a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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Sorry, I didn't mean to have a wine about the fairness of the price per se. I've supported a lot of games in development over the years, and I don't want to belittle the work that goes into making something like this (I've been working on a game myself for a few years now part time, and damn its a lot of work.)
I'll start off by saying I'm a fan of the Castle Doctrine. It was an experimental, multiplayer game, like this one. I like how Jason isn't
afraid to do something different and bend expectations when it comes to what makes a game, a game.
That said, I'm not sure I can see how this is going to work out. There's a neat idea here, that is experimental. However... what is the long term plan?
Every time you are born, you are a different character, in a different group of people, with a different story. For just that one hour. That's a nice idea,
but what it amounts to, as far as I can see, is most likely you are spawning in a group that at best goes back a few generations (i.e. hours).
So, some person spawns in, finds an old ruined base, sticks it out and raises some kids. That generation survive, and have kids, and do a bit more work.
Maybe it carries on a few more generations after that, if they are smart and have some experience. Then the place dies as people in the same time zone
go to sleep, work, etc.
It stays empty for a while. Somebody else finds the ruins later, starts again. Repeat.
Put it another way, human life / societies in this world are so short lives, so transient, that you will never have persistent civilizations lasting more than
a few hours at a time. On weekends, during active time in the US, for the first few weeks of the game, I think you will see a fair bit happening. But going months into the future...?
What this means is that the variety of potential stories you can experience will be pretty limited. It won't be like "Oh hi, we are at war with tribe X, now
you have to help us fight!" Or "Oh hi, our society is organized in this way, and you will need to learn how to fit in." It will be like, "Oh hey, we are living
in this skeleton filled ruin. Spend your time scrounging for food then either starve or die of old age. Nobody here will be alive in a few hours, but maybe
somebody tomorrow will use the other items we make... in order to scrounge and make some more items?"
Put it another way, I'm not sure how the transitory experimental experience of a life in an hour, on a random server, with random people, can translate
into an ongoing gaming experience, especially when any given group will only be persistent for a few hours at a time.
And that in itself is OK. If the game was free? Or two dollars? But when priced as an actual game, this seems like a problem. I don't know.
Right now, I've thought of it as though I purchased a ticket to see an interesting art piece.
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