   Game Hypothesis: Combine Physics, Gameplay, and Narrative
  In the past few days an idea occurred to me: Games such as the statistically-based CRPG and strategy variants along with the more static 'pure' adventure games would be much more accessible to 'casual gamers' (less-likely to meta-game than the 'hardcore' and require a gentler learning curve, perhaps less menu management) if physics and gameplay are a well combined, integral component of the story and are alterable by the outcomes of actions as narrative devices.My background on this hypothesis is what one might suspect.  I am a diligent reader, especially of novels pertaining to fantasy and science fiction (I could not put The Chronicles of Narnia Down and I would strongly recommend reading Planet of the Apes for anyone who wants to know the original and much more captivating story).  My other (and in the past three years more often) reads are Japanese shonen manga. such as Naruto and Bleach.  Now, what gets me into these two vastly different mediums I credit to enthralling story (for the novels) and 'action hooks' (those wonderful points of suspense in shonen manga- cue power trip- that keep me hooked until the next issue).  Back to the first part of the hypothesis:  Physics and Gameplay.  To clarify, video game physics in a phantasy/sci-fi game should not mean ultra-realistic as the true basis of these games is in the reality of the human imagination.  Rather, all physical interactions within the game world should be consistent with concrete rules set by the physics engineer.  The other part is gameplay, which is all input given by a player and the output provided by the game on a 1:1 basis (ex.: I press 'down' and 'A' causing the next down option on a menu-based rpg to be selected, but whatever animation happens after that is without my input unlike, say, I press 'A' and press in all different 'directions' causing a box to be picked up and move in step with each 'direction' I input).What I would like to see is proper action-style gameplay completely governed by a set of physical laws for the game world (unlike games where water is either a level or insta-kill for example) and have these laws as they pertain to the player character(s) represented as a few gameplay crucial stats (what can I lift? how many steps can I move the object? how high and how far can I jump? How much injury can I endure compared to everything else in the game world?).  I kind of like how Paper Mario gave the player only health, magic, and accessory points to level up, but these were the entire backbone of the gameplay and not factors in determining rudimentary actions.The final part of this hypothesis is combining these three elements.  You start with a snapshot of a game world that contains a player-gripping story and some simple rules for all physical interactions in that world, thus, creating a game.  Next, you have a player character(s) that can interact with the game directly through input in specific ratios to those rules.  Then, the player takes actions in the story that take both narrative and physical significance based on the creativity and significance of those actions.  As a result the narrative take a turn, friends and enemies are gained, and the player charater(s) may encounter a situation where they are forced to become more powerful (gain abilities and/or better the ratio of their actions to the physical rules) or receive injuries/disadvantages that they have to learn to overcome in good 'action hook' narrative fashion.So, what are your thoughts?  Please, leave a comment if you have anything at all to add or critique.   
Quote:Original post by Glass2099What I would like to see is proper action-style gameplay completely governed by a set of physical laws for the game world ... and have these laws as they pertain to the player character(s) represented as a few gameplay crucial stats OK, so design it.;  It's doable but it might be beyond human comprehension. You'll have to use machine learning algorithms to cope with the exponential complexity of interacting rules and you can't always predict the outcome. Even a simple world with a few rules interacting a few levels deep will be beyond human comprehension. Take for example the game of Chess. Just a few "atomic" rules, (ie take king, knights move in L shape, bishop moves in diagonals, rook moves vertical/horizontal, etc..) but it takes a grandmaster to predict more than a few moves out.Look at something like Drawf Fortress. It's basically a consistent world built off of logical atomic rules. It's well known for its incredible depth and complexity. Good Luck!-ddn   