A Hypothetical Situation

Mouse · May 2005

<div class="IPBDescription">regarding a hypothetical game</div> To satisfy my own curiousity I pose this question.

You're about to play this new game you bought. Having sat through the install and configured the grapic settings to your liking, you click 'New Game'. Upon starting the game, you're confonted with the first person view of someone pointing a pistol at your head; right between the eyes. You're sitting down. Thanks to depth of field blurring, you can't really tell who's holding the gun.

Now, what do you as the player, within the realms of this hypothetical situation, want to know?

Sky · May 2005

Why the hell did I buy this game?

theclam · May 2005

When does the gameplay start?

JAG_Corps · May 2005

What make and caliber the finely crafted pistol is

Aegeri · May 2005

Well, it would be one heck of a headjob that is for certain!

Not really sure what I would think, probably why is my character starting the game with a gun pointed in their face <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

None the less, so long as it doesn't have imps incessantly spawning all over the place when I pick up a shard of armour it has to be better than Doom 3.

Transmission · May 2005

Why the pistol is pointed at the character's head, and when do I the player have a chance to interact with the game.

Mantrid · May 2005

My environment. Where I am, what, if any, weapons are nearby, and try to assess my potential enemy's ability.

Actually, I do that if I'm walking alone and see a stranger in real life...

Zephor · May 2005

did the other team ready yet?
<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

Crispy · May 2005

Did he just fire six shots or five?

Crispy · May 2005

-Serious response-

I would want to know three things:
- why is a gun being pointed
- who he is
- who the gun is being pointed at

There could be many explanations to this setup. Someone's being interrogated. Someone's about to be murdered. It's just a joke. It's a bad dream. It's a hallucination (not quite the same as a dream).

So far, even though the first person view would have you believe it, we don't know that this is you (or your character). If we had this same setup in a film we wouldn't be thinking that someone was pointing it at us, but in a game we are used to that being our view and to our actions in the game determining our survival, so we'd almost definitely make that assumption.

It's quite a powerful image, if your next question were: <i>What happens next?</i> -I'd have to say that the camara flips round to behind the guy with the gun (so you still can't tell who it is), looking onto the helpless features of the hostage, who has his hands tied behind his back and is struggling relentlessly in his seat, its legs scraping abruptly on the floor. Then I'd change the camara shot to one which is looking through a hole in the wall (black apart from the round centre), which shows the whole scene from a few metres distance.

Guy gets shot after blurting out some excuse about how he didn't know about/do what you think he did. You step back from the wall and know that somehow what you just saw will have a serious knockback effect on your life as you know it.

---

BTW, why do you ask?

Merkaba · May 2005

When did they make a Fight Club videogame? Oh wait, between the eyes, not in your mouth.

I guess my initial thought would be something along the lines of "how on earth am I going to get out of this?"

relsan · May 2005

The the title of the game wouldn't happen to be Deliverance would it? <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' />

Cxwf · May 2005

My first thoughts would be, "What are the keyboard controls for this game? Do any of them work right now, or do I have to wait awhile yet?"

theclam · May 2005

I'd be thinking, thank God I'm on easy mode; he doesn't have enough bullets in the clip to kill me.

Taz- · May 2005

medpack!

intrik · May 2005

Who the person is, where are you ( police station, FBI interogation cell etc etc ), if they're poiniting that gun at "you" eg. there could be an alien inside your head they're pointing the gun at, you could have previously been possessed by an outside influence and they're pointing the gun at you because you were a threat, being blurred vision you could have just come out of being possessed therefore they're not actually pointing the gun at "you"

things like that......

Belgarion · May 2005

mousie you tricky boy. I'm wise to your schinanaginz <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

Like most people, I'd like to know how likely this person is to pull the trigger, why they were pointing the gun at me in the first place, where I was, etc.

Trevelyan · May 2005

"damn spawn campers."

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif' />

Samah · May 2005

I think people are missing a certain possibility here...
That the person pointing the gun at your head.... is yourself.

Codeman · May 2005

if we're talking about a PC game,
"depth of field blurring! this engine is pwn!"

Pulse · May 2005

"Who am I and what did I do to get myself into this situation?"

I'd also want to know the directions to your house, so that I may torture and kill you for making me post in the discussion forum.

edit: And whether or not the commchair exploit in overflow hive has been fixed oll

Crispy · May 2005

@Samah:

I think that even with depth of vision blurring you'd be able to tell straight off if those hands were yours or not by how they were modelled to grip the gun, you'd see an arm or both arms to one side. If the modelling in the game wasn't good enough to show that distinction, I wouldn't have bought it.

Grendel · May 2005

Thought process in order:

There is a gun pointed at my head.

Are they going to shoot me?

Are my strafe keys working yet?

***Then if the keys are disabled...***

Why are they pointing a gun at my head? (Is it because I haven't read through the design document they sent me yet? <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /> )

Who is holding the gun?

When is my field of view going to return to normal?

How long will I be in this position for?

Am I going to have to listen to lots of really bad dialogue until I can play the game?

Thought process run time: Approx 1-2 seconds. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

CMEast · May 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Trevelyan @ May 12 2005, 08:45 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> "damn spawn campers."

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif' />  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Roffles <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

I would check to see if I had control yet first off. If I did then as grendel says, strafe away. Otherwise I'd try to stop thinking and let the story unfold before me.

Vaaryys · May 2005

Quite simply, "What's going on?"

Code9 · May 2005

probably "If this is the training level, the rest of this game might not be that great."

TheAdj · May 2005

Think? lol, I'd be mashing the **** out of mouse1 and hoping that was the shoot key.

My actual reaction would be similar to Grendel's and would revolve around getting from in front of the gun, mainly using strafe keys of some type. Somehow disabling the person pointing it at my face would be another possibility.

[WHO]Them · May 2005

~
iddqd
~

Breakthrough · May 2005

Who is that mad man and why am I where I am?

Asal_The_Unforgiving · May 2005

In most likely order:

Why? (Is a gun being pointed at my head)
Who? (Is holding the gun)
How? (Can I disarm this person/make my precious brains no longer in danger)

pieceofsoap · May 2005

I would be thinking "What comes next?"

Is this the end, or beginning?

A Hypothetical Situation

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