Shell Beach Turf should be given examination lines.

[BoysenSyrup]

Boy y. Syrup

Klei Ent.

Forums - Don't Starve Together - [Don't Starve Together] Suggestions and Feedback

4/27/2021

On the Subject of Shell Beach Turf

      Don't Starve Together is a great game with many problems to encounter and overcome. However, some of these problems present themselves outside of the normal gameplay. One of these problems is the inconsistencies with examination lines, and a smaller version of that problem is the apparent lack of examination lines for Shell Beach Turf1. Shell Beach Turf has no examination lines2, which makes it inconsistent with every other turf, item, structure, or mob in the game3. I am of the belief that Shell Beach Turf should be given examination lines, and the purpose behind writing this paragraph is to demonstrate the reasons and thoughts behind why this issue should be fixed.

      The first reason why Shell Beach Turf not having examination lines is a problem for the game is because of Consistency. Don't Starve as a whole is good at keeping the gameplay consistent, you stave off starving and try to survive hungrier mobs. There are no major art style shifts, no drastic music changes, and the tone of the game has kept consistent for awhile now. But there is one area in the game where the consistency is broken, examination lines. Overall, the characters thoughts expressed through examinations are consistent, but this is utterly shattered by Shell Beach Turf's lack of examination lines, as the sole non-beta item, structure, or even mob in the game to lack an examination line. This breaks the consistency of all other examination lines in the game, making the lack of lines extremely jarring to most who examines and notices the placeholder line, "It's... a thing.". The inconsistent nature of Shell Beach Turf's examination lines compared to everything else is noticeable to players, and may break immersion or even lower enjoyment. Slightly

     Jumping off the ending point of last paragraph, the second reason why the lack of lines for Shell Beach Turf may hurt the game is loss of immersion or enjoyment of the player. Generally, when people notice something "off" in a game, like a placeholder asset or something missing from where it should, it lowers their immersion and may make enjoying the game slightly harder for them. Of course, this apples to the lack of an examination line for Shell Beach Turf, while the placeholder line "It's... a thing." may seem inconsequential to players who haven't seen it used as placeholder text yet, but most will quickly realize the difference between this and the characters personalized quotes for other items. The intended "blandness" of this line also dampers the discovery of a new item. Shell Beach Turf is fairly exotic, and most who first encounter it will want to see what their character thinks about it, even if they just spout out their normal response for turf. But instead, these curious players are greeted with a blank slate, an empty shell of an examination line. This brings us back to the start of this paragraph, in which this feeling of curiosity is immediately kicked in the Pearl's Pearls by loss of immersion and enjoyment.

     These are the reasons I and one other feel as though Shell Beach Turf should be given examination lines. Even if it's just the normal turf lines, it will still keep the consistencies of the other turf, items, structures, and mobs in the game with their examination lines, while rewarding the player, if a bit boringly, for being curious enough to examine the new item they discovered. Thank you for reading, and have a great day.

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Cited Sources:

1 https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Shell_Beach_Turf

2 https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Turfs

3 https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Character_quotes

 

[l0rdgumby]

I find this to be an engaging read and a persuasive essay that utilizes multiple points to reinforce your ideas. The first point dives into how these lack of lines break Klei's consistency streak for many of their beloved mobs, items, and structures in their game. The second point takes from the first idea presented and runs into the problem how this inconsistency breaks the immersion of the player. The charm of the game and the hard work into the rest of the lines are stopped to a halt with the Shell Beach Turf and that shouldn't be the case. Overall, due to the excellent reasoning and usage of persuasion I deeply resonate with your points of concern and hopefully Klei will add these lines.

[Spep]

I have to agree. The lack of examination lines for shell beach turf, while small compared to the rest of the game as a whole, absolutely cripples it and by extension Pearl's island and quest, by subconsciously telling the player that the turf, and the content said turf is closely related to, is incomplete and thus was not worked on much by the developers, meaning the player is more likely to consider it and the area it is found in lower quality and thus worse content.

This, alongside the points you brought up, makes it more likely for the player to brush off further updates as low quality, as in the mind of the player they may think that said updates are declining, and thus decreasing the overall lifetime of the game, i implore the developers to add examination lines to shell beach turf in order to fix this slight, but still very present, decline in overall customer reception to the game.

[HowlVoid]

Ye