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What kind of idiot installs the emergency shut-off switch for a nuclear reactor on top of the nuclear core, inside the active reactor that needs to be shut down.

What does the authorities that handle nuclear hazards, not to mention the authorities that handle workplace safety, have to say about that?

What kind of idiot put the Thing That Will Vanquish All Evil on top of a meza in a far-away desert to which you have to swim through a sea full of mutated sharks, and then battle zombies, followed by a clutch of huge dragons, and then topped off by the arch mage that lives right next to the Thing That Will Vanquish All Evil? What kind of idiot archmage hasn't taken that thing and tossed it into the deep end of the sea?

You get the point.

I'm replaying some old games. The first is from Half-life, the second I just invented now but I wouldn't be surprised to see it in a game.

Why are people so unrealistic when it comes to inventing problems for the player? Those kinds of problems just throw me out of the game. It's amateurish, storytellingwise. it's hackneyed. It's the mark of a storytelling nobody.

I'll make this pledge to all of you. If I use that kind of "problems" in my game, when I get it done, you have permission to drag me out kicking and screaming and stone me against the nearest wall.

I watched The Core a few days ago. It worked, if you thought about it far less than your average game.

The fact is that if everything is realistic and normal, the games won't be very fun.

I love fantasy games. They're great fun, and not very "realistic". That's not what I mean. What I want is logic, following the simple rules in the game or in life. So, if you ever have need to shut off a nuclear reactor fast, you don't put the shut-down-swtich inside the reactor that's about to have a melt-down.

Kind of reminds me of this:



Which is referring to all the moving platforms in Jak II that just wouldn't be there in real life. lol.

I agree. Realism and coolness and superb logic - Deus Ex. When does the second one come out?

In Daggerfall, one of the main quests is to break into an armored fortress and steal some letters. Although the fortress is always in the same place with the same name, it is technicly a randomly generated dungeon, that just happened to get the least desirable kind of look ever-- when you arrive, it's just a mound in the ground with a door in it. Then you enter, and instead of the platoon of soldiers you were told about, it's filled with caverns and undead. In some completely illogical corner of the dungeon you find the letters, which were apparently burned by the person who hid them there, defeating the whole point of the fortress anyways.

I still love that game, but it just dosen't make sense at times

personally i prefer the fuzzy logic of games like a LucasArt Adventure, dunno why.
the best are in Half-Life though, personal favourite is the Uplink demo cause the architect must've been smoking something strong that day.

Firstly you get in an elevator to a top floor and you notice a breakroom with a crowbar and a vending machine. Now I'm not sure about you, but if i had a crowbar and a vending machine i'd bypass the folding of the dollar ritual and move onto the prying that big boy open part

next thing you notice is that a control room or security checkpoint appears to be in the middle of nowhere with a Glock and some ammo just laying on the table, add to this there appears to be a red lite closest with ammo to the side with a window. God only knows the design purpose for this.

Next we have volitile nitrogen canisters, 2 of them... just sitting without ANY guarding at all. God knows where it is pumping the nitrogen to because the pipes don't lead anywhere, but thats the least of your worries because it appears that moving day was recently and as such alot of big creates litter the corridors.

next we get to a large wearhouse full of big-rig cargo creates... this time there is a crane, which makes sense. However on closer inspection the controls consist of a push button that makes the crane move from front to back and back again. Now personally I think that is a huge waste of time considering the crane obviously also can move along the beam that moves it. There are also health and HEV suit point here... but what exactly you'd need these for I don't have a clue. I mean surely the ground crew for materials to the lab wouldn't need HEV suits?
Also how the hell do they get anything out considering there are just stairs to the rest of the lab!

Well we ignore this to notice the gate wide enough to 2 trucks... fantastic problem though, is there is a wall around 15ft infront of the gate, how the hell is a rig suppose to get in through that gap?
as you turn around you begin to wonder how the hell ANY of those cargo boxes are there as there is barely enough room for you let along a rig, and with no outdoors crane it really makes you wonder if they employ superman

Okay we'll sidetrack this (but just for a second) and talk about the compound itself. Now usually when you work for high profile companies you expect a checkpoint at the gate right? Just to make sure rifraf can't just walk in.
The walls are close to 25ft high with barbwire, there are guard towers in a very nazi concentration camp style with lights that face inwards rather than outwards!?
I'm just wondering if they built it to keep people out, or keep them in?

well no worries about that because onto the gate which again is big enough and looks setup for a vehicle to get through, only there appears to only be a small crevis to walk though that may have collapse recently admitidly, however you walk a bit futher and the communications array is ahead and there appears to be a sheer clifface in both directions with just enough room for a person.
How vehicles are even suppose to get there is a mystery and there isn't even enough room for a helipad.

moving on we get inside the communications tower... now it may just be me, but why the heck are they pumping radioactive fluid into a remote communicatios tower?

well i'd go on but i'm sure you get the picture. Nothing in just the uplink makes sense, the full game has just so many design quirks it'd take forever to list them all.

If you want some real un-logic, get the demo of GORE (awful game, but funny because it's so full of nonsense). You have a case where the absolute best-of-the-best of the world government base has been broken into by a bunch of goons and thugs-- these guys are really stupid when you fight them, and they all follow the gang steriotypes. A single group of decently trained marines from Halo could wipe out thousands of these idiots. But of course, the 'ultimate soldiers' are total idiots-- they happily shoot through their own allies to hit enemies, jump off of skyscrapers while in pursuit of an enemy, and even stand completely still while they're being thwacked from behind by some gang idiot with nunchuku.

There is this handy list of do's and don'ts if you want to take over the world.

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http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
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It's great fun, but it's kind of serious too. In writing, particularly in fantasy and science fiction, writing clichés is a big no no.

This list is well known in writing circles, and newbie writers are often ushered to it -- so that they don't get any ideas. Like ideas influenced by a computer game.

I wish there was a list for Game Level Designers too.