
The Burden Of Realism In 'Grand Theft Auto 5' - georgecmu
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/10/14/the-burden-of-realism-in-grand-theft-auto-5/
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adventured
The author asked:

"In what way is any of this fun? If I die in a horrific car crash as the
thrilling end to a five star police chase, what’s the harm in respawning me
for free in the hospital with my car shiny and new in the parking lot"

The author answered his own question without apparently realizing it:

"but in a game like GTA Online where the most fun you can have is behaving
dangerously, I don’t think the same rules apply"

There is no behaving dangerously, if there are no consequences to behavior to
make it "dangerous."

~~~
twiceaday
I would put it simpler. Open world games are fun because the mechanics they
expose let players create and experience their own stories. GTA is fun because
the mechanics they expose let you easily create action movie scenes. Lack of
consequences leads to less interesting stories.

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mattkrea
So someone can't just be amazed at the attention they paid to detail but has
to bitch that it's not as entirely ridiculous as Saints Row? Saints Row lost
me because they couldn't take themselves seriously at all whereas GTA still
tries to keep _some_ things tethered to reality--thats exactly why it still
works in my opinion.

~~~
chrismonsanto
I don't think the point was to bitch about not being Saints Row. I think the
point was that the realism in many cases isn't fun:

"But there’s also a “death tax” as it were, where whenever your player dies,
you have to pay your hospital bills of about 5% of your total cash, banked or
otherwise. In a game where the fun is about rampaging around, attracting
police and killing other players, the game is offering you a disincentive to
play this way for fear of death and subsequent monetary penalties."

"You have to buy insurance, you have to pay deductibles if your car is
wrecked, you have to buy or steal it back from an impound lot if you leave it
somewhere or die in a police chase. In what way is any of this fun? If I die
in a horrific car crash as the thrilling end to a five star police chase,
what’s the harm in respawning me for free in the hospital with my car shiny
and new in the parking lot? Why make me lose money, file an auto insurance
claim or drag my car’s mangled corpse out of the impound?"

"It’s a game where the hardest single player mission is not robbing the
federal reserve in broad daylight, it’s using a crane to load boxes onto a
truck for twenty minutes."

~~~
mattkrea
I guess I should clarify that the bigger point here is that I largely disagree
with much of what he said.

"But there’s also a “death tax” as it were, where whenever your player dies,
you have to pay your hospital bills of about 5% of your total cash, banked or
otherwise. In a game where the fun is about rampaging around, attracting
police and killing other players, the game is offering you a disincentive to
play this way for fear of death and subsequent monetary penalties."

These mechanisms are likely there to turn away griefers. Online play relies on
people working together for a large portion of the missions.

"You have to buy insurance, you have to pay deductibles if your car is
wrecked, you have to buy or steal it back from an impound lot if you leave it
somewhere or die in a police chase. In what way is any of this fun? If I die
in a horrific car crash as the thrilling end to a five star police chase,
what’s the harm in respawning me for free in the hospital with my car shiny
and new in the parking lot? Why make me lose money, file an auto insurance
claim or drag my car’s mangled corpse out of the impound?"

My question would be what fun is that? Being given everything? No penalty?
That's hardly a game. How do you lose?

"It’s a game where the hardest single player mission is not robbing the
federal reserve in broad daylight, it’s using a crane to load boxes onto a
truck for twenty minutes."

For anyone that has played the game you would probably immediately say he is
wrong here because that mission took about 5 minutes. Yeah, it was boring but
I'd rather have some mini-games thrown in than constantly hold the trigger
down for the entire game.

