Game Design

TR-Matt

Sorry this post was supposed to be on the drugs and prostitution thread. Can a moderator move it there?

It doesn't matter if drug-dealing and prostitution are 'realistic' crimes, unless you have a very tenuous grasp on reality you should be able to tell APB isn't trying to be realistic. It is trying to be a fun competitively focused action game, which is where the shooting comes in. Conflict is a fundamental part of game design which is built into the rules of all sorts of games, from Chess, to Football, to videogames. Portraying violence is simple and effective way of adding dramatic context for conflict in a game. Prostitution and drug-dealing are much more difficult to implement in a way which is conductive to good competitive design. Partaking in clandestine activities is not something APB is being designed around. It would be like tacking on an unwanted stealth segment to a shooting game. Grand Theft Auto has been used as an example here but drug-dealing and prostitution were both very minor aspects of those games, either providing context for missions or being tertiary time sinks. The driving and shooting were the core aspects of the GTA games and APB looks to being taking the same route except as a persistent multiplayer experience.