Pears for spaceships
I’ve been following news about this game, No Man’s Sky, since it was announced. Even though, like many people, I was a bit confused about what kinds of things playing the game actually involved. But the presentation was really cool, and it didn’t hurt that 65daysofstatic was already one of my favourite bands.
Now that it’s out, I’ve been trying to figure out people’s reactions to it. It has gotten mediocre reviews, but anecdotally, people I’ve heard from who have played it seem to love it. So there doesn’t seem to be anything insurmountably wrong with it, but it just seems that it’s not for everyone.
After playing it for a few hours myself, I’ve come up with a theory that could explain the mixed reception it’s been getting:
No Man’s Sky is basically endless1 Animal Crossing in space.
Sometimes, when people ask ‘what is your objective Animal Crossing?’, a typical answer is ‘to pay off your mortgage’. Doing this involves picking fruit, catching fish, digging up stuff out of the ground, etc.; basically, wandering and resource gathering, in ostensible service of a specific goal.
Similarly, when people asked Hello Games what the objective is in No Man’s Sky, their answer was, ‘to get to the centre of the universe’. But assuming that this is the reason to play No Man’s Sky would be making a similar mistake as would be assuming the reason to play Animal Crossing is to pay off the mortgage. The end goal, whether it’s the mortgage or the centre of the universe, is only a gentle suggestion in case you can’t think of enough things to do on your own. If it’s the only thing you focus on, then you will be disappointed.
The reason to play is to enjoy spending time in the world of the game. No more, no less. This is all some people want. For other people, it’s not enough. It is different than most other games in this way.
It is not for everyone. But the people whom it is for seem to love it.
I think a large part of the problem was that it wasn’t marketed to reflect this. Sony came to Hello Games with an offer they couldn’t refuse: Make the game exclusive to PS4 consoles, and in exchange, Sony would provide all of the marketing at their own expense. No other strings attached; Hello Games retained complete creative control.
I can see why this would be an attractive offer to Hello Games. Marketing is expensive, so having that taken care off would be a huge weight off their shoulders. And Sony are experienced in marketing; if anyone knows how to do it, they should. For Hello Games, it would be terrible to spend years on a project they are passionate about, only to have it languish in obscurity because potential customers never heard about it.
However… Sony marketed the game as they would a mega blockbuster hit, with wide appeal to all audiences. This kind of makes sense; it is what Sony know and it is what they are used to. But that wasn’t the game that Hello Games were making, and Sony had no power in this relationship to make any changes to the game towards that end–for better or for worse.
I would say for better, without a doubt. But I bet some people at Sony would disagree. For all that fans hate publisher meddling (or the Hollywood equivalent), there is a reason they keep doing it: in attempt to avoid precisely this kind of situation.
Maybe I won’t ever get to the centre of the universe. Maybe I’ll get bored with doing the same kinds of things after a while. Maybe I’ll just check in every now and then, to wander aimlessly when I happen to have a few minutes’ free time in my day, before moving onto something else. This is what usually happens with me and Animal Crossing games, but I like them anyway.
For now, I am enjoying just existing in this strange new world. And for me, that’s enough for it to have been worth it.
See you, space cowboy.
Pictured: My starting planet. No other human besides myself, not even the game designers, has ever seen this planet before. I spent hours exploring it. I’ve since moved onto other planets, and it’s likely that no-one, including me, will ever visit it again.
- By ‘endless’, I don’t just mean that No Man’s Sky never comes to an end; the same is true of Animal Crossing. But the No Man’s Sky also has infinitely varied environments, whereas Animal Crossing is confined to the same relatively small space for the entire game–my biggest complaint about the series, although arguably a contributor to its sense of familiarity and charm. ↩︎