More Old Stuff

This one I also wrote in 2004. I was still heavily into Final Fantasy XI at this point. The raw idea itself has merit I think, although the implementation would need some serious work most likely. I will probably revisit this at some point in the future, maybe merge it with some of my other thoughts on this type of mmo design.

THE HERO

A lot of videogames place you in the position of a hero/heroine. Granting you powers beyond the ken of mere mortals. Whether it is the ability to shoot fireballs out of your hands, fly through the air, slow down time...the list goes on. But, not only do you get their abilities, you get to BE a hero. Saving the world, rescuing the damsel in distress, and helping people in need. This is all great, but have you ever felt a sense

of urgency while doing it? The people you are saving are all AI routines. They don't have feelings or anything to lose that they don't when you switch off your console or PC. You're basically riding on the urge to complete the game. If the game is well written you might develop an attachment for some of the characters, but even then, you don't really feel like you're under pressure to not fail in your task.

What if you could be the hero for other human players? In a massively multiplayer online world, other players have a vested interest in their characters and belongings, for the simple fact that they put in time and effort to get to the point that they are in the game. It could be very interesting for a world like that to come under threat from some foe. A foe that can bring about the annihilation of everything the player-base

have built up. Towns, items, characters...it would give those in the position of being heroes (maybe the highest level players, or those that are regular contributors)something to fight for, not actual lives (and who would want to?), but something more tangible than the cries of yet another computer-controlled character telling you that your character is part of some prophecy. How cool would it be to be in a village and see the 'chosen' party come round to your shop? You could give them weapons for free and wish them luck. Join them even if you were high enough level. Losing would not be an option in this case, well, it would be, but for the

wrong reasons. Of course the quest would have to be tweaked to make sure that the players could actually get through it, but having harsher consequences for dying could also lead to some interesting gameplay

elements as well. Watching the trailer for Otogi 2 inspired this post, and hence the next thing that I think could be added...the ressurection of 'legendary players' that have fallen in major battles to serve the player base. If a high level player lost his character in one of these quests with high stakes, then he could be added to an ongoing legend of the game. He might have to make a new character, maybe with some perks to make his

new start easier, but if another quest was to come up, the option to resurrect his character could be provided. The way Raikoh is called back from the dead to deal with a new threat. It will provide a wonderful

framework for player-created mythologies to be created and perpetuated. I think it's something that could be looked into. Of course this is not to say that being the main character in an offline game is a rubbish idea, or

that all online games should have this feature worked in, but I think it would provide variety and make players feel more important in a world that they dedicate a bit of their free time to.  

Why so serious?

Nah, this is not yet another Dark Knight post. This is about having more comedy games. Everywhere I look, most games take themselves too seriously. And even when they have elements of comedy, they are generally in the form of comic relief or just comical situations.

Gaming started out as a very abstract affair I guess in part due to the limitations of the technology available at the time. But, because of this abstract nature, I think it lead game designers to take themselves less seriously. Even when they were not overtly funny, the bizarreness of the gaming locales and character designs made it obvious that the game designers did not see this gaming malarkey as serious business.

What got me thinking about this was the deathspank teaser (Deathspank is being developed by Ron Gilbert, one of the designers of Secret of Monkey Island - the first laugh out loud funny game I ever remember playing) which you can see for yourself below.



The other two can be found here - http://grumpygamer.com/6338868

It is fun and made me feel all nostalgic for those days when videogame characters were spunky, and bright and cartoon-like. Nowadays, we have Master Chief and Marcus Fenix, Wander and Ico, Cloud and Sephiroth, Lara Croft and the Prince from Prince of Persia (ooo, and for extra points, the dark Prince from POP 2 onwards). Not that there aren't funny characters anymore, or that there weren't serious characters back then, but it just feels like all of the games I have for the current-gen consoles are just filled with hard men/women/machines/cyborgs/boys/girls. At least on the PS2 I have Katamari Damacy and its cast of crazy characters as well as Disgaea 1 & 2, Godhand, even Devil May Cry1 and 3 are quite tongue in cheek in certain respects. There are also loads of games like that on my Gamecube.

I definitely want more humour in my games. It may seem a little odd considering the types of games I have been talking about playing which are light on the dramatics and heavier on the gameplay, or intense like Immortal Defense and Etrian Odyssey, but the truth is that even those games are quite bizarre in their own way, and me? I am a sucker for absurdity. What really got me interested in Etrian Odyssey were the excellent manga-style comics that the developers made for them, as well as the F.O.E music video on youtube. And Immortal Defense is quite bizarre too in the little quotes that pop up on the screen whenever your points accomplish something, and even their design is a bit odd. Rescue the Beagles which I talked about before is quite old school in its approach to bad guys and plot. Two young activists fighting against an evil cosmetics corporation. Yeah, quite. And of course there's also Mighty Jill Off...

And the horizon is looking quite lean for comedy games on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Now, again, it's not like I am advocating that we make only funny/quirky/odd games, but it would be nice to see more of them.

Finished!

I just finished one of the stories in Knytt Stories! This one was called 'The machine', and although it wasn't hard, I felt like I had to mention this simply because even though I have had Knytt Stories and its predecessor, Knytt, I haven't been able to keep at any of them until I completed them. It was simply enough for me to soak in the music and atmosphere. I felt like I didn't need to finish.

Well, that was until today really. I saw the end coming, and I went to pull the lever. The pay-off was very nice too. Moving through the world I had just saved was a really great experience and a perfect ending in keeping with the mood of the game.

This got me thinking about completing games and the huge pile that I still have to finish on my PC. Console games are easy enough for me to complete. I got my ps3 not long ago and I have already finished Armored Core 4, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Metal Gear Solid 4, Dynasty Warriors 6 and Call of Duty 4. That's a lot of games to finish in less than a month.

Unfortunately, on the PC it is a different story. I have loads of games sitting and waiting for me to complete them. There's Half Life 2: Episodes 1 & 2, loads of indie games (the aforementioned Knytt can finally be removed from that list!), Planescape torment and Diablo 2(both of which I was playing through again although I have never finished the latter), Grim Fandango (first time through, haven't finished yet), Far Cry (stopped once they began to introduce xxxxxxx), and Sins of a Solar Empire (which I got from a friend).

I think what it is is that I no longer have my PC in my house. I game during breaks (and sometimes when I really should be working)at work and it really cramps my style. A lot of these games require quite a commitment of time and more importantly me entering a mindspace that is quite frankly incompatible with the work environment. It's quite interesting to me that I can watch anime or even a movie in bits, pausing whenever I have to get back to work, but I can't do the same with a videogame. Once I pause a game a couple of times to work, I lose interest in going back in. It begins to feel like work I don't have to do. Figuring out the puzzles and going through the motions of actually playing and entering the game's space just fill me with a sense of dread that I have to overcome if I want to progress.

It requires a really compelling reason for me to continue that will make me forget or in fact not even have those thoughts at all. A recent game like this was Shadow of the Colossus. The boss fights were just the right length for me and since there were no levels, moving around to the next colossus was not only stress free, it was actually a very moving experience in a way.

You can leave the Kitchen Sink.

mI just read over at The Brainy Gamer a very interesting post about Metal Gear Solid 4 and why exactly he felt it overwhelmed, bewildered and frustrated him as a player. You should read the post on his site actually as it is very insightful.

It did make me think about the increasing number of game mechanics and elements in video and PC games and then lead me to think about how games are becoming more about a narrative experience, as opposed to a ludic one.

I am still putting my thoughts together on this, and will probably post on it later on.

Interactive Movies

While I was playing MGS4, it dawned on me that most of the stand out moments for me in the game were cutscene related. The interactive sections were a sort of bridge to the cutscenes, or I should say the continuation of the story. Even some of the interactive sections were structured in such a way to create a cinematic experience.

A lot of people online seem to use this as the main reason to put down the Metal Gear Solid series, but I feel that there is something going on there. Must games be purely ludic activities requiring constant input from the player? People always argue that that should be the case, especially when the quality of the non-interactive sections is below C-grade movies or books. There is a potential for this style of 'game' to be explored though.

While I was playing MGS4, one of my mum's employees was sitting down and watching me play the game. She then said that it looked like something she would like to play as it seemed that there wasn't much input required from her (I had just gotten to a section peppered with cutscenes). She even asked me whether there were games that would require even less input! Her first point raised something in my mind about those people who are looking for narrative experiences out of their games. A game that was just about its 'gameplay' would hold minimal or no interest to them.

From what I understand, the genre of Visual Novels in Japan are like this. Sort of prettied up choose-your-own-adventure stories. I think a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 could be the next step in this regard. Of course I am not advocating that all games should be like this, but it could help bring in some more people into gaming, and even provide an avenue for the near-dead adventure game genre.

Now that I think about it, games like Killer 7 also used a similar sort of structure. Minimal gameplay mechanics in a linear narrative that string together the story. Maybe Suda 51's and Hideo Kojima's rumoured collabo project would be something like this?

Just a thought.

It's Over...

I finished Metal Gear Solid 4 just before 1am this morning. I saw the full credits roll at about 1.30am. I was spent, I was giddy and I was satisfied. It seems weird to be so pumped about playing through and finishing what some could cynically call an interactive movie experience, but hey, I can't help what I felt eh?

So, what did I think? It was awesome! Well worth the play time and everything. The last boss fight is really of epic proportions, and if you have played through the previous MGS's, a major reward for all the effort. I am still getting the hang of actually writing on the internet, and in this whole blog style, so I won't go into any complicated review or what-have-you, suffice to say that the game was very good and will be time well spent for anybody who does not mind not being in control for the a good portion of the game...well, that and the awkward script and some OTT scenes. I loved that stuff by the way.

Pros
1. Excellent production values
2. The last three boss fights are really, really great. Wonderful set pieces all of them.
3. The music!
4. The fanservice and random meta-statements.
5. Snake is really one of the coolest characters in videogames...period.

Cons
1. Kojima really could have used an editor and I know some people say that is part of his charm and so on, but really, the whole experience could have been a LOT better without some of the dialogue and scenes.
2. Odd difficulty spikes here and there, but on the whole, I felt it didn't provide enough of a challenge on the first playthrough. Will see if this changes once I try to it on the harder difficulty setting or go for the Big Boss medal (crazy I know!).
3. In terms of gameplay mechanics it is not doing anything interesting.

I can't really think of more to say really. I think it was an excellent game, but I can completely understand sites like eurogamer that gave it an 8/10. It is really good, but stops just short of that 9/10 that marks the introduction of something truly outstanding as a game. As an experience though (and this is of course entirely subjective) it would be a 9.5/10 for me and a fitting end for the old man.