Yeah, I've heard a little about Haze playing with that issue. I will be curious to see how the designers deal with it once you get to the endgame: is the only solution still to spurt hot death from your gun? Or will there be a transformation of the game mechanic from 'first-person shooter' to 'first-person something else'?
Games look and sound a lot better than they used to, but in terms of the fundamental interactions between the player and the environment there's been no change since the 80s. Non-violent interactions are relegated to 'casual' games or even slower-moving games; I really think there's a ton of unexplored play mechanics out there that can be fast-moving, fun, and about something besides death. So many of our big-budget games are programming us to reflexively hurt, and that can't be good in the long run.
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Date: 2007-09-05 02:04 pm (UTC)Games look and sound a lot better than they used to, but in terms of the fundamental interactions between the player and the environment there's been no change since the 80s. Non-violent interactions are relegated to 'casual' games or even slower-moving games; I really think there's a ton of unexplored play mechanics out there that can be fast-moving, fun, and about something besides death. So many of our big-budget games are programming us to reflexively hurt, and that can't be good in the long run.