Chapter 326 About Design
This War of Mine is one of those rare games that questions human nature.
This characteristic causes each player to give different answers when faced with choices in the game due to their personality, concepts, etc.
Similarly, when players begin to bear the consequences of their choices in the game, they will also have a profound understanding of what their choices really mean.
Under the steam comment area, the number of game experience reviews has exploded, describing the true feelings of different players when experiencing the game content.
"On the fourth day, there was too little food. Everyone was hungry and the nearby abandoned huts had been searched. I had no choice but to go to a house further away.
The map reminded me to be prepared to steal something, I thought to myself, small problem.
Turns out I couldn't find a way to sneak in. This wasn't a thief, this was a robber!
The old man was following me. He told me not to hurt his wife. He begged me not to take their things.
If I don’t steal, I will die. If I steal, they will die.
My heart collapsed instantly, and I closed the game without even saving the file, letting them all live in the fourth night.
When the real war comes, who will let me go? ”
This review has been liked by more than 4,000 players.
The old couple in the silent hut are definitely the ones who have left the most profound impression on countless players in this game.
The rich supplies and the corresponding guard force are just an old man who keeps begging you to spare his and his wife's lives.
After all, he sticks to his own bottom line as a human being, chooses to let them go, go home alone, bear the disappointed eyes of his teammates, and endure a cold and hungry day.
Or he could put aside his inner morality and choose to wipe out all the old man's belongings, just to survive in this cruel war.
There is no right or wrong between the two choices.
It just depends on you.
"This is not a happy game. There is no ignition point or laughter. There is only sadness and helplessness throughout the whole process, as well as resentment towards the war.
When you kill an enemy, the game will not give any encouraging comments, and the protagonist will become depressed.
When you are beaten to death, there will be no heroic BGM, no one will give you a funeral, and your death will be meaningless like a domestic animal.
Even if the war ends at the end, there is no scene of people cheering enthusiastically, only the players are left to think about war and human nature. ”
This kind of pure comment-style evaluation will get relatively few likes.
In addition to good reviews, the game naturally also has negative reviews.
For example, the assassination system for the game.
"The simple and easy assassination system is the biggest failure of this game.
The game itself is a survival strategy game. To ensure that players can always experience the tension of war, we must first make players feel the pressure of survival.
During the first week of the game, the pressure on me from the game was still very strong. I didn’t dare to go to any of the dangerous places on the map. When I was searching, I ran as soon as I heard footsteps.
When stealing things from other people's homes, I always stare at the red circle above my head. If someone else makes the slightest movement, I will be like a frightened bird.
When I listened to the radio and saw that the price of cigarettes had increased, I was so entangled in what kind of materials I should buy for trading.
After making something, I would watch the radio every day, for fear that the price of what I had just made would drop.
Because the character's frontal combat effectiveness is very low, the tension in the game is simply unmatched.
But after I learned assassination, the nature of this game completely changed.
I discovered that as long as I had a knife, I could do whatever I wanted in the world.
When supplies are in short supply, they start killing. When they seem bored, they start killing. They start killing to see who doesn't like them.
Military camps, warehouses, brothels, if I am familiar with the composition of the people, I can clean up a place in a day.
In the later period, supplies were plentiful enough that people could survive the war just lying at home.
I eat cans and throw them away, smoke cigarettes casually, and drink alcohol every day.
In the early stages of the game, the feeling of working step by step, managing bit by bit, and allocating materials reasonably to spend every day with difficulty disappeared instantly without a trace.
I hope the game can cut off the assassination system and increase the difficulty of the game. ”
Under this review, compared to the number of likes, more people "find this review happy".
"It's broken, there is a Yan Shuangying on the battlefield!"
"Brother, do you really not feel any guilt when you kill someone?"
"I have been killing fish in RT-Mart for ten years, and my heart is as cold as my knife."
However, no matter how everyone evaluates this game, there is one thing that everyone is thinking about.
That's a "one week" gaming experience.
Under the premise that you are not familiar with the game mechanism in the early stage.
Not knowing where to go to explore at night, what kind of supplies should be collected to go home, and avoiding danger as soon as possible is the first experience for ordinary players.
It is precisely under such heavy pressure that everyone can truly have their own reflection in the war with a strong sense of immersion.
Go to hell with war!
As an anti-war game, "This War of Mine" is really qualified.
Chuxin’s official website attracted unanimous criticism from players early in the morning.
But in the end it turned into a sentence: "Go to the bloody war."
This is my war has far greater stamina than anyone imagined.
When many people began to take this opportunity to vent their emotions on the Internet, some big Vs who have studied deeply in the field of games began to analyze in depth what made the game "This War of Mine" so popular. Huge sense of immersion.
And whether latecomers can copy it based on this template.
"My thoughts on playing This War of Mine: Why are we keen on violence and why do we resist violence?" ""Watching the old couple and their son's bodies slowly falling, my hands trembled slightly, as if what I was holding was not a mouse, but a dagger dripping with blood on the screen.
When I put on my backpack full of looted supplies and left the blood-stained room, I knew that I was slowly getting used to this kind of killing; but I also knew that the guilt would be with me until I uninstalled the game.
The above paragraph is a real psychological journey that I experienced while playing the game.
Before playing this game, I never seemed to be disturbed by the use of violence to cause killing in games.
But in this game, the act of killing allows me to escape from the game and examine my own heart.
It must be said that "This War of Mine" is a unique game. It tells the story of a group of survivors collecting supplies and trying to survive in a ruined city after the war.
It is because of this world view, coupled with some tricks used by Mr. Luo in terms of game rhythm and numerical values, that the lack of supplies runs through the entire game process.
Under such circumstances, violence has been with us from the beginning to the end, whether it is violence or violence.
Before delving into the topic of this article, I would like to first talk about why we players use violence in games.
On the surface, in general games, the act of violence or killing often means the output of quantified resources.
For example, in RPG games, players can obtain gold coins, experience points, and equipment by killing monsters. This is the output of a resource.
Moreover, it is encouraged to obtain materials through such behavior and improve the positive feedback of players during the game.
For example, with a higher level, you can learn cooler skills, and with more money, you can buy more handsome fashions.
But the basis of this encouraging behavior is that the game design does not guide players to bring emotions into the game characters.
Players will not involuntarily regard the characters in the game as real lives.
For example, in The Legend of Link, you will never kill Princess Link just because you have nothing to do. You will only take action against the monsters that are baring their teeth and claws at you.
Knowing this, we also understand that there is only one reason for using violence in "This War of Mine".
Due to the scarcity of supplies, players can only use all means to obtain supplies to keep the characters they control alive.
Compared with searching for supplies all over the map, it may be a more efficient choice to use a knife to slaughter all the camps, especially if the player does have this ability.
It seems that the original intention is to encourage players to use violence, but in actual play, I believe that many players feel deeply annoyed and regretful about their actions during the game.
And this is also the exquisite design of the game "This War of Mine".
In the game, the character you control is by no means an NPC that moves completely according to your thoughts.
Katia used to be a reporter. She interviewed many celebrities. She was kind-hearted and liked to help others.
Bruno is a chef who runs his own food show. Although he has a cold personality, he is able to make the most perfect meals with the least ingredients.
Anton is a mathematics professor who struggled to survive at the expense of all his students. This made him extremely obsessed with survival, because he was burdened with more than just his own life...
The "enemies" you need to face are not mindless monsters that attack you, but ordinary people like you who are living in different ways in the war.
The old man who lives with his wife in a wealthy area; the medical staff who are still struggling to run the hospital even in such a dangerous situation and selflessly help any seriously ill patients who come here; who are forced to sell their bodies in exchange A woman with a mouthful of food.
Under such circumstances, whether it is worries about the fate of the characters in the game, or simply the frequent use of a certain character's characteristics, players will unconsciously think about the problem from the perspective of the character in the game.
You can no longer regard the people in the game as NPCs without any life.
Under this premise.
Whether to plunder the supplies of an old couple who cannot resist; whether to help others when their own supplies are extremely scarce; whether to choose to kill to obtain more supplies, etc. Players need to make decisions in a dilemma. Decisions based on human nature.
On this basis, "This War of Mine" designed a "double-edged sword" reward and punishment mechanism for violent behaviors in the game.
Players can obtain more materials through violent behavior, but on the contrary, this kind of unethical behavior will bring negative emotions to the characters in the game, resulting in the reduction of the characters' abilities and affecting the game process.
This kind of design not only limits uncontrolled violence, but also gives players space for self-reflection and thinking through the dilemma of making choices, which invisibly strengthens the experiencer's identification with the game's "anti-war" theme.
We love violence, but we resist violence.
I think if a production team wants to make a strategy game in the future, they can refer to the design ideas of "This War of Mine".
This is a great template that perfectly combines gameplay with a strong narrative.
Although Mr. Luo already has so many honors in the world, you never know what surprises his next game will bring to the industry.
Finally, let me talk about my true feelings about playing this game.
In fact, in the early stages of the game, I followed the principle of "compassionate" and tried to avoid violence.
The biggest scale is just petty theft, stealing some medicines and food from other people's territories, struggling to maintain the survival of his team.
But when I entered the map called 'Quiet House' and faced two helpless old men, they ruthlessly took away a small part of the items.
I swear, I took even less than usual!
But when I returned to the quiet hut for the second time and saw two old people dead due to lack of supplies, my mentality changed.
I didn't kill Boren, but Boren died because of me.
Now that my hands are stained with blood, compassion has nothing to do with me anymore.
I gradually began to turn into a murderous maniac.
I crazily stole medicines in the hospital, killed the young man who protected his parents, and crazily chased and killed everyone who caught a glimpse of my theft in the ruins.
You have already killed one person anyway, so what does it matter if you kill more?
I seem to be able to get a glimpse of what I will be like when I actually face a war from my gaming behavior.
Of course, how could ordinary people carve out things like botanical gardens, weapons, and beds with their own hands?
At least I won't.
The most likely possibility is that he died in an unknown corner just after the war broke out. Maybe the body would be eaten as a food reserve.
Finally, go to hell with the war! ”
(End of chapter)