In terms of the traditional target age content metrics, Outside is
remarkably high in sex, violence and challenges to traditional values,
despite the strong child-focussed marketing it receives. Many would go
so far as to say that for a child to develop the ability to cope with
Outside is essential, as long as the harm incurred is not too
debilitating. Children injured playing Outside are usually comforted by
parents, and soon encouraged to go Outside again; this leads to the
conclusion that somehow Outside has escaped any and all of the usual
moralizing that surrounds the videogaming industry. One might say that
Outside gets a free pass from the Jack Thompsons of this world…
Other players choose to focus on accumulation of personal
abilities, the variety of which greatly exceeds the capacity of any
individual to accumulate; again, the game requires players to engage in
years of grinding to achieve any notable standard with a skill or
ability. Players are issued abilities and characteristics largely at
random, and it is entirely possible for a player to be nerfed beyond
any reasonable expectation of being able to play the game, or to be
buffed to the point where anything he or she does is markedly easier.
Unfortunately over time, player abilities tend to degrade, unless
significant effort is made to keep skills up. This reviewer cannot
emphasise this enough: Outside requires a huge time investment to build
up player abilities, exceeding any other massively multiplayer game on
the market by some three orders of magnitude.
Players are encouraged to focus on social interaction, which
can be engaged in in a variety of ways. In fact it’s extraordinarily
difficult to solo anything whatsoever in Outside, apart from basic
skill and knowledge accumulation quests. One of the major forms of
social interaction in the game is based largely around the addition of
new players to Outside, and is both complex and, in comparison to the
storyline-driven romance quests of, say, Baldur’s Gate or Mass Effect,
they are immensely difficult. Dedicated players of Outside, however,
report that the romance quests are among the most rewarding the game
has to offer.
Link to original article – http://www.metafilter.com/70365/The-Myth-of-the-Media-Myth-Games-and-NonGamers#2063862
