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Clock Watching For Improved Gameplay?
Thanks to GamerDad for their editorial discussing the use of a PC/console's internal clock to drive gameplay. The article starts by looking at GBA title Boktai, which "...knows what the time of day is and adjusts the onscreen graphics and gameplay to coordinate with the conditions", and also applauds "...a number of notable games that have used the internal clock in a console to either drive gameplay or allow for timed release of features", referencing Nintendo's Animal Crossing in particular. But the author also advocates simpler time-based rewards, as used in titles like Ikaruga: "Instead of having all the goodies that come with repeated play be unlocked through tasks, how about releasing some of those things dependent on how many hours you spend playing a game?"
Isn't this the same as the Tamagotchi electronic pets that you have to feed at certain times and sleeps based on internal clock. Also those robotic pets (AIBO, etc) that have similar behaviors.
This reminds me of a few games that have used the system clock in ingenious ways.
... at the beep, BEEP)
In the Curse of Monkey Island On the first Island there is a clock tower that displays the same time as your system clock and if you click on it Threepwood would say the time to you (the time is
Dungeon Keeper 2 would tell you a funny one liner (can't remember what exactly) if you were playing the game in the early hours of the morning, somewhere around 3am I beleive.
Warcraft 2 would have christmas lights on the building ons christmas.
Either No Regret or No Remorse would play christmas music on Christmas day.
Nethack used such features for a years. Lycantrophy happens often at nights, undeads are stronger around midnights, Friday the 13th, really brings bad luck, and all dogs-alike creatures reacts to phase of the moon.
When in doubt, go to the library. - Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Hunt for features is by most gamers (that I know anyway) seen as a fun thing, and something to brag about to others that play the game; for example the goal to reach the AX levels in F-ZERO without a AX-Arcade version of the game will take a lot of my time, and I'll respect anyone that makes it.
So for me, a really good games have a extra, if not more, challenge setting once you beat it the first time; one reason is that I must always the hardest first, forcing me to go the easy way is a good thing; or perhaps some fancy art gallery to show your friends (if the hi-score doesn't say enough).
But the main reason is not hide stuff you want, but to introduce the game to the player gently. A new F-Zero players might not be better off from being able to play MASTERCLASS and get beaten to death by it, then starting smoothly with NOVICE feeling good about themselves. Most games actually introduces parts of the game to you as you play, and again this is to avoid you running into a wall with all the options available to you. Baldur's gate 2 did not go so gently towards the player as BG1, as after a fast introduction to battle it just threw you out in the world with a dozen or so paths/quests for you to choose from... I know many that stopped playing the game due to all the options it gave you.
On a related side note: Metropolis Street Racing was the first game I played that also used the internal clock to adjust gameplay. When you first play the game, you choose your time zone, and from then on that's the time in the game.
...I got a kick out of it...
The kicker was that the different cities were in different time zones. So if you lived in NY and its (realtime) noon, but were racing in Japan at the moment, it'd be (gametime) nighttime where you're racing because of the time zone difference. If you were racing on NY though, you might catch an in-game sunset at the same time you catch it out your window at home.