Would you play/encourage a real survival video game?

a reply to: FraternitasSaturni

That's a fair point, but you have to be aware that the sort of scenario which is playing out, will be crucial in terms of whether or not city living is possible or advisable. Sure, if there is a major event which destroys the power grid, then you could make do.

But if your city could be a target for some sort of invasion or serious attack, it might be prudent to have a plan to be elsewhere when the crap really hits the fan. Also, you have to consider natural disasters. Your city might not be near any major fault lines, but if a quake were to destabilise an entire city, then again, staying there would be infinitely more dangerous than getting yourself and your people out and away from the city, preferably directly away from the nearest fault.

There are many things to consider when deciding what action is appropriate. Geography, topography, the nature of the threat you are reacting to... It's not a cut and dry "this is my plan, no matter what the situation".

If you are serious about planning for the worst day you can imagine, you have to have a plan for digging in, or bugging out, dependant on the scenario at play. What works well for an earthquake, is going to be pretty useless in the event of an invasion of some sort, and what works fantastically against an invasion is going to be next to useless in the event of a nuclear event within effective range of your town.

You have to think broadly about the nature of the situation, if your response to it is to be effective.

I'd totally play it.

Thing is- any good gamer knows you need to collect resources when you choose a camp! Gamers are going to be kings when the brownies fly!

That is, if the sun doesn't kill us immediately upon leaving our (moms) basements!

^jkjk

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

If its embedded into the correct gaming platform that will be interesting to its gamers it might work... A lot of concentration goes into some of these games so if delivered properly it may work.

It would have to be an adventure like game based on another planet like this to add interesting plot and requires certain advances in the game to have some survival technics implemented to progress ahead. Good idea to initiate survival programming into the minds however.

NAMASTE*******

No, I would not play something like that. And if I saw one of my friends or family members playing it, I would beat them with their controller!
"Stop hitting me, I'm gathering wood so we can cook dinner"

Me-- get your ass outside and gather wood for real.

*stomps on gaming system and throws it out the door...

a reply to: KawRider9

But what about the survival scenarios like say stranded @ sea no fresh water on a raft and only clothing on your back how do you get fresh water and fish?
1 agrees its better to do hands on but some scenarios at least if presented to growing minds may assist them later.

a reply to: FraternitasSaturni

Are you allowing for what a festering boil of disease and illness the cities will become in very short order, following a collapse? How many people in the city even know what sanitation *IS* outside using the handle on the toilet when they're done..and hopefully remembering to wash their hands in warm water?

What happens when there isn't 3 gallons per flush to make a toilet useful for anything? What does that look like, occurring across a population of millions in an area the size of Los Angeles or New York? (New York being particularly bad for it's geographic choke points for escape within chaos).

Personally, I may well return to cities at some point...if we really DID see a change where survival skills became a matter of real survival ...but my first priority is to get OUT of areas with dense population until stupid has killed itself off in the expected waves of Cholera and other very natural outbreaks we'll see come in short order.

After all, we live in a nation with...what % of vets? What % of boy scouts? What % of self paid/self educated survivalists?

The overwhelming majority that aren't in that category will do everything in their power, without ever meaning to, to kill off that minority who DOES know how to live.

Just my opinion...but I LOVE the idea of a real physics/step by step based survival skills game. Something where you could go out on some acreage of wooded land and live for a weekend in a tent after learning from it..and have little more than 'digital vs. real world' adjustments to make.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Sorry man, I just simply can't agree. I have a lot of friends and family members that spend quite a bit of time playing video games and lack "real life" skills. Yeah sure, they are really good with their thumbs on a controller, but can't seem to mow the lawn in straight lines, get the damn lid on the garbage cans, clean their gutters, etc...

It pains me to see folks REALLY getting in to driving the piss out of some ricer on "fast and furious47", yet they jackknife a trailer into their bedside and come to me to fix it.

You really want to play a game of real life scenarios? What's next, a game about going to work?

Sorry, I'm starting to go on a rant, but this stuff gets under my skin. I'm 37 and have seen many of my friends lose their houses because they choose to play video games and just #### off instead of living in the real world. Responsibilities seem to be a thing of the past.

I don't want to play a survival game where I have to weed the garden, mow the lawn, make a spear to go fishing, whatever... All that stuff has to be done in real life. Go do it and put down the gotdamn controller!

a reply to: KawRider9

I can understand your points KawRider9, personally I wouldn't mind learning some ways to avoid failing Nuclear / Sewage facilities and how to detect wind patterns to avoid fall out. How to check for clean ground water or where best to look if area contaminated. How to properly ration out meds and food etc. The best exit routs out of cities and rural locations best to retreat to. To 1 subjectively it would assist younger or unaware minds who are more in this day and age of gaming. Yes there may be laziness associated but we cannot forget them or do we? And if we do now you have groups trying to fend for themselves that if trained possibly virtually would be of an assistance then a hold back. Just something's to consider.

Getting back to the OP.

your were right when you said the games you listed are not real survival games.
more of that post apostolic end of the world kind of deal.

Would I play one?
I really hate those fishing and golf games I'd rather go snowboarding then sit there with a controller in my hands.
I just don't see a hiking game being all that exciting.

Let's just say that would be a tough one for a game designer to make but all in all playing at survival is always preferable to having to do it for real.

We have it. It's called: MineCraft!

But seriously, if the game was open-world, with lush environments, and actually taught the truth, then it may be a good tool to familiarize kids with it. I think the movie: The Road, would be fairly accurate to how things would become.

Hey OP, I was thinking on this a bit more...and I believe you really could put together a game that would teach self reliant survival skills in a way to be useful.

Now if people have something called a "backyard" or are near what some folks call "open land", then I definitely recommend using those "maps" to learn on before any digital version.

However..There are people in cities, especially, who simply don't have open space to go play 'rub the sticks to make fire' and actually do it to understand what it takes and the effort required.

--

#1 How many people may understand the concept of that, for instance....but have NO concept of just how long it actually takes and how much longer that feeeeels while sitting there doing it? A Magnesium block can be just as worthless if someone doesn't understand (in a sincerely said way, not snarky here a bit) patience is simply part of the game and making fire without a lighter is something you'll likely feel good about....because it'll be real effort every time.

Add to that, the more failed or abandoned attempts in a 'game day', the longer it'll take in clock time making real (and tiring) mouse movements to give an idea of how tiring it can/will be for real. Just teaching how persistence beats practice is a worthy thing in itself for that activity, IMO.

#2 The same can be done on sharpening a knife. Some would argue that's among the most critical skills a man can have, as a knife is the most useful and critical tool to have if limited for items. How many people can use a whet stone to the point of putting a shaving edge on a K-Bar size knife....vs. a machete worthy hacking blade?

How many folks know it can be damn close to the first, and be reduced to the second without trying too hard on impatience or getting sloppy at the end?

--

So the more thought I've given this? Well.... The trick would be in setting those and more similar skills into a framework of competition and fun of some kind. Setting it up to teach everything short of actually doing it may not be as unlikely as I first thought, anyway. It won't teach someone to make a shaving K-Bar the first real world try....but it may reduce the learning curve by about 90%.

originally posted by: KawRider9
No, I would not play something like that. And if I saw one of my friends or family members playing it, I would beat them with their controller!
"Stop hitting me, I'm gathering wood so we can cook dinner"

Me-- get your ass outside and gather wood for real.

*stomps on gaming system and throws it out the door...

I think a lot of folks don't understand the reason for my suggesting this. You are right in that there is no substitute for practicing your skills in the real world - But that's not the point at all !

Studies have proven time and time again students of any age learn something faster with longer memory retention when they learn anythingthing (in this case head knowledge of survival skills) through an interactive means such as writing it down repeatedly or learning through active games.

I have tons of books on survival but i'm an avid reader. Lots of younger folks today don't read books like I did at that age. The survival game, done right can give them a fun way to learn that head knowledge that is more effective than reading books ( after all, most folks will read about those techniques before they go into the woods to try them - they have to start learning someplace.) - and have you seen the prices people charge for classes.. I find them all over for a minimal of huge amounts like 10.000 dollars. Such a game will give folks an idea what they are up against before the dump that cash and find out survival training isn't for them.

I've been playing "The Forest" for the past few days. It's still in alpha stage but not bad, considering.

The game is about you, the player, surviving a plane crash on a tiny island filled with cannibals and some weird mutant thing. You need to collect resources, hunt food, build fires and shelters, build traps, all that jazz. You can also craft items.

It would probably be even more fun if I didn't keep getting killed on the first or second day by these cannibals. Who, I would like to point out, are genuinely freaky. In a lot of my play throughs, I have been searching for supplies or cutting down a tree, only to turn and see a cannibal silently watching me and looking for the perfect time to cleave in my skull and drag me back to their cave.

The game is still pretty rough but I see a lot of potential there.

a reply to: allenidaho
PC or a console? and OP, heck yeah I would. But till such a game is made, Ill stick with modded minecraft and fallout 3.

a reply to: LucidWarrior

PC. It's currently available on steam early access. It just got another update yesterday. They added a few more things you can build and also a peaceful mode where you can deactivate the cannibals and just play around with the survival part.

If you do decide to check it out, you just type in "veganmode" at the main screen to try peaceful mode. The background image will change from heads on spikes to flowers.