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To some extent, gaming 'real time' has been tried and attempted to be blended in games a few times before. GTA kind of went for it with its clock at the top that you often had to work around, but yet, that too wasn’t fully 'real time' gaming. But could this type of gaming be a hit? And would it be enjoyable? And, could it change gaming on a whole?
While the idea may not be on the whole practical, it’s a very interesting idea im sure you would agree. The whole point of it is to give you that real sense of time, and having to beat you're missions within this time limit, adding a whole new dimension to gaming, more could be made of the game itself, and a number of things could be improved, the games could be made much more involving, and tactical.
But how?
For this to work a number of things have to be considered first. If the game is going to be 'real time', every aspect of the game has to work by this. There would have to be no short cuts. Everything would be on a time scale of that similar to the real world. If this was possible, it opens up a whole knew aspect of gaming. Think about it.
Your in a an action game with all the usual, guns, enemies injuries and so on. You come to an area and engage in a gunfire battle. Shots are exchanged for some time until the battle is over, you have won and the enemies are dead. But you have been wounded. Now in a normal game that we have today, you would end up going and picking up a health icon or something like that, which is all too easy, but in this case, perhaps not. Say you have been hit in one of your organs, your not going to die right away, but the time is against you, you have a few hours to try and get this fixed, there’s no easy way around this. You have to try and get it fixed within a time limit before you loose too much blood and eventually die.
Most games could implement this idea of 'real time' into it, other examples could lie within the likes of GTA, and this game could make some real use of this idea. To re-spray a car, it obviously doesn’t take less than 10 seconds, more likely a few hours, so rather than driving straight in and out to evade the cops, things have to be done much differently. Since the job is going to take a few hours your going to have to lay low either in the building or out and around the place, so this is where the tactical part of the game comes in, you have to drive in there without the police being able to actually see you, allowing you to spend your time in there. Obviously, if you’re being chased this is going to be much harder to achieve, but that’s the point, it all adds to the difficulty and realism of the game.
Other examples are the likes of travelling times. Does it really only take a matter of seconds to drive across the city? No, so lets have the games made that way. Other small things could be added, the Dreamcast did this with one or two games. Depending what time of day it is when your playing, the game reflects this, so says its at night, then the game takes place at night and so on. The possibilities are endless.
One major advantage of having everything in 'real time' is the fact that it would all be on the same level. Many things within games now run, time wise, dubious to each other. It only takes seconds to travel large distances, yet to re-load a gun it takes a more realistic time. If everything was to run in on real time it would all be relative to each other, only a small thing, but would make the game that step closer to the realism that this is all about.
And that’s probably going to make the biggest difference if this was to be ever implemented. The step in coming closer to realism would be massive. Everything would be as it were to us here and now, the same difficulties and triumphs would be experienced in the new gaming world that is before us.
Another thing to consider is if this were to ever happen, how it would affect games on a whole. If developers were ever going to implement this, and implement it well, then a lot of work is going to have to be done to make it work and be an enjoyable game, after all, we are going to want to enjoy it. On one hand, the games are going to have to be huge. If 'real time' physics are going to be used then the playing areas are going to have to reflect this, and the only way that’s going to happen is to have an area that’s big enough for this, and big enough to get a decent sized game out of it. But big isn’t always better, and anyone could easily get overwhelmed by the game, or if its not interesting enough, people are going to get bored. But little things could combat this, for long travels either by foot or vehicle, new manovers and such could be used to give the game that little bit of variety, anything just to give the game something different in it.
There’s no denying, if this sort of game could ever be pulled off it would surely be something interesting. If the every day real life problems we as humans experience were implemented into the game, it would be so much more immersive than the most immersive games that we have to play currently. If getting injured in the game and then recovering from that is going to cause us some problems, maybe we are going to try and look after our characters that little bit more, or otherwise face the consequences.
Obviously, there are many problems too that have to be thought about. Mainly being that the idea on a whole may not be all that practical. Not many of us at all have the time to spend and play a game like this, we do (most of us anyway) have a life to live, which can’t be spent just playing a console game. The boredom factor too is a hard one to over come and not to mention the difficulties in which the developers have to tackle in making the game work for us on a gaming perspective. Finally, the way the games would work is too a complicated ideal, what happens when you turn the console off? When you start back playing a few hours later, how does the time scale work within that?
Maybe gaming being played in real time is an idea that is far away from here, or one that will never make the light of day. But it’s certainly an interesting idea to think about.
While the idea may not be on the whole practical, it’s a very interesting idea im sure you would agree. The whole point of it is to give you that real sense of time, and having to beat you're missions within this time limit, adding a whole new dimension to gaming, more could be made of the game itself, and a number of things could be improved, the games could be made much more involving, and tactical.
But how?
For this to work a number of things have to be considered first. If the game is going to be 'real time', every aspect of the game has to work by this. There would have to be no short cuts. Everything would be on a time scale of that similar to the real world. If this was possible, it opens up a whole knew aspect of gaming. Think about it.
Your in a an action game with all the usual, guns, enemies injuries and so on. You come to an area and engage in a gunfire battle. Shots are exchanged for some time until the battle is over, you have won and the enemies are dead. But you have been wounded. Now in a normal game that we have today, you would end up going and picking up a health icon or something like that, which is all too easy, but in this case, perhaps not. Say you have been hit in one of your organs, your not going to die right away, but the time is against you, you have a few hours to try and get this fixed, there’s no easy way around this. You have to try and get it fixed within a time limit before you loose too much blood and eventually die.
Most games could implement this idea of 'real time' into it, other examples could lie within the likes of GTA, and this game could make some real use of this idea. To re-spray a car, it obviously doesn’t take less than 10 seconds, more likely a few hours, so rather than driving straight in and out to evade the cops, things have to be done much differently. Since the job is going to take a few hours your going to have to lay low either in the building or out and around the place, so this is where the tactical part of the game comes in, you have to drive in there without the police being able to actually see you, allowing you to spend your time in there. Obviously, if you’re being chased this is going to be much harder to achieve, but that’s the point, it all adds to the difficulty and realism of the game.
Other examples are the likes of travelling times. Does it really only take a matter of seconds to drive across the city? No, so lets have the games made that way. Other small things could be added, the Dreamcast did this with one or two games. Depending what time of day it is when your playing, the game reflects this, so says its at night, then the game takes place at night and so on. The possibilities are endless.
One major advantage of having everything in 'real time' is the fact that it would all be on the same level. Many things within games now run, time wise, dubious to each other. It only takes seconds to travel large distances, yet to re-load a gun it takes a more realistic time. If everything was to run in on real time it would all be relative to each other, only a small thing, but would make the game that step closer to the realism that this is all about.
And that’s probably going to make the biggest difference if this was to be ever implemented. The step in coming closer to realism would be massive. Everything would be as it were to us here and now, the same difficulties and triumphs would be experienced in the new gaming world that is before us.
Another thing to consider is if this were to ever happen, how it would affect games on a whole. If developers were ever going to implement this, and implement it well, then a lot of work is going to have to be done to make it work and be an enjoyable game, after all, we are going to want to enjoy it. On one hand, the games are going to have to be huge. If 'real time' physics are going to be used then the playing areas are going to have to reflect this, and the only way that’s going to happen is to have an area that’s big enough for this, and big enough to get a decent sized game out of it. But big isn’t always better, and anyone could easily get overwhelmed by the game, or if its not interesting enough, people are going to get bored. But little things could combat this, for long travels either by foot or vehicle, new manovers and such could be used to give the game that little bit of variety, anything just to give the game something different in it.
There’s no denying, if this sort of game could ever be pulled off it would surely be something interesting. If the every day real life problems we as humans experience were implemented into the game, it would be so much more immersive than the most immersive games that we have to play currently. If getting injured in the game and then recovering from that is going to cause us some problems, maybe we are going to try and look after our characters that little bit more, or otherwise face the consequences.
Obviously, there are many problems too that have to be thought about. Mainly being that the idea on a whole may not be all that practical. Not many of us at all have the time to spend and play a game like this, we do (most of us anyway) have a life to live, which can’t be spent just playing a console game. The boredom factor too is a hard one to over come and not to mention the difficulties in which the developers have to tackle in making the game work for us on a gaming perspective. Finally, the way the games would work is too a complicated ideal, what happens when you turn the console off? When you start back playing a few hours later, how does the time scale work within that?
Maybe gaming being played in real time is an idea that is far away from here, or one that will never make the light of day. But it’s certainly an interesting idea to think about.
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Y'see, now *that* was good.
There's nothing more boring to me than 'regular life' between the 'interesting bits'.
Things like a bus or tube ride are interesting for about 10 seconds, before you wish you had a walkman or a paper, or anything to speed things up.
When Lara Croft is scouring the world for tombs, you wouldn't want to sit on the plane for 17 hours whilst it travelled from Peru to Cambodia etc.
I might have thought differently 10 years ago, but right now, living 2 lives in real time would be impossible time wise, and very unappealing.
Although thinking about it further, Big Brother Live on E4 was set in Real-Time, and it had a number of viewers - all prepared to sit and watch Jade make a cup of tea etc. Sad, sad people.
But perhaps there is a market.
Things like a bus or tube ride are interesting for about 10 seconds, before you wish you had a walkman or a paper, or anything to speed things up.
When Lara Croft is scouring the world for tombs, you wouldn't want to sit on the plane for 17 hours whilst it travelled from Peru to Cambodia etc.
I might have thought differently 10 years ago, but right now, living 2 lives in real time would be impossible time wise, and very unappealing.
Although thinking about it further, Big Brother Live on E4 was set in Real-Time, and it had a number of viewers - all prepared to sit and watch Jade make a cup of tea etc. Sad, sad people.
But perhaps there is a market.
Well, Sims is boring at the best of times, never mind if real time physics were ever added. :D
Thanks SR.
Thanks SR.
Good post and well done on the win :)
One of my biggest gripes about time in games is with The Sims.
The time in that game just goes way too quickly and it would be nicer if it went slower, with maybe proper real-time.
EG: My Sim wakes up and it takes him about twenty minutes to stand up and walk to the kitchen.
He takes about an hour to make breakfast.
Spends about 30 minutes on the toilet (!)
Goes to work.
Gets home from work and it takes about an hour to walk form the car to the kitchen at the back of the big house.
The timer just goes too darn fast.
One of my biggest gripes about time in games is with The Sims.
The time in that game just goes way too quickly and it would be nicer if it went slower, with maybe proper real-time.
EG: My Sim wakes up and it takes him about twenty minutes to stand up and walk to the kitchen.
He takes about an hour to make breakfast.
Spends about 30 minutes on the toilet (!)
Goes to work.
Gets home from work and it takes about an hour to walk form the car to the kitchen at the back of the big house.
The timer just goes too darn fast.
Animal Crossing seems about the closest that games have got to being real time. Shops only open 9 till 5. You get special events on national holidays. Some animals are nocturnal, and so on. I do think, though, that such an approach only works because Animal Crossing is more of an 'experience' than a game - not that I've played it, of course, because those gits at Nintendo haven't bothered to release it over here.
For me, games should be about compressing as much fun as possible into a unit of time. Using real time would make this impossible. Gaming is all about removing the constraints that real life imposes on you, and messing about with time is central to this. In theory I could drive about the (real) streets at 100mph in a stolen car, then kill a dozen cops and shoot down a helicopter. I am sure this would be great fun. One the reasons I have constrained myself (thus far) is that my rampage would result in a long stay in the slammer. Much better to do it in GTA, where the consequences are a quick reload, the loss of all my weapons and a bribe of a hundred Vice City dollars. Doing real-time jail-time would get pretty old, pretty fast.
For me, games should be about compressing as much fun as possible into a unit of time. Using real time would make this impossible. Gaming is all about removing the constraints that real life imposes on you, and messing about with time is central to this. In theory I could drive about the (real) streets at 100mph in a stolen car, then kill a dozen cops and shoot down a helicopter. I am sure this would be great fun. One the reasons I have constrained myself (thus far) is that my rampage would result in a long stay in the slammer. Much better to do it in GTA, where the consequences are a quick reload, the loss of all my weapons and a bribe of a hundred Vice City dollars. Doing real-time jail-time would get pretty old, pretty fast.
Father C wrote:
> I know, most people moan about how short games are now, but I bet a
> lot of people don't even complete long adventure games.
Thats not the start of it. Many people complain that games are too short, then a game comes along and they says it too long. And if they dont do that, they just rush through the game and not play it to get the most out of it. Its really odd.
> I know, most people moan about how short games are now, but I bet a
> lot of people don't even complete long adventure games.
Thats not the start of it. Many people complain that games are too short, then a game comes along and they says it too long. And if they dont do that, they just rush through the game and not play it to get the most out of it. Its really odd.
Father C wrote:
> Plus, on an adventure game, the game would have to be about 100+ hours
> long for the story to develop.
Im guessing longer than that. The average time to complete a FF game is around 100 hours i find. This sort of game would be much longer than that i would have thought. Which is both good and bad.
Many people complain about the shortness of games these days, so they might just be happy with the lenght of this type of game. Yet, in the end it could be too long.
> Plus, on an adventure game, the game would have to be about 100+ hours
> long for the story to develop.
Im guessing longer than that. The average time to complete a FF game is around 100 hours i find. This sort of game would be much longer than that i would have thought. Which is both good and bad.
Many people complain about the shortness of games these days, so they might just be happy with the lenght of this type of game. Yet, in the end it could be too long.
A very interesting post there, and an idea i never really considered.
It really would be interesting to see if a developer could ever try and put this idea into practise, and id like to see myself if they could get it to work somehow. I guess unless anyone really does try it, then we really dont know.
We could come up with some assumptions though before hand. Im thinking this sort of game would be rather difficult to grasp. Like has been said, i fear that more often than not, if everything came down to the having to do it in the same time scale as we do in real life it waould be hard to get away from this bordome factor. Say your traveling in the car on games like Vice City, i dont like the idea of having to just sit there for say 15 minutes driving up a highway, that would get boring. But then i suppose the radio in this game could kind of cure this. But there are more examples im sure you other readers could come up with.
On the whole though, its a nice idea.
Good post. :-)
It really would be interesting to see if a developer could ever try and put this idea into practise, and id like to see myself if they could get it to work somehow. I guess unless anyone really does try it, then we really dont know.
We could come up with some assumptions though before hand. Im thinking this sort of game would be rather difficult to grasp. Like has been said, i fear that more often than not, if everything came down to the having to do it in the same time scale as we do in real life it waould be hard to get away from this bordome factor. Say your traveling in the car on games like Vice City, i dont like the idea of having to just sit there for say 15 minutes driving up a highway, that would get boring. But then i suppose the radio in this game could kind of cure this. But there are more examples im sure you other readers could come up with.
On the whole though, its a nice idea.
Good post. :-)
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