ALARMISM2020 by Joe Blancato

FUTURE IMPERFECT by Jim Rossignol

ESCAPING THE BOX INNOVATIONS AND GENRES by Dana Massey

ALL YOUR SENSE ARE BELONG THE CONTRARIAN TO US by John Tynes by Robert Coker I went to Disney World a few years ago. This is not to say that Disney Quest did opened up before – and above and Which brings us to this issue, Fast I had one of those package deals where not offer nostalgia in its own way--I behind – me. While the other three Forward 2020. It’s a look into the near your hotel, food and entertainment are spent the better half of an afternoon people with whom I was playing zoomed future of gaming. Rather than pie in the all included. I stayed in the themed hopping from one classic arcade game to off in the distance, I hovered in midair sky ideas of what’s coming, our authors hotel. I went to all four of the main another, all rigged for free play. Galaga, on my magic carpet. I looked up at a have extrapolated on current technology parks. I went to the luau, complete with Burgertime, and all of the Tron games blue, cloudless sky; I looked behind me and trends: Jim Rossignol ponders the fire-twirling dancers. I had open access were ready and waiting, among dozens to see more shops lining the road; I future of MMOGs and what really drives to all the little “side attractions” of others, taking up nearly half of the looked down, leaning as far forward as I their success, while Dana Massey associated with Disney, things like second floor in the large facility. It was could on my hand-rests, at a rapidly examines the role of genre in the Blizzard Beach (one of two water parks every game lover’s dream. approaching brick in the road until I evolution or stagnation of gaming. And on site), mini-golf, and Disney Quest. pulled up out of my accidental nose-dive John Tynes returns in his monthly But Disney doesn’t stop there; they take into the street below. Contrarian column to share his view on Ahhh, Disney Quest. the videogame goodness up a notch. My what the path of growth for games next stop was in the “Explore Zone,” and Once I had righted myself from the near- should be. Please enjoy these articles Of all the wonders at Disney World, it was called Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride. disaster of playing chicken with the road, and more in this week’s issue of The Disney Quest, the Indoor Interactive It would change my view, literally, of the I was off. I flew through the game, Escapist. Theme Park, is my favorite. Perhaps it future of games. collecting floating jewels and racing was because the air conditioning inside through a maze of a temple. While the gave a most welcome break from the The set-up was much like that of a helmet was heavy and floating jewels mid-90 degree heat outside, mid-June in motorcycle, but without the tires. Rather, aren’t exactly realistic, it was the most Florida. Perhaps it was because I had no the body was suspended by cables from memorable gaming experience I have idea what to expect upon entering. Or the ceiling, as was a helmet with a visor. ever had. It was innovative and, I felt, a perhaps it was that I hadn’t expected to After a few moments of strapping the clear look at the future of games. catch a glimpse of the Future in my trip helmet on and familiarizing myself with down Memory Lane. the controls, the world of Agrabah LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the editor - Congratulations on I write to bring you and your readers are so high production wouldn’t stop, but To the editor - I enjoyed Jason Smith’s being the most intelligent and well aware of what I believe could be an rather be tamed, so that lower ratings article on Player Created Content in written gaming related mag out there. epidemic within the gaming community. would be placed on the games thus Issue #4. However, I thought perhaps Recently, Hilary Clinton, in a speech, producing higher sales. Producers such there was a missed opportunity here. So, what do you guys think the next step condemned video games, particularly as EA may force these restrictions on for gaming is? By my reckoning, graphics Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It is her developers. In gaming there is, of course, much and presentation will have reached the belief, amongst other politicians’, that Player Created Content. Whether it’s real-life, picture-perfect plateau in about video games encourage violent acts I would hate to see the process of Unreal mods or Second Life activity another ten or fifteen years. Then what? among children, and she suggests creating a video game be halted because spaces, players have the tools, the time, Virtual Reality? Sweaty nano-tech body putting stricter censors on them. of some politician’s rant about one and the talent. suits and huge gyroscopic balls to spin particular game. Let’s be careful as we around in? Or maybe metal head plugs I have nothing against parents wanting watch these events unfold. However, there’s also Player Directed or fleshy bioports? Is it too soon to to protect their children from violence Content, assets created by developers preorder my holodeck? and sex. But the restrictions that are -Carl Wojciechowski but the use of which is determined by currently in place, I believe, are good the players. Good examples are games -Tobi & Nick enough, and should be left alone. The like Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, or ESRB’s rating system accurately labels A Tale in the Desert. Players play mini- To the editor - First off, I want to thank video games and warns potential buyers games in order to “unlock” specific all of you at The Escapist for creating a of the content. My concern lies in the content they then can “direct” around truly quality piece of literature for those fact that sales of popular, more ‘adult’ the game world. in the gaming community who have a videogames will plummet if restrictions deeper agenda. Your magazine has are tighter and developers will begin to For example, a player can decorate their helped to assure me that there ARE cut down on production of these games. SWG house with countless items as others who are looking at gaming as a I know that sales of games such as Half almost every item in the game exists as true culture rather then just a foolish Life 2, Doom 3, and the GTA series itself a 3D model. However, in order to get pastime or hobby. these items, players must build them, find them, buy them, or loot them. UO To the editor - I dig the magazine, and Anyway, I just had a few questions/ was similar. ATITD uses much more I really like the design - the layout is suggestions: detailed mini-game systems, to the point beautiful. I like what you guys are doing where every item in the game starts as a lot (so far). 1. I find it really hard to actually read ingredients and requires long multi-step the articles. When I read a site like processes to turn into final goods. Just a quick note - perhaps it’s possible NYTIMES.com, I usually click ‘single to put some easier next/previous page format’ and scroll down. I like The benefit with this approach is two navigation? Larger buttons, somewhere having articles on a single page. I’m fold: on the sides (esp. the previous button)? working off of a high resolution laptop, I like the minimalism thing, and I and usually when I read stuff on the 1- Nowhere near every player has the wouldn’t want to destroy the design web, I find myself increasing the font time, desire, or talent to truly create philosophy, but it would be quite size. Unfortunately, when I increase the content from the ground up. They do, annoying if print magazine could only be font size on your magazine, it overlaps however, all enjoy some amount of flipped by holding a tiny corner in one the borders and that makes it hard to personalization and customization. specific place, and otherwise they’d just read be stuck. 2- In persistent virtual worlds, 2. Will this ever be available in print? developers have more control over the Hah. Keep up the good work. You guys From the format of your website, I take content that players are allowed to play inspire me to write. it that its layout is magazine-like. I with. would suggest an exclusive web format, -Ilia maybe like slate.com, for the website, -Darniaq because reading pdf files on the To the editor - I’ve caught some of computer is tiresome due to scrolling your stuff on the web, and I really like it. issues. The writing quality is the best that I’ve ever seen in anything related to gaming- -Vincent -it’s sorta like the New Yorker of gaming. ESCAPING THE BOX innovation and genres by Dana “Lepidus” Massey

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1985, the legendary gaming console was released, irrevocably altering the gaming landscape with such iconic franchises as Super Mario Brothers. Over the last twenty years, a lot has changed. Gaming has gone from being a toy industry to a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry that, more often than not, markets to adults over children. Over the next fifteen years, gaming must continue to evolve. Game developers, publishers and media alike must strive to ensure that we continue to innovate and bring imagination to life.

In recent years, development budgets have increased, freezing out hobbyists, and the new age of corporate gaming has emerged. This was never more apparent than at E3 2005, where big gaming companies erected quasi-corporate mini-cities, teeming with projection screens and publicists, and had the audacity to call them booths. The neon- green themed Microsoft booth had overhead traffic and felt more like a mall than a temporary trade show structure. While the fine folks at EA treated media, fans and developers to the image of various sports stars spouting company slogans on a three- hundred-and-sixty degree screen. Atari even chose to erect a full-on “exclusive” club/ lounge that could rival the best nightspots in my hometown. Gaming has never been more lucrative and corporate. These days, games do not enter production unless guaranteed to sell hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of units. How do you know if a game will be that successful? One way is to look at history. This kind of logic has led to a slew of sequels, movie tie-ins and remakes. Admittedly, many of them were fun, but where does this leave those of us who seek something new? Too often, game companies begin competitive and highly original. What wrong I was! The game took a step back production with a blanket statement more can you ask for from a game? and, despite the unoriginal license, came such as “we wish to create a third- up with a rather original approach. In person action adventure game set in a At their root, games are about escapism. Jaws Unleashed, players control Jaws sci-fi world.” Immediately, they have As settings have become more and more himself and take up the task of wreaking pigeonholed themselves. More clichéd, developers need to remember havoc on fish, wildlife, and unfortunate companies and individuals need to step this basic premise: Gamers want to boaters. Eventually, another anxious back, forget genres altogether and experience things that they cannot in gamer had to kick me off the machine, consider only who they wish to entertain real life. Whether this experience is a though not before I had eaten everything and how to do it. Namco’s Katamari crime spree in Grand Theft Auto or the Damacy did just that. A description on role of NFL player, coach and GM in IGN.com begins with “Ever wonder what Madden 2005, these popular games it would be like to roll around and collect cater to that desire. All too often, everything you touched in one massive developers forget this basic need or, heap?” Of course not! But in Katamari nearly as fatal, allow players to escape Damacy, that’s what you’ll find. Players to worlds they have explored many times roll a ball that expands as it collects over. anything it rolls over. You roll through diversely sized environments, starting At E3 2005, I found myself under- out with a Katamari the size of a dustball whelmed. Several games touted in what appears to be a child’s bedroom. refinements to various genres, but Eventually the ball grows into a giant almost none left me with a burning nearly the size of the big city in which desire to play them any time soon. There you’re gathering “stuff.” In multiplayer was an exception and from an unlikely mode, you can even frantically race to source. I was looking forward to my pick up junk while bashing into your viewing of Jaws Unleashed about as opponents in an attempt to steal their much as doing my taxes. Hooray, girth. “Whimsical,” “Silly” and “Bizarre” another movie-based game! Guilty of not are words that I would use to describe doing my homework, I knew nothing this game. Most importantly, even about the game and cynically assumed I though it is completely and totally would be hunting a shark through a ridiculous, it remains fun, challenging, series of movie tied-in missions. How in the level. Jaws reinvigorated me and not to taunt convention for its own sake, instilled hope for the future. It would but to not be afraid to think outside your have been easy to make a simple third- category and in so doing, create person action-adventure title, but they something new. Currently, game chose instead to take a step back, go developers are taking the first baby outside the box and create something steps in this direction. I look to Spore to fun. independence than a first, second or by the basic gameplay model, some by blow the doors wide open. even fifth-time game designer. the underlying technology, and some by The movie and game industries have the basic concept of thinking outside the The mere concept of genre does not much in common. Both produce mass It is with people like Will Wright that genre box. This third group promises to offend me. I do not suggest that every entertainment and often cross-pollinate another branch of innovation may soon be the most innovative and important in game must be its own category. To not content with movie-inspired games and explode. Just as he pushed the envelope the coming years, a bright light on the expand on brilliant gameplay ideas would game-inspired movies. In recent years, with the various Sim titles, which gaming horizon. be like halting a dig when you discover film has suffered from the same plight as spawned several new genres (and maybe the first bone. Every genre has its gaming. Often movies are sequels, the only ones in recent history), he looks Once game designers and publishers “father game,” such as Doom to first- remakes or formulaic. At the same time, to do it again with the genre-blurring become more comfortable with the idea person shooters. Had we said that was celebrity directors, producers and actors title Spore. For all the hype about of combining genres, the possibilities enough, we would never have command more leeway than the procedurally animated characters, and seem endless. Aside from Spore, this experienced the wonders of Half-Life and unknowns of their craft. It is a shame sandbox gameplay - which admittedly mentality has slowly been creeping into the slew of other unique titles that have and tragedy, in many ways, that a new have me salivating like everyone else - it a number of blockbuster titles. Grand blazed new trails while still maintaining face cannot get a chance without first is instead the concept of genre-defying Theft Auto: San Andreas blends action/ their FPS roots. The problem lies in the being a proven success on Hollywood’s game design that gives me hope for the adventure and mini-games with a stagnant nature of genres, which I argue terms. However, at the same time, it future. If Spore comes to market and is Hollywood-style story experience; are becoming fewer rather than more. goes back to the idea of a guaranteed the commercial success EA hopes for, Pirates! offers mini-games, turn-based return on investment. Unknowns are suddenly there will be a string of war strategy and RPG elements; and in risky and the gaming industry, like the investors willing to fund games that the near future, Age of Empires III will film industry before it, has realized this. capitalize off its success. Does this build RPG-like character advancement This realization means that just as famed capitalization on success sound like into the popular RTS franchise. While film writer Charlie Kaufman may be free innovation? Not at all. Yet, in an industry there is not an original property among to pen out-of-the-box films likeBeing that demands a guaranteed return on the three - a sign of the times - all three John Malkovich, people like Will Wright investment, this may well be the way of do take tentative steps towards will be granted much more creative things. Some developers will be inspired becoming cross-genre epics. The idea is Genres like the platform adventure (e.g. Gods and Heroes from Perpetual Who are we to declare what will be the Mario series) are rapidly spiraling Entertainment promises to incorporate possible? Gaming breeds imagination. into oblivion, while nothing comes squad combat, thus taking the step of We should be the last industry to be forward to replace them. In some cases, letting player characters grow from lone confined by what is “possible.” The gamers and gaming companies - or warrior to commander of many NPC inability to agree on anything is the perhaps just retailers - suffer from some allies. hallmark of the gaming community. leftover Victorian need to classify Some lament that games have become everything. IGN listed Katamari Damacy This is just the tip of the iceberg. too complex and these people would as a “third-person action” game. Imagine a game where you begin as a rather see more basic, simple ideas Technically, they may be correct, but can single character, alone in the world, who made into reality. Others advocate that be accurate when it is unlike any completes mundane tasks for money and larger, more complex games. game I have ever played? It is precisely food. Eventually, you gain an entourage Unfortunately, gaming suffers from a games of this nature that forge new of characters to aid you in more complex lack of innovation on both fronts. paths and hopefully one day a genre will tasks, incorporating tactical and social Sticking to formula, relying on sequels owe its genesis to Katamari Damacy. elements. Over time, this entourage and capitalizing on trends will lead to a becomes an army, at which time you sit decent but unremarkable string of titles. The tired and often-kicked gift horse that at the head in an RTS-style interface. The goal is to identify whom the game is is the RPG genre could specifically Then take this a step further, and supposed to entertain and do so by any benefit from innovative thinking. By position the player as the monarch over means necessary. Whether this means definition, RPGs offer advancement an entire nation, as in Civilization. Now, forgetting all assumptions and making systems. However, too often, especially combine all of this into an online game. simple, yet fun and addictive games, or in the online medium, this is limited to a It sounds like a lot of fun, at least in its cross-genre epics, the effect is the same. bigger stronger character with a bigger hand-waving infancy, but some will say History will only remember those that sword. Already, some companies have that the idea is unwieldy and impossible take a chance and create something begun to look beyond this. The upcoming from a production standpoint, at least on truly remarkable. any kind of realistic timeline. A futuristic urban landscape complete with mile-high skyscrapers, flying trains, outdoor elevators and passageways looms behind a young man dressed in space-age clothing. He gingerly handles a glass ball with an alphanumeric identification symbol etched on its side. After careful examination, he splits the ball open, releasing a school of tiny bulbous spores that float out of the ball and into the boy’s nose. These spores find their way into his cranial cavity and burrow into the fleshy walls of the young man’s brain. He has been probed by the future, enabling his body to define an environment for himself and to allow him to experience interaction with all five senses without any sort of interfacing with a physical environment. It isn’t so much the technology that most of the information we use to defines the future, but rather what can understand our world comes though be done with the technology. From the through our eyes. It’s normal to us. But beginning of interactive entertainment, our other senses may be languishing. to the very essence of the industry we know today, there have been It’s All In the Nose technological advancements that have Smell is one of our most powerful garnered the support of gamers. It’s the senses. It’s directly connected to the driving force behind the industry: part of our brain that processes innovation. But throughout the years of memories and emotions. In the future, mainstream gaming, our experiences as the technology becomes available, the have been restricted to three of the five possibility of including unique and human senses. We view gaming pleasure environment defining smells into any through our eyes, we hear gaming gaming experience would open up a new pleasure through our ears and we control level of immersion that is otherwise gaming pleasure with our hands (and unachievable with typical sensory feet, if you’re bold enough to do so). interaction. Imagine strolling through an adventure game, a detective on the trail So, what about the two dormant senses of a notorious mob boss, when you come otherwise neglected in the world of to a typical dark, desolate alley. Only, IT ISN’T SO MUCH THE TECHNOLOGY THAT gaming? We live in a visually oriented the alley comes to life as you smell the world, where the vast majority of our trash left behind, its fate set to rot attentions are focused on what we can before the mist. As you move down the DEFINES THE FUTURE, BUT RATHER WHAT see. Most of us have become so shadowed corridor, you gather a whiff of accustomed to the dominance of visual gun powder and know you’re heading in CAN BE DONE WITH THE TECHNOLOGY. stimuli that we don’t really think about it the right direction. anymore. We take it for granted that Ok, so maybe the idea of smelling ADDING THE ABILITY TO ACTUALLY TASTE WITHIN A GAME ADDS AN ENTIRELY garbage isn’t too appealing, but it’s an immersion factor that can be tailored for NEW REALM OF POSSIBILITIES THAT HAVE YET TO HAVE BEEN EXPLORED. nearly any environment and any situation. It triggers an emotional response, calling upon personal In the past, a slew of “tycoon” games memories and adding a level of depth found their way onto the market and that alienates the player from reality and offered gameplay revolving around sets them into a world defined by their everything from amusement parks to thoughts, their memories and the pizza artistry (because it’s become environmental intentions of developers. politically incorrect to simply make pizza; And that is, after all, the purpose of it’s now an art). But what if the object of video games – to take the player outside a game was to perfect a taste, or provide of reality and into a world where there a variety of tastes to achieve a certain are no worldly restrictions. goal? Envision the possibilities of crafting in certain role-playing games, where you Taste the Digital Rainbow are given the ability to create herbal Directly linked to smell is taste, as both remedies and the like, but the only way taste and smell interact with each other to make sure they’re perfect for to better define the other. There have consumption is to taste them yourself. been a number of discussions over the No longer would you simply rely on course of the previous few years game mechanics, but also your own claiming that gaming has reached a intuition and the millions of taste buds point at which innovation can no longer that instruct you on what tastes identify be achieved, as everything has already with what materials. It may sound like been accomplished in one form or nothing more than a simulation or some another. Adding the ability to actually sort of scientific experiment, but in the taste within a game adds an entirely new end it adds a level of realism to a game’s realm of possibilities that have yet to experience, while not decreasing have been explored. imaginative value. Touching is Good As technology advances, controllers and Scientists have only just begun to unlock technology and each of our senses will As the potential of our senses are input devices will inevitably cease to the mysteries of the mind, and as time be shown equal attention. Prepare pushed beyond what is thought possible, exist and one will be subjected to the passes, gamers will get a hold of their yourself for total immersion, as your the manner in which we already utilize game’s nature through the sense of knowledge and exploit it to provide new eyes, ears, nose, mouth and “touch them will be seen in a separate light. At touch. Our imagination will come into entertainment value to their passion. receptors” receive digital acceptance in this point in time, our sense of touch is play and our experiences will define our Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s tomorrow’s interactive entertainment. the control element for gaming, but its environment. Imagine the ability to science fact. Gaming will evolve with prospective attributes shroud our current overcome the need of controllers and realization of gaming and offer an use your mind to not only control your endless amount of possibilities. We don’t interactive destiny, but also feel it. It is feel games, we control them. We press typical of horror games of the day to buttons and we move analog sticks to induce fear through shock factor, but achieve a desired effect. There is no with a more expressive method of touch, immersion, other than being the a more fearful method of fright is controlling factor of the events unfolding capable. Place yourself in a dark corridor, before your eyes and ears, and for some a hallway of sorts, with doors on either this is enough. At some point in the side of you. As you begin to traverse to future, however, this will fail to entice your hidden fate, you feel something and a higher level of immersion will brush against your arm, raising the hairs come into play. Virtual reality has on your neck until they stand on end. attempted to eliminate the need to You are genuinely scared, but at this touch, and institute the need to feel, but point you need to remind yourself: It’s has not garnered a wide acceptance only a game. among gamers due to a number of pressing controversies, namely the price it costs to operate a virtual reality simulation. So they ask: What is the future of the massively multiplayer game? And I think: More importantly, how long before that future gets here? I’ve been waiting for ages. Surely with all that soul searching and “post-mortem analysis” the developers can’t be far from that elusive next-gen ideal? Surely someone will spot all the best bits and make a game to end all games?

Won’t they? Ach, maybe it’s hopeless. How can I really know? How can I predict what games are going to do in a year, let alone a couple of decades? Who could have predicted the rise in professional gaming, or the importance of mods, or the black-market virtual cash cultures, or the thronging game cafés of the Far East, where people can lose their lives in arguments over virtual items?

Ah, yes. Amid all of this unexpected and bewildering new culture lies my answer: The future of massively multiplayer games is gamers. Amid the chaotic genealogies of games there lie some hidden trends, and it’s these subtle patterns that give us some clues to the future: A future in which games rely not on them, but on us. There are two types of massively said to me, “just queueing to be next on multiplayer online games (MMOGs). The the theme park ride.” It’s empty, and you first type is essentially just a single- can’t do much to fill it up. player game stretched to fit this new “online” way of doing things. You’ll often Of course this model hasn’t exactly hear a complaint about games like World proven unpopular, and my own six of Warcraft, that they are too focused on months as a slave to the perpetual soloing or lack decent player monkey-finger collection is a testament cooperation. You get into the game, you to that. The sheer beauty of games like hit stuff, you get bigger statistics and World of Warcraft, combined with an head out to hit stuff with even bigger appetite for the familiar from a majority statistics; there’s not much more to it of players, means that their ilk will than that. probably still be around in 2020, and still be raking in the cash. Just a brief glance In the case of WoW, this has happened at the MMOGs scheduled for release over because Blizzard has taken the single the next five years confirms this thought. player RPG, Diablo, and bolted the We want beautiful worlds given to us template over online technologies. If neatly packaged, and we’re going to get player vs. player combat is poor, or the them. capacity for self-creation is limited, then it’s because this was a game that took But as time progresses, the ol’ Darwin old standards of what makes a game effect kicks in - the second type of game successful and applied them to an has already begun to appear from the entirely new way of interacting. The primordial ooze: games like Second Life, game is inflexible, focused on the A Tale in the Desert and, to a lesser individual and acutely reliant on content extent, Eve Online and Star Wars provided by the developers to keep us Galaxies. All these titles have glimpsed entertained. Sure, Bob is with you, and the possibilities of alternative method, his dwarf looks funny, but you’re not although none of them provide a exactly getting anywhere. There’s satisfactory example of it. This second nothing unique here; you are, as one kind of game is one where players begin Icelandic games developer memorably to have to make their own fun, rather than have it provided for them. Some ended gaming on such a scale before. It’s a symbiosis, one of nature’s most examples of this include the way in Instead of trying to provide any kind of successful systems. which Eve Online players have naturally concrete guild system they’ve provided a grouped into unofficial “alliances” and framework for shooty spaceships and a I could talk about space war and galactic have begun to monopolize areas of their consumer economy and let the players capitalism all day, but the point is that world. Initially there wasn’t much to do fight it out. Providing players with this provides a powerful example of in game, so player interactions provided resources to struggle for meant that they developers using the biggest resources: the most interesting possibilities. Wars, would do just that, and instantly the the social inclinations of their players. politics, trade: it all opened up very challenge of taking on human beings Players want to fight, consume and quickly. with other human allies becomes more build. So let them. interesting than battling crap AI trolls for The developer, CCP, suspected that this another pot of gold. In time Eve has The entirely peaceful ancient civilization kind of thing might happen, but really seen socioeconomic systems emerge MMOG A Tale in the Desert takes the had no idea how to implement it. Why spontaneously. Once the larger dynamics building impulse further, turning the would they? No one has tried open become clear, then extra support can be whole game into a communal effort. It’s coded into the game. a collaborative relationship between the developers who provided the tools for If this analysis sounds a bit clinical, then building, and the gamers who built inside I should say that it’s all very earthy and the game itself. When the first run of practical on the ground. Players want to pyramid building had come to something be rich, to blow stuff up, and to have of an impasse, players and devs alike friends, so that’s what they do. The agreed that it was time to reset ancient natural tendency for tribes to form to Egypt and start from scratch. And so keep strangers out and to fulfill these they did. It was a better game for it. desires has made the game as interesting as it is today. CCP have Of course, this idea of communality nurtured this tendency and they have between gamer and game isn’t an easy benefited from allowing human nature to thing to define and there are going to be find its own way to make and break the lots of misadventures as this terrain is game world. Any game that learns from explored. The game that currently takes its players in this way is going be far less the building idea to its most absurd one-sided than our first type of game. extreme is the MMOG Second Life, which climb, really they’re missing an themselves. His solution was Spore, the opportunity - the chance to make the apogee of the God-game concept game exist as a collaboration with finished off with a neat idea: mediated players, rather than a straightforward player-made content. Wright wants his production. Yet, looking at Second Life players to be able to create new and you might see something of a dead end. unique objects for the game that can It’s interesting to visit, but it’s not shared and downloaded from the essentially throws the tools for creation achieve with the flexible scripting - exactly a game that you’d want to play internet, but without the undesirable out into the community and tells them to naturalistically flocking fish, rock excessively. It’s just too much like hard messiness of Second Life. His game get on with it. Rather than the ready- concerts, even an internet inside this work. Too fragmentary. Too weird. provides an easy-to-use editor that made World of Warcraft or even Star game inside the internet. The allows players to build diverse creatures Wars Galaxies, first-time visitors to possibilities are boggling and far beyond But perhaps the game that really allows from a set of adaptable prefabricated Second Life find themselves in a vast the creative capabilities of any single player and developer to work together in parts. Minor adjustments in the editor sandbox mishmash of things that other development team. Walking its blocks the most productive way hasn’t yet been are dealt with procedurally by the game, people have made. It’s a fairly crude- and ghettos is like walking a kind of properly conceived. The first inklings of so that weird new buildings and animals looking MMOG and seems to be more of trash-littered dreamland - the shared how this might work have come not from can be made to “fit” within the game a glorified 3D modeling tool than a game imaginations of hundreds of players. an MMOG, but from Will Wright, the shell. Because Spore provides definite - it’s clunky, difficult, and awkward. Hell, Second Life is demonstrating, albeit in creator of The Sims. His GDC speech limitations within the game space, while even movement seems ill executed. an ugly work-in-progress kind of way, “The Future of Content” argued that at the same time offering multiple What is this game playing at? What’s to just where players can take their games developers simply have to let players variables to play with, players can’t like? Well it’s this: Second Life is a game if they’re given the tools. With a little bit create, both thanks to spiraling break the game or introduce anything that has a little piece of the future in it. of clever game design, developers can development costs and from the sense of incongruous. They can, however, play And the future of games is gamers. make their players do all the work and, satisfaction derived by the players endlessly as they build. It’s akin to Lego potentially, come up with something a - there are multiple toys you can build Second Life relies purely on its players little more special than what the team with any one set of bricks. for its content. They create the buildings, might have produced on their own. the clothes, the vehicles, the jetpacks, This, then, is where I see MMOGs going: the books and the guns. Almost This is the vital link to the future within deciding on what set of bricks you want everything aside from the most basic MMOGs. While many developers are to play with, or, if you’re a developer, tutorial hubs has been created by trying to provide their players with the deciding what set of bricks you want to gamers. There are some incredible best-looking world, the biggest dragons provide. Games must find better ways to examples of what they’ve been able to to slay and the tallest mountains to enable the player to build within the game world. This will partly come from be catered to as well, but why not let the the likes of, say, City of Heroes’ more dedicated players create that hat character editor, which allows players to for him? Why not allow the player to set simply dress up in ever more imaginative the quest himself, because he actually ways. Or it will come from Guild Wars’ needs five hundred goblin toes? concept of “instancing,” but with players building, hosting and populating their Perhaps, if game engines ever manage own dungeons, into which unwitting to be truly approachable, then players strangers may wander. But it will also will be able to customize almost come from player’s interactions with everything about their worlds. A each other - using social and “economic” democratic, mediated customization - a investment in a game to create content, little like how we live in the real world. as Eve does with its alliances and player- run businesses. The wikification of games, anyone?

The challenge for developers is not to build the most beautiful game world, but to allow players to feel that they, themselves, are investing in something beautiful and with more depth just than killing enough blue goblins to get that brand new level-35 Stetson. Sure, the casual hat-coveting gamer will need to Little known fact: CDs burn at 451 degrees, too.

At least that’s what the manual from my Congressman’s office said. In the late 2000s, a bipartisan legislature decided to make the ESRB and MPAA regulatory bodies, after learning violent and sexually explicit media proved harmful to the nation’s youth. Years later, kids were still coming into contact with perverse media, and another bill was passed, officially labeling movies, books, and games more extreme than Walker Texas Ranger as “snuff;” possession became an arrest-able offense, and a sprawling black market was born.

Scientific evidence challenging the notion that suggestive topics and content don’t turn children into sociopaths was published by leading news organizations. Children were found reading these arguments, and became agitated by the findings. Clearly, mainstream media that disagrees with the government was instilling a rebellious faction among the nation’s youth, potentially turning our precious children into domestic terrorists. Congress and the Supreme Court agreed: anti-government sentiments weren’t protected by the First Amendment, because their very utterance could be construed as assault upon the public. Alright, that’s enough of my own worse than the negative effects of mysterious Xbox is a den of inequity with alarmism for now. But if we don’t pay alcohol.. no protection in place at all. Just ask attention to what’s happening just Jack Thompson and his new ally, Hillary beyond our living rooms, a scenario Fast forward 25 years. The same young, Clinton. similar to my descent into tin foil hat- white people who ended the Prohibition wearing conspiracy theory might not be got older, and began fighting a new Both of them, along with their crew of as preposterous as you think. Alarmist demon the Temperance Movement never lobbyists, are flaunting questionable leaders and community members have could have dreamed of: rock and roll. studies and scary soundbytes in order to been around long before Chicken Little For the first time, white kids were being further their agendas, which at this point was dreamt up in folk lore, but modern exposed to black music on a grand scale, don’t seem to extend beyond “I’m day politicians and special interest setting the older generation on edge. personally offended by the expression of groups have evolved from a simple “The Buddy Holly’s plane crashed; Elvis was others.” They ignore the fact that violent sky is falling!” to sensational rhetoric drafted and returned a country singer; youth crime is at an all-time low, and more akin to “Incoming! We got Charlie and Frank Sinatra called them both began dropping rapidly at the same time all around us and artillery shells are communists before the dust settled. This violent games became a staple of every exploding overhead!” tentative truce stayed in place until the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) “Modern” cases of entire generations formed in 1985 and had it out with Frank unnecessarily fixating on harmless fun Zappa on C-span. This time, the dust go back to the Prohibition Era. By never completely cleared and the people claiming its negative effects were who fought music that brought joy to detrimental to society, members of a many, learned from their battles. group called the Temperance Movement were able to bully politicians into So here we are, 50 years after rock and nationally banning the production and roll, and we’re faced with a terrible, new sale of alcohol. This movement declared “threat” to our culture: gaming. True, that the only way to save America was to gangsta rap is again exposing white kids rid it of the scourge of alcohol to dangerous black music, but this time completely. The inevitable rise of children are protected by a black-and- organized crime eventually led to the white label reading “Explicit Lyrics.” The ban being lifted. It turned out that the V-Chip is on hand to protect kids from negative effects of Prohibition were Christina Aguilera videos. But that teenager’s diet. If you’re one of those trouble” is what gets you into the government step into the picture in numbers people, here they are: The ten- headlines. support of social conservativism. And year period between 1992 and 2002 games will suffer in perpetuity in the yielded a 66% decline of violent crime Read Thompson’s (http://www.stopkill. name of this alliance committed by children ages 10 to 17 com) website. Thompson et al are (http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ appealing to the tired working man who Amidst all this forthcoming legislation, chap-4.htm). That’s almost twice the just wants to make sure his kid doesn’t senators are missing the mark. If we rate of decrease of violent crime among turn into the Zodiac serial killer, and really cared about what’s causing Americans in general, which only yielded people like Thompson are remarkably violence among youth, all we really need a 35% decline (http://www.fbi.gov/ good at scaring everyday people into to look at is their parents’ paychecks. It filelink.html?file=/ucr/Cius_97/95CRIME/ believing their sensational agenda. Even may be a political rough spot, but 95crime2.pdf). It hardly seems gaming the name of his site, “Stop Kill,” is poverty and socioeconomic disparity are has transformed our children into the political maneuvering at its finest. But the leading contributors to all crime, violent little devils some might have you you know what? It works, and the including that of our precious offspring believe. Democrats are finally catching on. (http://www.preventingcrime.net/ library/Causes_of_Crime.pdf). But the ill Of course, these pragmatic real world Make no mistake; regulating the game effects of poverty aren’t something we numbers are easy to push aside in favor industry into the ground is going to be a like to talk about, and targeting things of laboratory tests that judge “violent bipartisan affair. The left needs an that don’t extend as far into the roots of behavior” by grading answers to a opportunity to prove their commitment our society - like games - is far easier. questionnaire. Much like the old to “family values” but they can’t go after Pharaohs who divined the will of the their benefactors in the movie and music To top it off, these alarmists aren’t even gods by the rise and fall of the Nile, it industries. Game companies, on the looking at the right games when they feels as if opponents of gaming are other hand, why they hardly donate to extend their gaze of suppression against selectively representing information to the Political Action Committees at all! products like “Hot Coffee.” There are cloud the issue. But “bubbling toil and Meanwhile the right is happy to let big hate groups out there creating games in which players accrue points by killing blacks and Jews While perhaps even these games are covered under the scope of the First Amendment, they’re far more deserving of heat from people like Thompson and Clinton. But until a White Power party writes a killer app for constantly under attack. These “squeaky two consoles, they’ll continue along wheels” rattling off bad facts and under the radar. Once again, propaganda only benefit from silence. sensationalism gets in the way of rooting out century old problems. I really don’t want to know at what temperature CDs really burn. The only way to prevent this insanity is to become part of the process. Older members of the gaming generation are to the point where they can conceivably run for office, and many of us could conceivably vote for them. If even a few gamers on either side of the political spectrum were to stand on Capitol Hill and proudly proclaim the fact they played Thrill Kill - and haven’t attempted to murder anyone to date - they would throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of the insipid anti-expression movement in Congress. Even writing letters to current lawmakers could have a noticeable effect. Once these people realize their constituency is onto their ruse, they’ll change their tune. Free speech and expression - even violent and sexual speech and expression - are sacred ideals in western culture. In order to avoid a dark future in 15 years, people need to defend the media that’s When Microsoft’s J Allard told developers the Xbox 360 would ship with half a gig of RAM, they whooped and cheered. It meant more headroom for high polygon counts, detailed textures, and bigger levels. But when publishers looked at the resulting development budgets of $15 or $20 million to pay all those additional programmers and artists, they flipped out.

Three years ago, persuading a publisher to sink $5 million into a non-franchise title was an uphill battle; now that same game could cost five times as much, but units sold and retail prices haven’t risen accordingly. Only a half-dozen or so games per year break into the world of multi-million unit shifters. Just as in Hollywood, a small number of tent poles support all the projects that fail. When EA wanted to make games more like the movies, this is not what they had in mind.

Welcome to the future of gaming. Three years ago, I flew to Montreal and indistinguishable from the two-million- knocked on the door of an office I’d polygon original. It’s the kind of never seen before. After I was inside, a innovation that happens when you only technician put little sticky, colored dots have 64MB of video RAM. The developers all over me and took digital photographs I worked for engineered their own of my front, back, sides, hands, and normal mapping code, from pipeline to head. Some men typed on keyboards. A playback, and I was their guinea pig. few minutes later, there it was: a When I saw myself looking back from complete 3D model of me from head to the screen in our game engine, photo- toe, with photographic color textures realistic and dressed exactly as I’d been already applied. There were plenty of that day in Montreal, I thought I was glitches, but the result was nonetheless looking into the future. amazing. A full-body, high-resolution scan, geometry and texture, ready for Two years later, the future arrived. Doom cleanup and use in a game. It wasn’t 3, Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and more. even one of those whirring, revolving Characters were lifelike, environments laser things. They just took pictures, were vivid, lighting was dramatic. connected the sticky dots across the Compared to the games of 2002, it was images, and the software interpolated a quantum leap in technology, a real my entire form. For a couple grand, I moment of future frisson. was my own avatar. And the games - well, they were okay. It was the summer of 2002, and we’d all seen the early screenshots from Doom 3. That’s not an easy sentence to write. But The world got its first big look at normal “okay” is about where they ended up. mapping, a technology where you start Doom 3? Some nice intensity, a lot of with a high-polygon model, generate zombies in closets, and one measly lighting data, and then apply that design innovation: in the dark you could lighting data to the in-game low-polygon shoot or you could see, but you couldn’t model. The result is me, right there on do both at the same time. (Most gamers the screen: a two-thousand-polygon hated that.) Half-Life 2? Amazing playable character that looks almost characters, impressive production, and the most tiresome and annoying physics- Halo 2, I had the most straight-up fun Havok is one of those Next Big Things for Hire, couldn’t get through a single based jumping puzzles ever conceived. with Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. that actually does get a lot of use. Valve room without knocking the furniture (Valve never got the memo that jumping couldn’t shut up about it, trumpeting over. If this happened in Splinter Cell, puzzle + FPS = misery.) Halo 2? Plenty No, really. their physics-based gameplay in Half-Life Sam Fisher would be the noisiest spy in of two-gun fun, but no ending, and 2, which actually consisted of operating the business. embarrassing cut-scene glitches. Psi-Ops had its own Exciting Technology cargo cranes and falling repeatedly off of in the form of the Havok physics engine. wooden palettes into toxic sludge. Max By the time Half-Life 2 finally made it to If years of effort by some of the best If you don’t know what Havok is, cast Payne 2 was all about the Havok, insofar stores, its Havok thunder had been developers in the business can result in a your mind back to the summer of 2002, as when you ran through a level, stolen by a kick-line of physics-ridden beautifully normal-mapped shrug, it’s when videogame characters who died on constantly sliding along the furniture games. We’d seen it on display in FarCry time to rethink this future business. stairs would project outward from the (like you do in every game), all the and Max, and even in two consecutive Because now that we’ve seen it, maybe particular step on which they fell, chairs, bottles, dishes, and cigarette psychic-power games where you could we were better off in 2002 - once upon a hovering in midair, because their death packs hopped like Mexican jumping pull a Yoda and make your luggage time, when we were profitable. animations ended with them flat on the beans. Poor Max Payne, Drunken Sailor levitate. One was the so-so Second (virtual) ground. Thanks to Havok, those Sight, and the other was that obscure Last year also brought us a game that same characters now sprawl on the title from Midway called Psi-Ops. you probably didn’t play. I don’t blame stairs in a heap because Havok’s physics you. It had a terrible title, little hype, code can let them actually fall, strike the and unremarkable sales. Yet in a year ground, and lose momentum. that brought us Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Psi-Ops is where Havok found its home. why stop there? You can set a guy on could have finished it in a quarter of that their mitts on it. What made Psi-Ops the Havok gave Psi-Ops the muscle it needed firewith your mind, then levitate the time, but I stuck around because I was most entertaining game of 2004 was its to become the most entertaining game I burning, screaming man and hurl him off having so much fun. The bad guys kept design, the real sense of play that comes played in 2004. a catwalk and into a combustible barrel - re-spawning, and I kept coming up with when someone gives you a sandbox and yes, there are combustible barrels - new and exciting combinations of pyro- a sack of toys and says, “Have fun!” That’s qualified praise. Not even I, the where his burning body detonates it, kinesis, telekinesis, brains-popping-out- When I played Psi-Ops, I did. best friend Psi-Ops ever had in the catching three more guys on fire. Then of-their-skull-kinesis, and a dandy media, am willing to say it’s the best while they’re burning and screaming, assortment of firearms. I really couldn’t That day in Montreal, I saw myself game of 2004. Setting aside the cheesy you pick them up and throw them off a get enough of this gameplay, and every converted from flesh to bits in a matter title, there’s a pointless storyline, a cliff. Two left? Just possess one and use situation was worth waiting for a re- of minutes, the kind of Tron moment confusing game-save UI, and some his body to shoot the other. One left? spawn just to do it again, differently. we’ll all have someday, so that when our lackluster level design. If you rented it Sneak up behind him and suck his soul There’s even stealth, for Pete’s sake. brains pop out of our skulls we can just for a weekend and gave it a couple until his brain pops out of his head and download them again. But the hours I hours, you’d probably be justified in gives you a power boost. Closed door? Typically, a developer starts with a spent playing Psi-Ops made it clear handing it back to the clerk at Astral-walk through it and see who’s laundry list of features and a fat stack of where game developers should really put Blockbuster without a second thought. waiting in ambush, then turn the tables content ideas. As they go, they get hung their dreams. The game’s the thing, But give it a few more hours, unlocking on them with one of their burning, up on the content (“we gotta have and no normal-mapping, HDR-lighting, more psychic powers, and Psi-Ops hits screaming friends flying around the twenty levels”) and start cutting virtual-reality foofarah is ever going to its stride. And then you’ll have more fun corner. features. Psi-Ops is the opposite: they change that. than you did in Doom 3, Half-Life 2, or put in every single feature they possibly Halo 2. Satisfying. So satisfying. could, and then let the levels shuffle halfheartedly into existence. But it Let me paint you a picture. You jump on Psi-Ops is a smorgasbord of every goofy doesn’t matter, because the feature set a crate - yes, there are crates - and you psychic power you’ve ever heard of, and provides so much gameplay and look down. (It’s a third-person game.) the levels are just excuses for you to exploration that the levels are just You target the crate you’re standing on plunder your mental toolbox to come up sandboxes. and levitate it. Now you’re flying, driving with cool, creative solutions to tactical the crate you’re standing on, shooting at problems. They give you the Swiss army Titles like Psi-Ops should be the real people as you do so. With practice, you knife and turn you loose. future of gaming. The developers’ great can levitate a crate directly in front of innovation had little to do with you as you charge into a room, The level with the missile silos? I played technology; Havok was already standard protecting you from incoming fire. But that same level for two hours straight. I operating procedure by the time they got Producer Jonathan Hayter Bully Picks Up Where Hot Coffee Leaves Off The firm also suspects the console will launch with Executive Editor Bully, premised upon a child growing up 15 titles, priced at $59.99 each. If one were to Julianne Greer Layout Artist confronting schoolyard bullies and other violent purchase everything available on release day, he’d Patrick Jones scenarios, is already ruffling feathers on a grand pay $1299. It’s no small wonder the games Contributing Editors scale. Whatever is said about GTA: San Andreas, it industry has grown so rapidly. Joseph Blancato Lead Web Developer was never protested by a youth group. Rockstar’s JR Sutich Whitney Butts newest upcoming title had youth organization EQ2 Player Makes Thousands Duping Peaceaholics so upset they marched on the An Everquest 2 player was able to uncover an item Copy Editor IT Director company’s New York headquarters earlier this duplication bug, which he was able to exploit to Wendy Beasley Jason Smith week. Protest signs read “Stop Bully Now!” and make thousands of platinum pieces, the game’s “Prosecute Rockstar Games. They are felons” highest currency. He then sold the money via an Research Manager Publisher among other things. Bully is currently pending an online virtual property market. His story has Nova Barlow Alexander Macris ESRB rating. bounced around various mirrors over the past two days, and on one particular iteration of what is Contributors Associate Publishers Xbox 360 Pricing Predictions quickly becoming a legend, he mentioned he made Robert Coker Jerry Godwin Research firm Piper Jaffray completed a study on $70,000 in the span of a few months. SOE offered Dana Massey Gregory Lincoln the future of the Xbox 360, and has said two no comment on the official message boards, but Jim Rossignol versions of the Xbox, one with a hard drive and took their servers down to address the issue, John Tynes Director of Advertising one without, will retail at $399 and $299 banning any players suspected of exploiting this Allen Varney Susan Briglia respectively, and 1.6 million units will ship globally. particular bug. Shawn Williams Chairman of Themis Group Thomas S. Kurz

Volume 1, Issue 5, © 2005. 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 available 08-12-05 Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com