Time Lapse

I so I've begun looking for other video game blogs that might provide me some inspiration. I post here video game blog about adding parental timer controls to the xbox360 reminded me of a conversation a few months ago when I was living in Hong Kong. China imposed government enforced limits on game play back in 2005, and of course to some degree it makes sense, especially when people have begun to literally play-to-death. So I'm not against timers, I've definitely spent many all nighters playing online, only to realize at dawn that I had missed my target bed time of 1am. There is something so unnatural with the idea of fusing an egg timer onto your console - couldn't the motivation for gamers to limit their playtime come from within the design of the game.

There is only one game which I think puts this theory to use - in Metal Gear Solid 3 someone at Konami had the awesome idea of getting rid of the all to common magical health pack that restores one's health to full capacity even after getting shot in the head. Instead they devised an in game interface for treating your own wounds. Get shot in the leg? Well you have to remove the bullet (ouch), apply ointment (ahhh), stitch up the wound (ouch), and bandage it.

After that you're still not healed, all you've done is treat the wound, you're still badly hurt. In order to heal yourself the player has to rest, not for a few seconds (a la Halo / Gears of War) but for a good long time. Thankfully the game takes a time stamp during saving, so all one has to do is save, shut down, and come back in a few hours and Solid Snake is ready to roll. Despite how much I love Metal Gear Solid, their 'Cure' system is a bit clunky, and I'll be surprised if it shows up again in Son's of the Patriots. However building in time limits into the design was a great move. It managed to limit playtime while actually making the experience of playing more real and more immersive.

Obviously games like WoW are designed to be played ad infinitum, but if all players were subject to the same design based session limiters might it all even out? In fact adding a more realistic temporal framework to a MMORPG could actually increase the sense of realism. What it was as simple as avatars getting tired, and having to sleep? It sounds silly but putting you avatar to bed after a long days fighting sorta makes sense. You let him rest and when you come back to play the next day you're both fully refreshed...