May ‘08 Round Table - Updated 05/15
By Corvus | May 15, 2008
This month we continue our descent into the thematic underbelly of video games. After the exceptional posts last month, I cannot wait to see what you all make of this month’s topic! And so with no further ado, I present the May ‘08 Round Table Topic:
May ‘08
Diamonds in the Rough: Actress Karen Allen once said, “Eventually you love people - friends or lovers - because of their flaws.” It’s not surprising theatrical people tend to believe that the most compelling characters are the ones with the deepest flaws. There is, after all, a reason that Romeo, Juliet and Hamlet are still so widely known today. But what about popular video game characters? Are they mere two dimensional shells, or the result of frustrated teenaged boy’s dreams of power? This month’s Round Table invites you to discuss character flaws, or the lack thereof, in video game characters. Feel free to write about about a recurring character archetype, a specific favorite character, or specific least favorite character. Write about an avatar or mob, a tertiary character or primary adversary. Regardless of your approach, turn your jeweler’s loupe on these diamonds and expose their flaws to the world.
Suzie at Girls Don’t Game wasted no time in providing an excellent first post for the month! Join her as she muses about what makes a video game character significantly different than a literary character.
Mike “Rubes” Rubin joins the Round Table over at The Monk’s Brew and wonders what role character flaws really play in games, including his own IF project, Vespers.
Ian, of the 100 Foot Croc, puts his finger on a video game hero whose flaws are exactly what draws you in and keeps you playing. Beware of spoilers in his post on one of my favorite, yet uncompleted, games–Shadow of the Colossus.
Krystian of Game Design Review rejoins the table this month and uses Phoenix Wright as the launching point to discuss the Beauty of the Flaw.
Shamus over at Twenty Sided posted about flaws both obvious and endemic in Jade Empite in The Flawed Champion.
Scorpia joins us with a post on the impact of player choice in The Flaw That Refreshes?
UPDATE
Jason turns his eye on CoD4 in The Price is Right over at Unfettered Blather.
As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about joining the Round Table that aren’t answered by the FAQ.
Tagged:character flaws, Round Table. | 2 Comments »
A Week Away
By Corvus | May 13, 2008
I’m going skip blogging this week and let my mental batteries recharge. I’ll be back next week with my Round Table entry, the next NotM X-COM post and more!
I will be updating the Round Table as entries are submitted, so feel free to send in your links!
Tagged:time off. | No Comments »
The Complexity of Simple Game Narratives
By Corvus | May 8, 2008
“All video games are crap,” a student asserted at an IGDA Chapter meeting some time ago, “they can’t tell a story worth a damn.” I, of course, disagreed… mostly.
The problem, I’ve come to realize, is not that video games are inherently bad at providing a linear story experience, but that it is extraordinarily difficult to meaningfully attach a static plot to the dynamic behaviors afforded the audience. And it’s even more difficult to try and match those dynamic behaviors by generating a dynamic plot. Some time ago, in reaction to watching Aronofsky’s The Fountain, I rambled on for a few posts about layered narratives. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting at, or whether it was a useful discussion, and I pretty quickly dropped it. I only mention it here to point out that when I start dropping “layered narrative” in this post, it is in no way connected to those earlier musings.
So what makes storytelling such a difficult task in video games? The problem as I see it is that video games are a layered narrative. In his recent podcast, Michael asked Kirk Battle whether the player should be considered an actor and Kirk replied that they needed to be an actor, but that at some point it was important for them to become audience as well. I’d go a step further and say that in many games they also serve as director, cinematographer, and even screenwriter. A video game designer must seamlessly integrate all of these potential roles into a single play experience, all the while dealing with issues of game balance, technology, art, etc. In comparison, a novelist has it pretty easy. They chose a voice (first, second, or third person) and write. Even a director only needs provide a limited perspective based upon a single point of view.
But consider the video game. The player is often asked to view the storyword from a first-person perspective (often literally). In other words, they witness events through the eyes or their avatar and are limited, during gameplay, to seeing only what that character can see. But layered on top of that is the game’s HUD, which is clearly providing the player with a third person perspective. Maps, health meters, mana levels, damage indicators, textual display of goals and item descriptions–all these serve to inform the player of things either outside their avatar’s perception or inform the player of the internal workings of their avatar. Additionally, many games have a narrative level that speaks directly to the player, adding a layer of second person perspective. Add cut scenes that show events taking place elsewhere and you’ve got another layer of third person omniscient narrative.
It is typically held in novel writing that the author should pick a point of view and stick with it. To do otherwise would confuse the reader unduly. In video games, it’s exactly the opposite–leave out layer, or integrate them poorly, and the player is in for a confusing, or even frustrating, time. It seems to me that this makes successfully compiling all the narrative components of a video game exponentially more difficult than other media and that’s even before you start adding branching plot lines, sandbox mechanics, etc.
So my next self-appointed task is to explore these narrative layers and distill what I find into some semblance of “rules” and integrate it with the aforementioned narrative component theory. You’ll see evidence of this direction in my upcoming Round Table post, the NotM posts on X-COM and likely many other posts as well. Hopefully that sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me!
Tagged:layered narratives, storytelling, videogames. | 3 Comments »
Unofficial Renown Testing
By Corvus | May 5, 2008
I have uploaded business card template files to the Beta team group. You can view and download all files related to Renown testing here. There are four template files to choose from. While the official testers each received a full Book of Yetl with 72 cards, these unofficial decks only include enough cards to play Renown.
renown.avery.10card.pdf.zip: This template ought to work with most 10 business card Avery US letter sized documents. This is the preferred template as it includes the 4 Source cards needed to mark key positions on the table, 2 blank cards (which will be explained at a later date) and, more importantly, uses less paper. if you need to make slight alterations to the card layout to fit a different template, the source Inkscape files are in the file renown.avery.10card.inkscape.zip.
renown.avery.8card.pdf.zip: This template ought to work with most 8 business card Avery US letter sized documents. This template includes the 2 blank cards, but not the 4 Source cards. Make of that what you will. If you need to make alterations to the layout, the source Inkscape files are in renown.avery.8card.inkscape.zip.
These designs are all licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 attribution, non-commercial, share alike license. Inkscape is an excellent vector graphics program that is open source and cross platform.
Becoming an unofficial tester is easy. The first step is to join the Google group PJ’s Beta Team. Second, either download and print business card sized decks, or follow the instructions to modify a standard deck of cards. Make sure your players each have 18 game markers (9 each of contrasting color), download the beta manual, and you’re all set.
But wait! There’s more!
Official testers each agreed to test Renown X number of times over the next 6 months and promised to provide feedback on every step of their involvement, including collecting surveys of their players. In exchange, they each are guaranteed a free copy of the game. But by volunteering to become an unofficial member of at PJ’s Beta Team, you too can be eligible to win a free copy of the final game!
Later this week I will be posting two short questionnaires online and alerting the mailing list of their location. The first questionnaire is for testers to fill out after every play session. The second questionnaire is to be filled out by every player that a tester brings to the table. I’ll be making print versions of the questionnaires available as well, but ultimately I’ll need them all filled out outline.
For every player questionnaire unofficial testers gather and enter, they will be entered to win a free copy of the final game. That’s one giveaway entry per player questionnaire, so the more people you get to play and provide feedback, the more likely you are to win! If I receive enough entries, I’ll probably even select multiple winners from the pool.
So don’t delay, join the testing team today!
Tagged:beta test, Renown. | No Comments »
Some GTA IV Questions
By Corvus | May 2, 2008
I was going to drop it, but after the IGN video glorifying the game’s willingness to let you do all the things that make the game so unappealing for me (and evidently quite appealing to at least a handful of others) I can’t help myself. I’m not going to link to the outraged responses of people who don’t see the IGN video as the natural extension of the core values of the franchise. Or those who continue to argue that GTA is some sort of worthy cultural commentary. I don’t approve of IGN’s distillation of the worst bits of the game, but it doesn’t make me angry that they’d do so… only “sick to my heart” and more than a little sad. I do see it as a natural extension of the franchise and I’m confused at the number of intelligent people who seem to be conflating anti-GTA sentiment with pro-censorship beliefs. To be clear, I’m not saying that GTA should be censored, banned or altered. I’m just expressing my dismay that there’s even a market for this type of content.
While I’m at it, I’d also like to touch on how ridiculous it is that an AO rating spells market death. Since there is clearly a market for this type of game, why don’t we have a marketplace for it? Blockbuster carries “Youth Restricted Viewing” movies, which is a euphemistic way of saying, “too cheap or too sensationalist for review by the rating board,” and even Wal-Mart stocks the unrated slasher movie Hostel. Isn’t it a little disingenuous for these corporations to act as the moral standard by which video games are distributed?
Okay, back to my point. I’m going to ask a few questions about the prostitutes within the storyworld of GTA IV. Feel free to answer them, or argue, or just think about them for a while and make up your own mind what the answers to them mean about the franchise.
Do i have the option of using a condom?
Do they, or you, run the risk of contracting a venereal diseases?
Or AIDS?
Could I take a prostitute out to dinner at a nice restaurant?
Or pay for her to go to school?
Could I help her kick her drug habit?
Or buy her away from a violent pimp?
Could I ask her to marry me and retire to the south of Spain?
Are any of the prostitutes under age?
Are any of them male?
Do any of them have kids?
…or even names?
———
So tell me how GTA IV is social commentary, precisely. Tell me how the developers aren’t encouraging you to treat the women within the world like objects. Tell me how providing only the most base and vile of options in an interactive medium is art. Tell me how depicting an entire professional population as empty receptacles of man’s anger and hatred even comes close to the artistic expression of the Godfather movies. Tell me how my objection is to the portrayal of sex and not the atmosphere of violence in which it take place.
Go on. I would seriously welcome a convincing argument on any single one of those points.
…and while we’re at it, I’m seeing it bandied about that you can play through GTA IV without ever once being a criminal thug. Seriously? Not a single core mission needed to complete the narrative of GTA IV requires you to kill? Steal? Maim? Consider that an opportunity for extra credit.
Tagged:grand theft auto. | 31 Comments »
April ‘08 Round Table - UPDATED 05/01
By Corvus | May 1, 2008
Coming off the first quarter’s focus on audio, we’re going to turn our gazes inward a bit for the next few months and look at the internal workings of story and play. I encourage you to join in, regardless of your perspective on the topics we’ll be covering. The important thing is that we explore the relevance of the topics at hand and engage each other and our communities in the conversation.
April ‘08
Variations on a Theme: What are your favorite videogames? Or if you rather, what are your least favorite videogames? Chances are each group holds something in common. It could be something as simple as a gameplay mechanic that you love or loathe. It could be a save system that is too forgiving or too punitive. It might also be a particular type of story–Mario’s never ending proletariat struggle to gain the recognition of the upper classes, the rags-to-riches-by-way-of-the-sword story that so many RPGs feature.
Regardless, it’s a good bet that there’s a common theme running through this group of games. Some assumption the developers made about you, the audience. Assumptions that either resonate strongly with you or don’t. It’s these underlying assumptions, these themes, that this month’s Round Table invites you to explore. What are your most, or least, favorite themes? Are your favorite themes explored enough in videogames? Are your most hated themes explored too often? Answer one of these questions, or find your own approach.
So there it is, April’s Round Table topic! I encourage you to really peel back the onion skin on this one and focus in on a narrow approach. Rest assured, I’ll be there with plenty of follow up questions for you–so be prepared for a cross examination! *kniw*
William starts us off with a look at a common theme running through the portrayal of a female archetype running throughout Japanese games in Final Fantasy and Hayao Miyazaki.
Ben takes a look at asynchronous gameplay and provides a detailed look at the math of a Zergling rush in Starcraft and the Power of 3’s.
Max at Worldmaker.net muses that Love is a Story I’ve Been Encouraged to Finish, or What We Need Is Little More Voodoo in a post that explores the theme of gameplay acting as a barrier to story.
Shamus of Twenty Sided has joined in with his thoughts on The Tough Guy.
Tormod joins in the discussion with An Order of Side Quests
Joe of the Cult of the Turtle talks about coming of age within videogames in He Woke Up Late on His Special Day
Chris went to address the topic of themes and got stuck trying to figure out what his favorite games are in Rose Tinted Games.
Wow. It’s a good day for the table round. I remembered to add Joe to the post this morning, then Chris posted and now two more posts are up as well!
The first is me talking about how I wish video games would consciously explore more themes, like all the recent movies that appear to be exploring Themes of Isolation.
Then Adam of And thus Spoke Pi joins us to explore games that because of their great restraint, or is that constraint, seem lost and lonely in Lonely Games.
Jules joins us from The Interactive Quill to express delight in games that allow you to Be Who You Want to Be.
Jason of Unfettered Blather gives us an up close and personal look at his lack of control issues in Not My Idea of a Good Time.
Chris at The Artful Gamer has served up a dish that has inspired quite a bit of cogitative chewing on my part. While it doesn’t initially appear to be about theme, it reveals itself to be critical to the idea of discussing theme. So be sure to go and read Revilatizing Dead Culture: Why Game History Matters
Andrew has joined in the discussion with a look at two sides of a single theme in The Theme of Construction and Destruction
A new contributor, Nathan at Ethics of Madness, joined the Round Table last Friday and it’s taken me until now to update the post. Bad host! Still, this is the perfect time to thank everyone who has contributed to this month’s table. It’s been a stellar bunch of posts and you have all, once again, managed to impress me. Today is the last day to get your post included in April’s Round Table as tomorrow morning I’ll be posting a new topic for May! Now that I have that out of the way, go check in on Nathan as he puzzles through the themes of Meta-thinking and Emergent Behavior.
UPDATE
Although the Round Table officially ended yesterday at 11:59pm, Greg posted something this morning at The Dust Forms Words that I thought capped off the month quite nicely. So go read The Second Level and consider this your after-dinner mint, if you will.
Thanks again for an amazing month at the Round Table!
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about joining the Round Table that aren’t answered by the FAQ.
Tagged:Round Table, themes. | 11 Comments »
Roll Your Own Renown
By Corvus | April 30, 2008
Eight kindly people have agreed to officially test Renown for me over the coming months and they are being rewarded for their efforts with a full Book of Yetl prototype (the 72-card deck used to play Renown) and 108 glass Favor markers.[1] These game sets are making their way across the world to them as I write this and before the end of the week, most of them will be fully equipped to run Renown sessions for groups of up to 6 people. This Friday I’ll be posting business card templates for people that want to print their own decks, as well as offering some incentives for people who want to be unofficial volunteers (and explaining the process).
But hey, there’s no reason you can’t start playing Renown tonight! You’ll want to start by reading the newly released Renown Beta Manual. You’ll also need a standard deck of cards, $.54 per player [2] and optionally, a permanent marker (or two, if you’ve got a red one).
While the Book of Yetl has 72 cards, Renown itself only actively uses 54 cards. These cards are divided into 6 suits and numbered 1 through 9. So, if you have a standard deck of cards, with the two jokers intact, you’ve got the rough equivalent of a Renown deck!
The ace through nine of spades becomes the suit of Aerae. Spades are descended from the Tarot suit of swords, which corresponds to air.
The ace through nine of clubs becomes the suit of Pyrae. Clubs are descended from the Tarot suit of wands, which corresponds to fire.
The ace through nine of diamonds becomes the suit of Terrae. Diamonds are descended from the Tarot suit pentacles, which is mapped to the element of earth (and diamonds come from the earth).
The ace through nine of hearts becomes the suit of Hydrae. Hearts are descended from the Tarot suit of cups, which corresponds to water.
All that remains, then, are the suits of Vae and Vitae. This is where using a permanent marker comes into play (if you don’t want to force your players to keep this all in their heads).
Like Aerae and Pyrae, Vae provides Heroic Capital. So it makes sense to build this suit out of the spade and club face cards. I’d suggest, to keep various metaphoric card relationships in alignment, that the 10 through king of spades become the ace through four, the 10 through king of clubs become the five through eight and one of the jokers the nine of Vae. Again, if you don’t mind marking up a deck of cards, these are the card you might want to number.
Like Terrae and Hydrae, Vitae provides Villainous Capital. The remaining diamond cards should become the ace through four, the hearts five through eight and the second joker the nine of Vitae.
Alternately, if you have two identical decks, you could mark up the ace through nine of a red and black suit from another deck and shuffle it in.
If you’re interested in playing and providing feedback, please feel free to join the PJ’s Beta Team Google group. I won’t be updating the blog every time I make changes to the manual but I will be updating the group (I’ll probably also Twitter it).
[1]As well as a complete copy of the finished game with fully illustrated decks, printed manual and another full set of Favor markers. [return]
[2]In the form of 9 nickels and 9 pennies, or the rough equivalent in your own currency, or Pente pieces, or Go pieces, or something similar. [return]
Tagged:Renown. | No Comments »
Blog Banter: A Nit to Pick
By Corvus | April 30, 2008
It’s time once again for BS Angel’s monthly topic-oriented blogging affair, Blog Banter. Like our very own Round Table, Blog Banter invites people to post on a monthly topic. Unlike the Round Table, all the posts go live on the same day and around the same time. If you’d like to join in, or have any questions, be sure to contact her. A list of fellow participants will appear at the bottom of this post later today. Be sure to swing by and give them a read!
This month’s topic requests that we:
Discuss one game you quit before completion because of a particular perceived flaw it had. What was that flaw and how could it have been fixed where you would have finished the game?
I have stopped playing far more games within two hours of play than I have ever completed. Despite any and all arguments that a game must be played fully through in order to accurately judge it, I firmly hold to my conviction that if a game’s first two hours are not an accurate reflection of the entire game… it’s a poorly designed game. So, when faced with this question I have to wonder… where do I begin? Galleon’s timed underwater level that so frustrated me by highlighting the game’s control weaknesses (and pushing my own aquaphobia buttons)? The Witcher’s consistent misogyny? Insecticide’s split design-personality? Morrowind’s plot destroying Assassin Guild bug? Scarface’s boring design and interminable cut scenes? Arx Fatalis’s broken dialog and quests? Mass Effect’s verbosity?
The list goes on and on. Frankly, I feel a little trapped by the request to discuss “one game” But I’ve decided to touch on a game I recently rented, knowing it wouldn’t last but wanting to poke at it anyway–Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements. There are any number of nit-picks I could bring up about the game, related to both plot and gameplay. But leaving all of those aside, there was one specific element that killed the game for me.
After the first training level, you find yourself sent on a mission to bring a crystal to someone who lives in a nearby city. You set off on horseback and arrive at the city just as its being attacked by undead forces. For some reason that I cannot determine you find yourself on the outlying city streets without weapons (I chose the assassin template, surely I’d have daggers on me at all time?), fleeing the attacks of undead goblins while trying to make your way to the castle ramparts.
Asleep yet? I almost was.
After finding your way to the ramparts and being tasked with firing a ballista at the undead cyclops (did I mention the undead cyclops?), you manage to put an amazingly quick halt to the necromantic siege and descend into the city proper, picking up an array of conveniently placed weapons as you make your way down through the guard barracks to the city streets. You are, of course, looking for this wizard who needs the crystal you carry and there’s also rumor about a treasure trove in someone’s attic. I began to wander the streets, looking for the right houses, chatting with a guard, stopping by the inn, attacking a combat dummy and… You failed. Try again?
Wait a minute? What? I, I failed? Was I not supposed to attack the combat dummy? What else is a combat dummy for? All right, I’ll try again…
I made my way down through the barracks, picking up weapons, finding the information about the hidden treasure and got to the city streets. I made my way towards an obviously looking arch, stopping to check a door or two along the way and… You failed. Try again?
Um… no, that’s all right. I don’t think I will try again, thanks all the same.
More, more, more! Silvercublogger, Unfettered Blather, Triage Effect, Gamer Unit, Delayed Responsibility, CrazyKinux’s Musing, Zath!, Draining Souls.net, Game Couch, 8-Bit Brigade, thoughts and rants, Hawty McBloggy
Tagged:blog banter, dark messiah of might and magic, game flaws. | 8 Comments »
Mature vs. Mature
By Corvus | April 29, 2008
I just watched a YouTube video of GTA IV footage and no, I’m not going to link to it. You can find a link on Raph’s site if you’re interested. Or, I’m sure, a search for ‘gta hooker’ on YouTube will come up with it pretty quickly. Regardless, it cemented my disinterest in playing the game. It damn near tipped me over into committing myself to a personal ban of all Rockstar games.
My disgust is not because I’m adverse to a mature portrayal of sex in games or any other media. But nothing I saw in the video was mature. Quite the opposite. It was gratuitous and immature. Furthermore, there’s no way I’m going to enjoy playing a character that speaks so disrespectfully to the women he’s about to hire for sex. It’s not funny and it’s downright disrespectful. I understand that this is the “world” they’ve chosen to portray. But I suspect they aren’t doing so in a way that encourages the audience to think about the ramifications of their actions. They haven’t yet and I can’t imagine they’ll start now.
Now, before you start attacking me for being pro-censorship, or a puritan, let’s answer a few questions:
Does this game have the right to exist? Absolutely.
Should it be censored? Absolutely not.
Do I condemn people who play and enjoy it? No, I do not.
But do I want to play a game that’s the equivalent of the sort of porn that features dead eyed women, strung out on drugs, who get verbally and physically abused for the amusement of the men? Not in the least, and make no mistake about it–the intent of the sex in GTA IV is pornographic, even if the imagery is technically not.
Will I ever be comfortable with the portrayal of sex in a game? Yes. But only when the sex is part of a mature themed game that approaches the topic of sex in a fashion that is actually mature. Or when the sex is erotic, rather than pornographic. Or when the sex is an expression of an emotional attachment to an NPC.
Can I give you concrete examples of media containing depictions of sex that I’ve enjoyed? Yes. Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, Short Bus, The Hunger, Michael Manning’s In a Metal Web, Secretary, Angel Heart and Phil Foglio’s Xxxenophiles are just a few of the maturely themed narratives I’ve enjoyed. Some of them are frivolous, perhaps even a bit puerile. Some of them do not contain deep themes relating to their sexual content. Some of them portray forced sex. But each of them contain something GTA IV does not… a maturity that reflects a basic understanding of human sexuality. And I find that utterly lacking in Rockstar’s work to date.
So, today GTA IV was unleashed upon the world and today I find myself a little discouraged to be a part of this industry that I love.
Tagged:grand theft auto, sex. | 11 Comments »