Thread 712886482

Has any game portrayed ADDICTION through mechanics well? Where the player can choose between using or abstaining. Games where the main character is a druggie and in cutscenes he shoots up do not count.

Imagine the real life dilemma of being self-compelled into lapsing but translated to a video game. That sort of "fuck it...it's not like i can ever quit" angst that addicts feel, can it be achieved? I feel like gamers are prone to metagaming and will prioritize long term stats over short term buffs.

Thing is, it's not very hard to abstain from a game mechanic. Especially when they always softball it and it winds up easier or more rewarding to not take the easy way out anyway.

>>712886482 (OP)
Katana Zero maybe?

lol funny monkey

>>712886613
The only way I can think of would be if the regular 'sober' gameplay was boring and the 'high' gameplay was way more fun, but then sobering up would seem like a waste of time. Even if the sober route ended up saving the life the waifu NPC or something to that effect, it would feel a bit tedious. Maybe you start out heavily addicted and the longer you stay sober the more fun the 'sober' gameplay is as the character's brain corrects itself and regains its long lost baseline, but idk.

>>712886679
So true bestie

>>712886613
my concept was to use magic the player would have to smoke to manage it not unlike dune spice. Magic would cost more resources on its own, but you could lessen it by getting high enough. doing it too often lessens the benefit while also increasing how much the spells cost without it

LISA

Mask of the Betrayer.

>>712886482 (OP)
If you suffer addiction in Fallout New Vegas, your character will automatically use drugs you have in your inventory without you controlling them to do so. (This might be from a mod, not sure.)

>>712886482 (OP)
Postal 2 has a mechanic where smoking crack gives you a health boost but if you run out you get into withdrawals and lose health.

Anyway I always thought SH4 the room has huge potential for a psychological horror game and addiction could fit into that. The gloryhole worlds could represent getting drunk with proper gameplay segments and the apartment is sobriety, the core mechanic would be managing booze supplies and withdrawals, trying to do in game chores with the ultimate goal to quit. The gloryhole worlds would have combat but your performance would depend of how drunk you are, the game's difficulty would be high and punishing with limited ability to save. The character would also physically decay, whit how fast depending how you play. It could probably win some awards because "muh mentals".

>>712886482 (OP)
>>712886613
David Cage unironically did this pretty well in Heavy Rain with the druggie glowie. In order to NOT take drugs you have to succeed in QTEs that get progressively harder and harder until they're near impossible (also they're not really quick time events, they're slow but force you to tie your hands into a knot with the weird inputs it demands from you).

>>712886482 (OP)
Rimworld

>>712886667
>>712887203
>>712887283
>>712887575
Could you elaborate?

Postal 2 had an interesting addiction mechanic that was done through gameplay.

>>712886871
That risk reward sounds lame for a videogame though. Maybe also have levels of magic gatekept by spice tolerance. You can only get to a certain level naturally. A few levels higher if you're a regular addict and taking a mega dose temporarily lets you do crazy powerful magic, but then the hangover and withdrawls or whatever would be much worse

>>712886482 (OP)
Fallout2 (the classic one) had good drug mechanic with potent temporal buffs and painful withdrawal and addiction needing you to take another dose just to restrore your stats.
>could make yourself temporally retarded opening unique quest paths
>could drug/alcohol npcs to lower their perception and speed to steal from them or defeat them in combat

>>712886482 (OP)
Obenseuer. Hope you like the slow slow process of losing you addiction by consuming less and less of the substance you're addicted to

>>712886482 (OP)
Disco Elysium, where the biggest consequence is the shame you feel

>5 years clean from herion/fent
no.

>>712887575
>drug policy: no drugs
It's that simple really. Unless you're talking about the fact that it's better to kill or remove druggies rather than actually try and deal with their needs?

We Happy Few

>>712886482 (OP)
This War of Mine?

Your characters have addictions to cigarettes and coffee.

>>712891776
>drug policy: no drugs
>still grow and produce them because they're so damn profitable
Important life lesson right there.

>>712886482 (OP)
Yeah a lot of games have this unique mechanic where if you go underwater for too long you die from oxygen withdrawls

>>712889084
not OP, but when the fuck is the bazaar out, i've already done everything there is to do and maxxed out my basement into a workshop and brewery

Vampire playthrough in modded requiem Skyrim with survival mechanics
>damn vampirism makes me powerful as sheeit
>dont need to eat sleep or drink water, magicka regen is way up, boosts to spells
>seduced by power
>need to drink blood to survive though
>can only walk around freely at night when shops are closed so you feel like a dirty rat
>constantly paranoid about being outed as a vamp
very immersive

>>712888950
Fallout 2 really was ahead of its time with how flexible and brutal its systems could be. The game basically let you roleplay a chemically dependent wasteland maniac without pulling punches. I remember making a build where I was permanently on Buffout, Jet, and Psycho just to keep my stats from tanking into early grave territory. The consequences were ridiculous but manageable if you planned your supply chain like a true junkie warlord. And yeah, the whole thing with tanking your INT stat to lie your way into dumb-specific dialog options was hilarious. Legendary jank.

>>712886482 (OP)
The only game I can think of with addiction mechanics is Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead, where if you use nicotine/alcohol/hard drugs too much then you’ll develop a dependency and start to get withdrawal from going too long without the drug and suffer various stat debuffs.

>>712886482 (OP)
monke

>>712886482 (OP)
i look like this

>>712886482 (OP)
>Hobo: Tough Life
you can get addicted to alcohol, it brings buff and give easy warmth and other stats. Also can get addicted to drugs. To loose the addiction, you have to not use for two days while your life drains down continually, without healing you will die.

>>712889084
I accidentally got clean in like two weeks without really understanding why. I fed my addictions when it got really bad. But you're also so fucking poor. That actually playing as an addict was hard to pull off.
Actually wanted it to last longer.

Now with my fancy new bed I'm not even depressed anymore. That lasted way longer than smoking and alcohol did.

>>712886482 (OP)
He'd rip your scalp off over nothing
Around chimps never go limp

>>712888017
In LISA addicted characters have huge debuffs while in withdraw, the main character gets this debuff from the start.

>>712900715
I think homeboy there may be a bonobo

>>712886482 (OP)
V.a.t.s.
A mechanic that overtook the design philosophy of fallout 4 and ruined it.

>>712886482 (OP)
Bioshock