That was a real concern
When Hello Games’ Sean Murray stepped on the stage at PlayStation’s E3 press conference, he had one fear, and he never bothered to voice it to Sony; he just hoped like hell that he wouldn’t get bitten by all the randomness in No Man’s Sky. It wouldn’t go over great if he jettisoned to another planet that just happened to be named “Fuktown” or “Dik-Hd” or any other combination of letters that formed a vulgar phrase.
The reason for the concern is because Murray was playing a live demo, and, in No Man’s Sky‘s near-infinite world, there are a near-infinite number of possibilities for things to go wrong. Every time a new planet is discovered (which is very often), the game randomly generates a name for it. Most of the time it’s just nonsensical sounding, but on occasion it can be downright inappropriate.
To be fair, there are systems in place to safeguard against it. Hello Games has implemented a filter to prevent those types of names from popping up. But, it’s not perfect, and there’s always the chance that something will be spelled in such a way to circumvent the filters. Murray anticipates it’ll probably happen when No Man’s Sky eventually releases on PS4 and PC. They’ll just have to deal with it as it happens.
That was the light-hearted side to our time with Hello Games; the rest was about the serious scope of No Man’s Sky. In a way, it might be positioned to be an accessible EVE Online for the PS4 crowd. Murray said that three distinct styles of play pervade the game: exploration, trading, and fighting. He remarked that while most players they’ve seen blend the three activities, almost everyone leans more toward one than the others.
Those who just want to find new planets and species can earn currency by uploading their finds to Atlas, the corporation that pays for this sort of thing. Others can invest their time in economy — buying, selling, and trading to turn a profit. If anyone doesn’t have the patience for those first two methods, they can make their living by attacking or protecting others.
Murray was hesitant to talk about it, but there is an overarching objective to No Man’s Sky. We hadn’t heard much about that before, and after this interview, we still haven’t heard much about it. The ultimate goal is to reach the center of the galaxy by expanding the breadth of your hyperdrive.
However, we don’t have any idea what we’ll find there. When asked about it, Murray’s colleague chuckled and said “Now he’s going to start talking about metaphysics.” And, he sort of did. Murray tangented to classic game design in titles such as Super Mario Bros. and how we’ve been trained to know what to expect from most games. He wants to move away from that, even if it means shrouding his game in mystery. Actually, maybe especially if it means that; he seems to revel in people not knowing what to expect from No Man’s Sky.
Murray’s done a good job keeping everything under wraps. The truth is, we aren’t all that much closer to understanding No Man’s Sky than when it was announced a year and a half ago. Its universe holds untold secrets and discoveries, the likes of which no one’s willing to divulge ahead of time. It’s now apparent that it’s by design. After all, no explorer ever knows the end-game; they just want to unravel the universe’s mysteries.
