood all in one stop. There's not even any really particular requirements to be on Grand except that, you know, you have one signpost connecting you to the next stop that you leave up. It's pretty easy - my meditation shrine's tied in and I don't have any particular resource I'm really offering (except the occasional wall segment by the signpost :D).

    So I guess what I'm trying to say is: valid concern, easy remedy, with lots of room for stylistic integrity! I'm sure you could get at least 10 people to join in with this project who'd all like the same theme for their front street and back yard.

    Now, when it comes to the disconnect between /Ur and /Home, I wouldn't worry too much about that in the long run. I've been a little under the weather this past week and been on glitch a monstrous amount of time as a result, and I've encountered probably an average of 1-2 glitches per street at a good number of times of day, even in areas that aren't too heavily populated. But what's really gonna get people out in Ur and keep them there, in areas where people don't normally go? It's not gonna be harvesting that's for certain; when harvesting a player will generally move from street to street as quickly as possible in a specific region and then leave, without taking time to interact. No reason to hang around in that scenario. It's gonna be player interaction and things to do! Throwing rainbow parties at the tool vendor's great and all cause you know people are always there. But why not throw parties at other locations? Offer people a specific free thing regularly in a particular unfrequented street. Put on a street performance someplace out of the way. Give people a reason to be out there wandering in Ur that's better than "get ALL the barnacles!"

    You might find by belonging to a neighborhood group and doing things in random places of Ur that you get more mileage out of BOTH regions :D.
    Posted 7 months ago by Moehr Ossum Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love your attitude, Moehr!
    Posted 7 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To be fair, /home TS pushed and Home Resource Routes are player pushed. 

    What has happened is we lost our physical neighborhoods and we created new ones. A place to go where there are no dead ends (ideally, lol). In addition to HRR there is also the Great Circuit. Make a group and see if others are interested in non-jarring perusing of /home streets...or simply don't go to other people's /homes.

    Yes, the /home streets are boring but frankly that's because players don't have the tools to make them more interesting. I'm sure we'd all LOVE to make our own outside platforms and bridges. To be able to go vertical and jump and explore. 

    As for loss of placeness or that nothing is far away it might be a problem of the token. 3 TP spots and 3 map ports mean lotsa walking. Since my TP spots haven't changed I still feel very much a glitchen of Andra. 

    As for sharing with others, YES!, my keyholders aren't really my roommates as the warning implies since they cannot change anything. Ideally, I'd want a key holder to do *everything* I can, otherwise they are house sitters.

    Also, I'm not sure how the loss of an address has anything at all to do with "My Glitchy Crib and My Fabu Wardrobe". The flood of /home pics will die down soon...And there was a site for wardrobe before 1st launch. That "see what I got" has always been an aspect of the game.Can you expand on how they have become more central with the loss of place? (aside from the newness)
    Posted 7 months ago by M<3tra, obviously Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with Pascale
    Posted 7 months ago by Fly Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks, Pascale, for your welcome thinking.
    Posted 7 months ago by Mac Rapalicious Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It actually feels weird being able to harvest bog resources out of the firebogs or eggs in brightly lit streets. Once I finish fiddling with my house I'm going back to Urth despite having access to resource routes.
    Posted 7 months ago by Mal'akh Subscriber! | Permalink