My thoughts on the matter (Destiny)

by BeardFade , Portland, OR, Friday, September 09, 2016, 15:18 (2816 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Video games are not, and should not be like real life. They should be about what is fun.

These aren't mutually exclusive categories. There are things in "real life" that are fun. And people do all sorts of things for fun that are really, really difficult. Example: Have you ever watched the average person play golf?

To me, the issue with ghost bullets is that it seems unfair and this lack of fairness impedes the game's ability to be "fun". Given that our understanding of fairness is almost exclusively based on our experience of "real life", it makes sense that we would look to "real life" for answers to virtual unfairness (though this doesn't prove that this will be a sufficient answer, just the most likely first place to look for sufficient answers).

I look at it this way, we have a physical impossibility being represented with a virtual possibility. It is physically impossible to hold something perfectly still, yet in the game it is virtually possible. To compensate for this false perfection, Bungie has chosen to add randomness to accuracy. I am suggesting that Bungie change their compensation by aligning with what is physically possible because, frankly, it would be more relatable to our actual experience, which would trigger a greater sense of empathy with our character and would not trigger our sense of unfairness as often.

It doesn't have to be hand shaking, or body twitches, but I know that I could more easily accept the fact that I missed if I knew that the game was trying to model the actual physical difficulty of aiming a weapon more.