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This is a questionable mechanic - I'd even say a useless gimmick that adds nothing substantial to the gameplay. Dean Hall, the creator of the viral survival sa

This is a questionable mechanic - I'd even say a useless gimmick that adds nothing substantial to the gameplay. Dean Hall, the creator of the viral survival sandbox mod DayZ, was obsessed with realism-based immersion, and also tried something similar in his game in 2012. One of the updates tied the in-game time to the real time at the location of the server you were connected to. It also made the moonless and/or cloudy nights impenetrably dark, even GPU gamma correction wasn't able to help you see anything. Considering that the majority of players played the game in the evening, that the game was set in the fictional Balkan country (they only had an hour or so of twilight at best), and that the night vision device was a top-tier item hard to obtain in a survival sandbox, the majority of players just played on servers in distant timezones, preferring huge latencies to playing in the dark. The update was reverted shortly after that, as it was obvious that it degraded the gameplay quality immensely.

ttymck 3y ago
You've made quite the generalization based on one example of a real time MMO. I still acknowledge the artistry behind it in the case of DayZ, and it's even more interesting within the context of Kojima's career.
- BizarroLand 3y ago
  If the game was designed for it, I could see the advantage of having a synchronous day/night cycle in game for a few reasons. For instance, an RPG where your time of day combined with in game locations could change what enemies spawn, or characters that get sleepy and less capable after so long, but it should also be able to cause unique time events to happen, and not just spooky Halloween season or Xmas spectacular, either.
  - ttymck 3y ago
    Indeed. Pokémon gold/silver is the first instance I can recall that did this. It was mind blowing at the time (I was maybe 10 years old).
EdwardDiego 3y ago
Hah, I remember that Day Z sheer darkness. Used it to my advantage once when stuck in an area bristling with well-armed people, navigating solely by structures and trees silhouetted against the stars, stopping in cover to listen, making sure I didn't silhouette _myself_ as I moved. It was fun, and exhausting. Moving on a night with a full moon was even more terrifying - trying to build up the courage to cross a moonlit field that someone might be watching.

ttymck 3y ago

You've made quite the generalization based on one example of a real time MMO. I still acknowledge the artistry behind it in the case of DayZ, and it's even more interesting within the context of Kojima's career.

BizarroLand 3y ago
If the game was designed for it, I could see the advantage of having a synchronous day/night cycle in game for a few reasons. For instance, an RPG where your time of day combined with in game locations could change what enemies spawn, or characters that get sleepy and less capable after so long, but it should also be able to cause unique time events to happen, and not just spooky Halloween season or Xmas spectacular, either.
- ttymck 3y ago
  Indeed. Pokémon gold/silver is the first instance I can recall that did this. It was mind blowing at the time (I was maybe 10 years old).

EdwardDiego 3y ago

Hah, I remember that Day Z sheer darkness. Used it to my advantage once when stuck in an area bristling with well-armed people, navigating solely by structures and trees silhouetted against the stars, stopping in cover to listen, making sure I didn't silhouette _myself_ as I moved. It was fun, and exhausting. Moving on a night with a full moon was even more terrifying - trying to build up the courage to cross a moonlit field that someone might be watching.