Living game worlds vs Dead game worlds?

woo1108 said:
Then I can say it's Racing and TPS.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ideOpenSandbox
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This is totally bullshit.

Deus ex is sand box? seriesly?
I really like Deus ex but it's not a sand box at all.
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So it doesn't line up with your very explicit view of Sandbox gaming so it's bullshit? The people on that site that looked into the genre and based it on a description of the genre virtually everyone agrees on is bullshit because you don't like it? The info about Sandbox gaming on TvTropes is the exact same kind of description you'd find on virtually every other website that talks about Sandbox gaming and they too use GTA as an example. Funny, if GTA weren't Sandbox, you'd think more people would've noticed, that is unless it really is.

I am no longer discussing this with you because I see no effort trying to discuss something with someone just so they can disregard it and "substitute their own" view to it.
 
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I didn't mean dystopian or not. I meant something like Far Cry 2 a world that feels empty and desolate and everything is out to kill you, something like Apocalypse Now versus something like Red Dead Redemption or Far Cry 3, and even the Fallout series since I changed my mind on that, something like Tropic Thunder.
 
Walpknut said:
So if everyone and everything is trying to kill you, how is it empty and desolate?
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I presume it's because the player character has little to no friends or allies, only enemies thus making the game world feel alone. Not physically of course, it just feels alone.

Sn1p3r187 said:
I didn't mean dystopian or not. I meant something like Far Cry 2 a world that feels empty and desolate and everything is out to kill you, something like Apocalypse Now versus something like Red Dead Redemption or Far Cry 3, and even the Fallout series since I changed my mind on that, something like Tropic Thunder.
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In that case I'd prefer alive worlds. More people to interact with.
 
Sn1p3r187 said:
I didn't mean dystopian or not. I meant something like Far Cry 2 a world that feels empty and desolate and everything is out to kill you, something like Apocalypse Now versus something like Red Dead Redemption or Far Cry 3, and even the Fallout series since I changed my mind on that, something like Tropic Thunder.
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In other words:

A linear and under-developed world with no distinct characters; or a large and well-designed setting filled with an array of factions, NPCs, locations with depth.

I think the choice is pretty obvious, don't you?
 
I think OP poses a legitimate question, of a living, buzzling world - vs a desolate, wind-swept world. Both can be made in an engaging way, and with NPCs that feel genuine, even if one genre will have 100s of npcs, and the other will have less - or focus less on it.

It is the feelings of a desolate world that brings me to a game like Fallout, even if it's not really desolate. I've thought about it before, that sometimes it's just the knowledge of it - for example
When maneuvering the ruined scenery in FO3, which was nicely designed - would it have been just as charming, if the setting was "Explore a bombed out Sarajevo, watch out for Serb militias"?

It is the knowledge that the world is desolate, informed to you through game lore.
 
Desolate...that's a good word. However, I don't think the entire world needs to be desolate. The world merely needs desolate places to explore.

For example, I wouldn't necessarily call the setting of Gothic and Gothic 2 desolate, but it has desolate places in abundance. In particular it has what amounts to road signs that say "Beyonde This Pointe Desolation Lies!"
 
It all depends, doesn't it? One is not objectively better than the other. I like Fallout's world more than say,Bioshock Infinite's, but I like the Elder Scroll's word more than RAGE's.

The one gripe that I have about post-apoc versus non-post apoc that is very specific to me is that I like the idea of my character being able to relax and settle down, and while I can imagine my Neravine or Dragonborn settling down in a log cabin or taking a weekend to go fishing, I can't imagine my Courier, living in the troublesome world that he inhabits, settling down and living a comfy life or having a relaxing fishing weekend.

As I said, that's entirely specific to me and admittedly pretty weird, but it's a contribution to the discussion.
 
AlphaPromethean said:
The one gripe that I have about post-apoc versus non-post apoc that is very specific to me is that I like the idea of my character being able to relax and settle down, and while I can imagine my Neravine or Dragonborn settling down in a log cabin or taking a weekend to go fishing, I can't imagine my Courier, living in the troublesome world that he inhabits, settling down and living a comfy life or having a relaxing fishing weekend.
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I agree a lot with this. It was worse with FO3 though, I remember trying to find anywhere that would resemble a safe-ish desolate place to hang around, but there was very little that didn't spawn nearby rad-scorpions or super mutants. With New Vegas at least you could avoid very specific areas, I liked that most roads were completely safe to travel, no need to stay on constant alert for fights.
In Oblivion, I considered that one of the flaws, that enemies spawn right in the road, so it ultimately didn't matter if you travelled along guarded paths, or straight through the wilderness
 
naossano said:
Not mentioning that Dad won't find itself on its own.
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I might be stumbling over into "we </3 FO3" now, but Dad was probably the single worst thing of that game.

It takes the assumption that you will be derping around, taking your time. If you chase directly after him, then it's suddenly the fastest dad in the world you're chasing. You're litterally a few hours behind, and you know he has been hanging in the Megaton bar, if you go directly to Rivet City you should have cought up w the old coot, but noooooooooo, he is MILES ahead of you, SUPER DAD

no matter how fast you move, he will always end up transforming his stupid self into a dog
 
My favorite non desolate world is the world of Dragon Quest 8, now I know that one is a JRPG, but it had a lot of atmosphere, the music was incredible and every town has it's own little theme, none of the places you stopped in felt like "inn town number 3". The random encounters got a little annoying in some parts tho, makes you feel like people have those walls around their towns, not just to help the game instance the maps but also to keep the horde of bipedal Chiken warriors wanting to kill everybody. Of course this being a game made by Level 5 the visual design is just amazing, specially for the PS2.
 
Morrowind remains one of my favorite settings ever.

It just felt so unique, and so alive.

I may have to reinstall Morrowind.
 
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