For a game like Don't Starve, there are many things that attract players, but at the end of the day, its main motivation is' survival '.
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, needs are split into five main categories: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, respect, and self-actualization.
These five types of needs form a pyramid structure, with physiological needs at the bottom, and self-actualization needs at the top.
The more basic a need is, the easier it is to fulfill, but it's also the most pressing.
This means that if a person lacks food, safety, and respect at the same time, their need for food should be the strongest. In comparison, safety and respect aren't as important.
That's why people will take risks when they're starving, fight with large beasts (giving up safety), or bow down to power (giving up dignity).
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is widely used in many fields, and gaming is no exception.
Many video game designers have used this theory to create a complete hierarchy of needs in games, driving players to chase after imaginary numbers in the game, and get addicted to it.
For example, some games that focus on 'fighting power' highlights the need for safety and respect.
For a weaker player, there was always the risk of being killed by a stronger player in a game like this, so he would feel a strong sense of insecurity. This feeling would drive him to spend more money or time in the game to become stronger in order to protect his own safety.
As for the more powerful players who had gained the attribute of safety, they would turn to the pursuit of respect and self-actualization. For example, they would fight for the throne, establish a large guild, and lead their subordinates to participate in the Nation War. For these virtual feelings of honor, they would throw away a lot of gold.
Usually, there aren't many games that use physiological needs, as it's relatively troublesome to do, especially since many games don't support it.
Human needs are actually very simple, food, water, health, reproduction, etc. But in normal games, characters wouldn't run around for food and water, and there's no concept of hunger. This is because there's a limit to game content, and there are many more things for the players to experience.
Don't Starve grasped this blind spot well, showing the theme of 'survival'.
Moreover, Don't Starve isn't just a simple game. If you dig deeper into its spirit, you'll find that it has a depth that even other great games don't have.
Unlike many protagonists with great missions, Wilson's purpose of existence was to exist. He didn't need to save the world, nor did he need to save others. His only goal was to live well. Everything he did in Don't Starve was for the most basic goal: to live well.
Don't Starve is a highly stylized game with a very mature core.
The world of Don't Starve didn't have any known historical background, and it was even filled with settings that were completely out of touch with reality. Its style and music were full of dark humor, but in the face of death, it was extremely realistic.
This feeling of absurdity and reality was present throughout Don't Starve, including the fact that technology and magic existed side by side in the game. This feeling was amplified by the game's setting.
Moving machines, living pigmen, tombstones in the forest, skeletons of seniors, terrifying monsters … All sorts of terrifying settings seemed to not affect each other at first glance, but there were countless connections between them.
The entire world was highly unified, forming a unique world of magical realism.
Don't Starve's playability came from its rich settings. It looked like a simple 2D game, but it was much more playable than some of the great games.
There were many types of monsters, and each type could provide unique food and resources. The main character could use the rich construction system to create fires, grills, pots, traps, etc.
Moreover, the main character had a variety of interactive actions, such as gathering, chopping, digging, lighting, planting, etc. All items, including the ground itself, could be interacted with. Those precious items could also be used as fuel in critical moments.
There were also different ways to obtain resources. If players wanted Pigskin, they could fight the Orcs head-on. They could also search for abandoned Orc houses and altars for materials. They could also plant spider eggs next to the Orc villages and wait for the spiders and Orc people to kill each other and reap the benefits.
When players had some success and lost interest in survival mode, when the need to survive wasn't enough to motivate them to continue playing, they would discover adventure mode, which would open up new challenges.
Moreover, this was an extremely cold and merciless game. In the face of survival, any carelessness could lead to irreversible consequences.
But because of this, the meaning of survival itself was even more precious. Finding a Pigman village full of carrots and berries when one's stomach was rumbling with hunger would be a wonderful feeling.
After playing Don't Starve, many players would understand how happy it was to have a full stomach.
It was because of these reasons that Don't Starve was able to attract new players who were interested in survival games, as well as retain hardcore players. There were even people who played the game for years without getting bored.
Because every journey in Don't Starve would be different.
Moreover, like many sandbox games, mods were the main attraction of Don't Starve.
Apart from the official DLCs, the players' own creation of mods also brought a lot of fun to the game.
In terms of character mods, there were Sauron (Comes with a knife, can chop trees, has no sense of direction, all maps are always black), Ace (Comes with a fireball, recovers spirit by a bonfire), support mods such as display numbers, building geometry, functional mods such as permanent tents, backpacks …
There were also large scale mods, such as Hero of Darkness. Just one mod alone would take players at least half a year to play. These large scale mods were almost equivalent to a new game.
Of course, Chen Mo only picked a few of the more common mods that didn't affect the game's balance, leaving the rest to the players to develop.
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