Old Media Envy

Much of the writing in the ludologist tradition is unduly polemical: they are so busy trying to pull game designers out of their “cinema envy” or define a field where no hypertext theorist dare to venture that they are prematurely dismissing the use value of narrative for understanding their desired object of study.

– Henry Jenkins, “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.“

But if these designers have “cinema envy” (and trust me, there are so many who don’t), then I think the designers and academics who praise Emergence above all else actually have a severe case of Tabletop/LARP envy. Or maybe even envy of those kids who, free of the constraints of adult behaviour and sports with rules, construct and morph their own experience for a variety of purposes. And I just don’t understand why that’s any better or more legitimate than envying the other screen arts.

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Game, or Electronic Exhibit?

I don’t believe that highly-realistic, well researched/thought-out/fleshed out game worlds immediately lead to a more immersive, captivating, enjoyable experience for a gamer. To me, something like this isn’t a game, it’s an electronic exhibit. Why would I want to go to one? I walk around, I look, I get bored, I leave. Maybe, if I’m lucky, something about that world makes me feel safe. It becomes like listening to music. But again, this is not a game.

Irrespective of that, there exists some narrative, some plan, some fantastical argument which is made to communicate meaning. Some things are grouped together, others are not: this forms connections in my mind as I make the effort to read into and understand this constructed reality. And constructed it is. No one delusional or over the age of seven believes it to be a real place. At best, we imagine and hope it is real, and through this, we can convince ourselves of it. We will indulge in this fantasy. But it is not real, we know it isn’t, and we leave when our need for that experience is met.

There is nothing wrong with constructing that mood (in fact, I believe “mood” is paramount to the enjoyment of a game), and it can be addictive to those who enjoy it. But denying the game in favor of the spectacle becomes like a bad play with really good set, costumes and props. It might be interesting , but is it really engaging?

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My own Hamartia

I realise now one improvement or change I could have made to my thesis.

It isn’t actually important that the player character can’t speak, so much as it is important that the tragic hero doesn’t listen. That is hubris- pride that they know what is right, that they will ignore any warning that anyone will give them. They believe they are above fate (or karma, or whatever law of balance etc you want to think about).

Whoops, I could have ended up with a Creative Component I actually thought was any good, and recieved better marks overall 😉

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The player’s experience

I remember when I took a unit on writing for film, how we were told, “Don’t tell me, show me.”

Well, I think this needs to be expanded upon for the sake of differentiating between films (or tv shows) and games.

Books: Tell me.
Film: Show me.
Games: Let me find out for myself.

It may seem obvious, but when this is properly understood, will we really have any need for epic cut-scenes that do anything more than literally set the scene? I’m not talking about getting rid of all cut-scenes: for example, the intro for Left 4 Dead is highly effective at showing a variety of scenarios and special infected, while hinting at ways of dealing with them. In that sense, “show me” has superceded “tell me,” while remaining short and setting the scene. We do need some sort of introduction, some sort of illustration of how to play, but first and foremost, we should encourage players to feel more involved than watching a film.

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Item Collection and Achievement Hoarding

I don’t read Gamasutra much anymore, mostly because I find half-baked ideas that either frustrate me or make me feel insecure and insignificant. Recently, though, a friend of mine linked to a link to this. It narrows down the desire to collect items and achievements to one of two drives: either you’re OCD, or you really enjoy bragging.

But I believe there is a softer, deeper desire that was not explicitly touched on. The desire to be valued, and the desire to express out value to a society which we feel we deserve to be a part of. If I am on Steam, people can look at what games I’ve played, for how long, with what achievements, and what I am playing now… Or the last time I was even online. We want to appear appropriate to the Steam community, having played the “good” commercial games, the “best” retro games, and the “coolest” indie games. Even if we don’t explicitly try to wear our choices as a badge of honour, it’s still all there, comparing us with our fello Steam buddies.

On the other hand, sometimes we just get achievements because wee like a challenge 😉

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Replay Value?

I was thinking about the concept of “replay value” when it comes to games. I was thinking about how there’s an idea that a game only retains replay value if each playthrough is slightly different in some way.

Then I was thinking about how we buy books and dvds, and how the narrative of each of these never changes, and yet we still reexperience them, or at least often hold onto them for the potential to do so. And when we do reexperience them, it’s often with a sense of dramatic irony- and suddenly the writer/director’s skill at foreshadowing comes to light.

I don’t believe that a game has to offer a new version of itself in order to be replayable. I replay adventure games in the same way as I would reread  book. I may get a lot of booing and hissing from some people for this, but what’s the shame in aiming to make games that offer deeper meaning the second playthrough, instead of trying to recreate the initial play experience?

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Girls play games now, you know?

Yesterday I had a friend stay over my house, after attending a party. During the course of the night, she said that she’s going to get a PS3, because the guys at her work said she should, because it has Blu-ray. Now, I know only one person who gets truly excited about Blu-Ray. He’s a film writer. Films are his life. He wants to see them in their amazing, crisp, hi-def goodness. So I told my friend, “I don’t think it’s worth getting it for the BR. It depends what games you want. XBox are going to do some pretty cool things in the near future, I think you should get that unless you have a solid reason to get the PS3.”

She then came back at me with, “But I was talking to the guys at work…”

I said, “Yeah, and I work and research in games, and date a programmer. I know several people who own every console known to man. How about I ask them? But we’ll get a comparison chart when we get home?” (I think we fought a little more because we were both drunk… but that was the conclusion)

She ended up deciding on the PS3 because she wants SingStar (although she wanted a “white” one, and I said that’d be the 360, but there was pink released at some point… how gross), but she told me how when she talked to the guys at her work about it (I’ll generally describe their occupation as “earth scientists”), and they had expressed some serious confusion over why she wanted a console. “But you’re a girl… Girls don’t play games! Are you serious? Like… real games?”

Sigh. Welcome to 12 years of cultural gender retardation. At least I have the, “You like to go around shooting people? That always struck me as a little homoerotic, personally,” line to throw at them, should they bring up the “girl games vs real games” divide.

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Honours Thesis: Complete!

So I handed in my Honours Thesis yesterday: I am now totally the expert on how to make games that are tragedies… in the genre sense, not talking about its success/failure. And yes, I got that joke often. Thanks guys.

I’ll be trying to make a new website for myself soon, and will upload a pdf of the written component, as well as revised versions of whatever else I may have written that seem like they might be interesting or relevent.

Right now I’m finishing my PhD application, which I propose shall be entitiled, “Suitable for Mature Audiences, Too: Electronic Games as an Avenue for Adult Play.”

So don’t be surprised if this blog suddenly stops talking about tragedy and starts talking about education. Not that there was much talking happening in this blog anyway…

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Eleven years, no change

Well, not no change entirely.

But the sentiments reflected in the final chapter of From Barbie to Mortal Kombat are still pretty significant today.

I don’t agree with all of them, but it’s worth the read and it’s sad that this chapter could essentially be from a book released now, eleven years later. By far, my favourite quote (which I feel is still true today) is this:

Makes me wonder if the gaming industry is even catering to what guys want in the first place. Maybe it’s just what they think the guys want. (Michelle Goulet for Game Girlz)

Michelle argues that while the sexpot female is supposedly the male ideal, so are the male characters. If they’re not bulked up strong guys, they’re skinny outcasts who either have a science degree or access to a magical sword. While there have been some women who are “average,” there are still plenty of assumptions about what guys who play games would like. This is the default, and making assumptions about what girls would like ends up making it into “Girl Games.”

I’d really like to see a so-called “Girl Game” advertised at an expo with perfume-ad worthy male models. To quote Michelle Goulet again:

Fabio’s stereotype just doesn’t make it into a lot of games, and if this were the case, I don’t think I would have as big of a problem with the “big busted bimbo.”

Nor would I.

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