Unreal Gaming
Why do we game? Though I cannot speak for all of you out there, I’m sure a lot of you will agree that most of us turn to games for an escape. Not because we’re fed up with our lives, but because humans are, by nature, very curious. We love trying out new and exciting things. Things that we could not possibly do in the real world. Like be a super-soldier with a badass power suite, fight dragons with magic, or wield blades attached to chains to cut mythological creatures into tiny bits. We game to let our imagination run wild and experience the unreal.
However, if one looks at recent games such as Call of Duty, Gran Turismo, and GTA IV, you would guess that we do not design games for unreal experiences, but rather to see how close we can mimic reality. I’m not saying that these games are bad (I’m a big fan of all three), I’m just wondering why videogame designers, who have a chance to play god and build whatever world they want to, choose to replicate ours.
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Here’s an idea I had for a multiplayer game not long ago. I imagined it as the next instalment in the Unreal Tournament series, because it’s a much loved multiplayer franchise that already has the word ‘Unreal’ in the title, but it could just as well be a new IP. The game would be a first person shooter, like Call of Duty. In the multiplayer, you would select perks, just like in Call of Duty. The similarities end there. These perks, unlike the ones in Call of Duty that make you run longer or your bullets more damaging, would allow you to do some really crazy stuff. Become invisible, walk through walls, walk on walls and ceilings, see and shoot through objects, teleport, etc...
Instead of having Perk 1, Perk 2 and Perk 3, you would have a certain sum of money to spend and each perk would cost a different amount, depending on how powerful the perk is. This would allow you to mix and match any perks you wish. Guy who can walk, see, and shoot through walls? Check. Invisible teleporter? Check. With dozens of combinations, it’s only a matter of time before you find a combination that suites your play style.
And, to make things interesting, there would be perks designed to counter other perks. Like the ability to not just see invisible guys, but to have your shots home in on them. Or a gun that traps wall-runners in a bubble. Because each counter-perk would be specific to a super-perk, they would cost less (I’m guessing half as much, but those are things that would need to be balanced through many hours of testing).
You would also be able to mix and match these two sets of skills for deadly combinations. For example, having the power to see through walls and the perk to see invisible players would allow you to spot invisible players through walls.
Naturally, the details would have to be worked out through lots of testing, but they’re not important. It’s the general idea, the idea of doing completely unreal stuff, that truly matters.
After, all, isn’t that why we game?
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