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Gaming Critical Hit: Why Don't We Reuse Game Worlds?

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 14 Jul 2011.

  1. arcticstoat

    arcticstoat Minimodder

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  2. kaiser

    kaiser What's a Dremel?

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    Its an interesting argument, considering the games industry is always criticised for recycling practically everything else. Hell, between many Nintendo games the only thing that changes is the location, the characters, gameplay, large portions of the plot, musical score, visual style and so on ad nauseum.
     
  3. r3loaded

    r3loaded Minimodder

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    Well, the Stalker series have re-used exactly the same game world, and it's worked for them because while the layout is the same, all the other game features are different so it feels like a new game rather than a re-hash.
     
  4. Jake123456

    Jake123456 Surprise!

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    Fallout didn't use the same game world did they?
     
  5. confusis

    confusis Kiwi-modder

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    I'm kinda hoping GTA5 is back in San Andreas.. the map was so large and varied it made for a lot of hours spent just messing around.
     
  6. DriftCarl

    DriftCarl Minimodder

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    I do like games that revisit old areas. Kinda like some of the old HL mods, like blue shift, it visited parts of the HL2 game but also expanded on its own areas. I would have no problem with an FPS game set in one of the GTA cities, obiously there would need to be some modification and updating, but I would imagine it would take a lot of work out of major parts of the design process.
     
  7. will_123

    will_123 Small childs brain in a big body

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    Yes I agree with that it was very varied but sometimes you were just driving around in open space. But i feel it was a better landscape than GTA4. I used to love just driving from town to town in San Andreas.
     
  8. Kris

    Kris Lord Lolwut

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    great column! And it certainly makes me think, why they do not reuse the words already created. I guess in the game world a "movie set comparison" could be done with the game engines that are licensed a la unreal engine.
    I would imagine that they do use some other 3d models in other places as well + textures - perhaps it's not so much of a 'everything from scratch every time we start to make a new game' situation that it seems.
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    I find it slightly odd that a games reviewer would suggest this, as game reviewers are the first to jump all over a game for not being original; or for copying another game.

    Personally, I wouldn't mind all that much, but the likelyhood of sh!tty reviews from gaming press probably keeps software houses from doing it.
     
  10. tonyd223

    tonyd223 king of nothing

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    Battlefield 3 is supposedly having a "Back to Karkand" expansion pack - all I ever wanted was BF2 with better graphics. Gameplay, kits, aiming, weapons, squads, don't change anything...
     
  11. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    GTA3 world is gigantic, even when flying...
     
  12. the_kille4

    the_kille4 Chaos will rule da world.eventually

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    GTA: San Andreas' world was huge... I spent so much time in a plane... flying around, landing, crashing. also there are so many mods out there. Pity that it does not work well with 64bit win 7.
     
  13. Ending Credits

    Ending Credits Bunned

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    Why stop at just the gameworld? There is a huge amount of assets that could be reused.

    The problem is that I don't think this is really an option for AAA developers, can you imagine the criticism they'd get, not to mention technology moves so fast that these things go out of date within the developent cycle. It does seem like it might be a good thing for smaller studios and even indie games developers (provided the price was low enough).
     
  14. tonyd223

    tonyd223 king of nothing

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    wanted to go sniping in Razors Edge...
     
  15. antiHero

    antiHero ReliXmas time!

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    GTA: San Andreas world with L4D2 plot and I am set for life!

    Think about how cool it would be with an open world zombie shooter. Fighting your way through the whole city on different missions like getting supplies or rescuing survivors. Or just running around and shooting zombies, zombies and more zombies!!!
     
  16. GregTheRotter

    GregTheRotter Minimodder

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    You wouldn't play bioshock in the same places because discovering new places was half of what the game was about, seeing something you hadn't seen before. Games like GTA? I suppose.
     
  17. yakyb

    yakyb i hate the person above me

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    i for one would love to revisit the world of FF7 (granted a little dated now) but if they could have made a replica just a year or two later i would have had no problems buying that
     
  18. yakyb

    yakyb i hate the person above me

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    combine this concept with some minecraft to create weapons / hideouts / vehicles and your on to a winner

    ' To the Shopping Mall!!!'
     
  19. DrTiCool

    DrTiCool Minimodder

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    I wanna go back to Racoon City
     
  20. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    having recently visited Universal Studios myself, it struck me the main difference between gaming and films/TV: director camera angle.

    with many films, you can keep reusing the same piece of landmark or same area of forest by using different camera angle and different cut technique to make the view feel they've never seen it before. Universal only have about 5 to 6 streets in its back lot, and they've managed to shoot so many films just using those set. in fact, there is only a single the western theme set.

    i recognised the court house and street shows in Back to the Future during my tour, i also realised the theatre (the one Marty crashed into at end of pt1) was used during an episode of Chuck, camera angle and time of day setting played a huge part of this illusion.



    with games, the player control camera angle, the player control speed of advance. the player can choose to look at things in great detail, ruining the illusion when the location is reused. there is also importance of gameplay elements: map designer have designed the map to be played in a certain way, the back drop may be re-used, but the level design that the player explores will need to be re-done. (think Call of Duty white house level, the path is dictated by level designer, must be changed for new experience. back drop is very simple model that can be reused)

    GTA series is a different case, however, if a player is lead through a different path, as a different character, then the illusion stays intact. same as Assassin's Creed, perfectly good locations can be used many different ways.
     
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