Same world, different view

This is something I wanted to talk about a for few weeks now and I'll explain what I mean by the title.

When I started learning how to program (and more specifically, a bit about game-making) I started looking at games in a completely different way, because I started looking at what actually happens, not what it feels like.

And that is what I'm going to talk about as well as give some examples,even if the experience some times might be a little different it doesn't necessarily make it worse, specially if you're not thinking about HOW the game was created :P

So let's get started

I think the first time I really felt this was back when I was playing The Elders Scrolls 3: Morrowind and decided to create a house for me with the editor.

When playing games like that one, there are lots of houses and whatnot that you can enter... and this is where it begins.

At first look, or when you aren't thinking about how games work, you go to a door, press "enter" and then you appear inside the house, so you start thinking that the city is just on the other side of the door and all around you... but that isn't what happens.

When you enter a door, you get "teleported" to another area which is the supposed house interior.

You're not 1 meter away from where you were, you're not just "on the other side of the door", you are actually on a completely different and remote space!

Like the house I made for example, I created an entrance on the city I was on (which was a hatchet that went down below... ya know, to save space and don't mess up the city's appearance :P), and then I did the rest of the house... but I didn't make it "below" the city, no, it was a completely different and empty new "scene" or area or whatever you want to call it in which I made the house.

And what makes it feel even more "remote" is the fact that you can change where you will appear, you don't really need to make the entrance a ladder coming from above or a door.

Heck, if you script it, you can even make the entrance in a cup, and then you appear on the sky or something on another area.

Basically, most doors in games can be seen as "teleports" which take you to another dimension, not really as a physical object that lets just pass through it when opened (uhm.... I didn't really make much sense but you get the idea).

Another thing that changes is that you realize that almost everything is a "number" of sorts. Like HP, Stamina, etc.

Even if you don't have an HP meter, for example, there is still a hidden number that says how much you got and how tired you are.

Guards don't see you, for example, the have conditions that if you are within a certain range to them and are facing your direction they will trigger a function to act a certain way.

Now, this doesn't really break immersion so don't worry! If you are into the game you won't even think about those things, but if you are playing casually and start wondering how the game was made (I actually do that a lot) it's fun to figure out how they might have done it and whatnot.

That's more or less what I had to say, of course I only game some examples but you should get the idea :)

Any questions or comments feel free to comment them :P

Cheers!