Very interesting @wundayatta, for someone who has never played any games at all. I feel compelled to go further with this. so I can sound like I actually know something XD
It sounds to me like they are trying to make games more like life.
This would be true a lot more today than games of yore. Although realism was always an aspect that many programmers go with, especially when it comes to graphics and sound, the origin of gaming, while I can’t really say what is, wasn’t that. However they do take common everyday skills as tools you need to proceed in a game; you see a problem, now solve it. Overcome obstacles, kill shit, go forth without dying, or like this example, figure stuff out. Today, modern games have all sorts of subjects you would have never seen in older stuff. Theology, philosophy, sexuality, morality, politics, psychology…all this deep shit. They’re more violent, they’re more mature, they’re more detailed…but the core idea has never left the table; problem solving. Of any sort. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it’s completely asinine…but it’s always there.
Still, what they put around that core is something that people feel they can relate to a lot more than basic save the princess stuff. So that’s why it’s interesting you say games are trying to be like life, because I denno if they’re attempting that, but many games now do reflect elements closer to us than the old stuff.
It seems to me that programmers are kind of quirky.
They are, in more ways than one, especially Japanese programmers, which is a huge chunk of where gaming comes from, and almost the only place games came from for a long time. But Japan is a culture so different from ours, so it’s hard to say, for me anyways, how quirky they are. Or maybe they just seem as such since I’m not a part of their culture, and don’t get everything. So we just call em insane. Obscure gameplay and goals, or ideas for goals anyways, since most goals seem to get along just fine in the same spectrum, may be a weird sense of humor. But get ready to see many Japanese games referencing weird ass shit out of nowhere that has nothing to do with the game, for example. Most likely, such references are programmers’ ways to pay homage to their inspirations and all. Like in Final Fantasy VII, you get one guy who, for a special attack, lights a dynamite with his cigarette before hucking it at enemies. I’m sure you know where that comes from. :)
But yeah I totally derailed…as far as gameplay goes, and the goals such as you suggested with the spider…as I say, I think it’s mainly due to time restraints, simplicity and not knowing what the hell to do beyond finding keys in chests. You could totally be on to something though…I’m totally convinced some programmers go all out just to piss people off.—anyone ever play Parasite Eve II? Not putting in enough save points and making you backtrack like an asshole all day is not poor programming…or shouldn’t be, anyways.
But games are about narrative. Not regular fixed narratives, but narratives that can change and go in alternate paths and where the user can, within limits, determine the course of the narrative. In other words, you help write the story, with “write” in quotes. This gives you a sense of power and agency that is lacking in books and movies, where your only option is to follow the story as is, or not read it or watch it.
Sometimes. Video games have different genres, and some are ALL about fixed narratives; in most games, you’re following a predestined story, and you have no say in how it turns out, unless this game decides to have three or four different endings, which usually require one thing to do at a certain point. In video games, you play through a story, but you don’t really change it. You just witness it. It’s interactive yeah, but you don’t shape anything. Remember, too, that a lot of games have stories as secondary elements; even for role playing games, gameplay usually comes first. (although this is the one genre where the story is often the most intricate) What you describe does exist, especially today. (Mass Effect, Fable, in which you choose to be either good or evil depending on how you act in the game, Dragon Age)
But this doesn’t happen enough to define all games as being about narrative, nor is it free enough yet to really be all that narrative. You’re gonna have to play table top RPG’s for that.
Which is something I sometimes wish they would do more of. But remember, video games are played, so gameplay is almost always the first thing you’ll think about. Therefore…
It’s the path that counts, not the goal.
Both count. Obviously, a gamer aims at a goal, but the path is what’s fun. And we need the goal to have more paths after. I gotta save this hot chick, but first I have to beat up this big ugly bastard, and I’m going to enjoy beating him up because the game is fun; but I’ll enjoy the reward after. More levels to play, experience points to obtain, stuff to upgrade…until you finally finish the game, and it’s up to you whether or not you have a sense of accomplishment after lol. (or check out new game plus or unlockable dungeons and shit)
You’re totally right though; the path is what counts. But despite what I said about gameplay being priority, I don’t think games would be where they’re at today, if so much work didn’t go into stories and plots.
In my experience with mental illness, my mind needs constant stimulation, and it has to be intensely emotional. Things need to be dangerous—only dangerous for real, not fictional danger.
As I say, for someone who never played games and doesn’t know anything about them, your relation is is frighteningly accurate, at least in my supposing of what it would be like to have a mental illness and needing to stimulate myself, vis a vis or otherwise said illness. But that’s one point right there; video games stimulate something, anyway. I mean, indeed, why else would I sit around playin em to the wee hours of the night? There’s some satisfaction and reward I seek/feel from them, perhaps as you yourself seek emotional stimulation. Then again it may be different. As I watch horror movies and play games, I don’t seek real danger; but to visit some other worlds and have fun in them. Still, I think your relation stands, when it comes to need, whatever it is, and what to do about it.
Which is exactly what the game designers have in mind, I think. It’s an attempt to keep you emotionally honest to some degree.
You think too much. The video game industry is a fuckin’ cash cow. XD But in a way…when something like this happens, where you gotta piss around for hours searching for some bullshit, it’s usually termed as crap gameplay or poor programming, (whether it warrants it or not) depending on the goal of the game, and what it’s aiming at. But sometimes that makes games classic. It reaches to a form of stimulation that perhaps was not intended by the creators, but adheres to some players. Some people love bad games.
Some passionate and true designers would agree with you, and for good reason. Some games like to distract you, make you think and fuck you up; it’s an intent. But more often than not…it’s not always intentional. Take Silent Hill for example. These games are notorious for having shitty controls. They’ll never get it. They’re hopeless. But I always loved the crap control, because this is a survival horror game where in most cases, you’re playing as a normal schmoe. You’re not some elite hero, chosen paladin or some commando. You’re a normal man, or woman. In real life, most people don’t know how to really fight or wield weapons like most game characters do. So in this series, fighting monsters is a fucking chore because the controls suck so much; but it adds realism to the horror, since you’re a normal guy, scared out of his wits and just trying not to die. It adds a lot to the fear factor and atmosphere of the game.
I can write long ass shit too, yo! XD
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