With the ungodly amount of first-person shooters on the market these days, chances are high you've played at least one during this generation of games.
For the most part, the shooter genre is not widely regarded as having the most emotionally-driven stories in gaming (no one cares about your wife, Dom), and Gamasutra has an interesting theory as to why that is.
A recent study used biometric feedback to measure player responses to the initial 90 minutes of big-name action titles such as Gears of War, Resistance, and Halo 3. The issue most game's suffered from was an inability to keep gamers engaged during tutorials and -- you guessed it -- cutscenes.
It's hard to summarize this extensive study in a few short paragraphs, so I urge everyone to go check it out. And if you're too lazy to be bothered, here's something to think about: players best connected with the cutscenes found in Gears of War. Who knew?
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Contest:
8:03 PM on 12.03.2008
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In fact, the only games I can think of that were engaging in the slightest and weren't FPSes are probably a handful of western RPGs.
Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, of course, but I pretty much agree with the article.
[Spoiler]
In particular, I'm talking about the ones where the U.S. Marine dies an agonizingly slow death after the nuke attack, and one of the final scenes where the SAS members are taken out in a pretty shocking, abrupt fashion.
Also, if you must use a cutscene in an FPS, make sure you keep it in the first person perspective. Immersion is one of the best draws of the genre, and your story can't be told effectively if you shatter that immersion every time you try to tell it.
IT'S A THIRD PERSON SHOOTER!!!
[Also spoiler]
I was also really creeped out by the cutscene in COD4 where you're the dignitary being driven through the streets, about to be executed. Pangloss' comment about cutscenes using first-person perspective reminded me of this.
Seeing all the cheering dudes shooting off their AK-47s as I was being led to my death was kinda frightening. That entire scene was handled brilliantly, down to the last moments.
Although I hated dying every 5 seconds in the multiplayer, hell of a game.
CoD4 does an excellent job of containing all of the potential "highs" and "lows" of what the researchers seemed to be looking for, but some of its most "engaging" scenes for me were ones that, according to the study, would not have worked. The oft-mentioned gunship sequence, some of the sniper stages, etc.
My favorite parts of the study were the observations that little things like grenade tossing, recharging shields, active reloads and the like accumulate into a fairly large net positive response. That, and the mention of how puzzles in games like HL2 provide a means of easing off the adrenaline without turning off engagement.
But when all else fails, developers, just copy Valve.
I mean shit why don't we compare driving a car and sleeping.
FAIL!
The worse part is when these studies are given any kind of publicity.
As far as engagement v. fun, it should be noted that in all the graphs the study showed mapping both engagement and positive response, there was clearly a close relationship, if not necessarily direct correlation.
Damn, it feels good to just cold get nerdy about a subject.
Serious half of what it says can be (should be) common sense. I can tell you that if someone got in my face with a knife its going to be a lot more intense then some dude I can't see shooting and missing me.
Dddduuuurrrrr....
And I agree, Call of Duty 4 had some gripping cutscenes...
yes, your brain is not as active while watching a cutscene b/c they are not interactive. i mean... someone got paid to study this? jeesus.
Great games can combine both great writing and still engage, but resources are inarguably finite. Not everything can be spread equally. Gears is incredibly engaging, but on the flip side, we have "more like ten sh*tloads, Dom". Not very "engaging" writing.
Simply keeping everyone "engaged" in a physiological sense is fine, but I'd also like for that level of engagement to come without compromising other aspects of the design.
I'd also caution against applying this logic to genres of gameplay that don't necessarily need to be more "engaging". Games like, say, Final Fantasy Tactics or Baldur's Gate would fail a test like this on every level, so the context is extremely important to remember.
I think more attention needs to be placed on keeping the camera AS YOUR FUCKING CHARACTER SEES THINGS. I'm tired of 3rd person shooters where I can see the back of my own head, and my body blocks part of the screen.