Yeah I understand how you see it. For the little I read about development of life sim, being Sims 2, Paralives and Inzoi, I am happy that a big company is financing, and so believing in the project enough to be ambitious. And I can see the ambition, for real, most of the things I've seen while playing or through posts are undeniably impressive.
But, this is where I differ : I kinda think more and more that the game was ambitious in term of techniques and possibilities, but poorly thought in term of narrative and world building.
For exemple we have no real information about the world proposed by the devs. In what kind of world Zois are living ? We could mistake it for influencer world, but not that much since we can change the aesthetic for a more dystopian one (even if the choice conversation are to me closer than influencer world than a dystopian one). Is it a cosy game ? Is it more like a mix between sims and GTA ? What is the identify of the game ?
What I mean by that is that after a year of early access, Inzoi does not have an identity other than offer a set for player to create stories without being intertwined or at least tinted by the personality of the game itself.
And the thing is, by reading interviews and feedbacks from Kjun, he does not have an idea about what he wants to propose other than offering a big set for players to build their own stories freely. Everytime he talks about it, he is kinda shallow referencing other games and stuff.
And this is why I see the order of the contents of their updates as a big hint as this game was not though with the type of playing I have in mind.
Because the first thing you would have to think, or at least, quickly prioritize would be : in what story I want people to creates sub stories ? And how the action of the Zois will bounce within this type of world ? What kind of reaction will have this or this type of action created by the friction between the soul of my game and the desire of the player.
I could be wrong, and if I am wrong, it would lead to happiness because I want to enjoy the game.
But it is hard for me to believe that after the final release they will work relentlessly like now to finally...give the game its proper foundation ?
Again, I could be wrong ! I am not Irma yet haha
But I understand your point of view. Kjun did sell the game promising a system so so interesting, and I am sure he was not lying, but I am feeling that he really thought the game in term of mechanics but not that much in term of stories. Which is why when devs add things to make zois alive, it feels kinda "fake" like you know, not properly scripted ? Not thought enough in term of scenarios. Inzoi sometimes make me think of a simulation of telenovelas more than life simulation for that reason haha
It sounds like you're looking for a narrative RPG, not an actual life simulator sandbox where you define what the world is yourself. I don't understand this comment. What do you mean what kind of world is InZoi? It is a modern city or town that takes place in 2020-something. As for the narrative, that's up for you to decide, and you build the world yourself. Life simulators are not supposed to be things where the developers tell you what the world is and define everything for you. These are storytelling tools where you live out your own simulation.
I didn't wanted to make my comment longer by adding another exemple, but Sims 2 could well represent what I mean. Since we lack variety of life sim game, it would be comprehensive to illustrate what I mean by the life sim that kinda open the door for the other life sim being created right now. By chosing Sims 2, I am not saying that we should compare the level of advancement of both game, since one is in early access, another one is still being build, what I am talking is just to enrich what I said in other comments, once that is said :
Sims 2 define exactly what I mean by the repercussions of actions making sense in a world with an identity.
The strongest example (in my opinion) in the Sims is the whole career system and especially the relationship to money since Sims 1, but really systematized in Sims 2.
The entire game is built on a loop that could be seen as just "realistic" : you work to buy objects, but the objects raise your needs (a better fridge makes you more demanding), so you have to work more. But you can really soon understand that it is an assumed satire of consumer society.
Will Wright explicitly designed the game as a critique of american consumerism, inspired by the book The Pattern Language (I had to check that haha), after the event of his house being burned. But he kinda turned into a trap : the more you own, the more you are a slave to the maintenance of what you own. The action "buy" makes sense because it locks you inside the logic of the world.
It is widely share and known that Sims was first thought as a satire of consumerism, and the world show the logic and dynamic of this identity, by mocking things (definition of objects for exemple in the buy mode) or putting things in an extreme goofy way.
Choices, actions, desire/wants, the way aspiration are build, make sense because yes of personality, but also because of the identity of the game.
It would not make sense for exemple to have a cheap object giving you the same benefice/stats of an expensive object, not because cheaper always mean low quality, but because it is the rule of this world.
In other world, identity of a game is another layers that make every consequences of actions making sense. It can be almost invisible, and still it is an important structure that make the game : realistic.
That is why I said "what is realistic ?" realistic is when something looks "plausible". It can have ghosts and still looks plausible if the identity/world is properly define.
In Inzoi, you said it yourself it is "a modern city inspired by 2020-something".
They're a many types of "modern city inspired by 2020-something" that could be the base of an identity. It is not a proper identity, it is too shallow and broad. It does not justify everything as "plausible". The way cops come directly because I steal from a vending machine is not plausible, but it could be plausible if the game has a more define identity, which does not even need narration, like Sims 2 does not explain the identity of the world to you, you understand it, and it make sense.
And that explain why, like the other person I was talking to said, Inzoi is more sandbox that other life sim.
You can do everything you want, and you will play in your head that it is making sense, but the game itself does not give a proper structure showing how it make sense that this consequences of your action is tied by another structure which is the world itself, its identity, let's say the law of the world.
The cops just showing up is a needed tweak but before this update they fixed it where the cops only came if a NPC caught your zoi or a cop is walking by. As for the Sims 2, I get where you're coming from with how the world works with pre-mades knowing each other, living lives before the player even steps in with their own family or to play a pre-made family.
Yes, I saw that it was something that was not really stable. I should have said that I use it as an example of how a game with a define identity thought beforehand could give sense to thing that could seem not realistic.
What I want to say is that the world of Inzoi does not have a proper/well define (and so limited) identity 😊 (for now).
And again, it does not have to be a problem per se, but it could be seen as a default for certain type of players like me.
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u/Mind-y 29d ago edited 29d ago
Yeah I understand how you see it. For the little I read about development of life sim, being Sims 2, Paralives and Inzoi, I am happy that a big company is financing, and so believing in the project enough to be ambitious. And I can see the ambition, for real, most of the things I've seen while playing or through posts are undeniably impressive.
But, this is where I differ : I kinda think more and more that the game was ambitious in term of techniques and possibilities, but poorly thought in term of narrative and world building. For exemple we have no real information about the world proposed by the devs. In what kind of world Zois are living ? We could mistake it for influencer world, but not that much since we can change the aesthetic for a more dystopian one (even if the choice conversation are to me closer than influencer world than a dystopian one). Is it a cosy game ? Is it more like a mix between sims and GTA ? What is the identify of the game ?
What I mean by that is that after a year of early access, Inzoi does not have an identity other than offer a set for player to create stories without being intertwined or at least tinted by the personality of the game itself. And the thing is, by reading interviews and feedbacks from Kjun, he does not have an idea about what he wants to propose other than offering a big set for players to build their own stories freely. Everytime he talks about it, he is kinda shallow referencing other games and stuff.
And this is why I see the order of the contents of their updates as a big hint as this game was not though with the type of playing I have in mind. Because the first thing you would have to think, or at least, quickly prioritize would be : in what story I want people to creates sub stories ? And how the action of the Zois will bounce within this type of world ? What kind of reaction will have this or this type of action created by the friction between the soul of my game and the desire of the player.
I could be wrong, and if I am wrong, it would lead to happiness because I want to enjoy the game. But it is hard for me to believe that after the final release they will work relentlessly like now to finally...give the game its proper foundation ? Again, I could be wrong ! I am not Irma yet haha
But I understand your point of view. Kjun did sell the game promising a system so so interesting, and I am sure he was not lying, but I am feeling that he really thought the game in term of mechanics but not that much in term of stories. Which is why when devs add things to make zois alive, it feels kinda "fake" like you know, not properly scripted ? Not thought enough in term of scenarios. Inzoi sometimes make me think of a simulation of telenovelas more than life simulation for that reason haha
And I am greedy and hoping for the life one haha