Divine Blessing
Scholar
On Contingency
the hype on Player Agency is another symptom for the markets demand on more individual freedom in RPGs following a long-term trend. non-linear, later on environmental storytelling (show, not tell) and finally sandboxes became standard, although overall its simply branched mainplot with optional side-quests in a framed environment. this evolution from Daggerfall to Kenshi proves the players claim for more control on progression, setting and gameplay, a claim for a more personal and de-streamlined, a more individual gameplay experience: the social (and most basic) aspect of gaming, esp. RPGs always was about identity.
but still the industry relies on ancient systems and their outdated frameworks for gameplay, which stagnated into cosmetic flavors, incarcerating Player Agency in a devolution instead of expanding the systemic limits by adapting the new technical potential - although Remnants Of The Ashes exceeds via procedural level design, overall gameplay is still stuck being an inferior Soulslike, like Outwards blend of Survival and RPG simply is Gothic (gameplay-wise). while this Next Generation allows a lot more of player agency, they still feel limited.
contingency is Schrödingers Katze, contingent design is an adaptive framework not simply altered, but set by the players choices. the next major task of game development will be this Black Box, where the content proactively engages the player for a new dimension of agency. its not simply about offering choices, but to allow the player to create his own choices, his own goals and meanings - to decide for himself if this cat should be saved, burned or is a mere illusion, to write his own story, to make the setting adapt to her/him.
contingency is about potential, freedom and agency, contingency is the (Aristoteles) it-could-be-else(world),-but-u-exist. contingent design creates emergency via proactive adaption to players choices starting with character creation (which is the most intimate identity process).
the success of MineCraft is one of contingent design, as well as Kenshi, The Long Dark etc., but still feel as limited as WoWs (Hazzikostas) emergent gameplay, as these frameworks still coummunicate reactively and force the player to adapt the gemes design - the game already decided on Schrödingers Katze. where the design should adapt to the customer, aka player.
Empire Of Sins , esp. its AI looks promising, if Romero Games exclusively delivers half of its promises, the industry will be one tiny step closer to the next quantum leap in the evolution of games, as Auto-Chess (games have to play themselves), AI Dungeon (procedural, nearly adaptive storytelling) etc were.
the hype on Player Agency is another symptom for the markets demand on more individual freedom in RPGs following a long-term trend. non-linear, later on environmental storytelling (show, not tell) and finally sandboxes became standard, although overall its simply branched mainplot with optional side-quests in a framed environment. this evolution from Daggerfall to Kenshi proves the players claim for more control on progression, setting and gameplay, a claim for a more personal and de-streamlined, a more individual gameplay experience: the social (and most basic) aspect of gaming, esp. RPGs always was about identity.
but still the industry relies on ancient systems and their outdated frameworks for gameplay, which stagnated into cosmetic flavors, incarcerating Player Agency in a devolution instead of expanding the systemic limits by adapting the new technical potential - although Remnants Of The Ashes exceeds via procedural level design, overall gameplay is still stuck being an inferior Soulslike, like Outwards blend of Survival and RPG simply is Gothic (gameplay-wise). while this Next Generation allows a lot more of player agency, they still feel limited.
contingency is Schrödingers Katze, contingent design is an adaptive framework not simply altered, but set by the players choices. the next major task of game development will be this Black Box, where the content proactively engages the player for a new dimension of agency. its not simply about offering choices, but to allow the player to create his own choices, his own goals and meanings - to decide for himself if this cat should be saved, burned or is a mere illusion, to write his own story, to make the setting adapt to her/him.
contingency is about potential, freedom and agency, contingency is the (Aristoteles) it-could-be-else(world),-but-u-exist. contingent design creates emergency via proactive adaption to players choices starting with character creation (which is the most intimate identity process).
the success of MineCraft is one of contingent design, as well as Kenshi, The Long Dark etc., but still feel as limited as WoWs (Hazzikostas) emergent gameplay, as these frameworks still coummunicate reactively and force the player to adapt the gemes design - the game already decided on Schrödingers Katze. where the design should adapt to the customer, aka player.
Empire Of Sins , esp. its AI looks promising, if Romero Games exclusively delivers half of its promises, the industry will be one tiny step closer to the next quantum leap in the evolution of games, as Auto-Chess (games have to play themselves), AI Dungeon (procedural, nearly adaptive storytelling) etc were.
