D&D General Do you think video gamers experience existential crises over the nature of Hit Points?

[Prakriti]

Just curious... do you think Dark Souls and Final Fantasy players lie awake at night, wondering what hit points are?

Do you think World of Warcraft forums are filled with weekly threads about this elusive concept and whether it accurately reflects the conditions of our universe?

What would you think of a Magic: The Gathering player who spent more time ruminating on the verisimilitude of Toughness (i.e. hit points) than actually playing the game? (Okay, don't answer that one... anything is better than playing Magic.)

In any case, I believe the answer to all these questions is no -- video gamers don't care about these things; they just accept hit points for what they are, a condition of the game, and have fun within those parameters. Only tabletop players spend hours ringing their hands and their minds trying to "make sense" of hit points and what they truly represent.

So... are they crazy?

...or are we?

 

[Oofta]

I never really thought about it in any video game I've ever played. Some games give you temp HP in the form of armor, but otherwise HP are HP. Your avatar may show some cosmetic damage but I've played quite a few FPS games over the years and there's no death spiral. You're fine until you're dead. A few give you a visual indication you're about to die but it doesn't really affect gameplay.

But even if people playing video games worry about stuff like this, that doesn't mean we're not crazy.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[GlassJaw]

As a former designer in the video game industry, gamers will complain (loudly and often) about every possible aspect of a game, including far less important things than hit points.

 

[RSIxidor]

I've been confused by things that aren't hit points but are in some ways similar (stamina or magic points, that sort of thing) a few times but as long as the gameplay is fine, I generally don't linger on it.

Meanwhile in TTRPGs, I wish hit points would either shrink significantly or just go away.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Video games are just games. Tabletop RPGs are supposed to be more than that.

When you're playing a video game, you're still just you, on the other side of a screen from everything that's happening. When you're playing a tabletop RPG, you're supposed to be observing the world from the inside out; you're supposed to pretend that it's actually happening, because that's a necessary part of the process, which informs how you make decisions from the character's perspective.

You don't need to understand the nature of a game mechanic in order to move a sprite around a map. You do need to understand the nature of how the world works in order to make decisions from the perspective of someone who lives in that world. You don't have the luxury of saying that it's just a game; because from the perspective of the character that you're inhabiting, it's real life.

 

[Undrave]

Do you know what makes hit points shrink significantly or just go away?

Six angry tarrasques.

You're welcome.

Clay golem can shrink your Hit Points and there's ONLY ONE SPELL IN THE GAME that reverses it.

... What a BS design >.> *grumbles grumble *

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just curious... do you think Dark Souls and Final Fantasy players lie awake at night, wondering what hit points are?

Actually yes.

I've seen countless debates on videogame forums, about what a healthbar or the like actually represents. It's vastly more common in more "realistic" videogames. I've seen tons of games sneered at because they have regenerating health which is "unrealistic" (hahaha), too. CRPGs often provoke debates on it too. Ironically the more complex and well-made the health system, the more likely people argue with it (c.f. Pillars of Eternity).

There was particularly a lot of this when Half-Life 2 came out, if we're looking at non-RPGs.

 

[Doug McCrae]

"Videogamers are superior because they never engage in angry online arguments about trivial matters" is an exceptionally brave take.