Currently Playing: Brain Age (Sudoku)
For a first real post, that's a real sparse "list" there, I realize. Know, however, that added to that would be the grand titles of Prey, Oblivion and the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2, all for the 360, were I in possession of a working system. For the second time in the past month, I have had to send my glorious piece of next-gen gold back to people who can cure it of its evils.
I am bitter merely because I would like to be able to play on my 360, that is all. I feel no anger at microsoft or at the quality of the system itself. Perhaps I should, but I do not. So it goes.
Something I've been thinking of for a while is the idea of the evolution of Videogames. More specifically, storytelling in Videogames. Recently, good ol' David Jaffe unleashed his opinions to the world with regards to stories in games and his ... decision to move away from them. Which is well and good. As he is armed with the clout that someone of his immense skill possesses, he is well within reason to present his case logically and clearly in a way that will clearly persuade a less rigid mind. It is certainly a questioon worth considering: Stories in Games - Do we need them?
To save you the trouble of scrolling down to see what I am eventually going to say, Yes, we do. Or at least, I think they are necessary. Perhaps not in Marble Blast Ultra, where understanding the motivations of the central character aren't entirely crucial to enriching the player's experience. It's certainly not going to matter much when navigating that vile and infuriating half-pipe section in the Advanced section of the game that the Marble actually has an evil twin that's a Cube!
But returning to games that do, the best example, not restricted by my mental blinders, is that of Half Life 2. Now, I realize that it may not be flawless in its execution and delivery, for the critics massed upon this blog's virtual doorstep, but what it does, in the simplest of ways, is it provides context for your actions. You're never just out in the world to simply kill everything that moves (though that is generally the case) - similar to, though less intrusive than, a Japanese RPG, you move from point A to B to C to D and on, at each marker receiving that little bit of story information told direclty to You or that You overhear.
And that's what makes HL2 so perfect - it is that, no matter what, you are at the center of the story. That is one thing that a Videogame can do that no other medium can - put the "user" (I guess that word could be loosely applied to one reading a book or watching a film) at the core of the storytelling. Either along subtle (or not so subtle) story-rails or in a multiple-choice world (as in Deus Ex). Until the player is granted his/her gaming rights to be the core factor in the world, the story being told will lose a share of the potential audience that would be involved otherwise. I'd like to say that with some simple rewording, that this idea could even be applied to the Simplicity of Warioware, but that is to be a task for another day.
It is clear that Videogames do need a shining star to hang above all else, without question. True, Videogames need their "Citizen Kane," but first they need their "Birth of a Nation." Minus the potentially explosive racist connotations.
For a first real post, that's a real sparse "list" there, I realize. Know, however, that added to that would be the grand titles of Prey, Oblivion and the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2, all for the 360, were I in possession of a working system. For the second time in the past month, I have had to send my glorious piece of next-gen gold back to people who can cure it of its evils.
I am bitter merely because I would like to be able to play on my 360, that is all. I feel no anger at microsoft or at the quality of the system itself. Perhaps I should, but I do not. So it goes.
Something I've been thinking of for a while is the idea of the evolution of Videogames. More specifically, storytelling in Videogames. Recently, good ol' David Jaffe unleashed his opinions to the world with regards to stories in games and his ... decision to move away from them. Which is well and good. As he is armed with the clout that someone of his immense skill possesses, he is well within reason to present his case logically and clearly in a way that will clearly persuade a less rigid mind. It is certainly a questioon worth considering: Stories in Games - Do we need them?
To save you the trouble of scrolling down to see what I am eventually going to say, Yes, we do. Or at least, I think they are necessary. Perhaps not in Marble Blast Ultra, where understanding the motivations of the central character aren't entirely crucial to enriching the player's experience. It's certainly not going to matter much when navigating that vile and infuriating half-pipe section in the Advanced section of the game that the Marble actually has an evil twin that's a Cube!
But returning to games that do, the best example, not restricted by my mental blinders, is that of Half Life 2. Now, I realize that it may not be flawless in its execution and delivery, for the critics massed upon this blog's virtual doorstep, but what it does, in the simplest of ways, is it provides context for your actions. You're never just out in the world to simply kill everything that moves (though that is generally the case) - similar to, though less intrusive than, a Japanese RPG, you move from point A to B to C to D and on, at each marker receiving that little bit of story information told direclty to You or that You overhear.
And that's what makes HL2 so perfect - it is that, no matter what, you are at the center of the story. That is one thing that a Videogame can do that no other medium can - put the "user" (I guess that word could be loosely applied to one reading a book or watching a film) at the core of the storytelling. Either along subtle (or not so subtle) story-rails or in a multiple-choice world (as in Deus Ex). Until the player is granted his/her gaming rights to be the core factor in the world, the story being told will lose a share of the potential audience that would be involved otherwise. I'd like to say that with some simple rewording, that this idea could even be applied to the Simplicity of Warioware, but that is to be a task for another day.
It is clear that Videogames do need a shining star to hang above all else, without question. True, Videogames need their "Citizen Kane," but first they need their "Birth of a Nation." Minus the potentially explosive racist connotations.
posted by Evolver | 3:40 AM
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