What is OHOL's Genre?

The_Anabaptist · 2020-01-16 15:18:40

Good Morning Everyone,

It hit me like a lightning bolt this morning that I (and I suspect many of you) have been under the wrong impression as to what genre OHOL falls into. It often gets described in broad strokes as a survival game. But in fact there is actually a much better category for it: a walking simulator.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. … 0simulator

Convince me otherwise!

The_Anabaptist

Dodge · 2020-01-16 15:21:19

I can spend a whole life not walking or talking to anyone.

Checkmate!

The_Anabaptist · 2020-01-16 15:31:14

Dodge wrote:

I can spend a whole life not walking or talking to anyone.
Checkmate!

But have you actually done that outside of a /die or a mom abandoning you in the wild before you can walk?

The_Anabaptist

fug · 2020-01-16 15:38:14

Yeah this issue is being attempted to be fixed by making families stronger again and reducing Eve spawns. With the upwards of 60 Eve spawns a day people are shifting way too far way too fast. You are actively punished for having a successful family as the other players you need will shift further and further away from you.

The_Anabaptist · 2020-01-16 16:02:40

fug wrote:

Yeah this issue is being attempted to be fixed by making families stronger again and reducing Eve spawns. With the upwards of 60 Eve spawns a day people are shifting way too far way too fast. You are actively punished for having a successful family as the other players you need will shift further and further away from you.

A genre is an issue? I'm not certain I'm following your comment.

There is nothing inherently bad / good in walking around and exploring things without an end goal or win condition. Which to me is what OHOL inherently feels like, rather than a challenge to survive the environment / other players.

The_Anabaptist

fug · 2020-01-16 16:07:56

The_Anabaptist wrote:

fug wrote:
Yeah this issue is being attempted to be fixed by making families stronger again and reducing Eve spawns. With the upwards of 60 Eve spawns a day people are shifting way too far way too fast. You are actively punished for having a successful family as the other players you need will shift further and further away from you.
A genre is an issue? I'm not certain I'm following your comment.
There is nothing inherently bad / good in walking around and exploring things without an end goal or win condition. Which to me is what OHOL inherently feels like, rather than a challenge to survive the environment / other players.
The_Anabaptist

I mean the idea that the games genre is walking simulator seems to be a real miss for what the game is supposed to be. It's not that a walking simulator is bad per say, but the game definitely shouldn't be playing like one lel.

Amon · 2020-01-16 16:54:15

"any kind of game system to interact with"

OHOL has lots of interactive systems. The game also has a goal, a win and loose condition, it's surviving against the odds of other players, the cluttering of civilisation and the degredation of the environment.

A walking simulator is a game that lets you roam a location and, things within a game are scripted to act upon you. You have minimal to no interacting posibilities and the games are more geared towards guiding you through a story.

The_Anabaptist · 2020-01-16 17:00:05

fug wrote:

The_Anabaptist wrote:
fug wrote:
Yeah this issue is being attempted to be fixed by making families stronger again and reducing Eve spawns. With the upwards of 60 Eve spawns a day people are shifting way too far way too fast. You are actively punished for having a successful family as the other players you need will shift further and further away from you.
A genre is an issue? I'm not certain I'm following your comment.
There is nothing inherently bad / good in walking around and exploring things without an end goal or win condition. Which to me is what OHOL inherently feels like, rather than a challenge to survive the environment / other players.
The_Anabaptist

I mean the idea that the games genre is walking simulator seems to be a real miss for what the game is supposed to be. It's not that a walking simulator is bad per say, but the game definitely shouldn't be playing like one lel.

But is our collective existential angst about OHOL's play due to the fact that we were under the wrong impression of what it really is and that we are now trying to force it to be something else? Let's pretend that OHOL is the best walking simulator ever invented. But if we all put our money down expecting to play the greatest (fill in the genre name here) game, then isn't it safe to say that we will never be satisfied with its development?

If it is truly a walking simulator, then in that light what would be appropriate features for Jason to implement in order to better the game (and market it correctly)?

The_Anabaptist

Spoonwood · 2020-01-16 17:02:26

Amon wrote:

The game also has a goal, a win and loose condition, it's surviving against the odds of other players, the cluttering of civilisation and the degredation of the environment.

Huh? How does one win the survival game? Everyone dies individually. Every family dies out, and that's ensured by the update process (unless that changes or Jason stops doing updates). There's only losing. Nor the hope of longevity.

Amon wrote:

A walking simulator is a game that lets you roam a location and, things within a game are scripted to act upon you.

The game lets you roam around the map (and it should). Dangerous wild animals don't start moving until you get close enough to them.

The_Anabaptist · 2020-01-16 17:05:59

Amon wrote:

"any kind of game system to interact with"
OHOL has lots of interactive systems. The game also has a goal, a win and loose condition, it's surviving against the odds of other players, the cluttering of civilisation and the degredation of the environment.
A walking simulator is a game that lets you roam a location and, things within a game are scripted to act upon you. You have minimal to no interacting posibilities and the games are more geared towards guiding you through a story.

Does Jason not repeatedly talk about the self generating stories each play through creates in his forum posts as OHOL's strength? Also, does he not also say how he doesn't want this to be the next crafting game Ala Minecraft? I think his own words and thoughts support the ideals of walking simulator over a survival game.

The_Anabaptist

DestinyCall · 2020-01-16 17:07:24

All this time, I've been playing this game as a pie-eating simulator.

I've been doing it all wrong!

DestinyCall · 2020-01-16 17:10:19

Spoonwood wrote:

Amon wrote:
The game also has a goal, a win and loose condition, it's surviving against the odds of other players, the cluttering of civilisation and the degredation of the environment.
Huh? How does one win the survival game? Everyone dies individually. Every family dies out, and that's ensured by the update process (unless that changes or Jason stops doing updates). There's only losing. Nor the hope of longevity.

To be fair, I don't think any survival game actually expects you to live forever. Your goal in a survival game is to try to NOT die while the game tries to kill you. That is the nature of any survival game. The game is designed to kill you. You can tell how seriously the game takes survival by how many different ways it can kill you dead.

By that measure, OHOL needs to up its game, since the primary way it kills is starvation. We need more variety.

Dodge · 2020-01-16 18:28:40

The_Anabaptist wrote:

Does Jason not repeatedly talk about the self generating stories each play through creates in his forum posts as OHOL's strength? Also, does he not also say how he doesn't want this to be the next crafting game Ala Minecraft? I think his own words and thoughts support the ideals of walking simulator over a survival game.
The_Anabaptist

I mean to be fair currently the "self generating stories" are pretty limited, every life is pretty much crafting stuff in order for your village to survive but the interaction between players is pretty poor and most importantly unneeded, most lives i play everyone is most of the time doing their own thing and conversations are pretty trivial and not necessary to survive.

I think he pictures it more like a survival/cooperation game but in the sense that you actually need to interact with others (organize, lead, trade, create social systems, hierarchy etc) in order to survive.

But currently with how far villages are from each other "walking simulator" is pretty accurate.

testo · 2020-01-16 20:06:02

Given the amount of changes and the dinamycs of the game I believe this is a metagame. The game itself is not just living for one hour but actually participating in these forums while Jason changes and experiments with the game. As JK put it, we are just guinea pigs pretending to play a game while the game changes. Note that there is also gambling in the game either by using cards or dice, which means we can actually reach 3 levels deep here, we can have a game inside a game that is played inside a big game.

DestinyCall · 2020-01-16 23:23:51

testo wrote:

Given the amount of changes and the dinamycs of the game I believe this is a metagame. The game itself is not just living for one hour but actually participating in these forums while Jason changes and experiments with the game. As JK put it, we are just guinea pigs pretending to play a game while the game changes. Note that there is also gambling in the game either by using cards or dice, which means we can actually reach 3 levels deep here, we can have a game inside a game that is played inside a big game.

Yep. We are the game and Jason is play us.

Lum · 2020-01-17 07:56:50

"Walking simulator" is generally used as a pejorative, it's a way to call out a game for its lack of interactivity, it being closer in likeness to just a hiking experience than to a game that presents puzzles, challenges, etc. Obviously you're joking but OHOL doesn't fall under the genre of walking simulators simply because it's not just walking. A walking simulator is also almost always narration driven, not survival driven.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2020-01-16 15:18:40

What is OHOL's Genre?

#2 2020-01-16 15:21:19

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#3 2020-01-16 15:31:14

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#4 2020-01-16 15:38:14

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#5 2020-01-16 16:02:40

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#6 2020-01-16 16:07:56

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#7 2020-01-16 16:54:15

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#8 2020-01-16 17:00:05

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#9 2020-01-16 17:02:26

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#10 2020-01-16 17:05:59

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#11 2020-01-16 17:07:24

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#12 2020-01-16 17:10:19

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#13 2020-01-16 18:28:40

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#14 2020-01-16 20:06:02

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

#15 2020-01-16 23:23:51

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#16 2020-01-17 07:56:50

Re: What is OHOL's Genre?

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