Van Hemlock

When I see a title like this:

Five Ways To Save Video Games

(Found via AFK Gamer)

…I can’t help but bite. For a start, I had no idea that Video Games were in danger, but was instantly ready to leap to their aid and do what I could to help. However, once the initial panic died down, the article soon seemed to become apparent for what it was; a list of suggestions for a better Industry. I’m certainly no gamedev, but then clearly neither is the author, but aside from having a lot of dangerously pent up issues, and possibly an imminent seizure, rupture or psychotic episode in the post, he does seems to have hit upon five key points that I’ve often thought about myself. Let’s avoid the 'Well lets see you do better' Gambit, and have a look:

• “#1 Stop Treating Women Like Whores.”(Hyper-sexualisation of the human form)
  Personally, I somewhat agree that this is a little out of hand these days, although I’m not naive enough to discount the fact that at the age of 30, I’m probably somewhat past the all important Target Demographic – what with the comfortably settled hormones, jaded cynical psyche and all. I enjoy the female form, of course, but I think the key here is context. It’s probably okay to treat women as whores, if that what they are actually supposed to be within the game setting.

  MMOs, on the whole are not generally that flagrant perpetrators on this count, with surprisingly few games requiring female avatars to adventure in fetish wear. Core to the design of most MMOs is the idea that men and women are both equally capable of laying the smack down on goblins, and theres usually always a more modest, yet equally functional outfit available if preferred. I would like to see more character creation options for less-than-perfect bodies though, including –gasp- old people!

• “#2 Your Storylines Suck--Get New Ones.” (Lack of variety in main plot-arc)
  I was just ranting about this recently, and again, he has a point, yet also misses one. It’s thought among literary types that there are in fact only seven distinct stories, although what these seven are is often disputed:

  Only Seven?

  Note the all seven contain ‘vs’. So it’s got to be a conflict, and there has to be an enemy. There is still an enormous scope within those seven however, and the execution is the key; clever twists and turns, misdirection, unexpected or unusual antagonists and protagonists, etc. Certain themes appeal to gamers more than others though, and you want your game to appeal to gamers. Hence so many ‘Sci Fi’, or Tolkien variants. But there does need to be a story, otherwise there isn’t much point in even the most awesome game engine being there.

  MMOs usually tend to be quite weak on this charge; the very nature of the medium doesn’t leave you much to work with; 1500 or so people who are all the protagonist, and a world that cannot acknowledge any specific one as The Hero. Quests often act as miniature stories, but largely it’s left to the players to make their own.

• “#3 Enough with the Epics.” (Lack of variety in protagonist’s perspective)
  To be honest, I’m not sure this shouldn’t really be a part of #2. I assume the objection here is that all games tend toward the Seven Stories above, and by necessity, cast the players as a hero. Certainly it would be possible to have player as Anti-Hero, or even a series of Heroes, but the basic dynamic would be no different, and speaking personally, I don’t have the time/resources/opportunity/guts to be an actual Real Life Hero; fire fighter, bone marrow donor, etc, so tend to come to Video Games actively seeking this.

  MMOs, for the reasons above are often quite safe from this problem. Most gaming sessions, nothing is resolved, no-one wins, and very little happens that could be called Heroic, against the backdrop of 1500+ other people doing more or less the same thing. If anything, I’d submit that MMOs need to strive harder to actually commit this heinous crime.

• “#4 Stop with the Spectacles.” (Over reliance on special effects and set-pieces)
  Video games are always going to be driven by the available hardware, and a significant part of the experience is seeing something new and interesting, that you hadn’t seen before. If Pixel Shading is new and cool, by all means, go crazy with it, but I do see what he’s getting at – gameplay shouldn’t be neglected in the process. I think he’s harking back to 8-bit days, when the available systems were very rudimentary – the NES, the Megadrive, the Spectrum and Commodore 64. In that environment, the potentials of the hardware become exhausted very quickly, so distinctiveness and excellence needs to come from other areas, which is why DOS Emulator Classics are still playable today, even despite looking rubbish.

  I think the general complexity of an average MMO insulates from this crime; indeed even ‘cutting edge’ MMOs, such as World of Warcraft and GuildWars still generally look inferior to similarly new and recent offline titles. Most MMO designers are probably already painfully aware that there’s a lot more to the project than just sorting the graphics out.

• #5 Cinema is Sinful.” (Over reliance on cinematic cut-scenes)
  

  Rubbish. One thing I’ve noticed during my current spell in the offline wilderness is that the mere presence of voice-acting and cut-scenes transforms the game, and in many ways alleviates some of the more lack-lustre elements of game design. Indeed, in many cases for me, unlocking new cutscenes is a key motivation for bothering to continue at all. I can certainly see how having to spend a massive part of the budget on VO would make life difficult for game development, but there’s no need for a key NPC to actually BE Samuel L Jackson, or whoever. A relative unknown with an interesting voice would do – for me it isn’t Samuel L Jackson anyway, it’s Billybob the Shopkeeper, or whoever, and if the celeb is too famous, it just ruins immersion for me. But I love a good interactive novel, moreso than most proper films or books in fact.

  Until recently, this wasn’t an issue for MMOs at all – no VO, no cutscenes. Laterly these things seem to be creeping in, and becoming standard, but for the reasons above, a start-middle-end cinematic experience is often not appropriate for an MMO anyway.

All in all, certainly a debate proking piece, but these debates have certainly been going for quite some time already. I’d recommend less coffee, and a go at Planescape: Torment, which already has a great many of the things he’s suggested, but which was, alas, not nearly as popular as that Dead or Alive console beach volleyball thing.