Aside from the typical forum anger of video games that you expect on the internet, I've been seeing a few posts saying things like: "they need to put sand in the sandbox", or that "this isn't a sandbox, just an empty box", "mile wide, inch deep". I've also seen people say things like "I shouldn't have to use my imagination to make the game good!." The former bothers me far less than the latter and I'll explain why, but I think both the former and latter are linked to some degree.
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I got to thinking about what a sandbox is (in gaming as well as literally), how imagination plays into that, and what my role as a gamer is; as well as the way we process art, and video games as art.
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Now, I'll admit there are deficiencies with ED, but that isn't the point of this post, I'd like to discuss how imagination plays a role in a sandbox, regardless of how "deep" the sand is. You see, to someone with no imagination this is a sandbox:
it is literally a box full of sand, and they are absolutely right. You might add any number of buckets, shovels, trucks or other toys but to them, it will always be a rather boring box full of sand. Now to someone with a little imagination and creativity and a few tools it might become this:
, turrets, and stations and buttresses and gates. A war might take place, a princess may be there (or in another castle). It is a malleable, buildable box full of possibilities but in the end, they'll have a hard time seeing past the sand, and it will always still be sand. To someone with unlimited imagination, to a child, it becomes this:
.
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Who do you think has the most pure enjoyment out of the sandbox? All three start as the same thing, just a box of sand, it is the imagination of the beholder, the player, that makes it great. I'd like to add that the more tools we're given to play in the sand, the easier it is to make that great leap from the second picture to the third, but tools take time to make.
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The same thing is true of all mediums for entertainment and expression, music, novels, cinema, sculpture, painting, dance, whatever. If you look at the thing for simply what it is; words on a page, a body moving, sounds in some sort of pattern, pigment splattered on a canvas, etc. it becomes dull, tedious and boring, something mundane to be rejected and forgotten. But let that spark your imagination, blow it into a flame and start an inferno and the ink on the page takes us to far places, moves us emotionally, and touches us profoundly. Even though I have no rhythmic ability, I can watch someone dance and be moved by their expression, by their emotion and dedication, even on the most mechanical level, I can appreciate the blood sweat and tears, the hours of pain and discipline they've practiced to be able to perform and the courage it takes to offer up that performance to a viewer who will be their judge, and if they are generous enough to ask for criticism or advice I should be careful and thoughtful in responding.
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Elite: Dangerous is the performance the developers have offered to us, it is the result of hours and days and years of their lives, dedicated to make something special, to offer something that might spark our imagination, to kindle a flame of childlike interest, to take me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy or to become CMDR Bacalao: Good guy-bounty hunter. They have been good enough to include our feedback in their refinements. To give us some part, no matter how small or variable or fleeting, into their decision making, their creation, is very generous. If it doesn't spark your imagination, that doesn't make it bad, or trash. It doesn't make the developers idiots, incompetent or unaware. Their invitation for feedback is not a license to be rude. Does my disinterest in War and Peace make Tolstoy an idiot, or a bad author? No, perhaps that medium, perhaps his method within that medium doesn't spark my imagination, but that is no reason to disparage him. Your deficiency in imagination is not something the developers can patch.
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I guess I want to make a few points, first: let it spark your imagination; give in, at least occasionally. Become the pilot, don't min/max your faction rep, don't turn it to a grind with credits/hr, let it light up your imagination, because that is the mechanism that all art uses that makes it great. Second: consider your feedback, be critical and discerning, but don't be hateful or rude, it's destructive and pointless (unless having a thread with lots of replies makes you feel good). If all you can see is the sand in a box, then maybe this medium doesn't speak to you the way Tolstoy doesn't speak to me, only you will appear the fool for being rude. Third: understand the hours and weeks and months it takes to build something in this medium, an author can't just rewrite a chapter overnight, a team of developers can't just add a pet feature in a week. There are competing interests and features and issues, be patient.
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There isn't only one way to play, you can appreciate dance because it touches you emotionally, or because you appreciate the ruthless discipline of a well trained body, just like you can have fun imagining yourself as a space pirate or by being the most efficient trader in CR/hr around. But lets not be rude and critical because we refuse to let our imagination see anything other than a person twirling pointlessly, because we won't let it take us from the second picture, to the third. Because I'll guarantee, FD can add all the pails and Tonkas and shovels and molds and a whole beach full of sand, but unless you make it into a living breathing castle with your imagination, you're always going to get bored, because it's just a box full of sand.
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TLDR: You've been privileged with the ability to read, the existence of TLDRs is an insult to literate and illiterate people alike.
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Unrelated aside: Mods, you do an awesome job, seriously, I love this forum, been around some other forums I used to haunt and my brain almost melted from the chaos, keep it up, I appreciate the bejeebers out of it. (Didn't think this thought deserved it's own thread, though a big part of me thinks it does.)
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I got to thinking about what a sandbox is (in gaming as well as literally), how imagination plays into that, and what my role as a gamer is; as well as the way we process art, and video games as art.
-
Now, I'll admit there are deficiencies with ED, but that isn't the point of this post, I'd like to discuss how imagination plays a role in a sandbox, regardless of how "deep" the sand is. You see, to someone with no imagination this is a sandbox:
it is literally a box full of sand, and they are absolutely right. You might add any number of buckets, shovels, trucks or other toys but to them, it will always be a rather boring box full of sand. Now to someone with a little imagination and creativity and a few tools it might become this:, turrets, and stations and buttresses and gates. A war might take place, a princess may be there (or in another castle). It is a malleable, buildable box full of possibilities but in the end, they'll have a hard time seeing past the sand, and it will always still be sand. To someone with unlimited imagination, to a child, it becomes this:.-
Who do you think has the most pure enjoyment out of the sandbox? All three start as the same thing, just a box of sand, it is the imagination of the beholder, the player, that makes it great. I'd like to add that the more tools we're given to play in the sand, the easier it is to make that great leap from the second picture to the third, but tools take time to make.
-
The same thing is true of all mediums for entertainment and expression, music, novels, cinema, sculpture, painting, dance, whatever. If you look at the thing for simply what it is; words on a page, a body moving, sounds in some sort of pattern, pigment splattered on a canvas, etc. it becomes dull, tedious and boring, something mundane to be rejected and forgotten. But let that spark your imagination, blow it into a flame and start an inferno and the ink on the page takes us to far places, moves us emotionally, and touches us profoundly. Even though I have no rhythmic ability, I can watch someone dance and be moved by their expression, by their emotion and dedication, even on the most mechanical level, I can appreciate the blood sweat and tears, the hours of pain and discipline they've practiced to be able to perform and the courage it takes to offer up that performance to a viewer who will be their judge, and if they are generous enough to ask for criticism or advice I should be careful and thoughtful in responding.
-
Elite: Dangerous is the performance the developers have offered to us, it is the result of hours and days and years of their lives, dedicated to make something special, to offer something that might spark our imagination, to kindle a flame of childlike interest, to take me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy or to become CMDR Bacalao: Good guy-bounty hunter. They have been good enough to include our feedback in their refinements. To give us some part, no matter how small or variable or fleeting, into their decision making, their creation, is very generous. If it doesn't spark your imagination, that doesn't make it bad, or trash. It doesn't make the developers idiots, incompetent or unaware. Their invitation for feedback is not a license to be rude. Does my disinterest in War and Peace make Tolstoy an idiot, or a bad author? No, perhaps that medium, perhaps his method within that medium doesn't spark my imagination, but that is no reason to disparage him. Your deficiency in imagination is not something the developers can patch.
-
I guess I want to make a few points, first: let it spark your imagination; give in, at least occasionally. Become the pilot, don't min/max your faction rep, don't turn it to a grind with credits/hr, let it light up your imagination, because that is the mechanism that all art uses that makes it great. Second: consider your feedback, be critical and discerning, but don't be hateful or rude, it's destructive and pointless (unless having a thread with lots of replies makes you feel good). If all you can see is the sand in a box, then maybe this medium doesn't speak to you the way Tolstoy doesn't speak to me, only you will appear the fool for being rude. Third: understand the hours and weeks and months it takes to build something in this medium, an author can't just rewrite a chapter overnight, a team of developers can't just add a pet feature in a week. There are competing interests and features and issues, be patient.
-
There isn't only one way to play, you can appreciate dance because it touches you emotionally, or because you appreciate the ruthless discipline of a well trained body, just like you can have fun imagining yourself as a space pirate or by being the most efficient trader in CR/hr around. But lets not be rude and critical because we refuse to let our imagination see anything other than a person twirling pointlessly, because we won't let it take us from the second picture, to the third. Because I'll guarantee, FD can add all the pails and Tonkas and shovels and molds and a whole beach full of sand, but unless you make it into a living breathing castle with your imagination, you're always going to get bored, because it's just a box full of sand.
-
TLDR: You've been privileged with the ability to read, the existence of TLDRs is an insult to literate and illiterate people alike.
-
Unrelated aside: Mods, you do an awesome job, seriously, I love this forum, been around some other forums I used to haunt and my brain almost melted from the chaos, keep it up, I appreciate the bejeebers out of it. (Didn't think this thought deserved it's own thread, though a big part of me thinks it does.)
