blog1 Christian Zannetti

By Christian Zannetti
Source: Most Ludicrously Impractical weapons

http://www.gamesradar.com/most-ludicrously-impractical-rpg-weapons/ By David Houghton 1/31/13

Quick you're under attack! You grab the closest object to you and begin fighting, what did you grab? Probably your game controller since that would be closest thing to you, or maybe a hot pocket... The weapons that games give to the players are becoming more and more absurd these days. It's almost as if they design the weapons by looking around the room and just grabbing random objects slapping them on a sword or a bow in some aesthetically pleasing way and calling it "THE REALLY POWERFUL DESTROYER WEAPON" and BAM! Ya got yourself a high level weapon. Next you'll probably get a brief backstory on the previous holder who happened to be a giant god that could crush cities in his hands, and now you a tiny wood elf get to wield it, YAY? Now I know it's all make believe and fairy tale and the weapons probably look cool, but do you think wielding a flaming sword could actually work to your advantage rather than harm you? What happens when you sheath it? Do your pants go up in a raging inferno of magic and shame?

Maybe you have mastered the powers of your fire augmented weapons and can extinguish the fire when your weapons are sheathed. I don't know but I do know that a small character walking around with a giant sword that is double his size isn't going to last long in the dangerous Mines of Moria. So are designers just not caring any more about the structure of weapon design? Absolutely not, the complete opposite in fact, I believe that they are spending too much time on designing cool and interesting weapons for the players rather than focusing on the actually physics of the weapon design. The design of weapons conflicts the physics of reality in almost every aspect in some instances, usually by conjoining two separate weapons into one, or just attaching a weapon to a humans limbs. The Gun Blade in final fantasy is a perfect example, these were an actually design in real life but the physics behind them could work. A gun hilt for a handle on a blade just wouldn't work, it's way too hard to grip and swing. The weapons that are being designed in games are becoming more and more intricate and stylish and they should be, no one wants a revolver in a space aged shooter. Weapons should be intricate and aesthetically pleasing to the gamer, we all love the over –sized- space-aged-probably-never-going-to-happen style of weapon, but where do we draw the line?