L.B. Jeffries has a nice essay up on the idea of ‘games as languages’ — a combination of coercing players to take certain actions and encouraging certain responses, creating a dialogue of sorts. As Jeffries says, “It’s not exactly talking to another person…but it’s not just rolling dice or pressing shoot either.” As games get more complex, so does the ‘language’ aspect — choices are expressive elements, and the more choices one has, the more opportunities for unique combinations. Even the simplest of games involves communication — ‘go here, do that.’ With the influx of more diverse and user-created building blocks, it seems reasonable that the ‘languages’ would begin to emerge more clearly:
Danc at Lost Garden has an interesting post up on themes in games and the effect on game design: while there are definite reasons for the same types of themes and aesthetics popping up in games over and over again, a careful balance needs to be struck between ‘skinning’ themes and mechanics and putting coherent game play above it all. It’s better that a game ‘reads’ badly from a literary (narrative) standpoint, but makes sense in terms of game play:
Michael Abbott of the Brainy Gamer has a great piece up on the straw man of the ‘quality of narrative’ debate that’s been going on in the industry for quite some time now: things aren’t as bad as the collective we make them out to be. Really, they’re not. Sure, there are broken promises along the way, disappointments here and there, and certainly the future to look towards — but there are plenty of games who are doing pretty damn well, considering that most can agree that narrative design for games is in its relative infancy:
Malcolm Ryan is putting together a most interesting list of game design-related books — except these are the ones that are flying under the radar as it were. Ryan describes these ‘secret books’ as “books that are not explicitly written about games, but which any game designer who reads them just knows that they are really about games.” As part of this, Ryan will be reviewing a book a week on a variety of narrative and game-related topics (even if the connection isn’t immediately apparent). In the ‘secret book’ category, he’s got two examples: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud and A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander.
There’s not much yet, but if Ryan can stick to the book-a-week premise, I think there will be a nice and very accessible collection of reviews and thoughts on a wide variety of books. It’s one of those things I’ve added to my feeds and just hope it doesn’t peter out.
The Secret Books of Game Design [Words on Play via Grand Text Auto]
I was chatting with a fellow Chinese historian this weekend when he confessed that his interest in Chinese history could be traced back to receiving a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms for SNES. I thought of that while reading Duncan Fyfe’s essay on the potential ‘educational’ uses of regular, AAA titles — which isn’t really so much on the potential to educate as much as inspire (as insipid as that sounds) in subtle ways:
Video games can be gateways to higher learning. Is it idealistic? Sure. But the base repudiation of idealism is so often used as a shield against saying anything interesting. Anti-idealism is what keeps triple-A games generic, and the reversal of that trend should already be a good enough target.
Compare the social value of these games to that of Halo or Oblivion. They’re just as entertaining, but they are not relevant to any humanitarian or political discussion, and are certainly not literary. The Wire and The West Wing will not reform government but they will challenge and galvanise their viewers.
I’d be curious to know how many people actually went out and tackled Ayn Rand after playing BioShock; I’m also a little skittish about the idea of heavy handed philosophy and the like making a strong appearance (one Xenosaga series was enough, thank you). Fyfe’s opinions aren’t new by any means, and can be found in just about any essay talking about more ‘grown up’ themes in games. Interesting essay and worth a look.
Video Games Are The Silver Bullet [GameSetWatch]
Michael Abbott of the Brainy Gamer has a nice little roundup of some of the current thinking on narrative designs in games — it’s nice to have a couple of reasonably prominent writers/designers/etc. put together in one place, with easily digestible clips. And, as usual, the comments section is just as worthy of attention as the article itself. But is this emerging collective ‘manifesto’ really deserving of the title ‘manifesto’?:
Perhaps “manifesto” is too strong a word for what I’m describing, but at the moment I can’t think of a better one. Most dictionaries define the term as a public declaration of intentions, motives or views. Beyond that simple definition, however, manifestos are intrinsically anti-status-quo. Regardless of its framework – politics, ideology or art – a manifesto is a defiant call for change and an implied “Who’s with me?” All of the people I’m about to describe are plugging into something that sounds very much like a collective manifesto to me.
Many people currently writing about narrative and game design do share a lot of commonalities in thinking, so some sort of ‘collective manifesto’ (even just informally speaking) does make sense. Anyways, Abbott’s roundup isn’t particularly long, but worth a read; he’s done the work for you when it comes to pulling out some particularly salient bits of the essays.
Narrative manifesto [Brainy Gamer]
I really like the idea of turning classic literature into games, mostly in the form of parodies (but moderately thoughtful ruminations are welcome, too). Over at GameSetWatch, Emily Short looks at the literature/game combination in the one genre that churns out book-related games at an alarming pace: the dreaded hidden object game. She concedes that it sometimes works really well (as in the case of Agatha Christie novels, or Sherlock Holmes), but the disconnect between the narrative and gameplay in examples such as The Count of Monte Cristo is frustrating (she does offer the caveat that she’s not a fan of the genre in general, but her criticisms still stand):
Are the ridiculous, wild goose chase puzzles of classic adventure games obsolete? Michael Abbott at the Brainy Gamer grudgingly says they may be — “A revealing slap in the face awaits the – shall we say “veteran” – gamer who hands an old adventure game to a young gamer with a hearty recommendation and an assurance of blissful gaming in store”. The response is likely to be ‘Is this supposed to be fun?’ Now, I know plenty of people who still remember fondly games like Monkey Island and other classic adventure games, including their oftentimes bizarre and lengthy puzzles, but:
Gamasutra has an interesting (short) interview up with Stephen Dinehart, “narrative designer” for Relic Entertainment, the Vancouver arm of THQ. The topic? Well, Company of Heroes in general – more specifically, narrative design, violence, and historical accuracy (or lack thereof). I’ve read a fair chunk of thoughts on narrative design in an academic context, so it’s nice to read how people think the stuff is being applied in real-world situations. Dinehart hopes that these sorts of games aren’t just excuses to shoot stuff, and feels that his narrative crafting helps facilitate a more mature examination of violence:
