TeeBeeDee Wrote:In regards to jumping, you're all right. There is real jumping and then there is the Video game jumping. Yes a person could do a standing jump with 45 lbs of armor on, but being able to jump 1/3rd of your height is not what videogames do, they grant you the ability to jump 5-6ft. The problem then becomes race proportions and unintended access. a 3ft character would not likely jump the same height as a 7ft character.
Imagine a group of designers agonizing over the exact height of what a jump should be, then trying to think of how they could make sure that this jump is not exploited to gain access to unintended places or to fall through the world. At some point one person says, "Is there any place in the game people have to jump to get to?" After a few moments the general consensus is "no". Thus jumping gets cut for the sake of the greater good.
Invisible walls though.....those I could live without, if you wanna do something dumb like run off a cliff. Well, you have fun doing that, however the same rules of unintended accesss or falling through the world still apply.
my 2 cents.
Some valid points you bring up here. However...Jumping in video games is not some new mechanic that requires as much thought process as everyone seems to assume.
SE have openly stated that they have taken several pointers in their game design from Age of Conan, WoW, Diablo, and Warhammer. All of which(with the exception of Diablo) have keybound jumping. I would also like to point out, that many games that involve jumping had little to no areas that required jumping to get to. On release, WoW had one location that you -had- to jump, and that was the Wailing Caverns. Generally, a jumping action is just an added aesthetic.
My argument is not for game mechanics...Just implementation of certain actions that help to contribute and expand on immersion. Common actions that we would be able to perform, if we -were- our characters, living a day in the life on Eorzea.
We would be able to swim.
We would be able to jump.
We would be able screw up somewhere, lose our footing maybe, and fall off a cliff without a magical "safety net" erected around every pitfall.
These are minor features that, if added, would simply add the immersion of the game, whether they have any "purpose" or not.
As for invisible walls...There's already one erected around and throughout the entire continent. See that cliff? Invisible wall. Small embankment? Invisible wall. See the coastline? Invisible wall. Bridge? Invisible wall. I'm not a fan of invisible walls either...Because they detract from immersion. But, I would MUCH rather them take out the crap ton of walls that they already have and minimize their usage for the sheer purpoe of keeping players out of areas they don't want them in, which also begs the question of "why are those areas are in the game to begin with?"
In short...Adding a jump command is not some daunting task, game developers have proven this for several years now(Both in MMOs and in console games). It is not a new concept and is not as difficult to implement as it may seem.
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