Sandro brought up a really interesting point today in the live stream: The mechanics of power play are a necessary Abstraction of the more complex political machinations that underpin the drama of the struggle for dominance of human space.
While i absolutely agree that political mechanics in a video game must always be simplified to a high degree, i also see this "Abstraction" as one of the weaker pillars upon which the current edifice of PP mechanics rests: Empathy. It's hard to care about your power's lofty goals when the only back story for the deliveries you are making is "to fortify system x delivery packages to/from HQ".
There's really not much fodder for imagination or sympathy here. I mean let's compare this anemic motivation to the somewhat detailed back story generated for each bulletin board mission. You get named NPCs, a short story about why they must die and who wants them dead. Or a sob story about a missing art collection, or a mysterious description of a spy survey data that people are willing to kill/pay for. Or maybe a snippet about some ill fated voyage that requires a rescue/salvage operation.
The list goes on... sure it's recycled and somewhat repetitive, but there's enough variety for an imaginative pilot to feel like they're living in a believable story and not just repeatedly filling out a bureaucratic application for government aid.
Now if PP missions had that kind of back story and variety, I can almost guarantee you that power play participation would be most of the current population that has ever tried to nudge the BGS. In other words, most of the player base!
Instead what we have is uninspiring blobs of grey cargo that must be endlessly shunted from one system to another. Meanwhile, all of the real drama and mechanics take place outside the game in Reddit. Reddit people! That is just wrong on so many levels.
Not bashing Reddit, nor am I bashing community driven content, but maybe this "Abstraction crisis" could be addressed by adding a little back story to PP missions. Or maybe just adding merits to BB missions?
While i absolutely agree that political mechanics in a video game must always be simplified to a high degree, i also see this "Abstraction" as one of the weaker pillars upon which the current edifice of PP mechanics rests: Empathy. It's hard to care about your power's lofty goals when the only back story for the deliveries you are making is "to fortify system x delivery packages to/from HQ".
There's really not much fodder for imagination or sympathy here. I mean let's compare this anemic motivation to the somewhat detailed back story generated for each bulletin board mission. You get named NPCs, a short story about why they must die and who wants them dead. Or a sob story about a missing art collection, or a mysterious description of a spy survey data that people are willing to kill/pay for. Or maybe a snippet about some ill fated voyage that requires a rescue/salvage operation.
The list goes on... sure it's recycled and somewhat repetitive, but there's enough variety for an imaginative pilot to feel like they're living in a believable story and not just repeatedly filling out a bureaucratic application for government aid.
Now if PP missions had that kind of back story and variety, I can almost guarantee you that power play participation would be most of the current population that has ever tried to nudge the BGS. In other words, most of the player base!
Instead what we have is uninspiring blobs of grey cargo that must be endlessly shunted from one system to another. Meanwhile, all of the real drama and mechanics take place outside the game in Reddit. Reddit people! That is just wrong on so many levels.
Not bashing Reddit, nor am I bashing community driven content, but maybe this "Abstraction crisis" could be addressed by adding a little back story to PP missions. Or maybe just adding merits to BB missions?
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