Horizon Zero Dawn, like many other games, has both an open world exploration part, and a story part. Now in games like that I tend to take the story slowly, and concentrate on the open world part first. So while I am not very far advanced in the Horizon Zero Dawn story, I have already reached a major goal that isn't story-related: All of my inventory slots are maximized, for resources, gear, and ammo. I prefer to play the game this way around, because now I won't have so much trouble with inventory management when I play through the story. I can shoot arrows for longer before running out and having to craft new ones, and so on.

Story-wise this means that while technically I was in pursuit of killers, I took many days "off" that chase, and spent it grinding for currency and materials for crafting. Because, surprise, I know that the people I am chasing aren't going anywhere. Whether it is a computer game or a pen & paper role-playing game, story is nearly always scripted. If you are after a cult doing evil sacrifices and storm their temple, there will be a sacrifice going on right that time. You never arrive too early or too late, unless the DM or the person scripting the story wanted that to happen. As a consequence we have learned to ignore the flow of time in these games.

The problem is obviously that a game designer who gave players a lot of freedom can't know what the players are going to do with that. In Horizon Zero Dawn, "the Proving" will happen when you turn up and say you are ready for it. If there was actual time and you could actually miss the event, much of the story afterwards wouldn't make much sense anymore. Like your wedding, you can't possibly miss it (don't try that). And because you can't miss it, you don't feel any time pressure.

I think it would be interesting to play in an open world game in which time actually passes, and you can miss things. But that would necessitate two things: A story which isn't all about you, and a game which can handle different consequences, as a function of whether you did or did not turn up for events. Both of which are problematic. A game in which you *aren't* the hero would be less appealing. And game stories today are mostly linear, with maybe a few branches. The AI necessary to create something like an "open story world" doesn't exist. In a way, that was one of the unkept promises of MMORPGs, that the other players would provide the living world and open story. Didn't work out that way.

- posted by Tobold @ 8:40 AM Permanent Link