You're In Control

[terra]

It's been a while since I've been really pretentious about videogames, so let's change that!!

I. I state the obviousSo, I really like videogames. I mean, really like them. I like them enough that I've actually written more than three paragraphs of analysis about Locke Cole's hair. I love reading people's crazy opinions about Harmonian politics

Comments

[terra]

Dammit, comment eaten :[

I think that breaking the fourth wall more explicitly might have something to do with how straightline narrative games succeed. It'd be interesting to explore at least.

I think there's a lot we can learn from film critique-- even though I'm only familiar with the most basic terminology-- because yeah games have camera angles and moving pictures and all of that. But I think it's also important to remember what makes games games and not films, if that makes sense.

I want to go to grad school to study videogames.

You should play Bioshock! I think it's coming out for PS3 soon.

[terra]

Square-Enix is not always the way, Stacey Anne! (She says after buying Final Fantasy IV a fourth time.)

Thanks for the link, I haven't read it before, and will do so :)

Ohh no, not at all. There's definitely a "filmic" school of game design, where the games consciously echo cinematic tropes: gamera was talking about it below. And I like your rants! I'm sort of surprised you aren't picking apart my Final Fantasy VII analysis.

[abrogate_nadir]

I think that was something I really liked about six. There were characters that had more story than others, but none of them were really main in that you *had* to keep them with you at all times. You could ignore finding some in the World of Ruin, and there was such a huge cast of characters too. Not Suikoden huge, but big as far as Final Fantasy games go

[terra]

Oh, I'm really into the no true main thing VI had. That's a whole nother rant of mine though :P

I don't think it's impossile to make a good novelization, but it's harder than it looks. Aaaand regurgitations of the gamescript are a definite no-no. It's difficult to transfer a story from one medium to another; I'm not sure people look at gaming as its own storytelling medium enough. Usually I think we see it as just a cobbling together of other mediums, but it's not.

[terra]

HOLY DRIVE BY COMMENT ESSAY, BATMAN.

[gamera]

Vincent and Yuffie couldn't have much of an impact on the plot because all of the major scenes were rendered in full-stop FMV, in which they could never appear. So twenty different endings was kind of out of the question.

Though ironically, I think technology is finally to the point where we don't have to do that because the game engines are as good (or very nearly as good) as pre-rendered video. It's like we're looping back to when they could stick another sprite in there because they were still using the game's graphical engine instead of a video, except that it's because we don't need to do anything else rather than not being able to do anything else.

Lost Odyssey on the 360 is a good example of that, actually-- my friends and I had a pretty great time laughing at the ridiculous looking accessories the characters happened to have equipped during story scenes. Forget Grand Cross; Kaim has pretty purple earrings thanks to using the game engine instead of FMV! So I think we're going to see less of the Vincent-and-Yuffie syndrome in

[terra]

Oh definitely-- I mostly wanted to make a historical point. With technology comes a lot more freedom, which is part of why it's always a great time to be a gamer? We've also got it so there's enough space on a game for there to be more than one prerendered ending. So it's not as much of a big deal though.

MGS also actively breaks the fourth wall! I think it'd be interesting to look at how different games address the player in-game, how that effects the illusion of control.

RAMBLE RAMBLE.

[zidane]

The reminds me that I need to teal deer about how awesome Vagrant Story is sometime, especially in regards to justifying what we take as acceptable videogame tropes (i.e. the Boss Battle) and justifying them in the game's world (lol Sydney).

[terra]

Vagrant Story is awesome, although I think it's a case where the game isn't exactly accessible so a lot of people aren't aware of it? VS. something like FFVII which is easy to play. Frankly I really want to play an RPG from the POV of the best friend who always betrays you. And then you'd periodically encounter the hero, who of course says absolutely nothing, but is accompanied by a rag tag bunch of adventurers.

[sarisa]

This can, arguably, be either Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or even Final Fantasy Tactics. At least Ramza never goes out of his way to make little crippled kids cry.

[terra]

I appreciated the added playable Delita action in the recent port, although the whole thing seemed to be like, "LOOK OVER THERE, DELITA IS BADASS" a bit overmuch.

[imacrusader]

A Tale of Two Cities always has the same words, The Dark Knight is the same movie in every theater near you, but you can't ever play Ocarina of Time the same way twice.
I know what you are saying, but even books and movies are not the same for every person. And while you cannot play a game twice the same way (because you already know how your decisions will affect the outcome), you also don't watch or read something twice the same way.
Your reactions will be different and circumstantial as well.

As for the rest, I am not so sure what point you are making. From working with game development I know that people are not thinking that deeply about the content or the metaphors. The story is more a tool than anything else.
However, I think it also highly depends on the piece and I do think there are some that could be potentially made into decent movies or books. However, too much story of course slows the game play down.

[terra]

It's true and I definitely don't want to insinuate that people don't have special, personal reactions to books or movies. I mean, I keep rereading A Tale of Two Cities in the hopes that Sydney Carton doesn't die. And I don't think that a good videogame movie/book can't be made, just that some adapting is necessary, just like adapting a novel to a film.

Mostly I'm not trying to say much of anything, just-- "hey I analyze games a lot, I notice we normally look at the story in light of its textual components, can we look at games in any other way and successfully analyze them?" more a question than an answer.

[imacrusader]

hey I analyze games a lot, I notice we normally look at the story in light of its textual components, can we look at games in any other way and successfully analyze them?" more a question than an answer.
Hehe. It's definitely really interesting and I do enjoy thinking about these things. I just kinda lose at meta so I always get confused after two paragraphs of analytical thought. XD