I have never played a game that made soaring melodies of Handel’s most experience. In “More Than a Feeling,” With my game developer hat on, it me cry. Well, cry with laughter, maybe, inspired Messiah. Kieron discusses his recent playtime with seems to me that this epitomizes the as the few parties we’ve had at which Guitar Hero. problem. Speaking for myself, I don’t someone broke out DDR were quite But never a game. want to appeal to ever larger and more spectacular. But tears of actual sorrow Enjoy! diverse audiences. That’s what the from an in-game occurrence? Nope. Maybe I haven’t played the right ones. mainstream does. I see the way out of But Dana Massey makes an interesting the trap involving small independent Clearly, from the above comment about point in his article this week: Most of the DDR, I have found amusement in games. games we play would be akin to I’ve been angry at games (but generally, blockbuster action flicks. And while these more at some annoyingly hard, twitchy films certainly get your adrenaline jump I had to make 52 times before I pumping, they’re not well-suited to be performed it correctly). I’ve even jumped overly emotion-inducing. out of surprise and fright while playing a game. No weeping. Along similar lines, but coming from a To the Editor: Warren Spector’s different angle, newcomer to The “Gaming at the Margins” continues to be And it’s not that I have no capacity for Escapist, Rod Humble, discusses where essential reading. Part Four, “Breaking empathy. In fact, it’s quite opposite. Just the true art of games is found. Rod feels Out of the Best/Worst Trap” raises some like all the women in Sleepless in that rules are what make games unique very interesting points concerning the Seattle, I cried at An Affair to and able to have the most impact on the role of mainstream vs “marginal” work in Remember. I went to see The English player’s experience. Perhaps by creative fields. But then he offers this Patient in the theater, and came out a bit considering rule sets and new gameplay vision of the future: red faced and puffy about the eyes. I cry mechanics we can broaden the potential every time Goose dies in Top Gun, and I emotional connection able to be “If we do all that, we might just find cried again when he died in ER (well, not produced by games. ourselves appealing to a larger, more Goose, but Dr. Greene). I’ve been moved diverse audience than ever before. If we to tears at some arrangements of Kieron Gillen also returns this week and do all that, we just might succeed.” Pachelbel’s Canon in D and by the writes about a game that has bent the rules a bit and offered a fresh play studios making games which appeal to I stumbled (>Firefox PlugIn Stumble) should result in more titles, more smaller, less diverse audiences. over it today and couldn’t stop reading in originality, and better rewards for small it. In my opinion your design concept is developers. With my consumer hat on... it’s the the best approach ever that I’ve seen for -Steve Peterson same story. Whether it’s music, film, a Web-Magazine with the feeling of a food or games I don’t share the tastes of “real” magazine. From The Lounge: [Re: “Friction Costs” the mainstream. But if someone wants by Jason Della Rocca] Great article and to start making games just for me, Keep up the great work! there is lots to do but one thing I’d really they’ll certainly get more of my custom. -Bernhard from Germany like to get clear. Game development is (Currently I buy only two or three games not software development, it is each year.) From The Lounge: [Re: “WAL*MART Entertainment. 70% of most teams are Rules” by Allen Varney] Good article, artists. Our job is not to follow a Like many people with similar views, my Allen. functional spec, our job is to create hopes for the near future are currently entertainment. pinned on Greg Costikyan’s Manifesto The dream of infinite shelf space, while Games. If all goes according to plan, solving some problems, has its own that could easily become a flagship for issues. When there are thousands of the kind of innovation that we need to titles to choose from online, getting complement the mainstream staples. found becomes difficult. Marketing (viral or otherwise) becomes much more Of course niche markets have to mean important. Sure, user recommendations lower budgets but that need not be a and various social networks can help, but bad thing. I don’t think innovative games it’s still going to be difficult. Small need teams of twenty artists any more developers will be able to create original than innovative films need large titles without retail oversight (if they can production crews. At least not if we’re afford the development budget on their serious about the emphasis being on own), but they’re going to have to find gameplay and narrative. ways to make people aware of their -Dom Camus games.

To the Editor: Just wanted to thank you Still, I look forward to seeing digital for your wonderful magazine. distribution become more popular -- it Those parts of the process that are biggest misconceptions I’ve heard from person to an FPS perspective in software development may benefit from some people in the game development midstream? Or shipping without software development practices but community :) Sure, go ahead and look multiplayer support. Uhhh, that’s not trying to shoehorn a process that is down on professional engineering really a software issue, it’s a failure to fundamentally not software development practices as somehow not applicable to identify key UI or technology into a software development style is game development. Such an artiste... requirements, track risks, and mitigate bound to fail. them early. I will grant you that having a formal Do you think Spielberg follows SCRUM “process” does not guarantee quality. But that’s OK, I get the same attitude and Pair Directing as he makes his For example being rated CMMI5 doesn’t from our systems engineers. They don’t movies? I doubt it. To me, games are mean you make good products, it just “get” the whole define-how-your- about a game director (and his team) means you passed a test. However, system[game]-works-before-you-write- expressing themselves through games to having a disciplined mindset when you the-code part. What’s their product? Oh make entertainment similar to a movie approach your development, having yeah, a Word document. Doesn’t have to director. All entertainment works this decent processes in place, and then be logically consistent, or god forbid way, music, movies, books and games. adhering to those processes is a big actually execute. If you could, it would Creative processes like movies IMO help. Next you’re going to say that delete its own source out of would never work through some you’re too busy coding to worry about embarrassment and then core dump. formulaic system. creating a requirements document. -“CMMI5 and Hacking Away”

It’s precisely that creative process which First off, the lack of any formalized makes making games fun and enjoyable. development practices are probably the Convert it to software development biggest failure of the industry... and I’m and it will turn into just a boring job not talking about using a CM tool, which where I punch in from 9 to 5 and fulfill obviously most developers have the functional specs on my scrum goal mastered. That’s not really rocket list. Yuck. science. I’m talking about stepping up a -George notch where people actually use better project management skills in all areas of From The Lounge: [Re: “Friction Costs” game development, not just software. by Jason Della Rocca] Oh gimme a break WTF else would we be hearing about George, you’re expressing one of the games suddenly switching from 3rd You hit an unexpected realization: enormous rocks. If you want to give Boston was probably one of the top ten them a bit more credit, you’ll note that videogame level designers of all time. with “More Than a Feeling,” they invented marrying an insistent circular Problem being, they weren’t aware they chord progression with a tiny-tiny-BIG- were designing a level. If you told them BIG-repeat! structure, which the Pixies of this undeniable fact when they were cheerily stole for “Debaser,” which doing it, Tom Scholz and his group of Nirvana stole for “Smells Like Teen Massachusetts-based musos would have Spirit,” which everyone else stole to looked at you strangely before returning invent ‘90s rock. And if you want to be to the important business of recording me, you’ll note their real import in double-tracked guitar solos and working history is designing the best level in out how to get the hand-clap machine Guitar Hero. working. They would have had no conception what a level designer was. Fellow Massachusettsians Harmonix One who designed levels? But levels of clearly understood what they had in what? It was the mid-’70s, where Boston’s design when they imported this conventions like “levels” were the far-off piece of carefully crafted aural-terrain fancy of the loopiest of lunatics. into the world of Guitar Hero. Some credit must go to the developers: While They had a pop career to take care of, the level was clearly Boston’s genius, the and that they did. If you wanted to be game design itself was Harmonix’s. This factual, you’ll note their debut album small developer’s aim is to “create new sold 17 million records – certainly ways for non-musicians to experience enough to keep a man in plectrums for the unique joy that comes from making quite some time. If you want to be music.” It’s a noble one. Guitar Hero is mean, you’d argue they were the closest they’ve come to achieving instrumental in the power ballad’s their goals. creation, so they should be crushed with It’s easy to bracket Guitar Hero with should feel the rush of reward. Your be a good singer. All the games may give other abstract party games in the PS2’s actions created that reaction. In a real you a little flash of the joy of armory – rest it alongside your Dance way, many of the best games are based performing with their feedback telling Dance Revolutions and Singstars (what around this, and games which fail to you how you’re the greatest dancer or we do in Europe instead of Harmonix’s make you feel as if your on-controller whatever, but that’s a different thing Karaoke Revolution), and snootily actions connect to your onscreen actions from the flash of joy of performing the dismiss it as just a giggle. Guitar Hero’s are dismissed out of hand. This is why – act itself. more than that. While Singstar and DDR say – Dragon’s Lair connected with sit slightly to one side from the main gamers less than the similar period’s Guitar Hero differs. Guitar Hero is about thrust of videogame design, Guitar Hero Defender, despite the spectacular tricking you into thinking you’re playing engages us with one of its secret magics. difference in the visuals. In Dragon’s guitar. You press the buttons and strum It probably has a special game designer Lair, there was no real sense that you with the flipper… and the appropriate name, but for the sake of our argument, were controlling Dirk the Daring. In noises appear. The power of Harmonix’s we’re going to call it the “input fallacy”; Defender, your slightest twitch was system is how – even at the basic levels one, that’s basically what it does; and magnified spectacularly on screen. In – they’ve judged the correct number of two, it’s got that sort of ring of one, you watch the hero. In the other, inputs to make you feel as if what you’re polysyllabic seriousness which implies I you are the hero. doing has some connection to the music know what I’m talking about, instead of that’s emitting from the speakers. That just desperately bluffing. It’s this phenomenon around which by waggling your fingers in a certain Guitar Hero is based, and it’s this which way, that riff screams out. You stop Which always helps. raises it above its peers. In DDR, there’s waggling your fingers… it stops. You’re no sense of your actions creating playing the music. Games trick you into thinking you’re anything. The game merely judges your doing something more difficult and actions. DDR isn’t about tricking you into You know you’re not. But you certainly interesting than you actually are. In thinking you’re dancing – to actually feel like it. Prince of Persia, you may just be succeed with DDR, you are dancing. pressing a single button, you’re There is no magic here, just you What separates Guitar Hero from rewarded with a powerful leap from the following orders. Similarly with Singstar Harmonix’s other offerings is its choice of lead character. The fallacy is your brain and Karaoke Revolution: To do well in peripheral. Playing on a controller connects your action to the animation – them isn’t to be tricked into thinking creates a level of abstraction through the that it was you that did that, thus you you’re a good singer – but it’s to actually input method. Noises are appearing, but in a way which you know bears no more challenging. But none manage to relation to how they’re really produced. express, in the topography of their With that plastic guitar hanging around guitar line, the varied and absolute your neck, that leap of faith is a lot pleasures of playing Guitar Hero. easier to make. And this is where Guitar Hero achieves Harmonix’s stated aim – It’s more than just Guitar Hero, though. to give a little of the absolute thrill of In its simplified -distilled - echo of real creating noise, feeling connected to this guitar playing, it teaches you a little of wave of pure sensation. You want to why guitarists play certain songs. Before know what it feels like to play guitar? It’s playing Guitar Hero, I had something of like the state of zen-tranquility in motion an old punk’s puritanical disgust for chased by surfers, samurai and shoot-em over-technical guitar players destroying up addicts. It’s a little like realizing records with their unwanted virtuosity. you’re the breath of God. Guitar Hero Now, I can see why the pleasure takes you into the neighborhood and overwhelms them and they want to do shows you the view.

And as my ex put it after blasting through The Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows,” “I deny anyone can be in the same room as Guitar Hero and be unhappy.”

It’s not a game. It’s a pharmacological miracle.

And, returning to the point in question, so. The breathless rush after you fall off Boston are level designers par excellence the end of a guitar solo into a hard, because their song shows off Harmonix’s extended note makes you see this… it’s mechanics to their best effects. Other addictive. So, they’re addicted to it and songs do various aspects of the can’t help themselves. I don’t really performance better. Others are much blame them. It’s a feeling worth chasing. It also teaches you that the best, the is created. Playing the Chili’s cover of your fingers apart, one knuckle at a very best guitar-led songs manage to hit Stevie’s Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and time. This is part of its majesty as a these sensations while still serving the Sum 41’s “Fat Lip” have led to similar level, gently walking you through song, because there’s more than the act grudging respect, against my previously everything great about Guitar Hero. of guitar playing being taught. It’s also developed critical (and terribly snobby) Delicate movements of the fingers across engages with your understanding of the faculties. the plastic fret board during its idyllic song itself. Guitar Hero, in some ways, is opening, before it releases the Searing an active form of music criticism, Going further, and showing it isn’t just Guitar Sound™ into a lyrical refrain, opening the songs’ guts to a layperson that Guitar Hero makes all songs great, descending toward… oh, baby Jesus, so you can see how it’s working, like the array of B-level filler mostly just sits hold me now – the golden moment: The Natural Scientists trying to understand dead on the disc, taking up space. Guitar long held note leading into the chorus, the universe’s design in a daisy. For Hero’s explanation only works when lengthy enough to give you all the time example, I know “Ziggy Stardust” is a there’s something worth explaining. in the world to work the whammy bar to great song, but by the game walking you Flipping it around, obviously enough, power up your Star Power meter before through Mick Ronson’s lyrical and witty songs you already love have their releasing the Bonus Power by holding guitar line, I understand it all the better: greatness re-affirmed. “Ace of Spades” is your guitar aloft, just as the power- How it flicks between the hard and the nothing less than the sound of the chords of the chorus kicks in. The whole soft and the counterpoint to Bowie’s universe’s atria slamming shut during screen lights up. Your face lights up. The lines; how it’s really good. the world’s sexiest coronary, and stars shine brighter. The world’s a better captured perfectly here while (on higher place. Even artists I’ve got less time for are difficulties) sitting on the absolute shown in a better light. Take Franz immaculate boundary being too hard to It’s More Than a Feeling, and you’re Ferdinand’s reheated, post-punk art-pop, play and impossibly satisfying when you feeling more than that. represented by “Take Me Out.” Coming do. Equally, the Queens of the Stone from an entirely different tradition to the Age’s “No One Knows,” whose dense Kieron Gillen has been writing about majority of the songs Guitar Hero offers, rhythms can stun the unwary fledgling videogames for far too long now. His its oblique rhythms provide off-kilter even on Easy. rock and roll dream is to form an Electro- challenge, and playing them shows you band with Miss Kittin and SHODAN how imaginative, how ballsy, and how, “More Than a Feeling” isn’t that hard – pairing up on vocals. through odd ingredients, its momentum only on Expert does it start to really take There is an ancient story of a game As an art form, game design is design that I think is worth thousands of years old. Game designers remembering. It is the story of Senet. today face the same fundamental artistic problems as their ancient counterparts. Senet is one of the oldest games known Senet illustrates how, for a large portion to date, with boards and pieces dating of history, game design was transmitted back to 3500 B.C. It was a popular game by spoken tradition, and how much can in its time, representing something of be lost. Nevertheless, enough has historic importance to Egyptian society. survived to instruct the modern game The game has been pictured in paintings designer and remind us of our craft. of tombs, and Senet boards were placed in graves as tools in the afterlife for There is much understandable esteemed persons. It is often portrayed excitement in the potential for computer as a bridge between the living and the games to be the ultimate combination afterlife, and its place in the Egyptian art form. There are games created today Book of the Dead underlines the spiritual that combine dance, architecture, importance of the game’s overall storytelling, improvisational theatre, message. Senet artifacts are beautiful music, painting and film-making in works of sculpture, engraving and clever various ways. combinations of technology, using all kinds of materials. Add to this amazing scope our ability to create shared online games, (where one Unfortunately, however, the rules of to millions of players can communicate Senet have been lost to us over the and compete) and it is easy to centuries. Without the rules, the game understand why computer game design cannot speak, and its message, which is now in such a state of creative turmoil. was so compelling thousands of years It is hard to know where to begin with ago, is gone. Senet, without its rules, is such choice. just a collection of pretty bits. Happily, there is a simple tool at the each one’s meaning, it is easy to try and deconstruct literature or art for rules may be of use. To be sure, the center of all game design, whose follow the path of simulation. (and the ways they have been tested) in representation of those rules, and exploration requires no team or cost, a similar fashion. simulations of their results are certainly and from which any game designer can Today, many developers face a sea of compelling, but it is the rules themselves learn by its consideration: rules. choices about the representation Similarly, game rules are highly compact that will define each player’s overall Furthermore, I believe that the creation systems that communicate their rule artistic statements which can be played success. As a result, players scan for and selection of game rules is an art sets. To some extent, it is with as the user experiments with the rules constantly. form in and of itself. By this, I mean that understandable that rules governing system to see if it contains lessons which the rules of a game can give an artistic player choice have taken a back seat. statement independent of its other This is largely because the simulation of components. Just as a poem doesn’t complex, real-world phenomena need pictures and a painting doesn’t (including human behavior) is an alluring need music, a game needs nothing else mental challenge in and of itself. apart from its rules to succeed as a work of art. It can certainly benefit from other However, while attempts at simulation elements but it doesn’t need them. can be enormous fun to play, they are usually short-lived. Soon enough, our By examining games from this point of suspension of disbelief gives way, and view, a game designer can swiftly advance we find ourselves examining the rules. the quality and artistic merit of any effort. We cast aside the fiction and graphics to peer at the underlying boundaries that Rules as Art define our ability to interact with the Rules are not entirely obvious as art, objects and systems being simulated. especially within the recent age of computer game development. Computer Why do rules have such power over games can record thousands of rules, our minds? and a computer can remember and execute decisions based on these rules I believe that childhood play is about without (much) difficulty. Instead of practicing within the rules designed for inventing specific rules and weighing adulthood, testing them out in a pretend world first. Later on, grownups Simple, easy to understand game rules Pachisi, if you get a great roll, you maneuverings and immediate are powerfully capable of delivering not only get the benefits, you get to interpersonal relationships. valuable lessons and artistic messages. roll again. Life certainly can feel like In fact, I would argue that even when that. Those born into wealth are • Snakes and Ladders (aka Chutes the designer is not trying to make any often also graced with attractive & Ladders in the U.S.A.): The kind of artistic statement about life, mates or good luck in business, for original Victorian version of this players often find worthwhile lessons example. game had the ladders labeled with communicated by these rules. Rules that virtues such as “Faith,” “Reliability” relate to the human experience and have • Oware: This is a member of one of and “Generosity,” while the snakes far reaching consequences for a game: the oldest games families known, the were labeled with sins such as These are our brushes and violins. Mancala family. In Oware, players “Disobedience,” “Vanity” and sow seeds amongst houses “Vulgarity.” Rules as Lessons representing the dispersion and The point is best demonstrated by a few acquisition of some commodity The game’s rules are possibly derived short examples of board games: within a community. There are many from an older Indian game of versions, but in my favorite spirituality. As a lesson about life’s • Chess: Anyone who has managed a traditional version, a player is not nature, Snakes and Ladders is large organization or is a student of allowed to wipe out an opponent interesting work: Firstly, it is history will have given a wry smile at even when he is able. In fact, the entirely luck based, and secondly, the king’s place in Chess. He is rules of the game go even further, no matter how well someone appears incredibly powerful, moving in any stipulating that one must make a to be doing, there is always a direction… but slowly, slowly. He can move that allows an opponent to play. chance he will land on a snake (a only be defeated indirectly, by sin) and be whisked back down the restricting his freedom of action. Thus, a player must win without board. directly attacking his fellow player. • Pachisi: In this game, the lucky get This rule representing cooperative/ • Go: The rules of Go have informed luckier – a rule imitated so often that competitive political situations within numerous areas of thought from it is easily overlooked. Many games a small village is a wonderful model politics to business. It is a timeless deliberately unbalance the game by which applies just as well to modern statement of conflict, focus, and the making the lucky even luckier. In cabinet politics, corporate management of influence and direct control. The elegance and aesthetic Rules in Context simple or action computer games Type With the exception of Type 4, the beauty of this game’s rules are, Let’s examine some systems to see how 1a. (We’ll get to “a” subsets in a bit.) designer’s selection and creation of rules perhaps, the finest invented so far. rules have been designed so far. Here, in advance sets the framework for the we shall divide games into types, Type 2: Rules are created by a entire game. In Type 4 games, the I am not suggesting that all game rules according to where the rules are created game designer and held in a book or designer is creating rules freeform to are a deliberate form of artistic and where they reside during gameplay. umpire during play, with limited rules suit the situation and audience; this can expression. Backgammon, for example, being held by the player’s mind at become a team activity with several is an old and a great game, but its rules Type 1: Rules are created in any one time. players becoming the game designers. have no obvious meaning beyond being advance by a game designer (person a fun gambling game, possibly derived or team), and there are few enough This type includes more complicated Rules and Machines from Mancala. However, I do claim that that they can be held in the player’s cardboard war games. Computer What is the relationship between these the creation of a set of rules within which mind during game play. adventure games would be Type 2a. rule contexts and computing machines? the successful player must be creative is a form of expression exclusive to the This class includes most family board Type 3: Rules are created by a For types 1 and 2, there are computer domain of game design. No other art games. In the digital age, we’ll call game designer in advance, and as it (artificial) equivalents as noted in the form does this. is played, extra rules are created or examples. I have called them Types 1a changed by an umpire or player. and 2a.

This type includes pen and paper As you can see, there are no 3a and 4a roleplaying games, as well as examples, because they do not exist yet. professional military umpired war games. Type 4a would have the rules created at the start of the game and modified by an Type 4: Rules are created at the artificial player or artificial umpire. start of the game by the player or umpire and modified as it is played. If we could design computer contexts for Types 3 and 4, how would they behave? This type includes children’s play or What would the player experience? make believe. Would they be capable of expressing a meaningful message? One can imagine a Type 3a game that who can weigh competing emergent inherits from pen and paper roleplaying outcomes and make a rule out of the one games or umpired war games. The which would best suit the game. players would be motivated to do things “beyond the rules” – and an artificial Compelling 4a games are perhaps the umpire would generate new rules in hardest to imagine. Having the computer response to this desire, in real-time. We create a new game for us, even as we sit can call this a “judgment system.” down to play – this is close in difficulty to the different dream of interactive stories. For example: “I want to commandeer those civilian vehicles and use them to As above, however, there may be some transport my infantry section to the next easier paths and entry points for town, ahead of the main battalion.” The approaching this goal. Having a game umpire then decides the chance of this build a variety of simple game types and scheme’s success, which is not covered respond to what the player prefers in the rules. seems theoretically possible without first devising a fully human level of AI. We do It’s not difficult to imagine games where not have to create the world as a first the number of possible unique inputs is step. A simple puzzle game will do just far beyond the number of represented fine. We also have the advantage that rule-creating restrictions within the human players want to help and provide judgment system. This is the problem feedback to the system to make it more with natural language processing – and enjoyable. the reason we do not yet have automated game mastering for If we could realize such a system, and its roleplaying games. libraries of rules were well-annotated and significantly generative, would an However, there may be an easy point of artificial artist emerge? Perhaps, but the entry, here. Easier first steps can be creator of this artificial artist would be a made by creating an artificial umpire game designer. The Art of Rules modifying them in support of simulation The possibility of such a system links the systems and other game knowledge of long-dead designers to our elements. Instead, studying the rules in present… and to an unexplored future. advance and crafting a message from

There are plenty of opportunities for all kinds of art, from a massive and grand composition involving millions of players each playing their role, to the artful execution of a single, solitary game as it is created on the fly by an artificial game designer. As we approach this future, the fundamental skill necessary for creating them represents one of the clearest and and selecting the right rules grows in easiest creative opportunities for game importance. designer. It is within these rules that the players will inhabit and practice their Thankfully, we do not have to worry own art. about such grand speculations to practice the art of rule creation and Rod Humble is Vice President and Head selection; after all, game designers have of the Sims Studio at Electronic Arts. He been doing it for thousands of years. We has been in the games industry for 15 merely have to pay attention. years as a designer, executive producer and head of studio. There are many parts of a working computer game that dictate and Author’s note: My thanks to Robin translate player responses. World Hunicke for kindly reworking the piece geometry, physics, music, character for form. I am also indebted to Charles design; it’s tempting to regard the London for corrections and edits. Finally, game’s actual rules as less important, Ray Mazza, Matt Goss and Hunter Howe for their insights. I have a confession to make. I shed a year, we get bombarded with them, but few tears at the end of Braveheart. It’s they’re made even better by a not something I’m proud of, but it is the compliment of different movies, movies truth. It’s the kind of personal that make you laugh and movies that investment most people can only make make you cry. Take those other movies to a great movie. We’re told over and away, and I’d probably spend a lot more over that games are meant to be fun, time reading. Videogames suffer this and they should be. Games are fun, but problem. The only emotions I’ve ever felt by their very nature, are they in relation to a videogame were compelling? Designers need to think excitement, enjoyment, curiosity, about games that make you laugh, cry frustration, and very rarely, fear. and think. The benchmark of a good film or book – for me – is if it evokes some The artificial nature of most videogame kind of emotion. As an industry, we’ve mechanics is partly to blame. I cried at got excitement down. It’s time to rethink William Wallace’s torture and death as I some basic assumptions if we ever hope never could in a videogame. Death to grow beyond that. usually means frustration in games as your character respawns and takes a The average videogame experience penalty. This is the paradox for the doesn’t carry much more depth than the designer. Gamers claim they want to be Die Hard trilogy. They’re popcorn flicks in control, so how then do you make where you’re too busy to eat the truly compelling things happen without popcorn. Games have the potential to be wrestling control away from the player? the most powerful entertainment Cut-scenes just don’t cut it. medium. Events happen to “you,” not some character on the screen. It’s an There is no single right answer, but more edge begging to be exploited. attention has to be given to the concept of failure and what that means, if games Imagine that nearly every single movie are to be more compelling. Without this in theatres was an action flick. Every aspect, it is nearly impossible to create drama, sadness or a true sense of free. Rifle-butt to the head and the attachment. screen fades to black. In every game I’ve played, this means you re-load Let’s use a theoretical mission based, before the mission and try again. Right single-player spy game as an example. there, the spell is lifted and it is suddenly In the average Bond game, characters a task I – the user – need to perform, simply run around and shoot things to not a challenge my character faces. achieve their ends. Perhaps the game is Rather than start again, the character slower and more tactical, like Splinter could wake up in a musty prison cell with Cell. Beyond that, what is there? a new challenge to solve. If successful, they go to the level they may have Start with some RPG elements that let eventually gotten to from a different you – the person – form opinions and direction had they escaped during the bonds with the characters you meet. interrogation and explore a subplot Whether it’s the attractive worker at HQ slightly earlier. Eventually, all roads that flirts with you as you prepare for direct the player down a chosen - and each mission, or the crazy old inventor compelling path - but this approach character who provides your gadgets, maintains the suspension of disbelief and give each one personality. Then, write lets the player feel in control. It’s a them into the story. When out on missions, recipe for emotionally charged gameplay. these characters play an active role. Sound like a production nightmare? Then, rethink the concept of failure. For Probably, but keep in mind, as it stands example, say one scene opens with you now, most games can only be played creates the illusion of a dynamic, personal amend it so all paths lead to a being interrogated. The puzzle has you once. Build the game so that all the gameplay experience without forcing the conclusion, but not necessarily victory. verbally fencing with an enemy – say the areas are used, just not necessarily in developers into a thousand scripts, Does it require more work? Yes, but wrong thing and a later mission gets the same order, with different dialogue models, areas and contingency plans. done cleverly, the investment might not harder – and doing a puzzle to escape and events based on what you’ve be as huge as it sounds, and the results your bonds. You fail. You take too long achieved so far and different triggered The goal of this example is to get away would more than justify the time and and the guards notice you squirming variables that impact difficulty level. This from the “try again until you win” and money spent. With the suspension of disbelief firmly Variety is what will break down the final rooted, it opens the door for more door and bring gaming into the attachment to the main characters and mainstream. those around them. If your actions get the flirtatious co-worker killed, it means There is a wealth of emotions that need something, especially when you know to be explored. I want games that make that had you done things differently, she me laugh, cry, think and jump in fear. may not have died. Actions have There will always be a place for the consequences and the combination of traditional game, but if we as an industry good storytelling and compelling can step back and complement that with gameplay might well produce a title games that appeal to different senses, where a consumer could truly shed the benefit will trickle down across all a tear. types of games. A variety of experiences will make them all more interesting. The This change would redefine the first step in this long journey is to make gameplay experience and definitely not the game’s story more than just a be something every gamer would like. framework to justify gameplay The result would be a consumable challenges and attract storytellers who product – more like a movie – rather understand the medium and can stitch than a challenge. There would be goals, meaty stories into the realities of a action and puzzles, but in a situation game. After that, the story we create for where failure simply changes the ourselves can take us anywhere. circumstances of your next experience, everyone would reach an end of some kind. The key to keep in mind, here, is Dana “Lepidus” Massey is the Lead this example is only one way to help Content Editor for MMORPG.com and spice up the market. former Co-Lead Game Designer for Wish.

Remember New Games Journalism? to accept that our responses to games, Those initial moments of revelation, the not just the content of the games refreshing breaks from traditional themselves, are what determine videogame coverage, the eventual spiral- meaningful play experiences. A down into seeming self-indulgence? In worthwhile game that doesn’t affect us its better forms, New Games Journalism may not be worthwhile after all. is still alive and kicking. But enthusiasm around the supposed nouvelle vague has It’s this sort of thinking that’s sparked died down considerably over the past our recent interest in emotional year, giving us all some time to cool our response, in personal narratives, in jets and reflect. questions like, “Can a Game Make You Cry?” We want to share our side of the Whether you’ve come to love it or hate story. No longer satisfied with knowing it, the fact remains: New Games how we can interact with a game, we Journalism certainly made a splash. Why want to know how a game will interact did it strike such a chord with the with us. Newly empowered, we’ve turned gaming community? Maybe because we the spotlight on a type of reverse needed a jump-start to help us break interactivity. Our real-world reactions away from the stale, standardized forms become linked with our actions in-game, of game writing that permeated the and vice versa. A whole new dichotomy media. Or, maybe we simply enjoyed an – or at least our awareness of one – has excuse to hear ourselves rant. Either been born. way, the idea was picked up across the reporting spectrum; it was heralded as How can we react to a game? Through the way of the future. laughter, through frustration, even through tears. Skeptics may say There are those among us who were videogames aren’t deep enough to glad to see the fervor pass. Still, the inspire real emotion. Insensitive gamers concepts at the basis of New Games may claim crying over Final Fantasy is Journalism have entered our collective just lame. But, for the most part, these gamer consciousness, and, for better or responses are acceptable, respectable, worse, that can’t be undone. We’ve come even normal. Happy, angry, sad. They tell us how a game makes us feel; they controls. Super Smash Brothers Melee show us, and others, how deeply we’ve makes my palms sweat. I know, no connected with the game. matter how hard I try, I will never beat that level-nine Mr. Game and Watch. These, however, are not the only Mentally, I’ve come to accept that. My possible responses. When playing a hands, however, are still desperately game, be it Zelda, Perfect Dark or convinced otherwise. And Super Mario Number Munchers, we also respond on a 64... Let’s not even start on the creepy bodily level. And while a catalogue of our carousel music that made me jump so purely emotional responses is well and far out of my skin I refused to ever go good - and important in its own right - back into Big Boo’s Haunt. we can’t overlook the physical side to our play. We may be part of an These are just examples, perhaps not increasingly digital age, where even the particularly riveting ones, but different most body-centric pastimes can be all the same from what you’ll normally enacted online, but we still can’t be find in a videogame review, even one separated from our real-life incarnations written using New Games Journalism. or their reactions to our actions on- Why are physical reactions excluded screen. from our consideration of a game’s merits? Because they’re peripheral to the How can we react to a game with our gameplay experience? Because they’re bodies? I can’t speak for anyone else, messy? Maybe because, as gamers who but then again, I don’t have to. After all, are often less than proud of our bodies, this is an article about New Games we don’t want to attract attention to Journalism. Who better to put on the them. Or simply because, as virtual dissecting table than me? citizens, we want to believe we exist above our physical selves. To tell you the truth, Halo 2 makes me nauseous. I’ve played through a hundred And what if a game gets you aroused? odd “slayer matches” in the last year, and I still can’t adjust my mind – or my Not a sex game, a sexy game, or even fragile stomach, apparently – to the sex in a game. Just a game. What if it affects you, sexually? Talk about a topic I would like to humbly propose, if I may, not broached in reviews. Discussing a new New Games Journalism, one that sexual responses is even less popular will perhaps never catch on with than mentioning sweaty palms or queasy anything near the ferocity of the old, but tummies. Sex may be a delicate and which never the less deserves its place - highly personal subject, but we always a New Game Journalism based on the love to hear other people’s secrets, so sensual as well as the emotional. Let’s that shouldn’t stop us. What seems to call it a Sexual New Games Journalism, get in the way, instead, is that sexual where sexuality comes to stand for our arousal crosses the borders between sensual relation with our environment, emotional and physical reaction. We and specifically with games. And let’s don’t know how to classify it, so we don’t consider, if even just for a little while, want to be responsible for it. what our brave new world is still missing.

Still, sexual arousal is itself a valid form of response. Does a game incite Bonnie Ruberg is a sex and games attraction? Repulsion? Whole reviews writer, a MMOG researcher and an all could be written about the sexual effects around fun-loving dork. Check her out at of a totally “non-sexual” game. Would Heroine Sheik. they go over well with the general public? Of course not. But what would make them any more or less valid than pieces that record other types of human response? 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 Industry Relations Managers Laura Rotondo Contributors IT Director Shannon Drake Kieron Gillen Jason Smith Rod Humble Chairman of Themis Group Dana Massey Thomas S. Kurz Bonnie Ruberg John Walker Mark Wallace

Volume 1, Issue 41, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com we shall triumph and probably get all I want to present an example: 2003’s weepy as we accept our victory. adventure, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. It was a splendid game, Let me put things in context. I can’t frustrated slightly by its wobbly steps watch a Muppet movie without crying into three dimensions, and certainly (please, no jokes about Muppet Treasure underplaying its historical/mythological Island – I’ve deliberately never watched base in an attempt to win over a console it). Not just in the amazingly sad bits generation, but all the same, a where only evil monsters made of angry thoroughly engrossing post-point-and- stone wouldn’t shed 14 buckets of salt click adventure game. Having played the water, but pretty much all the way previous two in the series, during the through. There’s just something about ‘90s, I’d always enjoyed them, but never I am a crybaby. And I don’t care what them, something about the love behind felt an overwhelming relationship with you think. Well, that’s simply not true, is them, the passion that fuelled (past the central characters: George, the daft it? If I didn’t care what you think, I tense, thanks to their vile murder via the but big-hearted, American, world- wouldn’t be setting out to write a piece, Disney purchase – more crying here) traveling lawyer; and Nico, French photo- on a widely read website, explaining why their very existence. The purpose of this journalist, and the deeply sarcastic will- the crybaby gets the best deal. I deeply aside? To hyper-stress what a sap I am. she-won’t-she target of George’s care what you think. In fact, if you don’t The sappiest of the sappy. It’s affections. Something changed about the like me, I may… sniffle… come on, let’s established. We can progress. third game – perhaps it was the accursed get on with it. 3-D betraying a positive consequence via I believe that being able to burst into the portrayal of emotions on the This week’s titular question is obviously tears while playing a game is a great character’s faces – but this time they a silly one. Answer: Yes. Next issue boon to a person. And I’m taking this as began to matter. please! I think anyone who might take far as it will go. Were you to break down the stance that games cannot make you and sob every time you lost a race in There’s a scene toward the end (spoiler cry is either a sociopath, has never Project Gotham, I’d have nothing but the fans) where George, Nico and long-term played Angel of Darkness and tried to deepest of respect for you. I’d think you friend Bruno are in a pyramid. It’s all walk in a straight line, or simply a big, a weirdo, but I’d respect you. Why? Here’s coming down, and death is imminent. lying coward. Begone, cowards! Today is the rub: You would be connecting with The dilemma: The only way to keep the the day of the ludicrously emotional – the game, and being transformed by it. door open to leave is for someone to stay inside. It’s sacrifice time. Now, this The giant stone door slams down, Bruno is not a new idea on any level, and killing is trapped, the situation is over, and now someone to create an emotional just the horror remains. response can be a sledgehammer technique. But Broken Sword did “We’ve got to accept that in games we’re something clever. not good at profound emotions. We’re much better at visceral emotions. Guns “It’s all about empathy,” says Broken are wonderful in gameplay, because they Sword’s creator, Charles Cecil. “In a work. Classical gameplay is about trying third-person game, like in a film, it’s all something, failing, knowing why you about empathy. You never think you are failed, trying again, and eventually that guy, but the aim is to have you feeling, ‘fantastic, I’ve done it!’ There’s experiencing the same emotions as no ambiguity about firing a gun and the him.” having it hit, or not hit. That’s the visceral. It’s much more obvious.” Bruno, a man probably in his 70s, tells George and Nico very firmly that he will George and Nico stare at one another. stay inside, and they must save There’s silence. And they stare. And themselves. There isn’t time for George’s eyes widen, his face crumples, deliberation, and Bruno’s severity is and he is punched by grief. Nico’s face convincing enough in that moment. They softens, her fixed scowl suddenly gone, run for the exit. and you know in that moment that she loves George unconditionally. It is the “You’ve got to believe that you share consummation players have longed for emotions with him. With George, we’re the series’ whole existence, and it is trying to tread a very careful line more beautiful than anyone could have between association and empathy. imagined. It is tragedy, remorse, grief, Clearly you’re not George, but we want companionship, relationship, passion and you to have more association than you love. And I cried. I just sat there, looked would in a movie.” at this unspoken scene, and wept. “We’re right on the peripheral in trying to you’ve got to empathize with them. And “SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!” by any one Richards, who hadn’t worked on the create profound emotions, or, in inverted third, you’ve got to share their of his compatriots. It’s a false previous games. Neil brought a classical commas, ‘games that make you cry.’” motivations. And once you’ve got all “SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!” impossible slant, coming from film and television, that, then hopefully you’ll start to love to believe in, and in my experienced and his approach was quite different. We So, how does Cecil achieve this? How do your characters. And only at that point opinion, a source of great amusement tried to bring forward the central characters, his characters manage to matter? It can you be effective.” with which to shout along. It doesn’t to make the main story more profound.” comes down to a lot of thought and matter when Snake dies – he exists to And it worked. I love those guys. preparation. “There’s a set of three areas Certainly suggesting nothing disparaging die, over and over. He offers the visceral that have to be established,” Cecil about the game itself, Cecil mentions emotion, and attempts nothing more. This story has a pleasing punch line. explains. “First of all, you’ve got to Metal Gear Solid’s characters as a Should this be enough to make you cry, Charles Cecil was speaking at the believe in your characters. Second, comparison. “They’re stereotypes. And by the way, you win. Edinburgh Games Festival in 2004, and because they created stereotypes, shortly before, I’d forwarded him an they’ve written them stereotypical So why does Bruno matter so much? email from a reader of the U.K. PC dialogue. So you cannot care about Cecil observes, “If we tried to kill Gamer, stating that the very scene had them.” He’s right. I don’t believe in characters off too early, before you’d made him cry. Cecil was speaking them, I don’t empathize with them, and started to care about them, then that immediately after the bigwigs of EA, who I don’t share their motivations, and would come across as very cheap.” It puffed out their chests and boasted that hence I don’t love them. I would be comes back to his list of three checks: their mission, since the ‘80s, has been to impressed by the player who wept when belief, empathy and shared motivations create games that would make the player Snake died. And that’s despite the equal love. cry, and that with this, that and the desperate hollered wail of other, they believed that they were taking “We made you like his character, and games to this place. Charles was then then we put in a believable choice. It’s able to get up, take the mic, and begin, about loving them, and then believing in “Well, I recently received an email …” their situation. And then surprising the player. You were surprised that Bruno So, there, an example of my becoming a offered to do it, as were George and complete blubbering wreck over a game. Nico, but you absolutely believed him.” Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times, games can make you cry. So, why is that a good thing? Cecil and his team deliberately set out to embellish upon profundity. “Broken I’d like to present the completely Sword 3 was primarily written by Neil unscientific suggestion, with utter conviction, that such profound responses how transforming her story has been, And then, it’s blank, scared faces, to let go of their pride, their stubborn are the emotional equivalent of looking and how I cried and cried at the quickly replaced by the mocking. But I grit, and let the tears flow. through 3-D glasses. Allowing oneself to revelation of her adventures. And they don’t care! I am a crybaby, and I’m buy into a story and fall in love with its look at me, unnerved, perhaps taking a proud! And I say crybabies of the world, They deserve our sympathy, fellow characters, despite its appearing on the couple of steps backward. At that point, let us stand together, arms around each crybabies. Do not hate them. They are computer screen, is to place the not seeing any sense, I’ll probably other’s shoulders, probably rather the losers, and we are the winners. Shed ridiculous looking red and green specs confess that the latest Tomb Raider – overwhelmed by the situation and a tear for them – it’s what we’re best at. on your amygdala and have the game Legend - brought dampness to my eyes getting a bit sniffly, and see off these come alive in a transforming way. with Lara’s newfound motivation … Ah, mocking fools. Because it is they, those and there it is again. that look down on the emotionally John Walker is a giant crybaby, games It’s a giving over of oneself, a humbling mature, those that condemn us for journalist, and professional weepy wimp. step to allow a greater experience. I never cared about Lara before. Think forming relationships with our characters, He’s always going on about crying on his Which means I wish I did cry whenever about how unemotional her deaths are. that lose out. It is they who watch their own website, http://botherer.cream.org. Snake died, or whenever my polygonal Oh, Lara’s been chopped up by some games in flat, monotone misery, unable It’s embarrassing, really. car collided with a tight corner’s barrier. blades. Oh, Lara’s drowned. Oh, Lara’s It would, admittedly, make games like fallen onto spikes for the 50th time in a Tomb Raider too harrowing to play, row. There was no emotional resonance, constantly grieving the death of poor no sense of loss. This time, she explains Lara, but each and every gaming session why she raids tombs, and we see, in would be all the more powerful, flashback, the horror of her mother’s important and life-changing. death, partly her fault, and learn of her father’s subsequent public mocking in Oh, but I’m mocked. Because of my the face of his apparently crazy beliefs. pride and conviction in having such loose Suddenly, thanks to a new development tear ducts and having a big mouth, team (hopefully after the AoD developers others quickly know of my weepy had been fired into outer space), Lara gaming and perpetually soggy keyboard. has motivation. Exactly the ingredient Anyone who foolishly mentions The Cecil referenced. She was grounded, Longest Journey in my presence will hear made believable, and then given great tale of how much I love April motivations with which I could empathize. Ryan, and how important she is to me, And gosh, she brought a tear to my eye. As videogames ascend the ranks of the “art” of videogames ever make the popular media - they are now played in transition from assets to expression? Or, at least 75% of American homes, put another way: Can a videogame make according to the Entertainment Software you cry? Association - they have begun to shed their image as merely an entertaining Any time this question gets hauled out, diversion for kids who should probably there are a few key moments that are be studying or out playing sports. cited as the most tragic in videogame Though they still carry a certain stigma history. Chief among them is the for many people - and for not a few unexpected death of the character Aeris politicians - most of the country and in Final Fantasy VII. Fans who had come much of the world now understands to know and love Aeris over the course gaming as a worthwhile pastime for of the story were shocked to witness her people of all ages. Studies show that death at the hands of the evil Sephiroth, what gaming takes time away from is the game’s central villain. Some games, not sports or school, for the most part, like some movies, do a better job of but television. Onscreen entertainment is painting character than others. moving into the interactive realm. Viewed from the proper perspective, the By the time Aeris dies, her personality rise of gaming is merely an evolution, has been so well developed, we’ve grown not a dangerous revolution at all. attached to her; we care about her and we want to know more. To see her fall at But just how far can videogames rise? the hands of Sephiroth is a loss that The words “screen art” used to bring to touches gamers as much as tearjerking mind the names of great movie directors scenes like E.T.’s departure or the like Hitchcock, Truffaut or Scorsese. students’ “O Captain, my Captain” Now, they conjure up the names of tribute to Robin Williams in Dead Poets gorgeous videogames like Elder Scrolls: Society - or any number of other movie Oblivion or Shadow of the Colossus. Can moments - touch moviegoers every time. An on-rails single-player game like Final But open-world games also allow their One of the places players have the most that is controlled neither by the game Fantasy - if it’s very well written - can players to create their own plots, and “authorship” is in MMOGs. Here, though, itself nor by the player in question, but do that only because it’s the gaming that’s where the possibilities get more the “writing” of your experience is more by other players roaming around the subgenre closest to a feature film. There interesting. There is no fixed set of collaborative. While you can invest in same environment. And if you’re in a is one plot and one outcome, and while people or places who may become parts of the game in much the same way PvP-enabled virtual “place,” the in a game there may be slight variations important to you, but a rich mix of both as in open-world, single-player games, authorship is even more diffused. Your in how you get to the end, there is really to choose from. Most of the central there is a fair portion of the experience own creativity is only part of the story. only one author of the action, and that’s characters in open-world games are Some of your deepest connections may the development team. governed by the same set of narrative be formed, not with NPCs or favorite rules as those in on-rails environments, places in the world but with other real But there are games other than Final of course. But to be banished from the live human beings. Could such Fantasy, and unlike traditional media, in ‘hood by a rival gang in GTA or shunned relationships make you cry? Why not? which the viewer is only ever a passive by an NPC who had become an ally and participant, some games can allow the friend in Oblivion can be just as painful If you’ve ever worked closely with gamer to take a more active role, not as losing a companion adventurer like someone to overcome a series of just in the action but in the authorship of Aeris. Can it make you cry? Perhaps. But challenges over a period of months, you the plot and development of the what it can do, regardless of the tears or characters, as well. lack thereof, is start to more closely approach the plot of a “literary” novel, in Take an open-world game like Grand which people, places and things have a Theft Auto or Gun, for instance, or the much more evocative presence. It asks recently released Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, players to contribute their creativity to which has been capturing gamers’ the game. You’ve invested yourself in the imaginations in droves. All of these game, not just as an observer but also games have their pre-determined plots, as one of its authors, and if it was you as well. The series of missions send who wrote that meaningful encounter players on what’s essentially a long- into the gameplay - not through any range quest to build street cred and gain software mechanics but by letting it control of territory, take revenge on old mean something to you - any enemies, or just save the world, depending unexpected reversals are bound to have on the kind of adventure you prefer. a deeper impact. know the joy that can result from being may be formed between players, but part of a well oiled team. If you’ve ever where those players never have an been betrayed by a close friend in your impact on the virtual world. No matter offline life, you know the pain that can how many trolls you do away with, after arise when such a team fragments and all, more will always return to take their falls apart. Though less may be at stake place. Adventurer after adventurer rides in an online world, the emotions are no through the same unchanging landscape, different. But are these emotions and and while your character may improve interactions art? greatly over time, the backdrop against which your story unfolds remains static. Who’s to say? But it just might be, if by “art” we mean an expressive work that Slide along the scale a bit, though, and touches our emotions. It’s just, in MMOGs, you come upon worlds like PlanetSide the emotions being affected can vary and Lineage - places where the wildly from person to person. For some, landscape holds more than just a series such games will rise to the level of art; of challenges to be beaten and then left for others, they will always be only games. behind. Both games feature players as central to the action, working both with As with the difference between on-rails and against each other to shape their and open-world single-player games, virtual worlds by capturing and holding MMOGs come in a range of flavors, as important points of territory. This is the well. The external trappings of swords battlefield, MMOG-style, and it mimics versus spaceships are of little many of the emotions that are conveyed consequence, here. by the best big-screen portrayals of war, with one important difference: The More important is the extent to which players themselves share in the glory of players are able to interact with and conquest or the ignominy of surrender; affect the world around them. At one end it’s you that stands triumphant after of the scale is a game like World of taking a rampart or hardpoint, and it’s Warcraft, in which important connections you that stands over your fallen ally on the field of battle (though, of course, in the context of art. Can the plot of a moves people to tears most often in he’s fallen only temporarily; there’s little single-player game be made to include “real” life. The loss of a friend, the doubt about whether he’ll get up). The both engaging gameplay, and the kinds experience of belonging to a cohesive potential for tears of joy or bitterness is of characters, attachments and tension group of people, the interdependence far greater in worlds like these. that can be used to create emotional that develops among colleagues - these moments on down the line? I see no things are no less real in an MMOG than But what’s really at stake, here? reason why not. Though we’ve they are in our physical lives. The Resource nodes are one thing, but what encountered this relatively rarely in the possibilities are in the players’ hands. about scenarios in which a full-scale war history of gaming, there’s no reason to - not just a battle - rages across wide believe developers who are interested in If you’re deep in your game, why wouldn’t swathes of territory? Anyone who knows making games into literature (not, mind it move you to tears? me well knows which MMOG I’ll trot out you, interactive storytelling) will find a next: It’s the space opera EVE Online, of way to accomplish it on a more Mark Wallace can be found on the web at course, where alliances of well over a consistent basis. Walkering.com. His book with Peter thousand players wage war against each Ludlow, Only A Game: Online Worlds and other, with control of dozens of star Where MMOGs are concerned, though, the Virtual Journalist Who Knew Too Much, systems filled with valuable resources of it’s a different story. Though there’s a will be published by O’Reilly in 2006. many kinds hanging in the balance. hefty single-player element in many Alliances rise and fall over the course of MMOGs, the collaborative authorship that many months, politics rend what were takes place in such games means that formerly powerful ties, and you learn to layering in a deep and moving plot is depend on the people you fly with, probably impossible. because EVE is a world where death hurts. Your story unfolds on an epic But MMOGs have an advantage over scale, and it’s a story in which the world single-player games for the same can be bent to your will - in contrast to reason. The connections that form there the constantly regenerating landscape of are not between player and finely World of Warcraft. wrought fictional characters, but between real people on both sides of the When the question is raised of whether a bond. And it’s the forming of such bonds videogame can make you cry, it’s usually - and the breaking of them - that is what violent slamming of trap-doors in Eye of Joe Blancato, Content Editor the Beholder to Thief: Deadly Shadows’ Anger with the fury of a thousand stars. The Cradle. More generally, the only reasons Take pretty much any sports game I play games are for emotional reasons. designed for the Super Nintendo, and I Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit They may be the more visceral end of probably have a story about a time I about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from. This week’s the emotional spectrum, but I’m not destroyed a controller because of it. It question is: going to apply some kind of f---ed-up drove me nuts, but part of me misses chain-of-being on my reactions to the world. the days when “great opponent AI” meant “the Bengals’ quarterback can throw Rod Humble, “Rules as Art” 90-yard passes in the fourth quarter.” I remember booting up Alternate Reality - The City on my Atari and stepping into Jon Hayter, Producer another world. It felt like you were living Rage. in a different place, getting a job, Subspace. Mark Wallace, “The Crying Game” importance of embracing imagination in listening to the music in the pubs, The only thing worse than being the When my EVE Online corporation moved our adult lives. The game fused with me avoiding bad parts of town. The emotions worst player in an online, skill-based halfway across the galaxy, we left behind as I played, and now appears to be a were belonging and awe. game is being the second best at it. hundreds of friends we’d flown with in permanent part of me. That’s what I was. A friend of mine was combat for many months. It was jarring Dana Massey, “Suspend My Disbelief” arguably the best, and would log on and to see the shift in allegiances, but the Bonnie Ruberg, “Hot and Bothered” There was a lot of stomping about and annihilate me whenever I was bragging strong bonds we’d developed as a tight- After Lisa Trevor, I was shaking for days. cursing during my UO PvP days. about dominating the server. The stream knit corp evoked more emotion. The Eek! of expletives I would scream at him was move made me realize that we’d formed JR Sutich, Contributing Editor ceaseless. more than game relationships; these Kieron Gillen, “More Than a Feeling” Opposite ends of the spectrum, but Good times. were actual friendships. Brought a tear People ask me this question a lot, and I about the same level of response. to my eye. always have trouble with it as I get a Smashed a keyboard after getting PK’d Julianne Greer, Executive Editor little too hung up on defining “emotion.” in Lineage and dropping a +7 Katana. The Sims. Made. Me. Crazy. It really John Walker, “Confessions of a Crybaby” Fear’s an emotion. According to Years later, I had tears well up in my does not take 42 minutes to walk across The Longest Journey. Not only did I get Lovecraft, the oldest, and I’ve had larger eyes after completing a quest in WoW, a kitchen. But I loved the sound they hugely emotionally involved, but it fear responses from videogames than and watched the results of my actions made when they were doing something fundamentally affected my (already any other art form. If that counts, take play out before me. they liked. “Awriiighh! Uh huh, uh huh.” passionate) beliefs in the crucial your pick from anything from the distant,