Author Topic: the future of non linear games  (Read 6884 times)

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Offline ThePerm

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the future of non linear games
« on: June 01, 2006, 12:11:09 PM »
alright imagine a game that is very similar to resident evil 4, except the game isn't scripted at all. Imagine that its multiplayer, you have a party of friends who all kickass. On the other side of the coin there is the environment and then there is a general who commands your enemies simular to how in a strategy game a computer commands the enemies. The game would become totally non-linear.
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Offline ShyGuy

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2006, 12:13:22 PM »
3,2,1... start match! there's the beginning, which is linear

Unless this was a persistent server with Wii  24connect... hmm

Offline ThePerm

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2006, 01:04:10 PM »
well ultimately theres a beginning and end, however, what happens in between isn't scripted
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Offline JonLeung

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2006, 01:09:24 PM »
If it was like RE4, I'd be tempted to want to do naughty things with multiple Ada Wongs, except that they might be all be weird 50-year-old creeps.  Ick.

I don't really see how there could be an end in a totally free-form and non-linear game...unless you mean there are puzzles or certain goals but many ways to achieve them.  But then it's not really that non-linear, unless the goal is something really basic like simply to survive.  

Offline ThePerm

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2006, 01:11:23 PM »
no the goal like a strategy game would be to kill all the enemies, maybe the enemies would be like aliens that choose where to spawn, and have different units..actually whats battalian wars like?
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Offline KDR_11k

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2006, 02:47:38 AM »
Say hello to Dynasy Warriors.

Offline NinGurl69 *huggles

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2006, 10:51:18 AM »
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Offline ThePerm

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2006, 01:11:27 PM »
dynasty warriors has shit ai though
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Offline mantidor

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2006, 04:38:24 PM »
Non linear is such a vage term, if you want to be strict, theres no such thing as a pure non linear game, but if you are flexible about the definition, well, even Tetris is non linear.

 
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Offline ThePerm

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2006, 08:08:24 PM »
when i meant non linear, i meant a game where it doesnt always play the same. Tetris would be an example.
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Offline Kairon

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2006, 08:22:15 PM »
Ah, interesting distinction...hmmm....

So multi-player Mario Kart mayhem is also non-linear, as is Excite Truck's deforming terrain?

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Offline King of Twitch

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2006, 09:46:18 PM »
Smash Bros Overworld where various old-school levels are meshed together, kids can team up and arrange fights, and compete for those classic trophies. Streetfight in the apocalyptic adult Link-era Hyrule market, bet money on F-Zero races, storm into other people's animal crossing homes and break stuff, and use star warps to blast to metroid or kirby planets for co-op boss fights. Fight in 2D, explore and wreak havoc in 3D. Hey it'll never happen, it was just fun thinking about it.

Smuggler's Run online could have some fun non-linear elements.
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Offline Kairon

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2006, 09:54:13 PM »
The WiiConnect24 system will make certain games like Animal Crossing even more non-linear. A new town event or special occurence or Holiday or present or item or visitor every week? score!

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Offline Garnee

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2006, 10:39:36 AM »
Nintendo SEVERLY screwed up AC:WW, damnit!  When there's a holiday event about once every week or two, it severly depreciates from the experience of holidays feeling "special."  Plus, I don't care how cruel it is to everyone on the other side of the pond, I want American holidays.
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Offline Kairon

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2006, 10:46:40 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Garnee
Nintendo SEVERLY screwed up AC:WW, damnit!  When there's a holiday event about once every week or two, it severly depreciates from the experience of holidays feeling "special."  Plus, I don't care how cruel it is to everyone on the other side of the pond, I want American holidays.


Hear-Hear!

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A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
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For never was a story of more woe
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Offline Syl

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2006, 09:31:55 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: ThePerm
when i meant non linear, i meant a game where it doesnt always play the same. Tetris would be an example.


I know of quite a few of these, they tend to involve the words "PC" and "RPG".  

Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Baldurs Gate, Gothic, Arcanum...

Yes, deep down, they may be a bunch of linear(ish) quests, but the vast, vast differences between me and my friends playthroughs of Morrowind and Oblivion is staggering.  You can go through the game 10 times and do it differently every single time.  Still finding new things.

Also: MMORPGs, (As well as other "Western" RPG's), "God-games". (Civilization, Sim(s, City, etc) and hell, even some of the larger strategic multiplayer games. (I'm talking 64 person UT2004 or Battlefield 2 maps here)

Also, you might want to look into Table-top RPGs, (Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, Call of Cthulhu, etc.) these are all exactly the sort of thing you happen to be describing - except they came out over 25 years ago and tend to work far better than any hardware could manage.  
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Offline wandering

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #16 on: June 04, 2006, 09:44:11 PM »
Zork.
“...there are those who would...say, '...If I could just not have to work everyday...that would be the most wonderful life in the world.' They don't know life. Because what makes life mean something is purpose.  The battle. The struggle.  Even if you don't win it.” - Richard M. Nixon

Offline Kairon

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #17 on: June 05, 2006, 06:22:30 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Syl
Yes, deep down, they may be a bunch of linear(ish) quests, but the vast, vast differences between me and my friends playthroughs of Morrowind and Oblivion is staggering.  You can go through the game 10 times and do it differently every single time.  Still finding new things.


I don't know...hmm... Actually, on a personal level, I need more non-linearity than these games offer. The problem with non-linear games that depend on ME is that I play through these games in a linear fashion. My first and second playthrough of such a game is highly similar because I won't deviate from my perceived "best path" much.

The non-linearity needs to exist in the GAME, not the player. I want the game to give me challenges and problems I would never choose to encounter on my own.

~Carmine M. Red
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A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline ShyGuy

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #18 on: June 05, 2006, 07:23:56 AM »
Pac-Man was the first non-linear game. No two games follow the same path!

Offline Syl

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2006, 07:35:02 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Kairon
Quote

Originally posted by: Syl
Yes, deep down, they may be a bunch of linear(ish) quests, but the vast, vast differences between me and my friends playthroughs of Morrowind and Oblivion is staggering.  You can go through the game 10 times and do it differently every single time.  Still finding new things.


I don't know...hmm... Actually, on a personal level, I need more non-linearity than these games offer. The problem with non-linear games that depend on ME is that I play through these games in a linear fashion. My first and second playthrough of such a game is highly similar because I won't deviate from my perceived "best path" much.

The non-linearity needs to exist in the GAME, not the player. I want the game to give me challenges and problems I would never choose to encounter on my own.

~Carmine M. Red
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That sounds like a personal problem.  

So you want, essentially, a game that would be like an Elder SCrolls game, but with randomized locations or something?

There is non-linearity in the game, but you can throw linearity at *anything* if you'd like.  Which it seems you do.
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Offline Kairon

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #20 on: June 05, 2006, 08:15:28 AM »
IT'S TRUE!!! *SOB* I HAVE PERSONAL PROBLEMS!

But seriously, let's take a look at the ultimate non-linear experience: life for example. You can try to live your life the same way in a linear fashion over a hundred-thousand different lifetimes, but it will enver turn out the same. Why? Because you are not the only force that dictates the outcome, there are other people doing things you can't really account for that always muck-up your plans no matter how rigidly you hold to your linear plan.

A videogame equivalent would be Spore. (I shoulda known earlier to refer to Will Wright for non-linearity!) You can evolve your monster the same way each time you play Spore, BUT the game experience will always be different because Spore goes out and asynchronously downloads content and playstyles from other players to populate your world and provide competing species, competing tribes, competing civilizations, and competing aliens.

In the non-linear game I yearn for, I am not the only determinant of how something turns out. In such a game, I can play it the same way everytime but other factors beyond my control and knowledge and turning events in such a way that I'm forced to adapt, not by choice, but by story and survival necessity.

So yes, it is a personal problem. I still see linearity in games that rely on me, the player, to tell them which direction to turn.

~Carmine M. Red
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A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline Syl

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #21 on: June 05, 2006, 11:53:48 AM »
I suggest you pick up a Civilization title and reply back to this topic in a month or two.  =p
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Offline Kairon

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #22 on: June 05, 2006, 07:48:01 PM »
ARGH!

The only thing that got me out of my Civ 1 addiction is that I upgraded to Windows XP which can't run it. You have NO idea how close I came to playing that game to my death... And that's just Civ 1! I'm afraid of what the other games would do to me!

~Carmine M. Red
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Carmine Red, Associate Editor

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline ThePerm

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RE: the future of non linear games
« Reply #23 on: June 05, 2006, 07:56:27 PM »
is spore sort of like a super cubivore? I LOVE cubivore
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Offline Kairon

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RE:the future of non linear games
« Reply #24 on: June 05, 2006, 09:02:48 PM »
Spore is like Cubivore, E.V.O., Sim-Earth, Pac-Man, Populous, Civilization, S.E.T.I., Play Dough, and Tail of the Sun all wrapped into one package of AWESOME!

35 minute GDC 2005 video: SPORE

18 minute E3 2006 video: SPORE

~Carmine M. Red
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.