Topic

The point?

I've spent a lot of time running around making food for energy. But based on recent comments, the impression I get is that that's not the best way to get energy. Based on the fact that I like to make things myself, I avoid produce vendors and grocery vendors, but quite often it's just easier to buy from them than to bother making my own effort. When there's an easy method available, even if it's much less fun, players like myself are more willing to take it (think rocket whores, campers, and tkers in every game in existence).

So, with easy ways to do the basic-living stuff, I ask what's the POINT of this game? I see a lot of short-term goals, like getting money, skills, and a house, but those are all easily done. You can get at least a taste for all the skills within a few days, and master them all in 2-8 weeks. Money hasn't been much of an issue for me, even though I barely ever have more than 2000 currants, and quests are bound to run out soon. I have a house, but since my patches are filled, my garden is full, and my animals are sufficient, I don't really have any improvements to make there.

Since it would be absurd to rely on Tiny Speck to continually create content, I would guess that what's supposed to keep players interested in long-term would be social or emergent, but I can't imagine what it is. Participating in projects is fun, but it's a pretty passive-feeling kind of fun, and definitely not enough to keep me interested after I've played around with all the skills for a while.

What do you do for fun?

Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • once you figure out how to get energy and money easily, the game opens up in al kinds of ways.

    instead of running around in circles for hours trying to get enough bubbles to make a hot n' fizzy, you start to think about other things you can do.

    right now, there's projects. there's coordinating with other players and figuring out better ways to collaborate on completing those, which leads to emergent social behaviour like the barnacle parties and the resource gathering teleportation convoys which i didn't think the devs expected.

    but yeah, that's not nearly good enough for the long term.

    in the future, i don't think projects will be nearly as passive. right now when players upgrade a street, their efforts count as "votes" toward how the street should be evolved. i think that kind of communally active decision making and customization is the next logical step. players might decide where to initiate growth, what kind of growth, what type of architecture to combine with what kind of landscape, what sort of resources generators to put side by side, decide where the subway stations and ferries will go and in what style and quality to build them.

    the more customization of the game world, the more emergent possibilities. the more communal decision making, the more social interaction.

    i also think that for players who aren't interested in building the world in such a *macro* way will be doing similar activities that will occur on a more *micro* scale.

    instead of working with dozens of other people to build the world, you might trade and work together with a small number of buddies to build a sweet neighbourhood.

    or if you don't like being social at all, working all by yourself to customize your perfect house with the right decor and such. also figuring out the right mix of industrial and agricultural infrastructure to build in your backyard.

    all the while, tiny speck will continually create content. i don't think they will be able to create enough content quickly enough to satisfy players without emergent game play .. but the emergent game play that will come out active world and life building will fill in the gaps between when new content and gameplay options are released.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Let's hope so - at the very least, there's still quite a bit of work to be done before the release, because although I'd play it in its current state, I wouldn't play for long.
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i wouldn't worry.

    the trajectory of the development has been all about making the game more customizable and collaborative.

    i think the collaborative features are closer to being ready for launch than the customization features. the collaborative aspect of the game will be able to leverage most of the customization aspects of the game anyway.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agreed, RobotGymnast, I had the same thoughts, though I didn't worry much about it because I figured they're saving the 'point' of the game, if you will, until the actual release.

    At this point in the game I've gone as far as I can go with skills- there are a few quests I can still do but they are the most tedious ones, and some require banding together with other players which is something I do not really like to do. That's fine- I can just skip those quests. Except that I can't think of anything else to do that is interesting. I've mined, I've harvested, I've played all the little bits of the game and am a bit bored of them by now, so much that I'm looking forward to a reset when everything will feel new.

    The upside to this is that when a test opens, I am not glued to Glitch for hours. :P
    Posted 23 months ago by Cefeida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm certainly approaching that point, myself. Sadly, I'm only level 13, and I've pretty much gotten a taste for all the skills (especially cooking).
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In the trailers, or I might have read it in an interview with Scott Butterfield, there's a hint that there's a big story involving the Giants. We are all their dreams, and somehow we are going to help them either bring the future into being or stop it from happening. And I'm intrigued by a couple of mysterious areas behind the keys with evidence of nuclear contamination. And the bird is going to come into it somehow. So it does look like there may be an overall plan or backstory or whatever - maybe more will become plain when we launch for real. I hope so, because I think cooking and growing vegetables could get kind of tame (I do that in real life).
    Posted 23 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I seem to remember something along those lines, too. Although creating a developing story with an online game seems difficult to me.
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • RobotGymnast, i'm not sure we're talking about a story so much as an ongoing struggle on the behalf of "order", represented my the giant's imaginations .. against "entropy", represented inside the game by The Rook.

    imagine World of Warcraft, except instead of fighting mosters with your friends you are fighting to create and preserve a world with your friends.

    i mean, that's the blood and guts story that exists beyond the dry, technocratic sim-city from the inside stuff i'm describing. if the technocratic hook alone isn't enough for players, and i doubt it will be for many, there's always the threat of the rook and the personalities of the giants to raise the stakes and give the technocratic stuff some sense of urgency
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hmm.. I think I'll have to see it to get it. I haven't played WoW, or really any well-known MMO. Thanks for trying, though.
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm pretty much in your boat. I don't feel a long-term appeal yet which is why I used to promote a concentration on a rich social experience. If the social side is so strong that Glitch would do well even without the game, it'll be huge.
    Posted 23 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If there are no wars to fight, no evil to overcome or death and destruction to make you a winner [that's why I like it] Then maybe it is just supposed to be a labour of love. That and the social aspect of the game. I'm not sure how that would appeal to everyone though. But for me it does :)
    Posted 23 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Robot it's actually not very difficult to create a developing story with an online game. Just look at WoW, which has done it quite nicely (and that's even without any player collaboration or anything).
    Posted 23 months ago by Aldaris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Aldaris: As I said before, I haven't played Wow, though if you say they've done it, then I'm anxious to see how it plays out here!

    It would be interesting to see how dynamically content could be generated. For instance, creation of new streets could happen automatically every once-in-a-while, with a procedurally generated "base" landscape, and of course the community drives the rest of it. Names could be randomly generated, and players could cast a vote on each.

    Prices could be randomly tweaked every now and again, and the results quantified, reverting the change if things got bad.

    Even content, like food, tools, and flora/fauna could be randomly generated (except the graphics) and voted on. Create a random new kind of tree, give it some strange attributes (can only be grown in snowy areas), create some foods or other products which rely on it, and then a tool associated with it. Devs could tweak, and then players could vote.

    My point is that befriending random generation could massively improve the rate of new content generation, as now the biggest time-drain would be tweaking and voting, rather than generation-from-scratch. I'm not suggesting it's easy, or even necessarily feasible, but it's certainly interesting to consider.
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Must admit I have been asking the same thing as in 'so what's the point of doing this?' and unless there's something really compelling that I'm not aware of, this is simply frittering time away. It hasn't 'stuck' with me, so good luck you all who are determined to keep going. As a beta or alpha tester (not sure what we are) I've done my dash.
    Posted 23 months ago by Ruben Sandwich Subscriber! | Permalink