Aristotle said works of fiction should favor probable impossibilities over improbable possibilities. Suspension of disbelief covers the big, crazy things like spiderman or aliens or wizards. But the audience still expects the mundane, background things to function according to intuition : just because superman can fly, doesn’t mean he drinks his coffee cold. That would be weird.
Video games aren’t like other works of fiction because they rely on abstract simulations. Hit points, or lives, have been around forever and never really made sense. Why does the last bullet you take kill you when all the others did basically nothing? The reason HP works in the player’s mind, I’d argue, is because it measures distance to failure intuitively. Take a hit, get closer to failing. Grab a medkit, buy yourself some breathing room.
I think that the abstraction of health points works only if it doesn’t stretch suspension of disbelief to improbable possibilities. Healing Word, Cure Wounds, Goodberry, sure! That’s what this world is all about. But no believable world has characters eating during intense exercise unless they’re looking for stomach cramps. It’s possible, but improbable.
Well said!
There is also the gaming aspect. I have a friend who never finished DAO (my all time fav rpg) because he said once he found the Dalish camp and had endless elfroot for making healing potions, the game became unfun. I think the food in battle was making the game too easy, personally.
And sure…we could just *not* use the food available in battle, as per the constant answer to these arguments. Sure. Just like I could ignore the cookies in my kitchen because my life would be better if I exercised and did not snack. Just like my pal could have ignored those mounds of elfroot and kept the game at a level he likes. But gaming is not about “self” control. It is about good mechanics that balance fun with challenge.
(Those cookies…oh how they call to me).
The food mechanic as camp supplies is not ideal, maybe. I find it encourages a bit of grind which I am never a fan of. But I do agree with other posters that balancing camping is tricky. I missed so much stuff when I first played because I did not camp enough and things are timed in camp relative to where u r in game. Why oh why can’t there be dialogue triggers such as “we need to talk in camp”, etc.
Side note—The new face covered in shite has been making me camp more just so I don’t look like a hobo. Which means I need more food. Seriously..no one gets this fracking dirty working outside or camping (which I do alot). It is the most egregious “get to camp” mechanic I have ever seen. (I hate it).
