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[droqen]

No, I'm not talking about realistically simulated weather.
Yes, I uh, mentioned this before in another thread I made but now it's the focus instead of a side mention :D

The game starts and prompts you with a dialog: "Where do you live?"
It wants a country, a city, and other such information. Using that information, and THE INTERNET, it churns out for you a weather. The moment you start the game, every time, it picks up the current weather for wherever you live.
You look out your window, and it's sunny -- in the game, it's sunny, too.
You're coming coming and it's pouring hard -- in the game, it's pouring just as hard.

Thunderstorm on its way? Big blizzard? Harsh winds? Thick fog?

In the game.

That's the theory, anyway. Of course... I came here, to the Design thread, because this is not at all a complete idea for a game.

What kind of game would best complement this, and how could this idea function?

1. Some people live in very mild conditions.
2. Some people live in a place where disaster-type things happen, or the temperature varies wildly.

Things must be interesting for players who fall under either group 1 or 2, and hopefully weather patterns should have some kind of interesting, serious effect.

Part of the point of this is
"Oh! It's raining, and even though I haven't played this game in a while, maybe this will make something interesting happen!"
"Holy shit a thunderstorm! Maybe I can _____!"

Most thoughts in regard to this were in terms of either a platformer sort of game or a top-down, Zelda-ish kind of game, both with a relatively free and open world.

But that doesn't mean you should feel limited in terms of thinking about this mechanic.

Anyway, I've sort of failed to keep thinking about this concept, but I'd love to get to thinking about it again (and obviously that's why I created this thread).

[Shade Jackrabbit]

I think that could be a kind of neat immersion technique if a game takes place in a specific real-world place, in modern day. Say it's a crime drama in new york, so it reflects real-life new york's weather pattern.

[Ben Kuhn]

What if you turned that around and used the opposite weather from what was currently going on? If it were 120 degrees out I'd much rather enjoy a chilly winter day with my escapism.

You could also steal this idea for a world with a bunch of different cities, mapping each one to a similar real-world city. That would kind of kill the element of "oh it's raining now, something interesting will happen in the game", since your current location might not map onto anything... I guess you could make sure the player's real-life hometown always maps onto their in-game home base, but still.

[droqen]

Ben Kuhn, what you said reminded me of that which had been forgotten. There would come an issue with "what is the opposite of not-windy-at-all when there's really no limit to windiness?", though.

BK+SJ, regarding weather from a certain place that is not where you live: Though it definitely does stray from the linking to a player, personally -- it could still be interesting (tying it to a real modern-day city could be cool too). Though at that point it does sort of start losing the concept to the point where "random" weather might work better (... well, unless you're living in New York).

[Shade Jackrabbit]

If it's reasonably close to where you live, but outside of your immediate access, it could help it feel a little bit realer. Say if I played a game that took place in Toronto, and matched it's weather perfectly. Now, I live in the GTA, so I'm only about an hour away from the city, but it's still close enough that it feels close to home. That little thing about the weather could very well make it seem all the closer.

But yeah, if it was in Victoria or Halifax I may not care. Still, I think it could at least be a neat touch.

Plus if you're going for escapism and want to play a game in Halifax or Victoria, it would be cool if you could know the weather ahead of time.

[SirNiko]

Back when the Wii was new, and had this big advertisement about a weather channel, I thought this was an obvious thing.

I'm not sure how much fun this would be in an actual game, though. You'd probably want to be able to turn it off, otherwise you might find yourself playing a lot of snow games during winter, or not getting any snow games if you live too close to the equator.

Ultimately, it seems easier to just give the player the option to pick whatever weather effects they want, and let the player decide whether to match what is outside or do what they want.

Not to mention the possibilities for it to be raining outside, but the game is following the report that says it needs to be sunny...

-SirNiko

[Seth]

Sounds like it would fit in Animal Crossing.

[moi]

I think I heard about a game that did that, but I can't remember which game.

[J. R. Hill]

I'm thinking you could do a RAMPAGE-like game where you're a giant monster walking around the globe, and all the terrain and weather is real-time.  Maybe even from Google Maps or something.

[TeeGee]

Microsoft Flight Simulators did that. It was fun to check the weather outside your window and see that in the game it's pretty much the same. Or just randomly go checking weather in different exotic places. It was really pretty accurate.
One time, I was flying around my city and a storm started in the game. I was like: "WTF, there's no storm here!". Five minutes later I've heard the first thunder. Scary.

[Renton]

Microsoft Flight Simulators did that. It was fun to check the weather outside your window and see that in the game it's pretty much the same. Or just randomly go checking weather in different exotic places. It was really pretty accurate.

This.

Also, don't try taking off with a Boeing if there's a downpour outside.

[shig]

Make it so that the best item in the game can only be found if you play it near a tornado.

More hardcore than La Mulana.

[Robotacon]

I think I heard about a game that did that, but I can't remember which game.

Shenmue supposedly had actual weather data from 1986. I remember SEGA making a big deal out of it.

[Chromanoid]

black and white has this feature... see wikipedia
a feature that immersed myself much more was the fact that the game whispered my real name found in the registry while playing...

[ITS_Mike]

I think that could be a kind of neat immersion technique if a game takes place in a specific real-world place, in modern day. Say it's a crime drama in new york, so it reflects real-life new york's weather pattern.

That would be very awesome for that kind of game.  However, if I was the one who purchased the game, I wouldn't want my entire gameplay experience based on the current weather, especially if I can only play at night or in the morning, etc.  Unless you get this game specifically for this feature, it would probably only work if you didn't have the weather affect the game much.

[droqen]

InvisibleMan: The point of such a game would be to ensure that, in any given condition, there would be something new to experience. Naturally, you should be able to access most aspects under any weather condition, but some things might be more difficult or impossible to experience without a certain weather condition. Weather should have a big effect on everything -- but not in a way that would feel like you're being limited, rather in a way that you feel like every new weather condition brings a whole new world of options and interactions.

shig:

The flight simulator having real weather data is pretty cool.

Google maps doesn't have weather data, does it?

Whispering your name from registry is awesome o_o I always wondered what that whispering was.


Finally!
Niko: As per the top bit of this post, my hopes would be for, if you have snow most of the time, sunny days to be a special event. Having grown accustomed to snowy levels, a sunny day brings bright new sunny levels. It's true though that weather reports aren't always accurate... but the "right now" weather does tend to be pretty close.

[Shade Jackrabbit]

So, let's say we're talking about Left 4 Dead 3. Snow makes zombies move slower/slip. Rain makes it harder for them to zone in on you - less zombies. Sun makes them have less HP as they rot faster. Something like that.

[falsion]

If it's only a cosmetic change, then it'd be alright. I could see it getting really annoying for those who live in places with constantly crappy weather though (places that are always hit hard by snow, making it hard to go anywhere).

It'd also be kinda monotonous for those who live in a place where the weather hardly changes at all.

[shig]

lets imagine this is a pokemon game, and you can only capture certai pokemons under certain specific weather conditions. That would mean some people would have HUGE advantages, depending on where they live.

But if it's something like an RPG game where each weather condition gives you different stats when you level up, then the place where the player lives affects the character's abilities but doesn't necessarily take anything from the gameplay.

[Tanner]

slipping zombies are the most dangerous zombies. i would be laughing too hard to pay attention and then they would get the best of me. especially since the l4d infected run so fast. i could definitely see some "charlie brown football" slips.