|
|
View previous topic :: View next topic
|
| Author |
Message |
lolipalooza
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:17 am |
  |
|
This is a wonderful thread.
| Broco wrote: |
As another example, "immersion". We should be careful not to assume a player is ever truly "immersed" in a game in any real sense. Consider your own thinking and emotions while playing a game. We rarely actually look at a situation through the eyes of the game protagonist -- we are constantly thinking as players, interpreting even realistic-looking environments as obstacle courses and trying to find the optimal method to advance. In a highly dangerous situation, we are perhaps frustrated or exhilarated, not afraid like the protagonist would be. We completely ignore the game universe's code of ethics and the protagonist's priorities, gleefully murdering friendly NPCs and then perhaps reloading the game if this breaks progression. There is a gigantic distance between the player and the game avatar he is supposed to embody. And this is not just a problem with us hardened, too-experienced "gamers" -- I've seen people who almost never play games immediately adopt this attitude.
|
I have some ideas on how to add immersion:
- Better use of camera
They need, yes, to be more cinematic. There are millions of possibilities on how to use angles and composition; yet, how many games are presented almost exclusively by this view:
[center] [/center]
Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War visuals are much more appealing, and a big part of that appeal is the unusual camera. Of course, strange angles and stuff need intuitive controls in order to work better, especially if we start switching between a number of different views.
- Empathy / Recognition
We do not really care about what's happening in the game because things are told in a bad way. Who would give a shit about those innocent people being attacked by zombies in House of the Dead when they do not look/move realistically and their voice action is laughable at best? Now, in SOTC, when Agro falls to his death: it's realistic enough and very sutile, not something like Aeris' death where the scene says "look, Cloud is sad now so you should be too"; the game is confident about it's emotional effect on the player and can act directly upon him.
- Use the way the game works to the benefit of the narrative
Shenmue, with all it's flaws, has a little something I consider brilliant. At the end of the second disc, right before going to Kowloon, you wake up and it's written on your note: "say goodbye to your friends". I did my best to find everyone who helped me, from the main characters to the old guy who spends a lot of his time in a park and taught me a sweet tai chi chuan move. I couldn't find Joy (if I'm not mistaken it's not actually possible) and she yelled at me when we met again in kowloon because I didn't say goodbye and I was like "but I looked for you everywhere goddamnit"!
The thing is, that uses a game's most basic elements - the existence of an objective to attain and obstacles to do so (there's a lot of people in the city, which is big, and your time is limited) - in exclusive favor of the immersion in the storytelling. You gain nothing by finding everyone - well, you may get a photo (which is objectively useless) and the scroll of a martial arts technique, if you talk to the right people, but there's no way to know that beforehand. If you go search your friends (you're not obligated to) you'll do it because you think it's better than leave without telling them, that's all. |
|
| Unfilter / Back to top |
|
 |
lolipalooza
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:10 am |
|
|
| Intentionally Wrong wrote: |
| The player's avatar is a unique actor in the gameworld in that it is controlled by something with goals that often conflict with the game's internal goals. Unless a game can find find a way to resolve that conflict, it will need to at least acknowledge the conflict or otherwise explore it. |
A videogame is a game (brilliant observation, yes). We play it to win, to beat it.
Back to Shenmue 2, I'd say that the game's goal is to present a story of a guy seeking revenge and his social life, while the player's goal is to beat the game with minimal trials and minimal time. One of the things that help in that aspect is the note, where "Ryo writes" the important events that happened and the next objective.
The only part where what's written is none of both is the goodbye part. The next objective, going to Kowloon, is already determined and will happen within one day. What the game does in that moment is an effort to augment the power of the narrative, using gameplay mechanics instead of cutscenes that often break the suspension of disbelief. The ending sequences of Metroid (escape before explosion) and Dragon Quest (return to home) do something similar.
It also does what I already said in the other post, subverting the "reward 'rule'", like Earthbound does - but for the sake of parody. |
|
| Unfilter / Back to top |
|
|
lolipalooza
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:44 pm |
|
|
Koji, I agree with you on what's necessary to popularize the medium, but that's beside the point. We are "searching" games which can earn respect as a valid form of expression, with great content and aesthetics, a valid form of "art".
Now, you can say that it's necessary to popularize videogames first in order to people recognize their artistic value later (like what happened with movies - they started as a documental method, turned into spectacle with Méliès and gained the streets as a low society entertainment, soon later becoming a language by the work of Griffith and Chaplin, among others), but even we, who play videogames for a long time, know that they are not in the same level of literature or cinema as form of narrative. |
|
| Unfilter / Back to top |
|
|
lolipalooza
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
|
|
| Unfilter / Back to top |
|
|
lolipalooza
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Curitiba, Brazil
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:23 pm |
|
|
Yeah, not a few sandbox games. It's still valid for the vast majority of them, though; any videogame that has an end, and more.
I believe the GTA games still have a lot of win/lose situations. "Yay I got the tank!", "Yay I got the helicopter!", "Wow, never seen so many cops hunting me!" To me it's like making the highest score in Tetris - but, as the game is much more open, the score can be actually a lot of things.
The likes of Sim City and Civilization seem to be in the same group. People generally think that it's better to have a larger, wealthier city/civilization than a smaller one. Now, The Sims is quite different. I don't see people urging to become rich, or buy a mansion. My opinion is that GTA is really about getting new stuff (weapons, vehicles) to play with, while The Sims is about playing with the characters using anything you can. |
|
| Unfilter / Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
