Don't Sweat the Little Things

There is a great comic over at Virtual Shackles today called "Machine Made". It points out one hilarious example of an event in a video game that upon further thought doesn't quite add up. In this case it is the design of a Geth ship that Shepard and his crew are fighting through when a companion casually mentions that the ship seems alien and not designed by organics. When I first heard this while playing the game I didn't really think anything of it - I was too busy blasting through Geth Primes and figuring out where the cover points were. But I have to say that the comic points out a funny and all too common example of how gameplay elements can sometimes require reality to take a back seat.

When you really think about it, a ship designed for machines shouldn't really be anything like a ship designed for organics. The same hallways, ladders, bathrooms, or other contrivances that organics would face wouldn't be a problem for a race that can wirelessly download themselves into bodies. The extra space taken up by a mess hall or crew quarters could either be re-purposed for more armaments or a smaller ship. In fact, having a design which doesn't support organics would be a very good self defense mechanism itself. If there were no ladders, then Shepard couldn't maneuver around the ship at all. You would still need loading bays and transports for possible ground assaults but those could be separate compartments away from any vital infrastructure.

Thinking on the design of this ship has also made me think about other moments where gameplay elements clash with reality. How is it that in every RPG there are random chests strewn about that are unopened? It's not like you are always the first one to happen to find these chests a little ways off the road. But if you think about it, reality should dictate that 1) either these chests don't exist at all or 2) most of the chests would already be open by the time you found them. I'd rather have the unopened chest than the reality that someone came along before me to grab my upgraded sword of plenty (or whatever). Of course, until someone figures out a way to dish out upgraded items to me on my quest to kill some magical monstrosity without using treasure chests, I suspect we'll be seeing them for some time. But until then, I'll give the Geth keyboards and treasure chests filled with clothes and gold a pass.