I started this evening researching flight simulators. A bit later I found the YouTube phenomenon of Kiwi!
Earlier this summer Don Permedi posted his Master's Thesis project on YouTube. Nearly four million views later, his tale about the distance one kiwi would go to simulate flight is now internet legend.
Don apparently simulated his kiwi and its flight using Maya and Adobe AfterEffects, yet these tools are hidden to the viewer behind a short minute or two of video. Consumer PC flight simulators rely upon software such as Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane (Fn1).
These tools come with manuals.
A year ago, a question was posted on the AVSIM forums (for flight simulation enthusiasts). One fragment of the argument follows, excerpted:
"I LOVE reading manuals. They often contain snippets of information you'd never discover for yourself or can explain simply ...not only the HOW-to, but also the `why`.
(A)n enterprising simmer could start a private helpdesk, charging a fee for reading the manual for those too lazy to do it for themselves... (or) for someone to come round and fly it for us, thus creating Flight Passenger 10, but allowing us to observe the lovely wing views the whole flight.
But wouldn't that defeat the objective - simulating flight?
Implied is a tension between designing for what players know versus having them learn what they need to know.
Game genres are often conflicted between a desire to innovate and building upon what came before. Players already in the genre are 'locked-in' and newbies are hindered. IMO, one consequence has been that game developers were allowed to be less careful with their documentation. Geekdom in a niche has at least one virtue: there is less to explain.
In any case, I wonder how games and virtual worlds would look if their culture evolved with a less "seat of the pants" view towards knowledge aquisition. What if players were brought along expecting to read a manual, a really long one, before they could play. I suspect there would be more freedom in what developers could design.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fn1. See also TN, "Whale watching."
/Ed 12/11, see also:
Andy Havens has collected a few thoughts on this post. The heart of his position is: "I think the separation of "manual" and "game" that exists in many Game Gods’ heads is something that bears reexamining. "
For me this harkens back to the era of board-wargaming. The disparity between the number of times I used to lovingly and ponderously set up Squad Leader over the number of times actually played... Sometimes the anticipation is the adventure. A few related themes discussed here: "Is Love and War Turn-based," "The World in your Pocket."
