TheOneOmega
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- Oct 5, 2008
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- Marie TheOne Omega
So far it seems that arguments in favor of keeping the fall damage mechanic are based upon almost-neutral opinions on the matter. Some people mention only how fall damage makes the game more realistic, but I'd never seen any of them push for the change before it happened. Their case boils down to "eh...fall damage wasn't really necessary for the game, but it's not doing any real harm now, and it makes the game more realistic, which is good, so I guess we may as well embrace the change with a smile." It must. If that wasn't the mindset of fall damage advocates, realism would not be of primary interest to anyone. After all, we only care about realism when implementing it doesn't do something else horrible. For example, if implementing fall damage was causing irregular behavior to PED Card balances, the word "realistic" would not appear in fall damage discussion threads.
Some of the arguments suggesting that the fall damage mechanic should be done away with or severely altered seem to be doing a good job of showing how false the premise "it's not doing any real harm now" really is. I see several examples of activities and events that can no longer properly operate: The Oberon structure, MS9's Athena TP runs, etc. I would add climbing with textures to the list. I certainly would never have reached the secret house on the hill near PVP2 if I had died each time I fell. These types of activities and events allowed for many hours of fun for many people. Of course, the concept of fun is subjective, which makes it a pain-and-a-half to discuss. In any disagreement, it seems that at least one side tries to exclusively attach the concept of fun to their position. My guess is that some folks might point out how they can have more fun playing a game that is more realistic. I would agree. However, I would also mention that realism only has the potential to enhance fun in the game; it cannot create it, as some of the activities and events that require falling can create it. If realism could outright create fun in any reasonable sense of the concept, then some players might be content to only log into the avatar creation room each time they played Entropia, so long as the surroundings were realistic. Additionally, it is obvious that fall damage plays a very small contribution to the total feeling of realism in the game. I think it is appropriate to reiterate that fall damage's positive contribution to realism (and thus its possible contribution to fun) is only significant if we assume that no greater good nor bad will come from it, and to be honest, it seems clear that there are a lot of fun activities and events that are not possible as long as death resulting from fall damage exists.
P.S. I declare this screenshot from an MS9 Athena TP run as the official image of the "Unnerf Jumping" movement! The appropriate party will be seeing it attached to my support case. =) It depicts the human invasion of Calypso.
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/2/7/7/4/8/1255294904675.jpeg
Some of the arguments suggesting that the fall damage mechanic should be done away with or severely altered seem to be doing a good job of showing how false the premise "it's not doing any real harm now" really is. I see several examples of activities and events that can no longer properly operate: The Oberon structure, MS9's Athena TP runs, etc. I would add climbing with textures to the list. I certainly would never have reached the secret house on the hill near PVP2 if I had died each time I fell. These types of activities and events allowed for many hours of fun for many people. Of course, the concept of fun is subjective, which makes it a pain-and-a-half to discuss. In any disagreement, it seems that at least one side tries to exclusively attach the concept of fun to their position. My guess is that some folks might point out how they can have more fun playing a game that is more realistic. I would agree. However, I would also mention that realism only has the potential to enhance fun in the game; it cannot create it, as some of the activities and events that require falling can create it. If realism could outright create fun in any reasonable sense of the concept, then some players might be content to only log into the avatar creation room each time they played Entropia, so long as the surroundings were realistic. Additionally, it is obvious that fall damage plays a very small contribution to the total feeling of realism in the game. I think it is appropriate to reiterate that fall damage's positive contribution to realism (and thus its possible contribution to fun) is only significant if we assume that no greater good nor bad will come from it, and to be honest, it seems clear that there are a lot of fun activities and events that are not possible as long as death resulting from fall damage exists.
P.S. I declare this screenshot from an MS9 Athena TP run as the official image of the "Unnerf Jumping" movement! The appropriate party will be seeing it attached to my support case. =) It depicts the human invasion of Calypso.
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/2/7/7/4/8/1255294904675.jpeg
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