You might have heard about the “like” mechanic that will be featured in the incoming Death Stranding, as it was shown back in the Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show days. In particular, at the German event, Hideo Kojima revealed that it could lead to some sort of benefit for the players.
You might have heard about the “like” mechanic that will be featured in the incoming Death Stranding, as it was shown back in the Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show days. In particular, at the German event, Hideo Kojima revealed that it could lead to some benefit for the players.
Anyway, in a recent interview with Game Informer, the Japanese game designer and director revealed that leaving or getting likes won’t have provided the players with any bonus at all and that this was a correct design choice he made, even against the opinion of his staff.
“I had a big argument with the staff, actually,” Kojima said. “In a game, you get more money, or you get more fame, or you get more kudos, right? That’s what game systems now days are about – you want something in return if you do something.”
“At the beginning, the Asian staff said, ‘Hey, Hideo, no one will ever understand this. Maybe the Japanese might.’ I said, ‘That’s why I want people to do it in the game.’ So all these staff members said to me, “We have to give them kudos or points or whatever,” but that would be like a normal game – any other game. So I said, “Giving ‘likes’ is giving unconditional love.”
As you can see, the like system is the way it is because Kojima wanted to make something different in terms of design in comparison with what we’re used to see in games, and also because he wanted likes to be an act of love without any interest of sorts.
Of course, you’ll be able to see how many likes the items you leave on the field will receive, and also likes will determine if an item stays in the game or not; if the item you leave has too few likes it will disappear, and this will also help the locations not to be filled with useless items.
Death Stranding is releasing on November 8, 2019, for PS4.
