One Hour One Life Forums

The lack of wars in this game is a symptom of a larger problem, I think.  There's also no long-term trade, no long term culture, no policy-making, treaties, etc.

Yes, I could bring all the Eves closer together, making space contention more likely.

Yes, I could adjust the map so it's not effectively infinite, making resource contention more likely (imagine if the game took place on a small island, or an island with a rising tide, battle-royal style).

But I think both of those issues and solutions address only the symptom, and not the underlying cause.  "Contention" between which parties?  One village and another village?  Why aren't they just one big village at that point?

Quiz:  You just had a girl baby, and suddenly another unrelated girl baby walks out from the bushes and asks for food.  She's one year older than your baby.  You realize you only have enough food resources for one baby.  Which one do you save?

Quiz:  Your family is running out of food, and your last girl child is about to starve to death, resulting in the end of your family line.  Nearby in the same town, there's an unrelated family that has plenty of extra food.  You ask for some assistance, but they refuse.  You have a knife, and they don't.  What do you do?

In real life, the answer to these questions would be obvious to most people.  And people might pick the same answers inside of the game, because they are applying real life thinking to the in-game situation.  In other words, because they are role playing.  That's my baby, and I care for her more than some other baby.  I don't want my family line in this town to die out.

But what about real playing?  The truth is, currently, there is no gameplay reason to prefer your baby to an unrelated baby or your family line to some other family line, at least not in the same town.

The core idea in this game is that you care for your offspring because they are the future that gives what you accomplish in the game meaning.  What's the point of building a house, if there's no one around in the future to finish it or live in it?  Furthermore, there is a chance that you will eventually be born back into this village in the distant future, and thus you'll get to reap the benefits of your own future-preservation efforts.  I've put mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening immediately, in your very next life, to ensure that the game has variety, to make your really say goodbye to your lifetime projects (at least for a while), and to prevent the game from degenerating into "Minecraft where you annoyingly get reborn every hour."  So, a few hours need to pass with you living in other places before you can revisit this place again in a future life.  Still, the possibility is there, and that possibility requires the survival of children, grandchildren, and so on.

But, all that said, none of those motivations have anything to do with your offspring, specifically, surviving.  As long as some offspring survive in that area, your physical creations will have meaning, and you'll have the same chance to get reborn there in the distant future.

And I feel like something is missing here, which has been an important factor in human interactions.  The primacy of family, tribe, and nation.  The primacy of culture and ethnicity.  Kinship.

I feel like there is a dramatic arc to the rise and fall of a civilization in the game, but it's a bit of a muted one.  It's disappointing when a village dies out, but it's not tragic.  In that moment of desperation, people are barely motivated to resort to desperate measures.  Where's the heated town meeting where we decide to load up the covered wagons and strike out for greener pastures?  Where's the heated town meeting where we load up the bows and arrows and decide to raid the next village?

Where are the town walls and gates?

And before you say, "We just don't have time for that stuff!", I have personally seen huge trans-generational projects in the game.  Giant farms.  Sprawling road networks.  People have had time to accomplish a lot of crazy things in the game.

Even death-bed speeches have a superfluous role-playing quality to them.  A civilization should live and die by its oral tradition, by the strength of its grand plan as formulated by its ancestors.  This might actually be true in the existing game (that a civilization lives and dies by its grand plan).  It just doesn't matter too much whether a civilization lives or dies.

Yes, the story is fundamentally comprised of the stories of individuals, and I do think that the dramatic arc of an individual life in the game is robust.  But individuals are also part of a story that is much bigger than themselves, with much more at stake.  That is also what this game is about, and I want those arcs to be even more robust and heart-wrenching.

Currently, the metaphysics of the game may be something like, "The player is a soul that gets born again and again as different people."

What if, instead of being a soul, the player was a chromosome?

great job! now what's the next project?

karltown_veteran wrote:

pein wrote:

bakers gonna bake

you listen to traileor schwifty, that explains a lot

Actually I don't really like her other songs, but Shake It Off has a kind of je ne sais quoi to it that makes it catchy.

QFT. That one's hard to get out of my head, but I don't really mind.

Hmmm....

I stay up too late
Live too many lives
That's what people say, mm-mm
That's what people say, mm-mm
I make too many pies
But I can't get 'em baked
At least, that's what people say, mm-mm
That's what people say, mm-mm

But I keep on cooking
Can't stop, won't stop looking
It's like I've got these voices
In my mind, saying "Put that into a pie"
'Cause the griefers gonna grief grief grief grief grief
While the RPers just grieve grieve grieve grieve grieve
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!
Now the noobs are gonna take take take take take
And the makers gonna make make make make make
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!

I never miss a click
Bake pies up double-quick
And that's what they don't see, mm-mm
That's what they don't see, mm-mm
I'm baking on my own
To make the best of my new home
And that's what they don't know, mm-mm
That's what they don't know, mm-mm

But I keep on cooking
Can't stop, won't stop looking
It's like I've got these voices
In my mind, saying "Put that into a pie"
'Cause the griefers gonna grief grief grief grief grief
While the RPers just grieve grieve grieve grieve grieve
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!
Now the noobs are gonna take take take take take
And the makers gonna make make make make make
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!

Bake it all! Bake it all! ah-ah-ah (x3)
Bake it all! Bake it all!

(Hey hey hey, listen up... while you been gettin' down and out about the griefers and useless noobs of the world, you could've been eating to this... sick... beat.)

My new mom tried to feed me to a bear but it bit her instead; I'm just gonna bake.
And to karltown_veteran, hella nice hair! Won't you come on over baby, we can bake... bake... bake.

'Cause the griefers gonna grief grief grief grief grief
While the RPers just grieve grieve grieve grieve grieve
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!
Now the noobs are gonna take take take take take
And the makers gonna make make make make make
I'm just gonna bake bake bake bake bake
Bake it all! Bake it all!

Bake it all! Bake it all! ah-ah-ah (x3)
Bake it all! Bake it all!
Bake it all! Bake it all! ah-ah-ah (x3)
Bake it all! Bake it all!
Bake it all! Bake it all! ah-ah-ah (x3)
Bake it all! Bake it all!

bakers gonna bake

you listen to traileor schwifty, that explains a lot

You can pry my backpack off my cold dead body.

Shawn is just sad he wasn't by the Banging Foursome