The New Mechanic in Town
Oh, for fuck's sake Rockstar North. Is it really necessary to include a food mechanic in a game like Grand Theft Auto? And not just that, you have to be wary of too many calories or you'll end up looking like a fat pimp? Speaking of, what's so wrong with that anyway? I mean, who here hasn't seen a big black guy who gangbangs with the best of them?
And of course, the yin to this moronic yang is the exercise mechanic to build your muscles and prowess. Now I am definitely wanting to be wrong on this, but it doesn't seem to me like keeping track of my carbs while driving stolen cars and banging hookers is my idea of fun.
The Sims was popular because it was a virtual dollhouse. Grand Theft Auto was popular because it let suburbanites enjoy their fantasies of being a criminal. Learn the difference, and stop muddling the game with such absurdities.
The idea with this entire exercise is most likely to draw in more players, perhaps of the RPG variety, or better yet more players of the female variety. Women love the fact that you have to look after and pay attention to your Sims, and care for them as well as decorate their pad. And while every new addition hasn't been revealed, you best believe that's something they've probably added in San Andreas as well. Now not only do you have to count calories, you have to gangbang you way toward Ikea furniture and Todd Oldam style too!
This all seems so tedious to me. The popularity of GTA came from its simplicity, in my opinion.
Here's an idea instead of all this Sims ripping-off stuff: How about creating Non-Player Characters I give a shit about, and can ride along with? Do missions with, or suffer consequences if I fail them? How about they actually die not when they're scripted to, but when I fuck up? To create relationships between these gangbangers and develop them, not simply add more minutia to existing main character mechanics?
It seems to me that having 'events' would be nice as well. For example, there's your niece's birthday party. But you were asked to go kill some guy at a club. If you don't show up for one there are consequences, such as not meeting your future girlfriend at the b-day party, or not getting a nice ride as a result of doing the club job.
These seem to be interesting decisions and not virtual character upkeep which Rockstar seems so eager to include in the game.
Again, if they can pull it off I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong. But as of right now this hybrid monkey seems like the one in Outbreak than the ape from Congo.
And of course, the yin to this moronic yang is the exercise mechanic to build your muscles and prowess. Now I am definitely wanting to be wrong on this, but it doesn't seem to me like keeping track of my carbs while driving stolen cars and banging hookers is my idea of fun.
The Sims was popular because it was a virtual dollhouse. Grand Theft Auto was popular because it let suburbanites enjoy their fantasies of being a criminal. Learn the difference, and stop muddling the game with such absurdities.
The idea with this entire exercise is most likely to draw in more players, perhaps of the RPG variety, or better yet more players of the female variety. Women love the fact that you have to look after and pay attention to your Sims, and care for them as well as decorate their pad. And while every new addition hasn't been revealed, you best believe that's something they've probably added in San Andreas as well. Now not only do you have to count calories, you have to gangbang you way toward Ikea furniture and Todd Oldam style too!
This all seems so tedious to me. The popularity of GTA came from its simplicity, in my opinion.
Here's an idea instead of all this Sims ripping-off stuff: How about creating Non-Player Characters I give a shit about, and can ride along with? Do missions with, or suffer consequences if I fail them? How about they actually die not when they're scripted to, but when I fuck up? To create relationships between these gangbangers and develop them, not simply add more minutia to existing main character mechanics?
It seems to me that having 'events' would be nice as well. For example, there's your niece's birthday party. But you were asked to go kill some guy at a club. If you don't show up for one there are consequences, such as not meeting your future girlfriend at the b-day party, or not getting a nice ride as a result of doing the club job.
These seem to be interesting decisions and not virtual character upkeep which Rockstar seems so eager to include in the game.
Again, if they can pull it off I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong. But as of right now this hybrid monkey seems like the one in Outbreak than the ape from Congo.
2 Comments:
Word - one of the things we did to make *Magic Candle III* more fun than *Magic Candle II* was remove the food mechanic. *Diablo* managed to revive RPG's by taking out all the stupid crap that people didn't want to devote attention to...if Rockstar isn't careful, somebody will be able to snake the GTA market for them by returning to basics.
That said, you can't really know if a game mechanic works or not until you've prototyped and focus tested it. I'll give Rockstar the benefit of the doubt; maybe what happened was someone came up with this idea, everyone thought it was stupid, the guy went ahead and implemented it anyway, and it actually turned out to be fun. (That's sort of how *Spider-Man 2*'s swinging system happened, actually.) Sounds like the results of not eating are just cosmetic: in which case you don't have to bother with the food system if you don't want. We'll see.
Actually the article mentions that if you do not eat, you get weaker and weaker and your bullets miss and your punches do no damage. This is a serious shift in classic GTA3-like gameplay. I worry for its future...
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