Videogames Will Never Escape The Elements (and neither will you)
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It seems like you can't take two steps inside a videogaming without running into elemental weaknesses and resistances, elemental systemic mechanics, characters with elemental theming and even entire worlds split into elementally-themed chunks... but why? What makes the elements so special that makes them such a common theme that everyone seems to be able to interpret in the same way?
Well, The Architect, after taking a quick sojourn to ancient Greece, stopping by Azeroth and sauntering through the forgotten realms - all whilst trying to avoid Nickelodeon's lawyers - has an answer. The elements aren't just a cornerstone of culture, they're an inherent part of our psychology too - and that means no matter how hard we try, we'll never be entirely rid of them... but is that a good thing?
Comments
KevinHelpUs (on YouTube!)
Loved it! Appreciate the Avatar avatar, and thank you for mentioning that these design similarities can make genres feel samey. I'm playing Kingdom Come Deliverance right now, and I'm tempted to start Baldur's Gate 3 (late to the party, I know), but I'm worried it's going to feel too similar. Also love the nod to Cultist Simulator! (And we're all happy to support, and I hope things are better now.)
Steven V. Neiman
Things where the audience knows something before you've taught them anything always have an interesting balancing act. On one hand, it's comforting to encounter something already familiar and can let you skip a lot of tutorializing if core ideas are already there in cultural memory, but on the other hand it pushes design towards well-trodden ground and can rob the player of the chance to learn something. And on the third hand (don't ask whose hand this is), strategically breaking rules can evoke powerful feelings of confusion or helplessness but you have to give the player sufficient reason to trust the system AND clearly convey that the breaks are deliberate so it doesn't just feel like shoddy and unclear design.
