surf dtoid with 
Rising (10+)
People you follow
send message
follow
followers
Fantastic blog! I tend to agree that "being" the character in the game is something that video games can do so much better than any other medium... but I also do think that games can tell stories from other perspectives. I don't think that Heavy Rain accomplished this, but it at least was an interesting attempt.
There is room in gaming for various ways to tell stories, and it's nice that different options are being explored.
There is room in gaming for various ways to tell stories, and it's nice that different options are being explored.
"It's the same with the original Dead Space and Dead Space 2, the original is a damn lot more creepy and atmospheric compared to the second as there's cutscenes goddamn everywhere."
I disagree with this for much the same reason I favour expressive characters over silent protagonists. More often than not, the latter feel like vehicles designed solely to allow the game permission to occur without having pesky characterisation get in the way.
I disagree with this for much the same reason I favour expressive characters over silent protagonists. More often than not, the latter feel like vehicles designed solely to allow the game permission to occur without having pesky characterisation get in the way.
I think there's a difference between silent and expressive protagonists. Silent ones are effectively blank slates but sometimes they are done in a way that's not effective. Metro 2033 kept blending cut-scenes and non-speaking gameplay (perhaps to preserve immersion) but failed really.
As said, I'll tackle this subject more in depth in my new booky wooky soon.
As said, I'll tackle this subject more in depth in my new booky wooky soon.
If Cage was right, then I wouldn't have felt the twist in Bioshock to the same degree that I did.
Anyone who played that game would rightly know exactly where to take Cage's opinion in this regard. You are quite right to point this out, and Portal! Did that guy never play Portal?...
See, now Cage is getting me angry!
Anyone who played that game would rightly know exactly where to take Cage's opinion in this regard. You are quite right to point this out, and Portal! Did that guy never play Portal?...
See, now Cage is getting me angry!
Wahhh, David Cage has a different philosophy on game design on the norm. How about we focus on that rather than missing the point entirely. All game designers aren't going to suddenly adopt one type of thinking. There's no need to act like the world is going to come to an end because David Cage wants to make 'movie games. Also, it's an outright lie that David Cage wants video games to less interactive, considering the reason that he CHOOSE the control scheme/gameplay style is so the gamer can have hundreds or thousands of actions with the same amount of buttons.
i hear what you're saying, but i think you're being somewhat narrow in your position. there is room for both philosophies, but i really think there is usually more emotional power in stepping in the shoes of someone else rather than projecting myself into every game.
it was actually quite powerful to be controlling Madison in Heavy Rain while being told to strip. Never before in a video game had I had to be the vulnerable female like that.
I hope Cage and other developers find ways to place us in other cultures, personalities, and mindsets in the future.
I completely disagree with your take on Marsten in RDR. If not for his distinct character and attachment to his family, the story would have been hallow. If I was just allowed to be any cowboy, the story would have had no weight.
i never felt any emotional investment in Half-Life 2 or BioShock. I loved BioShock, but it was far more intellectual than emotional.
I also think Shadow of the Colossus proves Cage's point more than yours. Wander was a defined character. Yes, he was silent, but he had his own motivations and agenda. I don't think Wander could be labeled as an "empty shell".
sorry for the length.
it was actually quite powerful to be controlling Madison in Heavy Rain while being told to strip. Never before in a video game had I had to be the vulnerable female like that.
I hope Cage and other developers find ways to place us in other cultures, personalities, and mindsets in the future.
I completely disagree with your take on Marsten in RDR. If not for his distinct character and attachment to his family, the story would have been hallow. If I was just allowed to be any cowboy, the story would have had no weight.
i never felt any emotional investment in Half-Life 2 or BioShock. I loved BioShock, but it was far more intellectual than emotional.
I also think Shadow of the Colossus proves Cage's point more than yours. Wander was a defined character. Yes, he was silent, but he had his own motivations and agenda. I don't think Wander could be labeled as an "empty shell".
sorry for the length.
It's seeing reactions like this that tell me, without a doubt, that GAMERS should not be at GDC. This includes press, this includes, fans, this includes someone who writes 15 paragraphs repeating himself (as big of a fan of long windedness as I am). Allow me to explain...
You currently exist in a bubble. Looking up, down, left, right, side, all you see is what is in your bubble. Like a bubble boy, your opinions and expressions are reflected solely by what is in your view, no farther. Why is this important? Because you see the silent protagonist and the empty shell as one in the same. They are not. Likewise, Jim Sterling made the mistake of attempting to qualify his response in saying what would be unacceptable in a movie shouldn't be acceptable in a game. Which is also a blatant falsehood.
Take, as an example, Little Miss Sunshine. This is a movie where a father saying his daughter can't have ice cream for breakfast makes him the abusive asshole father when, in real life, the correct response would have been exactly his reaction. "No, you can't have ice cream for breakfast you fucking infant." Push forward to the scene in the car where the 17 year old emo Odo lookalike realizes for the first time that he's color blind, resulting in the death of a dream to be a pilot. Yet again, horribly implausible. Guess how many awards this spastic abortion won? Guess how many tickets Transformers 2 sold. The idea that other media somehow doesn't reward the inanity of video game style plots is complete and utter bullshit and ANYONE who claims otherwise should have their license to voice an opinion immediately revoked.
Having said that, look at your examples. Look at things like how Gordan Freeman is SOMEHOW a great character (instead of a camera point, seriously Half-Life 2 is WAY overrated). As a video game, it works but only for one, and only one, reason. US. We, as gamers, were raised with the idea of our perspective being the character. There is nothing wrong with this but when this hollow projection is attempted in other media, it's very often a failure. There is a reason, people who have grown up on those media types were NOT trained on that shit. We were.
The first step to writing and understanding any character can be summed in in one simple writing exercise. "What is in their refridgerator?" It's a simple but very basic truth. The hub of necessity defines how someone lives. The problem with a lot of empty shell characters are that this particular aspect of the character never gets an answer. Instead, we are presented a blank slate and WE are taking up the slack for lazy writing.
Consider the Companion Cube and how that exploded. Remove the dialogue from that game and it's fucking gibberish. Companion Cube was nothing more than square peg fitting a square hole. Despite this, we built an entire cult around what we felt was a personality. It wasn't there, but damned if the writers didn't take their due credit for what gamers, not them, crafted as a viable character. To further this point, one needs only look at the fan reaction to Samus Aran gaining a voice and a personality. Despite being a sex idol since she started, suddenly her nonexistant fiction was broken down and exposed.
I say all this, of course, because this is an attachment ONLY gamers have. New gamers don't have this kind of concept when they play Chrono Trigger or Half-Life 2. Gordan Freeman isn't real to them, he's a camera point and a stage for the other characters to interact with. New gamers simply cannot buy into this fiction notion since they don't have the history with it. That mentioned nuke in COD4 was a "cool event" for several of my non video gaming friends, but that's all it was, an event. It wasn't some perspective shifting grip and impact of an inescapable death. Only us video gamers came away with that.
You currently exist in a bubble. Looking up, down, left, right, side, all you see is what is in your bubble. Like a bubble boy, your opinions and expressions are reflected solely by what is in your view, no farther. Why is this important? Because you see the silent protagonist and the empty shell as one in the same. They are not. Likewise, Jim Sterling made the mistake of attempting to qualify his response in saying what would be unacceptable in a movie shouldn't be acceptable in a game. Which is also a blatant falsehood.
Take, as an example, Little Miss Sunshine. This is a movie where a father saying his daughter can't have ice cream for breakfast makes him the abusive asshole father when, in real life, the correct response would have been exactly his reaction. "No, you can't have ice cream for breakfast you fucking infant." Push forward to the scene in the car where the 17 year old emo Odo lookalike realizes for the first time that he's color blind, resulting in the death of a dream to be a pilot. Yet again, horribly implausible. Guess how many awards this spastic abortion won? Guess how many tickets Transformers 2 sold. The idea that other media somehow doesn't reward the inanity of video game style plots is complete and utter bullshit and ANYONE who claims otherwise should have their license to voice an opinion immediately revoked.
Having said that, look at your examples. Look at things like how Gordan Freeman is SOMEHOW a great character (instead of a camera point, seriously Half-Life 2 is WAY overrated). As a video game, it works but only for one, and only one, reason. US. We, as gamers, were raised with the idea of our perspective being the character. There is nothing wrong with this but when this hollow projection is attempted in other media, it's very often a failure. There is a reason, people who have grown up on those media types were NOT trained on that shit. We were.
The first step to writing and understanding any character can be summed in in one simple writing exercise. "What is in their refridgerator?" It's a simple but very basic truth. The hub of necessity defines how someone lives. The problem with a lot of empty shell characters are that this particular aspect of the character never gets an answer. Instead, we are presented a blank slate and WE are taking up the slack for lazy writing.
Consider the Companion Cube and how that exploded. Remove the dialogue from that game and it's fucking gibberish. Companion Cube was nothing more than square peg fitting a square hole. Despite this, we built an entire cult around what we felt was a personality. It wasn't there, but damned if the writers didn't take their due credit for what gamers, not them, crafted as a viable character. To further this point, one needs only look at the fan reaction to Samus Aran gaining a voice and a personality. Despite being a sex idol since she started, suddenly her nonexistant fiction was broken down and exposed.
I say all this, of course, because this is an attachment ONLY gamers have. New gamers don't have this kind of concept when they play Chrono Trigger or Half-Life 2. Gordan Freeman isn't real to them, he's a camera point and a stage for the other characters to interact with. New gamers simply cannot buy into this fiction notion since they don't have the history with it. That mentioned nuke in COD4 was a "cool event" for several of my non video gaming friends, but that's all it was, an event. It wasn't some perspective shifting grip and impact of an inescapable death. Only us video gamers came away with that.
@Sheppy You seem to be insinuating that narrative that speaks to, and then upends, videogame convention is illegitimate because it cannot speak to the non gamer. I don't subscribe to that notion. The graphic novel Watchmen is not nearly as effective a satire if you are not aware of superhero comics. Shows such as The Office will be more impactful on those who have worked in an office environment. I'm not sure why it is so starkly felt by Cage, and others, that we have not had a seismic shift in what we now call gaming compared to 20 years ago, so therefore we must have some rule book tying us down that we bad better throw out. It's a deliberate straw man to make him look more radical.
I'm cool with either side. I like games with silent protagonists that make the player feel like the character and I like more cinematic games where I'm obviously a 3rd party observing the story.
@CaptainBus,
I understand your confusion because, after my bubble speech, it made it seem as if it's my way or the highway. But that wasn't the point of the bubble speech. My point is, despite the reaction, it is NOT a "my way or the highway." It's more like the games industry has many highways. Some of which you can see, and thus relate to, and some of which are far beyond your view and experience. That does NOT make those highways invalid, it simply makes them beyond your understanding. THAT is my problem with the article. That only one way can exist and any other way is wrong. It's linear thinking and it's THAT expression, not the reiteration of thoughts that have come out of Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sony, and even Microsoft, that threatens the games industry.
I understand your confusion because, after my bubble speech, it made it seem as if it's my way or the highway. But that wasn't the point of the bubble speech. My point is, despite the reaction, it is NOT a "my way or the highway." It's more like the games industry has many highways. Some of which you can see, and thus relate to, and some of which are far beyond your view and experience. That does NOT make those highways invalid, it simply makes them beyond your understanding. THAT is my problem with the article. That only one way can exist and any other way is wrong. It's linear thinking and it's THAT expression, not the reiteration of thoughts that have come out of Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sony, and even Microsoft, that threatens the games industry.
I think that having games of both types is probably healthy. Clearly there are designers with strong visions in both camps. As a gamer, I want to experience both sides. I have Heavy Rain on the docket to be played, so I can't speak to it yet, but I loved Indigo Prophecy for being something different.
Metro gives you what is barely recognizable as an empty shell of a character, but disguises itself as a totally linear game with little to no player choice. If there's one thing Metro did succeed at, it was immersion. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Metro gives you what is barely recognizable as an empty shell of a character, but disguises itself as a totally linear game with little to no player choice. If there's one thing Metro did succeed at, it was immersion. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Did Sheppy just call Little Miss Sunshine a 'spastic abortion'?
Let's hope he's wearing his Satire Undies again.
Let's hope he's wearing his Satire Undies again.
@Byronic Man
Little Miss Sunshine is a horribly written film that takes everything thats bad about independant films and props it up for all the mental masturbaters to jizz out their nose from heavy contemplation. There are GREAT movies that were very much overlooked while that film with all of it's "no, it's dark and quirky because it's dark and quirky" taglines ran away with undeserved love.
I do have rage against that movie... yes.
Little Miss Sunshine is a horribly written film that takes everything thats bad about independant films and props it up for all the mental masturbaters to jizz out their nose from heavy contemplation. There are GREAT movies that were very much overlooked while that film with all of it's "no, it's dark and quirky because it's dark and quirky" taglines ran away with undeserved love.
I do have rage against that movie... yes.
