When I was at the university I use to create artificial life things. I wrote many programs that simulated life, with the entities simulated having some sort of DNA, and sexual reproduction, predators. In some experiments there where clearly defined roles, like predators or plants.
With the help of friens I upgraded my programs to simulate more than 5000 different enties, rendering then to the screen as dots.
Of course, when I played Ultima 7, I loved it. One of the quest at the begining is a vendor you need something. A way to complete this quest is to put a chair in the front door of the shop, they wait for him to go home. Since the NPC will be unable to close the door, you would be able to enter and loot this shop. Because the NPC daily routines are simulated, and the physics of a door closing.
Since the first time I saw Minecraft I loved it. I really loved all the part about water simulation and fire simulation, because was very similar to what I did on the university. On Minecraft fire is a lifeform that grown, reproduce, and ultimatelly die. Water really works very similar, but have a infinite lifespan, so don’t die.
I remember videos of Minecraft alpha, where a single tile of water would fill the entire server instance like a tsunami or more preciselly, like a plague.
My problem with Ubisoft, or all the recent Open World Ubisoft games is that don’t have anything like this, or even less than Minecraft or Ultima 7. There are not system below to make the world follow some self-imposed rules. Are worlds of bullshit with bullshit rules.
Ubisoft probably thinks making games with simulation subsystems is too expensive, or hard to turn into a game. Maybe they are correct. But I think it steals all the fun from a open world experience.
Theres just a minimal of subsystems below to make the world make sense. Too light. The graphics are cool, but the world is bullshit.
Withouth these subsystems, I think using a open world is kind of a waste, or a “scam”. Or that seems to me. But I imagine other people have less interest in games “making sense”.