Let it rain 1 over the land of games

http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/barton

 

A short sum up of the article above would be as follows:

 

Video game designers choose to focus a lot more on design of the game elements you interact with than those who don’t. The biggest culprit is weather, with it being very unrealistically done. It would be great for several reasons if people did that.

 

I first and foremost wholeheartedly agree with the premise in theory. Witcher III comes to mind as a game made perfect in part because of the weather. Dynamic lighting and day and night cycles changed AI civilian behaviour, changed monster concentrations and enabled tides and such for new missions. Moving weather caused buffs and debuffs to monsters (not to mention surprise foglets out of nowhere) and many Witcher concoctions worked based on weather. On the other hand, the industry standard seems to be that the day/night cycle exists in open world games, but doesn’t affect much unless it is a key game mechanic (Think Until Dawn). Weather exists, but as the article puts it ,“a patch of grass might flow in the wind, but a character standing in the midst of a terrible rainstorm won’t even get wet.”

 

I wish to take it one step further than the article. As games become more complex and amazingly large, more mechanics need to be put it. Weather will greatly increase the game experience of thousands; if you’re a water mage, you can make dangerous missions easier by attacking while it is raining. Attack that caravan in the middle of the fog, or wait for fog monsters to attack them first. Make weather a gameplay mechanic instead of one that is just as important.

 

(This counts as double credit)