The "way of the wayfarer": how to make the Map a more immersive feature of the game


Antares

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I have studied cultural management between business and I played many games since Casio Game watches and ... yeah Larry Leisure suit (omg) and Commando when I was a kid on 2.86, but that was not my fault!
Anyway, when I read about the love for my country it is so strongly imprinted in general stereotypes all over the world, and of course it's not just a superficial perception \ opinion but a true love for it, I have found out that since medieval times and before people used to make maps about tours and how to tour a place a town or the entire peninsula here... The way we drew maps changed (and I am going very fast here, both with the introduction line and also on the topic \ suggestion explanation) when we started to have Balloons which happened after 1600 end. During 1700.
That gave a total change in the mindset of people, just like train was a HUGE (today so much under rated in general Public Opinion) change for our human mindset for how we went fast to other places and we started to think about something called "vacation at the sea side or up to the mountain" (and mass vacation started to exist, we also invented Cinema, first ideas were in USA when movies where made out of a "train trip" concept that bystanders (just like in those Tents you see in RDR2 .. the game) were witnessing the world FAST and from a train window.

I hope you are following me until here understanding at least what I said.
What Happened on the map suggestion I was trying to tell you about? Well, now cutting fast in a quick ellipsis over "what happened in our mindsets during our history", today, we are about to LEARN THE ORBITAL PERSPECTIVE which entails hyper complexity understanding (today a major widespread illiteracy and deficiency in general masses, which still believe there is one truth when instead the world and the truth is made of many stories, not one label). This Orbital Perspective is already acquired by those that EXPOSE themselves to  the vision of our planet from the ISS in LEO (low earth orbit) from the International Space station ... well... (in which also a CanadARM is mounted besides other EU\RUS\JPN and so on modules :) ) and this orbital perspective will change totally everything of how we approach each other and how we approach to earth how we make games ... everything. The recent "Trash Tag" things happening are just very recent examples of Orbital Perspective effects... or me too (no extremism) is too another example of this of course summing or mixing with other things like the biggest innovation of our time (coming from military and academics): the internet.

The vision you have of the world is changed and changes everyday. Nothing is still, not even climate and weather as many wanna think.
I am not trying to convince you about anything of these things but one:

When we used to explore our places and we did it LIKE IN THE LONG DARK, from our feet on the ground, we used to DRAW ON MAPS the shape of the buildings we USED TO SEE FROM THAT PERSPECTIVE. The design in The Long Dark is kinda talking to us from how we watched the world before (from above\ top down) instead or reminding the player that NOW nature is recognized again for what it is (we dnt cheat it anymore with immortality, as we try to do in 2019...)  and killing the immersion and not exploiting the fact that, ok the apocalypse for a magnetic problem just happened, and and.. we dnt know the truth, because the truth is made of many stories the developers want to be free and let us free to tell, but one thing is sure, we could have so much more orientation from a map that has simple (easy to make for the designers) LANDMARKS that are signed on the map with the  carbon when we decide to do that.  (they should not be designed as a default) they could even be already designed as a default for those that want EASY MODE, (so this feature could even have different shades helpful for those that dnt like to play "hardcore" games).

This would not only allow (NO hand holding) but consistent with the game (I hope which will stay always "hardcorish") it will allow people to orient themselves
deepening the connection they have to build with their senses INTO THE GAME (ears, eyes, feeling, ... ) which lead to strategies we wanna make come true, but it will also
ENANCHE how much  we understand of the game and thus get a reward from it, naturally ... just silently understanding where we are.
How to do this (Just draw profiles of SOME FEW AREAS) whenever randomly we happen to draw with carbon something on the map, and this would actually help a lot (maybe also with a in game "voice" QTE that makes us understand that we might be drawing something good here where we are in that moment .. or maybe not telling us, so just leaving space to surprise: because after all new features DO NOT HAVE ALWAYS TO BE ANNOUNCED AND EXPLAINED --- Developers like this are surely transparent but they kill ALL THE MAGIC around a game for marketing purposes: marketing doesn't understand the art of gaming and playing games, and learning the language of games is something still not respected by most marketing ideology (there is not such thing today of Gaming marketing that isn't detrimental to the real player UX ... on this other chapters and books need to be written.. not gonna talk about this here).

If the map stays "watched" from above, it feels disorienting, I just wish that (I understand that might be done by devs on purpose.. having it like it is now, to try to make it hard for us to navigate) but in the same time we would have a feeling of Human (nature) bending to Nature by changing their habits and starting to "wildify" themselves or simply "go back" (go towards) the former way we used to navigate places.

Indeed the perspective from the ground, the way of the wayfarer (in the map).

I already suggested this via tweets 2 years ago when they were about to update the game, but never received a response. Plus I was caught in a ban because the culture on steam is toxic behind any repair (due to valve enforcing that kind of stuff there so... yeah I could not make this come out).

I hope it is useful, maybe I can learn some stuff too!

 

Thank you for your time.  I hope you could join me even for a moment from the feet on the ground perspective, even if I seem to fly like a free baloon out of nowhere in into somewhere and then suddenly blow off.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cartography

Anybody interested in these things just take a course in History of geography and other topic like History of the ancient cities and history of cities.. it's just MIND OPENING.

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