Sounds awful.

by thebruce , Ontario, Canada, Friday, March 08, 2013, 12:40 (4067 days ago) @ uberfoop

I'm not against this on principle.

I'm not sure that I am, but the ways in which I can actually imagine it being implemented don't strike me as especially great. And the suggestions in this thread sort of exemplify that: if I'm playing through some awesome event in the game world, do I actually *want* some random non-present guy to cause a stage of the fight to not happen? Is it really all that awesome to break gameplay mechanics like radar so that someone can go fetch their phone and use it to repair the game?

Most of all, some of the things being suggested sound more than anything like minigamish things that really ought not require a separate platform. I might be more open to some of the stuff if the phone simply makes certain functionality accessible for people who don't have a console on hand as opposed to having that immediate gameplay-relevant functionality exclusively.

Well, part of the benefit would be a type of role play. If say you're hacking something, there's something to be said about actually holding your hack device in your hand, as opposed to seeing it depicted visually on screen (otherwise why even display it? By the same argument you may as well just put the plain puzzle task on screen instead of "pretending" you're looking at the device). Granted it's not the best example of an exclusively external accessory (that sort of thing could be done both in-game or in-palm) but the point remains - we 'pretend' a lot of things on-screen, so why not extend that experience (whether exclusively or not) to an actual physical accessory to enhance that experience even more?

That's one of the ways storytelling is evolving these days, breaking out of single-platform molds; partly as a way to keep things fresh and interesting, and partly just as a way to try new things :P. If it works, great; if not, oh well. There are many factors to take into consideration when considering a game mechanic like that though; demographic being huge, as well as exclusivity and player alienation. (obviously it's more appealing to people who are willing and/or capable of experiencing said methods; otherwise it can seem unfair to those who want to but can't) So who knows...