“Person unrealistically applies real-world walkability standards to compare real car-centric cities to fake videogame cities, the result surprises noone”
Markarth do be needing some guardrails, though
I saw an interesting video years ago by a level designer discussing several ways video games can’t truly mimic real life. One example was doorways, if sized accurately, will “feel” like they’re too small to walk through. Same with rooms in general, a normal-sized room will feel tiny.
Those examples only really apply to first person games but I’d be shocked if similar principles didn’t exist with others.
I agree with the door thing. But the room size being too small, yes if you use euclidean geometry.
The beauty of games is that you can use non euclidean geometry, making the room as big as it needs to be for running around and still a small size on the outside. Think Zelda games where you would always load into a different screen when you walked into a room.
In games where action is needed and multiplayer and seeing the other person is of essence (fps maybe) I’m sure there are creative ways to make it work.
He was talking about being inside a room scaled to reality and it feeling small, not so much how that room affects the larger level
His point was that good level design is a lot different than good building design, you can’t copy reality 1:1. I’m just saying I’ll bet the same thing is true for designing towns in games
Ah yes absolutely. I think that is mostly due to the finesse that you have to move in real life vs with controller or keyboard inputs. So spaces have to be bigger to allow for less precision in movments.
It’s also FOV, humans can see like 130 degrees and even curved screens can’t replicate that.
I wish I remembered who made the video, I think you’d find it interesting too
[EDIT] I tried to find it and failed. It was 30+ minutes long, not the short Vox one from 2021
Ignores that all video game characters have a super human level of endurance running and speed.
Well, most games. Some games like Phasmophobia exist where your character has an asthma attack after 3 seconds of sprinting.
That’s part of the fun, using real world standards in a fantasy setting where it doesn’t make sense. It’s like using the OSHA handbook to determine if Mario Kart tracks are safe
I mean, when a modern urban city designed entirely around getting cars around is easier to walk from place to place in than your medieval city, that’s pretty sad for those fictional residents. Of course nobody expects that level of degree of realism in games, so it’s not exactly a problem. Still a fun little analysis though.
That said, I do remember seeing a youtube video a few years ago about how a certain city in The Witcher 3 is actually incredibly well made and quite realistic. Couldn’t tell you what city, it’s been a while and I never played much of the game myself, but I was thoroughly impressed. It looked like the city had expanded outward as the population grew, shaping itself around the terrain and the rivers instead of vise versa like in most games. And importantly, it was easy to navigate through without a map despite being a large city. So it’s definitely possible to do well.
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Sometimes it’s fun to apply real-world standards and see what pops out. Like playing pretend on the playground as a kid, the contents do not really matter, the point is you had fun doing it, connected with someone else, and maybe got to exercise your brain a bit. (Remembering these standards and reinforcing them in your brain, or teaching them to others, in a context that seems fun instead of boring so they are more likely to click and watch and learn the knowledge, for one.)
This is stupid as Hell. Even the largest city in the game is smaller than a single urban neighborhood — it’d be classed as a “village” or maybe even a “hamlet” if it existed IRL.
The developers made the streets circuitous on purpose in order to create the illusion that the “cities” are bigger than they actually are. It’s a deliberate design choice that makes them not fairly comparable to real towns.
I realize the guy is just doing some professional wankery on a silly problem for fun, but still, a normal person reading that isn’t going to be impressed by his application of geospatial analysis techniques; they’re just going to lose some respect for GIS and/or city planning as a profession if it lets you boldly conclude that settlements literally only accessed on foot are “not walkable.”
By the Nine! Skyrim’s horse manufacturers have completely ruined city life!
Skyrim scholar
🤔
Degree in g*ming
I always hated the Skyrim maps. Those markers were always impossible to find. Like I’m right on top of it but it’s actually three levels beneath me. Or going through doors where the objective was supposed to be on the other side, only to find another door, and then another.
