Thoughts and Ideas re: the ‘Open-World Survival Game’ genre
You could say most games are survival games, in that the point is not to die. ‘Open-world survival games’ throw you into 3D randomly-generated (or even, ‘procedural-generated’) world maps, and leave you to interact with your environment. The main aim being: to overcome nature in its many forms.
These survival games cast nature as the main character, via intricately-rendered details of a specific ‘biome’, including native wildlife roaming around dynamic terrain and where the need to continually manage and maintain resources will be a rising worry. ‘Games’ or simulations in this vein leave out other (often more fun) game elements like story, or combat mechanics.
But progression can be exciting and well handled. Things generally start to unlock as you ‘progress’ or survive, either via your skills which allow you to do more things or practice more creativity like crafting, or by finding various story elements and eventually even finding a way back to civilisation.
Kids of the 1980s (like me) could only dream about these kind of games, to immerse, test and prepare players in fully dynamic scenarios or simulations. Plus, ‘procedural generation’ elements can mean that every time you re-start the scenario you will need to explore again, and the challenge may be slightly different. The reason for including procedural generation is in playing the same scenario, but with a different map or new set of challenges every time.
This is different from ‘pre-prepared’ open-worlds, which are stronger with their story-based elements. But, you can randomly generate the story aspect too, potentially starting from a different point, or playing as a different character, and by making different decisions inside and across the world map. That’s a lot harder to script though.
Nearly real, ‘ultimate’ games?
But you could say that the ‘reality’ of the purer ‘survival’ game is less fun, but more challenge, until that is, you can settle in to handling the menus and crafting aspects. Or, until you progress enough towards the array of building and creative (sandbox) aspects, which starts to become a bit like ‘Minecraft’ but with more restrictions. You’ll need to manage your inventory and resources continually. But you can learn a lot about survival thinking. You might have a ‘permadeath’ option too, meaning that if you die, you lose everything. In a game where death isn’t that easy, this can be a setting that makes things very interesting (and for Youtube streamers to base an amusing/challenging video on).
Selling a scenario
Obviously, there are a huge array of (never-ending) potential flavours and setups for ‘open-world survival games’. They can include some story or crash-landing scenario (‘Stranded Deep’), or be more horrifying (‘Alien: Isolation’ — in some respects), include a dash of fantasy or zombies (‘Rust’), or be a completely science-fiction space-sim experience (‘No Man’s Sky’). They can be highly intuitive to play from the outset, or have more complex learning curves. The ‘game-life’ of some of these games may also be extended by being able to create your own scenarios, maps or assets — even procedurally-generated.
And we’ve not covered the inclusion of multiplayer, meaning you may have to team up with others to survive, or risk being killed and plundered by those playing with a more hostile strategy. This is called PvP (Player versus Player) mixed with PvE (Player versus Environment), with ‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ being one example.
It could feel like these games are moving towards simulations of Bear Grylls ‘The Island’ gameshow, albeit less extreme. Collaborate or co-operate to win friends but share resources? Misbehave or act selfishly in any way and you risk getting kicked out of the game.
‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ and its spin-offs proved how popular mixing PvE and PvP can be, but also how difficult to get the balance right. Some issues surrounded the ‘grinding’ aspects later on in the game, and the danger of having other players affect the hard work of bases being built.
The more complex these games become, the steeper the learning curve, and the more daunting they become to play initially and get immersed in, especially where crafting and building are involved. The opposite to this might be the indie game like ‘Journey’ which is simple and intuitive, and instead concentrates purely on atmosphere and progression.
Mixed open-world games
There are other open-world games that carry these survival traits, but also include combat mechanics and narrative interest. ‘Far Cry’ (and ‘Far Cry Primal’) being an excellent example of blending things up, and they are, in fact, generally more thrilling to play and progress through.
But this comes at the cost of reduced ‘survival awareness’. The human element means you’re not forced — continually — to be aware of all the things in your vicinity that could be used or crafted for that more singular objective.
So where do we go from here?
So video games have now reached a point of being ultimate mirrors of what’s exciting about reality; intricate simulations of all kinds of scenarios and incredibly immersive ‘vessels’ for learning and appreciating various aspects of our nature, or society, all wrapped up in the exciting drive to survive to ‘the next level’.
In your own life, how much have you progressed, and how many skills have you ‘unlocked’? How many skills do you still use today, and how are they necessary to where, or how, you live on a daily basis? In a complex society, and especially in a city, this may not be so relevant or easy to answer. Perhaps you still spend a lot of time playing games and simulations, instead of applying them, if this matters.
Fantasy or reality-themed, these games or simulations continue to teach a huge array of social and creative aspects, including real, natural survival skills and knowledge. There may be great titles and game developers to come who manage to keep these relevant to the times.
Will one day there be an ‘open-world survival’ game for every habitat or scenario on planet Earth, that we may face?
Books and movies, on the other hand, are not so much simulations, they are realistic accounts. They can traverse the inner and outer worlds of people, and teach us things and values, but then so can video games, depending.
You could say we’ve now reached an ultimate level in what games can do or become. They can re-create conditions of randomness and simulation of any scenario. But they also have to be sensational and continually exciting. They often must (of course) cut out the ‘grind’ and patience required to reach certain goals, or they risk being boring and discarded. Gamers move on to the next title or scenario very quickly, desiring more stories, more involvements and challenges.
The next stage of game design may be more vivid in that more VR and multiplayer will be involved. And then, AR promises so much too (maybe more for social gaming again).
It’s fun to imagine some possibilities for next-gen games or simulated worlds for bringing better insights and a higher awareness about things. We may start to appreciate more how we’ve managed to survive as a species: not by surviving on our own, but together; by collaborating. But many multiplayer games already do this, perhaps indirectly.
‘No Man’s Sky’ (2016) is a remarkable example when thinking again about the future of (massive) open-world video games. It has demonstrated how a loyal following of retro space explorers in love with the design, colors — and particularly the infinite nature of its mechanics — has extended its development. There have been many waves of add-ons and upgrades, and a version for VR. They have enabled players to be highly creative and build elaborate, planetary bases. From early on there were options for it to be played in different modes including Survival and Creator Mode. They’ve now enabled some multiplayer features including a Social Hub to share this ultimate, escapist — and survival-infused — universe. Perhaps most of all they’ve enabled their players to become shared explorers of an infinite, ‘inner-outer space’, finding and naming new planets and sharing discoveries.
But this far-out space game only teaches in an indirect way about science, different elements and the universe. The story (and there is one, allowing players to reach the centre of a galaxy and reveal some of the mystery of the ‘Atlas’) offers a little mild spirituality but perhaps teaches little. Unlike say, the rich, historical subtext in ‘Assassin’s Creed’, reconstructing and bringing whole periods of history to life, and their pivotal events too.
But ‘No Man’s Sky’ is like a simulation for exploration, which has been filled with ‘things’ to modify, collect and build, and where people can now meet and dwell. What else could a simulation like this be filled with? A different story where some other revelation could be found at the centre of its universe?
Perhaps…
Illumination
For myself, I’m still awaiting an ultimate, open-world survival game set in nature and inspired by it, which can fill me with the sort of wonder that I see when I go for a walk in nature and observe structures of plants and trees. Or when I read popular science books about evolution and why and how I fit into this world outside — and inside. It’s not just about survival, but how everything grows and fits together. It would be a game that teaches all of this, and demonstrates who or what we are as a species, within nature’s context. Or… something like this.
It would need to be more expansive than an indie game like ‘Flower’, or jumping between plants (although sunflowers would work well). It could be just a ‘garden simulator’, giving me a plot of land like Sim Farm and simulating all the possibilities for growers — a bit like a more complex, mature, social network-linked ‘FarmVille’ comeback. It could be a way to learn about permaculture or sustainable farming techniques. Perhaps many would-be garden designers would be playing it, or so as to practice for horticultural or landscape gardening exams. But it could be more inspirational and escapist, with an inherent quest and mysteries to unlock. Nature is mysterious still, and ever changing.
It wouldn’t be the first time nature-lovers (and more learned scientists too) have probably wanted to play such a game.
It could be in many flavors, but might work more — influentially — as a mix of open-world survival and fantasy.
Any of this sort would’ve been games I’d have learned a lot from, more directly, more hands-on, as a kid, and might still be playing now, if it were still being updated, or patched.
Just as the ‘No Man’s Sky’ game experience might even get passed down a few generations. Now that’s a game with longevity, which is what the tiny game studio (Hello Games) who created it, perhaps dreamed of at the outset, until the actual gameplay proved somewhat disappointing. They’ve worked hard since to provide a game with more depth, so maybe it will hold up.
Anyway, so this was why I began thinking about writing stories about such a game (since I’m no developer). It was quite a while before I’d heard about ‘No Man’s Sky’ and its clever mechanics. I used to read Fighting Fantasy RPG books as a teenager and then read ‘The Naked Ape’ by Desmond Morris around age 20. So you could say, the desire to share knowledge through games (and then video games) has always been there. (However, I did purchase the first, special box-set collector’s edition of ‘No Man’s Sky’.)
Then, a VR future was always on the cards from the 1990s onwards. Everyone knew this technology would be coming, so it was a matter of getting ready for possibilities. The world wide web and social networks sort of arose in the middle, while we’ve all been waiting. I personally found the ideas of a ‘Cyberspace’ coming out of ‘difficult-to-read’ books like ‘Neuromancer’ and ‘Snow Crash’, and later ‘The Matrix’ movies to be all well and interesting, but also too technical, abstract, pretty grim in fact and soulless, and even contrived.
On an evolving, natural game-world…
This to me, was an idea more relevant, also since environmental concerns have only continued to grow.
Such a world would only reflect our own, but it would be quite a reflection, perhaps proving too potent or powerful a one, for some players. Or, it could be an ‘antidote’ against the many others, the more addictive kind to come. Indeed, it might even stand to influence a new, greener order of awareness, or instill a greater appreciation for the natural world, and for one another, to young adult players.
It could ‘illuminate’ life on earth like never before. Part of that illumination might lie on our species past, since we may be getting farther away from it, and might need a simulation where we can go back.
This ‘antidote world’ might be hidden within an overwhelming, spiralling ‘Spiral Tower’ of ‘game-worlds’, never-ending in their scope and desire to replicate, control and motivate their players into — potentially addictive — levels of escapism.
Such a ‘nature-world’ would also be thrilling to play, granting extra powers not possible in reality, so as to experience nature from different angles. Despite this, it would encourage a sense of re-connection with our world, and lead every player towards some respect and awareness once again, as well ‘illuminate’ them, as much as we are illuminated by reality.
Players would feel alone, but then later on, feel the relief of others, and the truth and joy in having to depend on others. The game in this way, could mimic the stages of growth we all experience in life, only in quicker time.
This complementing reality, and teaching about it, could be termed as an ‘ultimate game’. Its positive side-effects might be to help players back into the real world, again, enlightened and illuminated, ready to explore real things, and manipulate them. (This is not to say there aren’t many titles available today which do this, in their different ways.)
Contrary to this, there may be plenty of stories written about how such futuristic games go wrong, about bad actors taking them over and scaring, hypnotizing, or brainwashing victimised players, young or old. About the game I’m imagining, there could be heroes (even their creators) having to deactivate them, by completing them or deliberately sabotaging them, or whatever... Such stories could fill many virtual pages of ‘game sci-fi’ or ‘litRPG’ e-books, or across Wattpad.
But… I just want(ed) to imagine one first, which, for the most part, ‘worked’, and could be game-changing, in some way.
It seems every game has its time, even game sandbox / sand-castles, which get updated only for so long, before their servers are shut down. But perhaps there are some which won’t be, due to some kind of genesis coding, and instead will just get overgrown, since there are no players there. They may become sand-jungles, ready to be re-discovered, along with ‘secrets’ or information their original founding writers, scientists and designers may have scattered there. These might be values with a powerful, long-lasting relevance and truth. These may even be re-awoken, re-activated and ‘re-appreciated’ by new players, possibly containing values and insights with the power to re-shape or salvage a corrupt or fallen civilisation.
Or it might be the process — the progression — of playing through such a game itself that re-shapes something inside a generation of future citizens — or just helps them in some way.
I’m sure games can possess this hidden power, and will possess more of it as the technology and demand for simulation advances and never ceases. Even ‘Assassin’s Creed’ titles at times, re-awaken a sense of a long-lost civilisation, as the avatar is surrounded by reconstructed statues of gods and the daily life of its once-mighty cities.
Back into ‘The Spiral’
So stay tuned, and follow along here on Medium, since I’m planning and hoping, to re-visit fragments and ideas about ‘Fountellion in The Spiral’ [updated link 22].
I’m not sure I can undertake a full story, or ‘complete’ another one. I enjoy writing fragments more, maybe because of a short or lazy attention span. I’m not sure I can successfully or effectively explore any of these ideas, but the act of exploring is interesting. Through writing words one also explores and reveals — and survives!
Fiction writing in the ultimate reality, after all (the ultimate game?) But video games fascinate in their power to replicate, explore and illuminate ideas, and they become shadows and reflections of our world. They offer ‘real’ experiences now, and more useful ones, and more dangerous perhaps.
July 2020
