Good Samaritan Test
The game acknowledges that you helped a character without being explicitly prompted to do so, and it rewards or reacts to your action in a meaningful way. However, the initial action must not be presented as a clear option by the game.This often appears in highly reactive games, where player actions outside the main story path still have meaningful outcomes. The idea is that the game expects you to engage with the world proactively. If the game explicitly tells you to do it, it doesn't count. This can take shape in many forms e.g., deciding to intervene to save someone who would have died without your help is equally valid, as long as you aren't told or prompted to do so and it's not required to progress the game.rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ August 14th, 2023, 00:39"Rusty's Good Samaritan Test" = The game acknowledges that you helped a character without any prior request to do so, and it must not be in the form of a dialogue option. I first came up with it during Shadows of Undrentide for NWN, there's some NPCs I saw that were injured and I healed them, and the game acknowledged it, and rewarded me for it. There was nothing that prompted me to do so, or anything to suggest you'd get something in return for it. The game just expected you to pay attention to what's happening, and involve yourself in the game world.
Spoiler gameplay examples!
- Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of the Undrentide
- ATOM RPG
- Wasteland 3
- Divinity: Original Sin 2
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Seven: Days Long Gone
Functional Pockets Test
This test ensures that items in the gameworld are persistent, meaning if you give an item to an NPC, it is tracked in their inventory. Conversely, if an NPC has an item, you should be able to steal or obtain it by other means.To pass this test, the game must attempt to simulate items actually existing in the gameworld. This means that if you give an item to an NPC, it goes into their inventory in some form(e.g., a shopkeeper may place it into a storage chest.) If an NPC gives you an item, you could have instead stolen or obtained it from their person in another form, and the item must have existed prior to the NPC giving it to you, and must be removed from where it was taken from.
Simulating items only for NPC companions is not enough to pass this test.
► Example of Failure
- Most Bethesda games.
- Most Larian games.
- Seven: Days Long Gone
