#if you want to make conserving the biosphere your life's work you'd better be ready to FIGHT for the privilege of working in the field!

[finrays]

Like, this is, and I know I’ve talked about it a LOT before, but this is something that has veered from Joke Salt into Actual Salt when it comes to the Horizon series; they claim to put this focus on life on Earth and the environment and the biosphere...

...and they fuck the ecology of these games up so badly.

I’ve salted about this before. There’s nonnative species EVERYWHERE. The food webs aren’t built in sustainable ways. “No animals larger than a boar” would just... NOT work out, and don’t get me started on the boars themselves... without any kind of biological predatory control to keep their populations in check??? UGH.

I hear all kinds of stories about how Guerrilla consulted with professionals while designing their machines and tribal cultures. And I hear their “Four Pillars of the Horizon Setting” approach, being Machines, Tribes, Ancient Past Tech, and Nature.

What’s the ONE PILLAR they didn’t consult experts on???

You want to put an emphasis on conserving life on Earth? 

SHOW US THE STUFF THAT NEEDS CONSERVING IN-GAME.

IMAGINE if the environment team actually talked with ecologists studying the area. With conservationists working in the field, who know what’s actually out there, in the areas that Aloy is traversing. Maybe even the species that need special attention as far as conservation goes.

AND IMAGINE BUILDING A RAPPORT WITH GAMERS BY INCLUDING THESE SPECIAL SPECIES AND HABITATS IN-GAME.

You could have tied it in so BEAUTIFULLY, guys; look at the things that GAIA reconstituted! It’s stuff that had been in trouble in our time, but now it’s healthy again! We should get involved and do the same thing, and make the conservation efforts now!

The spotted owl is a good example! There’s a species that you could highlight, having had conservation struggles and ups and downs on the west coast of the United States! And the kelp forests, as I mentioned before, are a very cool, California-based environment that we’re fighting to save!

Basically, nature in these games is highlighted in a plastic, fake-backdrop sense, and it just... drives me up the wall, because it’s ALMOST THERE, but it’s NOT. And that’s almost worse than not being a focus at all.