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

[lorien]

i was almost offended when i saw that first paragraph but i feel exactly the same way about it. This article could be published in a gaming magazine, jsyk. Its very well done

[terra]

Agreed-- I think you can look at old school FF vs new school FF and see the alterations I, III, V being the "gameplay" titles vs "II, IV, VI" being the "story" titles, and you can see that the odds are harder and both just got easier as time went on.

in terms of it vs. literature is not exactly something that can be concretely decided at this time though.
Oh, yeah, games are definitely still developing, big time. Which is one of the reasons I'm so excited about them, I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

I really just posted this to get other people's opinions, so ramble away.

[nostalgebraist]

The funny thing is that I get something special out of games, particularly RPGs, that I don't get of non-interactive media--but I'm not sure it's something that anyone else feels, or whether the creators ever intend it

[terra]

I don't know if it's (always) conscious on the part of the creators, but it is an inherent strength of the medium. Sort of like comics excel at portraying superheroics, because the visual component brings a lot to those kinds of stories.

It is a "get it for free" effect, but I think a lot of whether a game is good or not depends on how they manipulate the player, explicitly like in the games I talked about, or more implicitly by just dragging them into the action.

[skyrend]

The interaction is why I play more video games than I read books. Incidentally, do you for whatever reason recall the Goosebumps series of books? There was at a time a series of books by the same author that at the end of each page, you were able to "decide" what the characters proceeded to do, and based on the decision offered up to you, you were supposed to turn to such-and-such page. It's really quite an inventive idea, really, because it makes the reader actually involved with the story rather than simply reading along as it unfolds

[terra]

JUMP ++ DARKNESS = GOD. Kain hits the cap a lot. I really want Holy Lance though because for the most part spears are lagging behind, and it just seems wrong to use Kain w/o a spear

[reediewes]

Nice stuff. I've been spending way too much time at BoardGameGeek and was looking for a way to thumb this article before I stopped myself.

That climax in Bioshock was so compelling for me that I thought it must be the end of the game. When gameplay continued, I actually stayed on the couch for the next four hours because I thought the game would end any minute.

Also, you know what I really wanted during that Andrew Ryan scene? A choice of buttons (like whether to exorcise or harvest the little girls). Press X to walk away, press Y to bash his head in. But no matter what you do, you kill the guy because hey--no control.

[reediewes]

What I mean to say is that because it was all done in a cutscene, I felt a little detached. "Oh, huh, my character is mind-controlled. I guess this is where the plot's going now." If there was a way to simulate my (character's) mental struggle, that would have drawn me in more.

[terra]

You just caused me to google Board Game Geek to see what it was.

That Bioshock scene is one of my favorites ever. Your comment kind of reminds me of a phenomenon I read about once in a review of an SNES game. Normally you could always hit Y or whatever and pause the game and open the menu, but while this big horrible death was happening, you couldn't. The argument was that this menu black space contributed to the feeling of bleakness, because you COULD move around, but you couldn't do anything to stop what was happening.

[reediewes]

Yeah, that's a nice feeling. Myst 4 disabled the save feature at the ending, which was nice. (Not nice enough to, you know, make me feel good about the rest of the game, but oh well.) It's kind of like breaking the fourth wall, but in a way that draws the player in more.

Also, BGG has eaten my soul.

[peaceinyou]

I. I kind of love that you do that. :D It's so interesting to see how you analyze characters, because even though I don't really play video games that much, I've always loved watching other people play through the stories.

II. True, the interactive factor.

III. Interesting indeed. Stories are my favorite part of video games, but then I can see why being able to choose and have multiple endings would be fun. I really like watching FMVs though, haha.

IV + V. I have no specific comments, really, but I enjoyed reading your analysis. :D

♥