Commentary: ‘No Man’s Sky’ Reveals The Longevity Of Space Franchises
by Frank Martin
Space is a fertile realm for storytelling opportunities. There’s just so much that humans don’t know about what’s out there; the possibilities are infinite. This is one of the core foundations behind Star Trek as exploration is a key theme to its stories. Members of Starfleet are constantly encountering new life forms and planets. On the other hand, Star Wars also takes place in space, but it’s far less interested in the scientific possibilities of life and planets as its counterpart. For the most part, the Star Wars galaxy is charted and doesn’t venture too far its self-proclaimed Unknown Regions. For this reason, each space franchise has different levels of longevity, and the video game No Man’s Sky displays this well.
The title is a space exploration video game about a lost astronaut who needs to survive an array of wild and dangerous worlds while on a journey to the center of the galaxy. What makes No Man’s Sky interesting is that the adventure the player goes on is randomly generated for every playthrough. This means that everything about the planets the player visits — from their names, to their environment, to their flora and fauna — is random and can be completely different every time.
From a gameplay perspective, the random generation aspect of No Man’s Sky keeps things fun and fresh. But it’s also interesting from a story perspective. Space is effectively infinite. There are so many worlds throughout the universe and different forms of life to encounter that even a random generator may not depict them all. This is the mindset behind so many Star Trek stories. Exploring new life and planetary systems, for which there may be too many to even fathom, lies at the core of that franchise. Star Wars is primarily about the political conflict within its universe. It’s less concerned with the scientific evolution of species and planets. For this reason, Star Trek will likely outlive Star Wars because the possibilities for its premises are infinite.
No Man’s Sky is now available on Xbox Game Pass.
