Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

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It is no coincidence that the most popular procedurally generated games feature highly systemic gameplay.

These are systems sandboxes, places for players to explore a world and build their own stories. There are not many examples of popular games where the story is heavily procedural, and I think the reason is obvious. Players notice the pattern very quickly and get bored.

Stories are entertainment and are meant to entertain you, but systemic games are different, they are designed for you to entertain yourself with your own creativity. The proc gen just helps paint the background.

I think it's important to look at procedural generation in games through that lens, otherwise you're likely criticising proc gen for something it's not really used for that much. Proc gen content is rarely the cornerstone of a game.

What's worth active engagement that isn't worth active design?

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing, right?

Proc gen makes a dose of art go further by diluting it. Good or bad, it means less of the artist in each bite. Where proc gen is strictly necessary i.e. infinite variation, the focus of the artist will be almost absent on average. If gameplay encourages endless passive consumption, the gamer's focus will dwindle as they're entranced, then time is being spent on an endeavour with a total forebrain excitement value of < 1 human.

A tragic waste when one could be examining one's navel or shouting at traffic.

If a game relies on proc gen to provide the materials necessary for someone to be creative and make their own story, build their own systems, solve their own problems etc, that is going beyond the cranial engagement of your average couch-sitting TV session.

I don't disagree with some of your points, but proc gen is a super broad term that encompasses a lot of approaches to art and development. I don't think you can so simply say "proc gen makes games bad".

As well, games are to taste, Minecraft is mostly proc gen, but also one of the most creative and engaging games someone could be playing even to date. Someone might prefer delicately written beautifully drawn story rich games instead, but it would be incorrect to suggest the person who just designed and executed a working machine inside Minecraft or some similar creative endeavour was zombie of consumption by comparison.

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