critical to their status as protected interface; we went way different on art Trip’s total fascination with stores speech. In the landmark case Interactive style; we went way different on editorial, to Digital Chocolate. Mark Wallace talks Digital Software Association v. St. Louis at least from the rest of the gaming to luminaries of the ludology v. County, Missouri, the decision at the The Escapist is an odd beast. There are media. narratology debate about their recent Court of Appeals turned on whether or the fine words of our writers, the fancy gameplaying habits, and returned with not contained expressive value art, the sleek back-end. But which is it As such, we’re quite polarizing. I get interesting results. And Allen Varney similar to that possessed by painting, that brings people back? letters each week saying, “I love the look discusses roleplay theory – tabletop music and literature. The Court ruled of your magazine – why don’t all sites style. Find these articles and more in this that “If the first amendment is versatile Is it the content? Is it the presentation? look like this?” Those are sitting right week’s issue of The Escapist. enough to shield the painting of Jackson Is it the feeling of looking at a print next to letters asking, “Why is your site Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or magazine, without the clutter? I suspect broken? This is the web, not print!” Cheers, Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll, we it’s some combination of all these see no reason why the pictures, graphic factors, plus some. And I further suspect Yes, it’s risky. But so was making a , concept art, sounds, music, that combination is completely different in which the object is to roll everything stories, and narrative present in video for each person. up into a ball to make a star. So was games are not entitled to a similar making a game where we all got the protection,” and upheld First Amendment This is the same for games. The debate chance to rock out on a guitar on our protections for games. over the importance of various aspects guitar-shaped controller. So was of game creation is hot. The for spending four years creating the most To the Editor: Regarding your most Had the Court of Appeals not found that the perfect balance of story, gameplay, beautifully rendered colossi as foes. recent Editor’s Note: whether or not games could stack up next to Pollock, beautiful graphics, new themes, old games are art is immaterial to their Schoenberg or Carroll, it’s highly likely favorites is, in essence, one without end. Is taking risks the be all, end all method status as speech protected under the they wouldn’t be protected - which was Or perhaps, no one end. for success? Eh, that’s just my opinion. exactly what the district court had But, in order for you to help form your First Amendment. decided, before it was overturned. It was So, what do we do in this case? How do own, this week’s issue of The Escapist, Sincerely, for this reason that the reversal led to you entice people to return? “Ludo, Ergo Sum,” focuses on the headlines such as “Video games get ‘art’ philosophy of game design. Dave B. Doskocil status in the US”. The thing(s) which bring people back to Thomas returns this week with an Dear Mr. Doskocil: I respectfully The Escapist, I think, are our strong interview with one of the brightest stars disagree. In fact, the question of Cheers, choices. We didn’t go middle of the road in interactive entertainment, Trip whether games are, or are not art is Julianne on much. We went way different on user Hawkins, discussing everything from From the Lounge: [Re: those precious hours we have available Emotional turmoil? How can you rule out Fortunately, the people who mind their “Unremembering William” by Tom to make ourselves more cultured, the idea that a game couldn’t provide all own business are the norm, but there is Rhodes] I took the time to click on your civilized and empathetic.” that? Maybe gaming doesn’t have its a vocal minority that wishes others to Roger Ebert link, and was dismayed but Shakespeare yet, but that doesn’t mean conform to their own views of how they unsurprised to read the following: Wow! Didn’t he write the screenplay for there can’t be one. should behave or parent or worship. This a Russ Meyer movie? Beyond the Valley “Terror of the Few” is what causes most “...I did indeed consider video games of the Ultra-vixens? That’s two precious And don’t get me started on the idea of of the problems. So, immediately, the inherently inferior to film and literature. culture-grubbing hours that many people authorial control--far better minds than other side springs up, usually much There is a structural reason for that: are never going to get back. Unless that mine have argued that the idea of the more coherent, but not usually arguing Video games by their nature require was the other guy, the late Gene Siskel. author itself is moot. from a position of overwhelming player choices, which is the opposite of passions (in all but rare instances). Thus, the strategy of serious film and I would have to say that based on most Anyhoo. Phew! Had to vent. I enjoyed conflict. literature, which requires authorial of the popular movies this year — and your article very much. And it’s nice to control. Ebert has been a tireless champion of see that you understand that the urge to As long as there are good intentions, the the popular movie — most filmgoers play is so essential to humanity that no road to hell will be paved with them. I am prepared to believe that video aren’t lapping up any more of the milk of matter the platform, whether it’s tic-tac- games can be elegant, subtle, human kindness or the cream of toe drawn in the sand or Halo 3, games -Tom Rhodes sophisticated, challenging and visually intellectual civilization than any given will always be played. wonderful. But I believe the nature of gamer. And I have to say I honestly feel the medium prevents it from moving my precious cultural time is better -Dave Allen beyond craftsmanship to the stature of spent on Diablo 2 than on reading The art. To my knowledge, no one in or out DaVinci Code. From the Lounge: [Re: “A Question of of the field has ever been able to cite a Manners” by Spanner] Your article game worthy of comparison with the Seriously, though. If you are trying to makes a good point. Especially in these great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, make an apples-to-apples comparison of days of the internets, people have lost novelists and composers. That a game conventional narrative vehicles vs. touch with good manners and often can aspire to artistic importance as a computer/video games, what is the basis resort to shouting and name-calling right visual experience, I accept. But for most of comparison? The experiences they out of the gate. gamers, video games represent a loss of provide? Learning? Empathic bonding? Trip Hawkins is deep in a secure underground vault, standing in a telephone booth, talking into his shoe.

This is probably not true. But it’s how I image the man on the other end of the phone - the guy who started and 3DO, launched the Madden NFL game franchise, and now runs the mobile entertainment outfit Digital Chocolate. Because Trip (yes, even the people that don’t know William Hawkins III just feel compelled to call him Trip) inspires a kind of crazy imagination in the people around him and because he really does have a secret formula so valuable, writing about its existence must make him a target for international rings of corporate spies.

So, maybe Trip’s not pulling a Maxwell Smart when he answers the phone to do this interview. Maybe he’s more a James Bond, wearing a white tux, sipping a martini and playing baccarat in Morocco as he answers my questions. And maybe that secret formula he tells me is locked safely in his computer is actually microscopically etched on a titanium plate, tucked inside a lambskin attaché, secured to his hand with molybdenum handcuffs. Really, he’s probably just sitting in his office in San Mateo talking on a speakerphone.

All I know for sure is Trip wants to explain what’s wrong with Madden, why companies shouldn’t follow EA just because it’s successful and provide a little insight into what happened to society between the time people moved out of huts and started telecommuting on the internet.

Most of all, Trip wants to talk about games.

First Cinematic: Trip Dreams Big games and mobile games and games, computer hobby kit that was not much If you wanted to be one of the people games, games, games, games! It just more than a box with some toggle who would shape the personal computer really doesn’t matter what form it’s in. I switches. No mouse, no monitor and you revolution, being born in 1953 would be just enjoy every sort of game there is.” programmed it by changing the wiring. If a good start. You’d be old enough to the young Hawkins had been Newton, experience things like the launch of the A card-carrying game nerd, Hawkins this would have been the part of the Apple II, and young and foolish enough played D&D and enjoyed the Avalon Hill story where the apple hit him in the to believe these clunky new hobby war games. He’d even crack open a head. gadgets would change everything. business game if it promised a little fun. “So, when I first saw a computer I had Of course, it would also help if you were this ‘ah ha!’ moment where I said, ‘Hey, a little different than the other baby “And then the really big love for me was this is a calculating device and we can boomers. In fact, it would help if you sports simulation.” bury all the gaming machinery inside the were a lot like Trip. box and we can make real life in a box In a time when computers were thought and just paint pretty pictures on a TV “Basically, I grew up in the golden age of of as code-breaking machines or science screen.’ television and didn’t really find television fiction information processors that ate to be all that great.” paper punch cards and produced “This was within an hour of seeing my teletype reports, Trip’s idea of sports first computer in 1971.” Sure, he’d sit down for an episode of The simulation was firmly rooted in a pencil Man from U.N.C.L.E or catch a Bond and paper card game called Strat-O- By the time he’d reached college at flick. But his real love was games. Matic. Harvard, Trip had convinced the administration to let him make up his “I’m just such a complete and total game Although he enjoyed the tax accountant- own major in strategy and applied game nut - I’m the kind of guy that likes to go like tabulating and ledgering required to theory and was preparing to start a little to a store and spend hours simulate a pro sport paper, it game company. He even set a date - by in there looking at every single game wasn’t long before a piece of technology 1982, the world would get the business that they have in inventory. I’ll buy with a Star Wars-sounding name showed that would become known as Electronic three, four, five games. I’ve got huge up with a picture of a better gaming Arts. piles of board games my house. I play a through computing. In 1971, Trip lot of videogames and I play internet encountered a PDP-8, the early “So, it was actually in 1975 that I It’s 20 minutes into the interview and machine that ever claimed to run a decided that I would start the game Trip is getting wound up. Recalling the videogame. Rarely in the history of company in 1982. I literally pegged it electric fire of certainty he felt when he gaming has anything approached seven years in advance.” launched EA puts him into the Madden in longevity, mass appeal or entrepreneur’s zone. He’s ready to play. good old-fashioned financial success. In the era of dot com billionaires and equity rich programming whiz kids, it’s “I believe that I was much more alive “Madden, without any question, was my hard to image just how provocative this and engaged as a human being because biggest success as a creative contributor. idea was. At that time, if you told people of the interactivity of gaming compared And of course, Madden is just driven by computers were going to make to the passivity of television. And I was this sort of childhood interest in football everything from typewriters to travel absolutely convinced if we made it easier and football games that were stimulated agents obsolete, they would have looked for people to understand it audio/ by discovering Stat-O-Matic. You can at you like you were crazy. Crazy like a visually, I absolutely believed that would look at Madden as Stat-O-Matic taken to game developer these days saying he’s cause it to replace television.” that next level. The machinery is in the going to build a moon ship. Some people box and there’re TV-like visuals on the are just ahead of the curve. An MBA at Stanford and four years at screen.” nascent Apple Computer gave Hawkins “Everyone has always looked at me like the chops and the connections he You can only image the smug smile I’m crazy. They’re still looking at me like needed to squeeze out the venture Hawkins earned when John Madden I’m crazy. And, of course, I’ve always felt capital necessary to start Electronic Arts. declared over a video link to a room full like I’ve been doing things that other In 1982, right on schedule, he opened of E3 journalists several years ago that, people think are pretty nerdy and geeky. the doors to the tiny software publisher “When we started out, we tried to make So, I just guarantee you, back then, it that would one day dominate the retail the game like the real thing. These days seemed really nerdy and really geeky.” landscape. we try to make real thing like the videogame.” Cinematic 2: Trip Makes a Football It would take another seven years, but Game Trip would finally get his computerized Cinematic 3: Trip Trips on 3DO “Here’s what I totally believe…” football game. EA would provide the If you wanted to write a biography about platform that would sell 50 million games Trip, the EA and Madden stories would over 16 years, spanning pretty much any provide more than enough drama to fill the pages. Neil Armstrong only went to of failure from 3DO that were very the moon once, after all, and plenty of humbling, that were extremely valuable books have been written about that. lessons to learn. And without question, I’m applying that experience to what I’m But, by 1991, Trip got to dreaming doing with Digital Chocolate.” again, and this time cooked up an idea for a new kind of gaming console company. If games were going to Cinematic 4: Trip Develops a Taste provide the new TV, someone was going for Chocolate, Wonka Style to need to build the new TV. And as far Trip Hawkins could retire. Or, at the very as Trip the visionary was concerned, least, he could certainly earn a decent those interactive eyeballs would be glued living just talking about the past. But to a 3DO box. clearly, Trip’s not the retiring type. Especially not once he’s sat back, Packed with all the right ideas - 3-D reflected on the gaming industry and graphics, CD media and lots of figured out exactly what it’s doing wrong horsepower - it was considered too and what it needs to succeed in the expensive and was battered by the future. If Trip has a favorite game, it cheaper, slicker and much better funded must be the game of business. And he’s PlayStation. After only a few years, the back at the table aiming to win again man who launched one of videogaming’s with a decisive pincer-like movement of biggest commercial successes also casual mobile gaming and the best of oversaw one of its biggest social networks. disappointments. 3DO got out the hardware business in ’96 and ceased to While Trip’s vision for EA was to bust up exist altogether in 2003. that full-time, live-in relationship we have with our televisions, Digital “For me, and this will be the last thing I Chocolate wants a media one-night say about 3DO because it’s kind of a stand, just a little time to give you a waste of our time, there were elements little love. “The company’s named for the concept time, I can only imagine Trip doffing his they do text messaging? And why did of instant gratification. And, the slogan is purple top hat and pointing his cane they all want to change their ring tone? ‘Seize the minute.’” menacingly toward the obvious: People And why did they want to share crummy want to play. But learning something as pictures taken with a crummy camera? Like that other tortured genius running a complicated as Madden just isn’t going What’s that about? chocolate outfit, Willy Wonka, Trip just to happen for most people. People want wants people to be happy. causal entertainment and they want “What it’s about is that we’re in the era things that let them connect with other of social computing, which was preceded From years watching the industry people. If they wanted the rigor of by videogaming as a major dimension of develop, Trip has come to the conclusion playing pro ball, they wouldn’t sit around computing and preceded by desktop that hardcore gamers have pretty much eating chicken wings with their pals and computing and personal computing and screwed up the industry. While trying to complaining that the half-time mainframe computing. We’re now in the cater to the most vocal game buyers, commercials weren’t funny enough. And era of social computing. In which, for the game makers have missed the obvious. they don’t want to spend the time of first time, what’s happening with Most people don’t play the games that learning or risk the embarrassment of computers, and it started on the top the charts each year. playing Madden. internet, is mainstream everyday consumers are using a computing “For every hardcore gamer, that Casual and social means only one thing. platform on a network, purely for social represents 5 percent of the population,” And when it comes to mobile, Trip’s benefit, not because it is helping them he explained, “there are another 19 creative fire goes blue flame. with their work. And not because they consumers that don’t want to play are trying to kill time with entertainment. anything that is more than casual. “I’m looking at what’s on the internet They’re using it purely for social contact. and looking at instant messaging and “Taking football, since obviously I’ve looking at Neopets and looking at “You saw that with instant messaging followed football for quite a long time, fantasy sports and thinking, ‘OK, what and some of the social communities on there are 140 million people who does that say about what we can do in the internet. And see it with, say, soccer watched the Super Bowl last year. Only 5 mobile?’ And realizing that with mobile, moms doing free Yahoo! email. And million of them bought Madden Football.” it quickly went beyond just being a again, none of that stuff was going on 10 phone. And we now have a $35 billion years ago. So, you saw the first inklings By comparison, 15 million people play global market for text messaging. Why of it on the internet. But the internet fantasy football and countless others the heck would people do that when it’s with the PC is not truly mass market. participate in office football polls. This so much easier to just talk? Why would Guys like us have them. But there are 6 billion people in the world. And the in a fantasy league on the internet for a number of people that use a PC, its in while will admit, ‘Yeah, if wasn’t for that the 100s of millions. It’s not even in the league, we’d never talk to each other. billions. And we’ve already got 2 billion And they’ll even say, ‘Wow, we’ve gotten people with mobile phones.” to be good friends because we are in this league together.’ But it’s kind of like they What’s happening, he thinks, is people to have this excuse because it’s not as are desperately trying to use technology likely that a guy is just going to call up to reweave the fabric of social life that another guy and say, ‘Hey, I’m feeling was ripped apart as people moved from really lonely, can we have an intimate tight knit tribal communities to the chat?’” sprawling disconnected life of modern dystopia. Call it Mayberry versus the The When Trip talks about social computing, Sprawl. Ever the businessman, Trip just you get that itchy feeling that he’s just wants to put a little Floyd back in the spieling the same well-worn speech he barbershop, Barney in the sheriff’s office used to win venture capital. and Gomer at the pump. Trip wants to put people and personality back into But if you take a minute to look at, say, gaming. the personals on Yahoo!, you start to see that in fine Trip fashion, his precision of “We have all these advancements from perception is so focused, it just comes the industrial revolutions, the off like marketing copy. Hundreds and transportation revolution, the media thousands of men and women in your revolution. And, in fact, what has area can’t get dates. And they’ve happened is that people have traded that resorted to posting pictures of built in intimacy for a car, a television, themselves and databasing their vitals maybe a prescription to Prozac. So, the for convenient searching. mobile phone has just turned into this lifeline. In a way, it’s sad to view the parade of lonely people who just want to reach out “You see this, for example, with guys and touch someone. Then again, it’s and their buddies. Guys that have been heartening to see the people who file internet personals are not shut-ins with Cinematic 5: Trip Sees the Light Getting game content onto the billions of No, what people need is something like bad teeth and unfortunate taste in ‘80s “I spent, as you know, 30 years on the mobile handsets in the world isn’t the Mobile League Sports Network. hair styles. Nope. They’re people just Holy Grail of fidelity,” Trip explains, exactly business genius. Loads of like you. And they just want someone to setting up his conversion to the new companies have realized that selling Digital Chocolate’s MLSN approaches have dinner with them, take them skiing, faith. “It was always about, ‘By God, videogames to even a small percentage sports as a social network, like guys check out London theater or maybe we’re gonna make this look and feel like of the horde of mobile phones users talking in a bar rather than as a spend some time playing a game. television!’ So, I spent 30 years doing would lead to Scrooge McDuck piles of profession, along the lines of Madden. that. cash. What Hawkins figured out was Instead of mastering juke sticks and If things work out the way Trip wants, all trying to stuff the EA graphics-matter- quarterback vision, players use their cell those lonely people will play a game “It was only through Digital Chocolate most model onto the crummy little phones to do things like pick who will produced by Digital Chocolate. And in that I realized the truth. When I was a screen of the average cell phone was win an upcoming game and brag about the hyperbole of a company named after kid, it was really the social contact of about as sensible as hoping to sell haute the results. Instead of trying to put a legally addictive substance, it looks like gameplay that was the most important French cuisine through McDonald’s. What players in the game, Digital Chocolate DC might have unlocked the formula for thing to me.” people want on their cell phones isn’t just wants to skip to the part where you the Everlasting Gobstopper. ESPN shrunk down to business card size. talk about who won. Of course, getting guys to interact with a on a date with another avatar. And it going to happen, for a lot of the same We already know that people want to game about sports sounds like an easy gives me this little blow-by-blow about reasons.” reach out and touch someone in bite- bet, sort of like the early internet what happened on the date, what the sized chunks. A smile from a pretty girl entrepreneurs figuring a global computer other avatar looks like. And apparently, At this point, he laughs. or a wink from a cute guy still gets your network would be the perfect medium it didn’t go very well. Or, maybe my blood going more than watching King for selling and distributing porn. But avatar is jumping up and down with Cinematic 6: The Big Finale - Trip Kong tear a T-Rex in two. The way Trip what about all those non-sports-loving glee. He has this really hot date with Reveals His Secret pitches, you wish you had a couple of mobile phone customers? What about all another avatar and the other avatar has So what’s the big secret? What’s the million dollars to venture in his vision. the women? invited him to go to Las Vegas and he’s unknown ingredient in Trip’s chocolate? checking in with you to find out if you Oompah loompahs? But it turns out there’s more to it than Not being the kind of guy to leave a think it’s OK for the avatar to go to Las the psych 101 theory on human huge market segment untapped, Trip has Vegas. And you say yes, and you can loneliness and alienation. Just having the Digital Chocolate working another killer check back later to see what happened right idea or the right product at the app - welcome to AvaFlirting. in Vegas.”

Combining The Sims with IM, AvaFlirting Horny avatars and men learning to open hopes to provide modern men and up over online chat about box scores women with a whole new way of giggling don’t exactly ring bells for gamers and casting a sultry glance. Players weaned on frame rates and epic simply create a tiny avatar on their storylines. But Trip, always in fine phone. This avatar can carry animated fashion and always the sports fan, points messages to other players, showing up like Babe Ruth to the outfield bleachers on someone’s phone with a little jig or and all but promises a home run. blowing a kiss. But enhanced buddy icons are only the beginning. “Social games for mobile will end up being a bigger industry than “Suppose I set up my avatar and I close conventional games as we know them the application because my plane has to today. And this is about as radical a leave. And I get off the plane at the statement as if it was 1977 and I was other end and I open up the app and saying that personal computing would be there’s my avatar and he’s in a really bigger than mainframe computing. It is grumpy mood. And it turns out he’s been right time isn’t enough. And Trip thinks “That little recipe now has 58 rules in it. he’s unlocked the alchemical recipe for And, like I said, it’s the only time my transforming common business career I’ve come up with something that ingredients into market gold. Call it his I feel like is a relevant trade secret. So, golden egg, his golden goose or his we’ll see how it turns out! golden whatever; if Trip is right, this one is priceless. “But if Digital Chocolate becomes a success, it will have almost everything to “Basically, I realized that there was a do with that trade secret.” formula that needed to be followed, almost like a recipe, in order to assure Sound familiar? Trip is finally developing long term business success. And it’s very his biggest game of all - the successful complicated. And I’ve started codifying business simulation, the Madden of this formula making money. And as he works on polishing the rules, all he needs is a “And after I had it up to about a dozen good story to wrap around the rulebook critical rules, I realized, wow this is - a secret stored on his computer, we actually a really valuable trade secret. So can only imagine, down deep the in I started documenting it, but I didn’t tell vault, next to the phone booth sitting on anybody. And I basically told the board the banks of a swirling river of pure of directors and I told the management chocolate. team, ‘Look this is going to turn out to be a valuable trade secret. I’m gonna David Thomas is the founder of the talk freely about some of the things we International Game Journalists have to do as a business, but I’m not Association. He also provides going to give anyone a copy of the rule commentary and criticism at book, the recipe. But if I get hit by a buzzcut.com. bus, you’ll just have to break into my computer, you’ll find it there.’ What’s in a game? For those of us who been quietly debating such ideas for last are game buffs - in much the same way five or 10 years. They fall roughly into the cool kids were movie buffs in the two camps: Ludologists, who feel that latter part of the 20th century - it’s a only perfectly balanced gameplay can fascinating question. What makes a create the kind of “flow” that makes a great game such a compelling game truly great, and narratologists, experience? Is it that you’re in the “flow” who feel that story is king and even the described by unpronounceable most balanced game mechanics can’t psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, make up for an empty main character that state of play (or work, for that and mindless hordes of enemies. matter) in which you’re absorbed so completely, you enter a Zen-like state of Of course, those reductive descriptions oneness with your task? Or is it that don’t begin to get at the subtleties of the you’re caught up in the story, in the debate. And for those of us who judge moral choices forced on your character, our games more by experience than by the moments of vulnerability and two-dollar words, reading a stack of triumph, of uncertainty and resolution, academic papers doesn’t necessarily the tale that keeps you glued to your help. So, to shed some more light on console long enough to beat the next some of these ideas, I contacted four boss, reach the next level and find out prominent game theorists and designers what the next chapter holds? to ask them not whether they thought the key to the puzzle lay in either Though you might not weigh these gameplay or story, but a much more issues each time you log into World of important question: What games are you Warcraft or pop that Halo CD into your playing lately, and why? Of course, I Xbox, a number of game designers, couldn’t resist following up with a query researchers and other academics have on theory. I leave it to you, dear reader, to determine which set of answers do and The Rub Rabbits are also in Frasca’s more to settle these kinds of questions - DS. Rabbits, also known as Where Do or whether they need to be settled at all. Babies Come From?, is basically a dating puzzle game. “When well done, Gonzalo Frasca is the guy who started it are the equivalent of poetry,” all, at least formally - though, these Frasca says. “The essence of the days, he wishes he hadn’t. A researcher mechanics and the aesthetics, in a small at the Center for Computer Games package.” Research at the IT University in Copenhagen and co-founder and Senior As to ludology and narratology, Frasca Producer at Powerful Robot Games, it sees dangers in leaning too heavily on was Frasca’s 1999 paper, “Ludology either. “We can learn from , Meets Narratology: Similitude and but the main danger is trying to mimic differences between (video)games and too much,” he says. “I admire people like narrative,” that more or less kicked off Chris Crawford, Greg Costikyan, Ian the debate. Frasca’s newest take on Bogost and Eric Zimmerman. Their camp things is refreshingly all-encompassing: [- people pushing the boundaries of “As the reluctant father of the term innovative gameplay ‘ludology,’ all I can say is that there are really not two camps at all,” he told me. and storytelling -] is much cooler than “People can favor different approaches.” arguing if games are stories or not.”

True to his roots in the gameplay camp, Espen Aarseth is unabashed in calling though, Frasca’s choice of games in himself a narratologist. Building on the recent months has leaned toward the theories of French literary theorist kind of story-less action found in Gerard Genette and narrative theorist Katamari Damacy. Why? “I love when Seymour Chatman, Aarseth’s work is the katamari rolls over people,” Frasca really about how literature may be says. “It’s the closest it gets to when I generated by gameplay mechanics in tortured ants as a kid.” Animal Crossing contexts from the I Ching to the FPS. For Aarseth, gameplay is part and parcel of that “computer games do not tell good what makes the story; in some senses, it stories,” nowadays he’s more likely to tell is the story. you the battle between story and mechanics doesn’t really matter - or Though Aarseth’s thinking may sound never really existed in the first place. like it’s miles above the surface of the Fahrenheit, which he’s been playing world we gamers occupy, he’s recently recently, certainly tries, though Juul played his way through both F.E.A.R. notes, “I want to like it, but I’m not quite and Age of Empires III (which, he goes sure.” Also in rotation are Donkey Konga out of the way to note, can be beat even (“Still the greatest little social game in on its hardest level, if you just keep good company”), and Advance Wars 2: some water between you and the AI). Black Hole Rising, which has surprised He’s been revisiting Half-Life: Opposing him. “I believe that a turn-based Force in recent months, and has dipped strategy game shouldn’t work today, but his toe in The Movies and ’s [Black Hole Rising] really does,” he says. Civilization IV. With his class at the IT University of Copenhagen, he plays “I [have] real trouble identifying with Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy this discussion anymore,” Juul says of Territory. Does this game give special the ludology/narratology debate. “At the insights into narrative as it relates to end of the day, it consists of two parts: gameplay? Not necessarily. “It is a good Real issues such as, ‘When and how does introduction to team-based FPS, and is the fiction of a game matter for players?’ more forgiving than Counter-Strike,” and a plain battle of words that tells us Aarseth says. nothing about games, but is mostly about how to define narrative. The Jesper Juul is a game designer and games I play always come before the author of the book Half-Real: Video theory. I don’t want to become a Games between Real Rules and Fictional game snob.” Worlds. Though he’s asserted in the past Mark Barrett is a writer and designer imagine how the cargo-loading union or who’s worked on the story design and the travel industry would vote if forced other aspects of games, like the Settlers to choose, but the choice would series, The Nations, and adventure title obviously be a false one. And that’s Dark Side of the Moon. Like the other exactly what’s happened in interactive people I talked to for this article, Barrett with the ludology/narratology debate. seemingly plays against type: The game People with vested interests have that’s keeping his GameCube hot these succeeded in putting forward a days is snowboarding title SSX On Tour. masturbatory, ego-driven, politically- I mean, how much story can a game motivated debate that is never going to like that offer? help anyone make a better interactive product.” And like everyone else, Barrett takes issue with the straw man I set up at the So, the next time someone asks you beginning of this piece. “My take on the whether storyline or gameplay is more ludology/narratology debate has always important to creating a great game, tell been that it’s a clever and completely them they’re barking up the wrong false dichotomy,” he says. “If what you’re debate. One doesn’t exist without the into is talking about interactive other. If it did, you’d either be watching entertainment, then it’s endlessly fertile a TV show or just flipping a coin. But ground. with games, all the answers lie right at your fingertips. All you have to do is “If what you’re into is making interactive play. entertainment, it’s literarily meaningless.” Mark Wallace can be found on the web at Walkering.com. His book with Peter Barrett compares the argument to an Ludlow, Only A Game: Online Worlds aircraft manufacturer debating whether and the Virtual Journalist Who Knew to make cargo-only jets or passenger- Too Much, will be published by O’Reilly only jets, but not variants. “You can in 2006. Are you a Gamist, a Narrativist or a 1980s. Tabletop RPGs aren’t dying, but Simulationist? Do you generally favor they’re hardly thriving. Actor, Author or Director stance? Do your chosen reward system, your IIEE Except online, where dozens of (Intent, Initiation, Execution and Effect) passionate designers are revolutionizing and other Techniques support your the field. These low-profile independents Creative Agenda? create small, brilliantly original little games, nurture them like hothouse These are terms used by paper-and-dice orchids, and post them free or sell them roleplaying theorists. When you say, “I cheap in PDF format. And in online swing my sword at the biggest orc,” forums as highflown as a philosophe’s these people analyze, with Jesuit rigor, salon, they’re collectively refining a what you really mean and why. critical apparatus, a theoretical framework to classify game systems and Tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs) are diagnose “dysfunctional roleplaying.” currently enjoying a Golden Age of design and theory, prompted by the Understand: These indie theorists and stagnation of commercial RPG their games reach a bare fraction of the publishing. Over the last decade, roleplaying audience. They’re the hundreds of retail game stores have shut nichiest of niche players. Gamers sharply down; the surviving stores are distinguish indie games from so-called rebounding, but they’re carrying fewer mainstream RPGs, where “mainstream” RPGs, and, in fact, they could make connotes an audience of a few thousand more money selling knitting needles. instead of a few hundred. If mainstream Print runs for new RPG books are low, if designers live a threadbare existence, no longer declining. Attendance at the indies are positively monastic. A few leading convention is flat. A deceptively earn hobby-level incomes - about what upbeat Sacramento Bee article estimates you might earn, say, selling collectibles the market in 2004 at $36 million, down on eBay part-time. The rest are devoted perhaps $100 million from the mid- hobbyists, “amateurs” in the best sense. But they’re doing work that may turn out In many cases, a given genre label to be quite valuable, both for paper and will convey to a close group of people online games. In the same way RPGs use a fairly tight combination of values rules to forestall childish cowboy-and- for these variables [of setting, plot, Indian arguments - “I hit you!” “Nuh- situation and character]. However, uh!” - theorists develop terminology to the same genre label loses its power describe whether a given game helps to inform as you add more people to players achieve their goals. This the mix, especially since most labels discourages vacuous Usenet-style have switched meanings radically arguments - “Your game sucks!” “My more than once. And even more game rules!” - or at least replaces those importantly, new combinations of arguments with “Your game is Gamist!” values for the key variables may be “My game is Narrativist!” The theorists’ perfectly functional, even when they overall goals are to enhance do not correspond to any recognized communication between gamers, inspire genre label. new designs and relate RPGs to other media. Obviously their findings could - you’ll enjoy your new friends in the help a thoughtful MMORPG designer. salon. For the rest of us, here is a brief, relatively painless overview, although if Still, though the theory is useful, reading your Time to Sheesh was less than 20 it can be a slog. For sheer cussed seconds, skip it. opacity, the articles don’t rank with Derrida or Baudrillard, but.... Try this: , GNS, The Big Model Start a stopwatch, then browse a theory Roleplaying theory springs from the article - for example, “GNS and Other commonsense observation that gamers Matters of Roleplaying Theory” by Ron roleplay for different reasons. Edwards. Count the seconds until you mutter, “Sheesh, get a job.” If you never Many online gamers know about UK say that - if you enjoy ideas like this - professor Richard Bartle’s 1990 classification of MUD players as achievers, explorers, socializers or The group’s “demonstrated goals and single outlook. “Techniques include IIEE, killers. Many analysts have followed desired feedback during play” constitute Drama/Karma/Fortune, search time and Bartle, notably Stanford doctoral student the all-important Creative Agenda, handling time, narration apportioning, Nicholas Yee and his Daedalus Project. In which encompasses the GNS framework reward system, points of contact, paper games, the idea of classifying mentioned above. GNS and the Creative character components, scene framing, players dates to 1980, when Glenn Agenda describe the kinds of fun that currency among the character Blacow suggested four basic motives of players want from a particular game. components and much more.” (GNS RPG players: roleplaying, storytelling, glossary.) If the players in the group powergaming and wargaming. GNS postulates three basic outlooks that have incompatible outlooks, or an shape any given action in an RPG, and to outlook incompatible with the game’s As developed in the Usenet newsgroup a lesser extent characterize players’ Techniques, the game won’t satisfy rec.games.frp.advocacy in the late overall styles: them. 1990s, these four approaches shrank to a Threefold Model, which christened • Gamist players like to overcome Players may also clash if they commonly them Simulationist, Dramatist and obstacles, gain power or increased employ Stances that conflict with one Gamist. Avid roleplayers on The Forge options, and “win.” another’s expectations. “Stance” forums revised the model. Game describes the way you decide what your designer Ron Edwards renamed the • Narrativists like to shape their character does at a given moment: Dramatist approach “Narrativist,” and the roleplaying sessions to create a good theory gained prominence as GNS story or examine a dramatic theme. • In Actor Stance, you determine your (Gamist-Narrativist-Simulationist). character’s decisions and actions using Lately, Edwards and the Forge-ites have • Simulationists want their character’s only knowledge and perceptions the been pounding out “the Big Model,” a behavior and circumstances to follow character would have. comprehensive GNS replacement. a believable, consistent, or “realistic” logic. • In Author Stance, you choose what The Big Model characterizes roleplaying you personally want to happen, then as a social contract among players to All three outlooks are equally valid. retrofit your character’s motivations to explore a shared imagining composed of Edwards asserts a given set of game explain the choice. (If you don’t care five elements: Character, Setting, rules cannot satisfy all three outlooks at about an explanation, this is called Situation, System (the actual game once. The system’s Techniques should “Pawn” stance.) rules) and Color (atmospheric nuances). be “coherent,” focused to support a • In Director Stance, you determine that feels more like a chore than a seen a lot of groups founder due to not only the character’s actions but delight, such analysis can be a lifeline to the presence of one such participant. also their context, perhaps including sanity. The Big Model recognizes and Yet they really want to play.... timing or aspects of the environment. prizes diversity of viewpoints. By understanding and appreciating other These roleplayers are GNS casualties. Again, all Stances are valid. Players shift players’ outlooks, you can more easily [...] They are the victims of Stances frequently moment by moment, adjust your expectations in a game incoherent game designs and groups but specific stances are suited to based on those outlooks. that have not focused their intentions particular games or play styles. For enough. [...] They are instance, a game that stresses Edwards concludes his seminal essay simultaneously devoted to and “immersion” (a feeling of being “GNS and Other Matters of Roleplaying miserable in their hobby. “possessed” by your character) usually Theory” with a heartfelt discussion of calls for Actor Stance. Stances are one “dysfunctional roleplaying”; his words My goal in developing RPG theory tool for achieving GNS goals. If you will resonate with many, many gamers: and writing this document is to help make decisions in a way contrary to people avoid this fate. another player’s expectations, that could I have met dozens, perhaps over a mean trouble for the group. hundred, very experienced The Fruits of Their Effort roleplayers with this profile: a limited Though I’m a professional game Stances belong to the Ephemera that repertoire of games behind him and designer, GNS theory hasn’t directly support the group’s Creative Agenda. extremely defensive and turtle-like helped me improve my craft. Partly this Other Ephemera include “in-character vs. play tactics. [...H]e hunkers down is because for two years I’ve been out-of-character diction and dialogue, and does nothing unless there’s a concerned exclusively with a new edition referring to texts, sound effects, taking totally unambiguous lead to follow or of the classic RPG PARANOIA, an offbeat or referring to notes, kibitzing, laughing, a foe to fight. His universal game that fits awkwardly in the GNS praise or disapproval, showing pictures, responses include, “My guy doesn’t framework. (Forge articles seldom and anything similar.” want to,” and, “I say nothing.” mention PARANOIA.)

There’s quite a lot more, but maybe your I have not, in over 20 years of But many other designers have somehow Time to Sheesh is dropping rapidly. Still, roleplaying, ever seen such a person soldiered on without me. Some, taking if you’ve ever been in a roleplaying game have a good time roleplaying. I have strongly to GNS and the Big Model, have produced amazing work, and I’ve • Primetime Adventures (Matt Wilson, Want to learn more? Hit The Forge gleefully stolen many ideas. Don’t look Dog-eared Designs): Create your own forums. Also check out the RPG.net for their games in your local store; episodic TV melodrama. (Review by Roleplaying Open forum and blogs such they’re almost all small press, print-on- Aaron Stone.) as The 20’ By 20’ Room, Attacks of demand or PDF-only, sold exclusively Opportunity, and RPG Theory Review. through e-tailers like Indie Press • The Shadow of Yesterday (Clinton Revolution, RPGMall and e23. A few Nixon, Anvilwerks): Post-apocalyptic highlights from this teeming field: sword-and-sorcery fantasy meets Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA Wuthering Heights in this highly paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 • Sorcerer (Ron Edwards, Adept Press): original “open source” paper RPG edition) and has contributed to computer You have no magic yourself, but you released under a Creative Commons games from Sony Online, Origin, can bind demons to your bidding. How license. (Review by Jeremy Reaban.) Interplay, and Looking Glass. far are you willing to go? • Burning Wheel (Luke Crane, Burning • Dogs in the Vineyard (Vincent Baker, Wheel): Generic fantasy rules system Lumpley Games): Mormon(ish) that eats your rules for lunch. (Review missionaries, “God’s Watchdogs,” on by Chris Gunning.) the 19th-Century frontier, cleansing possessed townsfolk. (Review by Frank Find more good indie RPGs, with links, Sronce.) on the RPG.net Wiki.

• My Life With Master (Paul Czege, Half For major fun, check the contest entries Meme Press): Stupendously by stunt-flying indie designers who atmospheric and intensely innovative, create entire RPGs in one day or one MLWM casts you as Igor, in service to a week, or based on two out of four harsh nonplayer Master; your random words suggested by Ron characteristics are Weariness, Self- Edwards. All these entries are hosted on Loathing and Unrequited Love. (Review 1000 Monkeys 1000 Typewriters. by Steve Darlington.) Game design is a vast subject, especially when considering three decades’ worth of trends. Sadly, current trends are often far removed from what went before, prompting the cliché, “they don’t make them like they used to.” I’m a sincere fan of older “retro” videogames, from Atari to the ZX81. But it’s not because of any dislike for modern games or design concepts; I’m eagerly looking forward to Okami and Oblivion, for example. It’s because modern gaming, with a few exceptions, has a tendency to discard everything that went before once something new arrives. I advocate and praise classical games, because within them are wonderful genres, ideas and methods Move (not to mention aesthetic splendor) that have been left behind as the industry progresses.

It’s infamously known that Sony dictates what you can play, and they have a deplorable anti-2-D policy. Symphony of the Night nearly went unreleased in America; SCEA allowed it, only because of Konami’s arm twisting. Recently, they forced companies like Working Designs and SNK, who traditionally work with 2-D graphics, to release double packs of visually simple games and release single titles at budget prices. The former is now tragically bankrupt, while the latter has found a better friend in Microsoft. This is why Metal Slug 3 made it stateside on the Xbox but not the PS2.

Microsoft isn’t innocent, though. Keith Robinson disapproved of Microsoft putting disclaimers on the Xbox Intellivision Lives! compilation, which stated the title was not an indication of “normal Xbox graphics.” Are hand drawn sprites really the abhorrent evil the industry believes? I say there is a unique beauty to hand drawn visuals, one which can never be replicated with polygons. With these shifts in accepted visual of practicing games like Quackshot to standards also comes a change in the point of completing it within an hour; gameplay mechanics. Where are the it was no less perfect once mastered. My flick-screen cell-based adventures of friends, some of whom are becoming yore, like Below the Root or the original parents with less recreational time, also Zelda? Go and play these oldies for an bemoan increasing game length. Why hour; I defy anyone to claim he didn’t can’t shorter titles be sold alongside the have fun. Yet, those in control of the lengthy epics like GTA? money still feel that investing in simpler ideas is market suicide, which is why we Do modern RPGs need to be over 60 have the plethora of identikit titles hours long? The original Suikoden on currently available. Sometimes, I just PS1, an RPG that broke new ground, want to be restricted to only two axes boasting hundreds of well narrated when I play. Why is a fun game like Alien characters weaved into a complex Hominid, which harkens back to Contra, political story, took me only a weekend greeted with surprise and seen as to complete! But that didn’t stop me unusual? I wish people would again be from regarding it more highly than able to regard such games as the norm, SquareEnix’s bloated projects. not relegated to being curiosities or on Meanwhile, the extortionately priced handhelds. Panzer Dragoon Saga has an exquisite length of around 20 hours. Its price There have also been many genre results from being rightfully regarded as casualties over the years. Text one of the finest examples in the genre, adventures are ignored, FMV was cut regardless of brevity. short before anyone tapped its full potential, and graphic adventures like Publishers claim they force changes to Sam & Max used to be a staple of PC suit “market demand.” And the result? gaming. Longer development times, overworked staff and skyrocketing budgets, which Games, too, are abandoning the notion says nothing about the fact I can no of “short and sweet,” artificially giving longer spend my money on the types of the impression of value. I miss the days games I want. To quell my disenchantment, I turn to retro games generating focus for older, forgotten and enjoy previously missed classics. I styles of play. also contemplate: What if companies started making older games again? I I only wish that as a technological want to frolic blithely in a world where plateau is reached and the industry the industry doesn’t try to suppress matures, corporations will realize that history or old ideas that are no longer they can still profit while giving niche mainstream. players, like myself, the classically styled games we enjoy. Older abandoned But could things be changing? The genres, shorter play lengths, and 2-D Revolution will play downloaded NES sprite-based games are all still games. I wonder if Nintendo will release economically viable. This has been NES development software, creating a proven by the commercial success of Net Yaroze situation where civilians retro, and things like Live Arcade. develop homebrew games. Imagine for a Hopefully, companies are paying moment - the glory days of bedroom attention, and will someday begin coding returning, along with simple, yet developing new games that are a little fun, games. Microsoft, too, is taking old fashioned. action. Cynics joke that Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the best 360 launch John Szczepaniak is a South African title, but Xbox Live Arcade and its freelance videogame writer with a simpler games may just be Microsoft’s preference for retro games. He is also a winning coup, this generation. The PC staff member on the Retro Survival market also looks bright, thanks to project, which contains articles on retro Manifesto Games. We might see old gaming and is well worth investigating. fashioned games distributed, thereby EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS

Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Gregory Lincoln Contributing Editor Lead Web Developer JR Sutich Whitney Butts Director of Advertising Susan Briglia Research Manager Web Developer Nova Barlow Erik Jacobson Media Sales Associate Laura Rotondo Contributors IT Director Tim Stevens Jason Smith Chairman of Themis Group John Szczepaniak Thomas S. Kurz David Thomas Allen Varney John Walker Mark Wallace “It is a curious characteristic of our can be certain to hear about one thing: modern civilisation that, whereas we are graphics. prepared to devote untold physical and mental resources to reaching out into “We’re implementing the very latest the furthest reaches of the galaxy, or to four-dimensional bloom lighting delve into the most delicate mysteries of techniques so every light bulb in the the atom... one of the greatest and most game will glow 47% more - in the past important mysteries is lying so close and the future! beneath our noses that we scarcely even recognise it to be a mystery at all. At “With the state-of-the-art bump-map any given moment... hundreds of particle physics engine we’ve spent 95% millions of people will be engaged [in] of our budget on, our characters are able one of those strange sequences of to have 10,010 polygons, trouncing the mental images which we call a story.” – mere 10,000 in our previous game! Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots “Look! Look at the shiny objects! See how they glint and turn! Looooook. Narrative is our link to the universe. Loooooooook at the shiiiiiiiiny. Stare deeeeeeeep into the pretty lights…” Visceral immediacy is sold to us as a reminder that we are “alive.” It is This ridiculous race for incremental steps stimulation, a release of epinephrine toward photo-realism is a self- from the adrenal medulla, increasing perpetuating, tail-chasing exercise. heart rate, dilating pupils, elevating Publishers will not support a project that blood sugar levels. It’s a deception – a doesn’t implement the latest technology, brief, drug-induced elevation above the developers live in abject fear of not norm. Story is the narration of our truth. including the decorative features of their rivals and gamers all too eagerly buy Visit a videogame developer while into the whole charade. We have sold they’re working on a project, and you ourselves the lie that graphics matter, and it’s looking increasingly unlikely that themselves proves only to have been the we’ll ever manage to untangle ourselves gateway. We are in fact uncovering from it. nothing less than a kind of hidden, universal language.” This isn’t denial. The opening levels of Far Cry were a thing of wonder, as my Our visual fixations deny this truth, and PC was suddenly generating pictures prevent our recognition of the that were, as daft as this sounds, significance of games that pass through prettier than real life. I called friends this gateway. over to my house to see it. We stared in awe. It was beautiful. Of course, once Irregular The Escapist columnist Jim the game shifted to indoor locations and Rossignol (who, incidentally, contends the wonderful island vistas became rarer, with much of this piece’s argument) my interest wandered. Far Cry didn’t wrote, describing the philosopher Rorty’s have anything to say. interpretation of this consciousness: “He argues that human beings deal with the Christopher Booker, in his seminal tome, world through a ‘final vocabulary.’ This, The Seven Basic Plots, dedicated 30 like a box of tools, is the set of methods years to studying the structure of Story, we have appropriated for interpreting its key proponents and, ultimately, its and reinterpreting the world around us. power. Our public final vocabulary is the set of ideas and sentences that we use to deal “The more familiar we become with the with people and their own ideas.” nature of [the] shaping forms and forces lying beneath the surface of stories, I contend that the power of a pushing them into patterns and vocabulary, in the context of a game’s directions which are beyond the narrative, is so great, it overwhelms storyteller’s conscious control, the more graphics. We connect by hearing others’ we find that we are entering a realm to “final vocabularies” and incorporating which recognition of the plots them into our own – increasing and developing our perceptions, building cruder characters, barely animated as graphics at all. Even now, two months upon our interpretive vocabulary. they slid sideways about the 2-D world. later, I still picture the cell in the same Graphics provide spectacle, they can Compare and contrast with Ankh, a way. I went back there in Monkey Island draw us in and they can certainly be the sweet game of no great import, that and saw its reality, but it wasn’t enough means by which a narrative is delivered. managed to keep the common sense of to replace the elaborated version my But they are only the messenger. There point and click in line with the modernity own engine developed. has to be a message. of a third dimension, animated in tens of thousands of shades and polygons into Imagine the person who sits and reads a The question I have is whether the convincing, cartoon existence. There was book, looks up in horror and shouts, messenger is ultimately all that no contest. “This word ‘tree’ looks nothing like a important. To demonstrate, an anecdote: tree! It looks like some letters on a piece And so it was, until I spent the better of paper!” and throws the book at the I was recently reviewing the new point part of an hour trying to find the jail cell wall, disgusted. He’s either a fool or and click , Ankh, for a U. in Ankh’s ancient Egyptian streets. reading a Dan Brown novel. We simply K. magazine. In many ways, it was don’t work that way. The semiotic power traditional, clearly inspired by the I knew what it looked like, the shape of of a word is enough for our beautiful adventure’s heyday in the 1990s. While the room – I would go down the stairs at minds to conjure the very best tree playing, I began to notice a number of the right, give the object I’d just found imaginable. Literally. We have excellent similarities with the classic LucasArts to the prisoner and he’d help me. I just brains that will always be capable of adventure, The Secret of Monkey Island, couldn’t find it, no matter how hard I better graphics than the most and decided to go back and play to see if searched. exceptional technology (until The Future, my 15-year-old memories were accurate. obviously, when we’ll plug our brains into Running through SCUMMVM, I was able The moment of realization was first the machines and then just spend the to whirr up an ancient copy of the game embarrassing, but then apocalyptic. The whole time playing Space Minesweeper on my super-fly modern PC, capable of truth was revealed. I saw the light. And in Extra-Realism Graphics 5.6). What all those mapped bumps and blooming it wasn’t bump mapped. My mental powers these mental chips is narrative. lights, and it blinked into bleeping, image of Monkey Island’s jail was every chunky existence. bit as sophisticated as the textured Graphics are hugely significant to many surfaces before me. In fact, it had to be people - that can’t be ignored. Find the The tiniest palette and the fewest pixels about 10 minutes into playing Monkey review of a crappy game that doesn’t painted crude backdrops and even Island that I’d stopped noticing the give it a good kick in the pixels. Bad graphics do tend to be a sign of a lack of years and play Baldur’s Gate. You’ll care in production. But I challenge you wander around Candlekeep for a bit, to find the review that says, “This game frustrated by the 640x480 resolution and would be excellent and worth your time, your inability to zoom in and out. But if only the graphics were better. But you’ll chat with everyone, you’ll complete since they’re so poor, don’t bother.” It those first few tasks and then it will be doesn’t happen. If every other factor of a time to be off with Gorion. But oh no! “good” game is present, the poverty of He’s been killed by those bastards! the pictures will be forgiven. We don’t What’s this? Imoen wants to join you. need them – we’ve already got them It’s just the two of you, now, and the fixed upstairs. world to explore, villages to visit, people to talk to, quests to complete… And you But don’t believe my witterings. What stopped noticing the graphics about games as mindless action? Why somewhere back in Candlekeep. would narrative be of any importance if all I wanted to do was run into a room Oh, come on, eight years is nothing. Go filled with monsters and pummel them for 13! Install Sam & Max, Day of the with bullets? To this I say, take on the Tentacle, 15 to boot up Monkey Island. Old Graphics Challenge. Wait, I’ll raise you: Eighteen years! Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. Dig out a favorite single player shooter Sixteen colors and one of them’s of five or so years ago that specifically magenta. Start a timer to see how long didn’t use a strong narrative. So no, you you care – it won’t do any good, because can’t have Half-Life. And indeed, you’re a you’ll forget to look at it as much as thousand miles from being allowed to you’ll forget you’re not dressed from reinstall Deus Ex. Put it on, and see how head to foot in a virtual reality outfit, long you stay playing. walking among the space aliens.

Now, find yourself a favorite five-year- And now, do the same with an 18-year- old RPG. Heck, go mad, go back eight old, story-less shooter. There’s a mistake above, and I’ll worldwide. There’s a hunger out there We’re willing to code images of the recognize it. This is an argument riddled for more than graphics – people are furthest reaches of the galaxy, or delve with holes, and I’m happy with that – I looking for that narrative, looking for a into the most delicate mysteries of the believe there’s a core truth that needs to shared, cooperative vocabulary. atom (thank goodness for Will Wright, be heard. I rather pathetically put in allowing this bit to work with Spore), but “single player shooter.” Multiplayer A game that understands powerful action I fear the greatest and most important defeats me. If you want a five-plus-year- requires powerful motivation and mystery, the power of the narrative, is old game entirely free from narrative, powerful storytelling. Yes, Need for being grossly ignored. you’ve got Quake III: Arena and others Speed may tirelessly dominate the beside. They are every bit as joyful to charts, but look what knocked it from John Walker is a games journalist who play today. Curse them, because my the top spot last month in the U.K.: stalks through the night, telling stories point remains important – despite these Shadow of the Colossus. to the innocent and unsuspecting. He exceptions, the key aspect is still missing also draws a cartoon rabbit here. from the majority of our games. Story has always focused on the Hero, from Beowulf onward. Gaming taps into Perhaps it is all our fault. Perhaps we, en this understanding, and lets us be that masse, really are so addled, our Hero. But, once you remove the Story, attention spans are genuinely transitory, the Hero withers and fades. Booker’s only interested in that adrenal high for weighty work concludes in a similar so long as it lasts, then ready to chase mind. the next fix. Perhaps the three hours of interest Far Cry offers is all we desire “The hero or heroine is he or she who is and all we deserve. born to inherit; who is worthy to succeed; who must grow up as fit to But this cannot be true. Look at the take on the torch of life from those who MMOG, a peculiar pile-up of meta- and went before. Such is the essence of the micro-narrative, sewn together by no task laid on each of us as we come into narrative at all. You have to spend this world. That is what stories are trying hundreds of hours to get anywhere, and to tell us.” millions of people are doing so Is it wrong, one wonders, to covet at best. Yes, a football game with real someone for their toned abs more so teams has a leg up on an unlicensed than their mental acuity? Some game with fake ones, but a bad football moralistic person will likely tell you so; game is a bad football game, regardless the same way holier-than-thou gamers of the players’ uniforms. have historically chastened any who would openly show interest in a game, Then, there are the big-budget thanks only to its polygonal beauty. advertising campaigns to get the word Those who don’t appreciate beautiful out, which everybody loves because they games are wrong; fancy graphics are result in cool catch phrases. Remember terrifically important, if only because those “UR Not E” advertisements for the they inspire people to argue about original Playstation way back in 1995? their merit. They were cool, and surely expensive, yet couldn’t stop Battle Arena Toshinden The success of a game relies on many from sliding into obscurity. Meanwhile, things, not the least of which is brand Virtua Fighter, a visually impressive yet awareness. Great brand awareness won’t virtually unadvertised game, lives on as save a game from being perceived as one of the most popular fighting series of miserably bad (see: E.T.: The Extra all time. Terrestrial) nor will it stop it from being an utter flop (see:E.T.: The Extra More recently, companies have turned to Terrestrial), but it can go a long way the disturbing trend of paying toward giving a game an extra chance of professional celebrities like Paris Hilton staying out of the bargain bin. Game to pose for photo ops at launch parties. producers have been acquiring brand Anyone who thinks pictures of Paris awareness by purchasing expensive holding her free Xbox 360 in any way movie, sports or toy licenses for decades made the console’s launch a success is now. But licensing has dubious potential, woefully misguided. So, we have three main techniques at indicator showing whether your course, truly great games require more getting the word out. While each can be character is 98% healthy or one pixel than great graphics, and to put it rather effective, each has problems. away from a KO. Great graphics, like in crudely, a polished turd still smells pretty Specifically, these techniques are very EA’s Fight Night, let a game ditch the bad, but looking good never hurts. Don’t expensive and don’t do a thing to health bar, instead rendering healthy be ashamed of your aesthetic tastes; improve the quality of the game itself. fighters who look strong and weak ones those who don’t marvel over great Great graphics, while they may not come who look ready to pass out. graphics are missing out. cheap, not only help a game generate buzz, but can help to improve its overall Effects like this catch peoples’ attentions Tim Stevens is a freelance gaming quality, as well. and make them want to know more, journalist. His work can be seen online even non-gamers. Gaming can get at Yahoo! Videogames and the Global A beautiful game constantly rewards complicated, but everyone can Gaming League, in print in metro.pop you, the gamer, with new sights and appreciate something that looks good, and Co-Ed magazines, and on TV on visual experiences, encouraging you to sounds good and delivers a compelling G4’s X-Play. continue your journey and get your sensory experience. If you boast to your money’s worth. Gaming is an adventure non-gamer friends about completing the filled with obstacles and rewards. If a Molten Core dungeon in World of new visual reward, like an Warcraft after an eight-hour marathon overwhelmingly massive boss or a session, they’ll nod, put on their best gorgeous looking racecar, makes your fake smiles and start planning an eyes widen and your jaw slacken with intervention. If you sit them down and awe, you’ll stick with the game to see show them the sprawling landscapes and what comes next. gorgeous designs in the game, they might just subscribe. Strong graphics help a game deliver a better sense of immersion, sucking you Great graphics grab your attention, and into the adventure. The ubiquitous while other games will always raise the “health bar” has been the bane of bar and make what’s beautiful today look fighting games practically since their ugly tomorrow, fleeting stardom is about inception - an unrealistic on-screen all a game can hope for these days. Of John Szczepaniak, “Abandoning the ­Jonathan Hayter, Producer Past?” Gameplay, definitely. If I want great Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit When a title combines great gameplay stories, I’ll read books. I play games for about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from. This week’s with an amazing story, it’s utterly great gameplay. question is: sublime. But when playing games which only excel in one of these areas, I find Julianne Greer, Executive Editor they cannot function on story alone. For Story – I’m a writer. I need something "What's more important to you, me, they need a solid framework of fun that will capture my attention and keep gameplay, from which everything else me involved, otherwise I’m too easily story or gameplay?" can flow. distracted by other games

JR Sutich, Contributing Editor Allen Varney, “My Eyes Glaze Over” Dave Thomas, “Secret Agent Candy Neither. It’s all about “cloth physics.” What’s more important, oxygen or Man” water? Uhh... If we are confining What I look for in games are nudity and Joe Blancato, Content Editor ourselves to games, then hey, surprise, explosions. Is that story or gameplay? Story, story, story. A thousand times gameplay is more important. The story. But only if the story’s good. If it’s experiences of interacting with a game Tim Stevens, “Graphics Matter” not at least on par with a good book, and of passively experiencing a story are It’s gotta be gameplay. They’re called give me some cool mechanics to suffer cosmetically similar but fundamentally “videogames” not “videostories” for a through bad voice acting. different; they’re different brain-states. reason, and while a brilliant story can Trying to integrate story with gameplay make an otherwise mediocre game good, is (as William Gibson remarked in nothing in my eyes can overcome lame another context) like grafting mosquitoes gameplay. While I’d love to see more to wheat plants. games deliver stronger storylines, gameplay is king.