On systemic games and jank: Notes

Systemic games and systemicness

A systemic game:

• Has simulations and emergent behavior (/ emergent gameplay)
  • Emergent behavior: systems behave in a way that is not explicitly programmed (second-order effects)
  • Emergent gameplay: emergent behaviors have an impact on gameplay
• Simulations can be for anything, but usually simulates humans / intelligence and sometimes second-order effects (economics, politics etc.)

Examples of systemic games

• “Purely systemic” games:
  • Dwarf Fortress and others like it (RimWorld)
  • The Sims
  • Paradox Interactive games, especially Crusader Kings
  • In these games practically all gameplay is a result of the systems interacting with each other
  • The player’s actions and even the game designer’s intent don’t fully control the experience; the game is a chaotic system which can be merely influenced
  • The player’s character(s) are mostly equal in capabilities to the other characters in the game; they interact with the world using the same systems as everyone else
• Games that have systemic elements, but are not fully systemic:
  • Immersive sims and stealth games (Deus Ex, Dishonored, Hitman)
    • Something happens in the world without the players involvement, usually just scripted schedules
  • Bethesda RPGs, especially Oblivion
    • NPCs have stats and items just like the player’s character
    • If a guard wears armor, you can steal it and wear it too
    • NPC schedules
    • Crime system
      • Your crimes are reported only if someone sees you commit them
        • In Oblivion whether or not someone reports your crimes depends on the NPC’s disposition and responsibility attributes
      • At leats in Skyrim “seeing” is actually based on a line of sight check
        • Bucket on head trick
    • Oblivion tried to go further with its Radiant AI system, but in the shipping games it was mostly cut
      • If we believe Todd Howard, at some point the NPCs had needs and desires, and they would try to fulfill them (e.g eating, buying gear, conquering the world). This was cut because of instability (e.g quest givers dying with no explanation, shops running out things to sell) and / or performance issues.
      • In the final game Radiant AI is mostly just a scheduling system. A few NPCs (e.g City-Swimmer) can steal to get food, but
    • Reverse pickpocketing
      • Explosives in Fallout games
      • Poison in Skyrim
      • Items with negative effects, at least in Oblivion and Skyrim
  • Rockstar games (GTA and RDR)
    • Traffic simulation & car AI
      • Requires handling complex edge cases, like crashes, road being blocked
    • Police system
    • Different kinds of pedestrians and cars in different areas
    • Random events to add variety
  • Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom
    • Physics engine & weather system
    • Hardcoded interactions between objects and systems
      • Fire spreads, water extinguishes fire, lightning strikes metal
    • Systemic elements are somewhat overhyped; “chemistry engine” is mostly a marketing term / mistranslation
  • Larian RPGs (Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, Baldur’s Gate 3)
  • Some Ubisoft games (mostly Far Cry)
    • Animals
    • Fire spreading in Far Cry 2 https://www.pcgamer.com/great-moments-in-pc-gaming-watching-fire-spread-in-far-cry-2/
  • Simulators (Microsoft Flight Simulator)
    • Has many simulations, but doesn’t lead to much emergent behavior
    • Nothing happens in the world unless you do something
• “Least systemic” games:
  • Most linear FPS campaigns
    • Like Call of Duty: Ghosts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbIltWGo_Fs
      • Player can only use night vision goggles or flasbangs when the game tells them to
  • Point & click puzzle games and Telltale-style adventure games (Monkey Island, The Walking Dead)
    • Every interaction between entities is explicitly programmed
    • The player is not allowed to do anything that the game doesn’t expect
    • Player movement is strictly controlled

Jank

• A game is janky when it’s hard to control & understand, and / or it behaves in awkward, unexpected, unintended or illogical ways
• Eurojank is a somewhat derogatory term for games (primarily made in Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe) that are often ambitious and systemic, but not very polished, both from technical and design perspectives
  • Examples: The Witcher 1, Gothic, Stalker
  • Bad localization and voice acting are typical
• Jankiness is largely a result of the game being systemic
  • More mechanics and systems -> more interactions ->
    • Higher likelihood of bugs and unintended interactions (e.g. NPCs getting stuck in places, dialogues at the wrong time, softlocks etc.)
    • Requires more careful UI design to be intuitive
    • Requires more tutorialization to be understandable (or the tradeoff that the player has to read the manual / wiki to understand the game)
  • Jank is somewhat inherent to systemic games. They can be polished, but

What was Radiant AI, anyway?