To the Editor: With all due respect, I meet the aforementioned standard of must disagree with your assertion that expression. the protection of games under the First Amendment is due to their status as The Appellate Court disagreed, and their Last week, we discussed various theories but it’s a fantastic read – all four parts of “art.” comparison of video games with other of game design. We interviewed Trip it over the next four weeks. media is meant to demonstrate that Hawkins, who began the largest game In fact, the landmark case you cite says video games utilize some of those same company in the world, and delved into Enjoy! nothing of the sort. The Court finds that media (music, pictures and writing) in some of the prominent factors in game games are protected speech based on a their own construction and thus are design, such as narrative, gameplay and standard other than the highly subjective capable of the same expression. graphics. question of whether they are art.

This week, we’re looking at some of the The District Court’s decision (which can less glamorous, but no less important, be viewed here: http://1stam.umn.edu/ aspects of game development, the ones archive/fedctapp/interactive.pdf) simply that often go unnoticed in our conscious states: “In order to find speech, there thought about a game – the side must exist both an intent to convey a dialogue, the architecture of the setting To the Editor: I don’t normally do this particularized message and a great and the voice acting. This week, we but I just wanted to drop you a note and likelihood that this message will be explore “What’s in a Game?” tell you what a great job you’re doing understood.” That expression need not with the Escapist. The articles are be political or ideological, but can take Additionally, we have the first of a four consistently well-written, researched and the form of entertainment. part series of articles by uber-producer/ thoughtful. Your layouts are always gaming god/industry insider and great, and the subject matter Ico was released in September of 2001. generally all-around cool guy, Warren provocative. Baldur’s Gate II in September, 2000. Spector. He’s agreed to give his thoughts Instead of those well-respected on the game industry, and the problems Please keep it up! examples of the medium, the District and potentialities it faces. Yeah, it’s a Court’s 2002 ruling based its judgement departure from the topic of this issue, Thanks, of expression on violent clips from -Jon Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, and Doom. Perhaps wrongly, but not surprisingly, the Court found these examples did not There is no description of artistry, and above, had very little connection with coarsening, in other words destructive, artistic merits are not considered by the Trip. influence on society. Courts. Trip should get huge props for signing There are some games that are better Sincerely, Madden when he did – at the time EA not to be played. Just as there are -B. Doskocil signed Madden, he wasn’t the #1 Color destructive books, TV shows, movies, Commentator as he would become later etc. that should not be read nor To the Editor: Just so there is a chance on. He was, at that time, more well- watched. But we depend on a mature at correcting a vast overstatement by known for the Miller Lite Beer market to make wise choices. For Trip or, more to the point, to give an commercials that he was a part of where wherever there is a market, there will be appropriate amount of props to the “Real he would burst through scenery to talk people ready to cater to it. Even if it is Creators” of the Madden Franchise we some more as the commercial faded out. illegal. are still playing versions of today, the Lost in all of this is that John Madden only people who should be claiming they was a great football coach ... most Thus the existence of games like Grand created Madden Football are: people today only know him as an Theft Auto, Dungeons and Dragons and announcer, and will probably think that is other games that are recognized by Jim Simmons why he is being inducted in the Pro Scott Orr Football Hall of Fame later this year. Richard Hilleman Kirk Toumanian (sorry if I spelled Kirk’s Love the mag, last name incorrectly ... it has been a -Happy Keller while since I needed it) To the Editor: I’m a bit late to respond There are many others who came to the threat of having no games. After afterward, including myself, who have all, I played games. contributed to the Madden Franchise, but Trip’s version of Madden existed on the “The blood was crimson...” as Tom Apple //e. It took almost six years to Rhodes started his piece. It is fitting that build, and was a commercial failure on he should start with an ancient the Apple // and IBM PCs of the day. reenactment of spectator games that The Sega Genesis version of Madden, were eventually banned. And why were completed primarily by the names they banned? It was because they had a many as having a negative effect on the individuals who make unwise choices in individuals who play them is less an the games they play. indictment of the gaming industry, as it is of society as a whole. True, for most A second response is to segregate players that negative affect will be small, negative games to the equivalent of the offset by other influences in the players’ red light districts of yesteryear: a good, lives, but it is still there. Your magazine consistent rating system will help people has given examples of such negativities recognize and avoid the red light district in past issues. That is what animates the if they so wish. And no cheating, for Cary Nations and the Prohibitionists of though it may confer a temporary today, who want to get rid of the modern financial advantage to the cheater, it also equivalent of “devil liquor” out of brings on unwanted attention of those gaming. But just as Prohibition didn’t who would wish to ban them, which work, nor is the “War against Drugs” would hurt the industry as a whole. having much success, so banning destructive games without drying up the Personally, before I play a game, I ask market for those games will be “What is this game’s message?” “How ineffective. will it influence me?” Games that deal with destructive themes such as occult The proper response to destructive or unnecessary violence don’t even get games is not to ban games, rather it is opened. Our family had hours of fun to be creative and make good games years ago when we hooked up a group of that are at worst, fun ways to relax, and Macintoshes over Appletalk (before at best games that have a positive ethernet became common) and played influence on our lives. Further, it is to against each other. I used that as an show that games affect the people who opportunity to teach my children about play them and to show what the affects what to look for in a game. Now that are, both positive and negative. they are grown, I am pleased to see that Thankfully, the state sponsored blood for the most part, they make wise sports of the ancient arena are no longer choices in the games they play. available, but there will always be -Karl W. Randolph. In November of 2005, I gave a talk at the Montreal International Game Summit. To say the reaction to my talk was “incendiary” might be something of an overstatement, but not by as much as you might think. I thought I was providing a relatively straightforward counterpoint to what I saw as relatively foolish optimism on the part of many of my peers, the press and industry analysts. “Things will be great in the grand and glorious future,” everyone seemed to be saying. I saw a more precarious and unpredictable future for gaming, and the organizers of the Montreal conference gave me a marvelous international forum to talk about that. (If you want to check out the slides from that talk, they’re posted here - you can also check out talks by other conference participants, which I highly recommend.)

Recently, The Escapist offered me the opportunity to return to the topics I’d discussed and expand on them in We work in a medium of staggering potential. I And though I sometimes worry that players seem a way I couldn’t in a 45 minute lecture. Those of you who believe with all my heart in that potential and in willing — even eager — to settle for the mediocre, attended the Montreal conference will find what follows the creative capabilities of the people who create, the rehashed, the non-interactive experience familiar (though I hope there’s enough new material here critique and play games. masquerading as interactivity, I have hope that, to keep you reading). Those of you who didn’t attend the as gamers grow up, they will begin to demand conference can judge for yourself if I’m completely off my Our ability to take people places they’ve never more than they did as children or adolescents. rocker, instead of having to depend on press reports and been before and allow them to do things they forum posts for your facts. couldn’t do in any other way is hugely powerful. Unfortunately, despite my hopes and our The opportunity to allow players to walk a mile in medium’s potential, I have to be honest with you: So, without further ado… someone else’s shoes makes us, at least I often find myself despairing, these days. For all potentially, the most remarkable medium of the good, positive signs I see, there are an equal expression in the history of, well, expression. number of problems and pitfalls before us. We are in a “best of times, worst of levels that justify those development times” situation. costs, marketing costs are skyrocketing, too. And, if you’re paying any attention It’s the best of times because… at all, it’s hard not to notice a glut of We live in an era of powerful new “product,” not all of it original. We’re hardware, sky high sales, $25 billion in awash in licenses, sequels and “me too” revenue world-wide, new business games — vain attempts by publishers to models and big media interest in what increase the odds of breaking even or, we do, and those big media types both dare I say it? Profiting… promote our efforts in the press and, increasingly, seek to involve themselves Frighteningly, despite the increasing in the creation of games. emphasis on the safe, the tried and the true, despite all that “pre-sold property” But that’s not all. We also live in a time cluttering the shelves, despite big when older players, women and an marketing spends, sales are not keeping increasingly international audience mean pace with costs - gamers simply aren’t we’re no longer limited by an audience of buying in numbers sufficient to justify adolescent males. As a result, industry what we’re spending. Check out the SEC analysts project double digit growth in filings of any publicly traded game revenues, and we enjoy unprecedented developer or publisher — the numbers cultural credibility and interest in what aren’t pretty. we do. And that’s not all we face in the way of Wow, things look great! problems. All that big media attention I mentioned earlier? Well, some of those But, it’s also the worst of times big media types are stirring up a pot of It doesn’t take a genius to see that trouble for us, focusing on the “dangers” powerful new hardware is threatening to of gaming and our ability to influence drive development costs even higher kids — which leads to legal action and than they already are. To drive sales to government attention we’d be better off avoiding. And when they’re not stirring And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If The answer to that question will be up fear, big media players, seeing the we’re not careful, we could end up just determined by how we address a series potential of the hardware and salivating another part of the vast, old school of critical decisions ahead: over industry growth rates that TV and entertainment machine. movies will probably never see again, How will we deal with the upcoming want a piece of our action… again. Didn’t Still think things look great? Wait — explosion of platforms? And not just we go through this 10 years ago? This there’s more trouble in paradise. Xbox 360, PS3 and Revolution but PSP, time: DS, Gizmondo, cell phones, PDAs and Developers are getting older all the time. who knows what else? • Sumner Redstone buys a controlling Many of us are no longer part of our own interest in Midway. target demographic! And just as some of What sort of content will we provide our us are looking to, oh, you know, have a changing audience? Will we address an • TimeWarner starts a game division. life, publishers are looking for ways to excruciatingly audience-limiting lack of keep costs down, asking developers to diversity in our content? • MTV starts a game division. make quality of life cuts — work longer hours, do increasingly assembly-line-like What will we learn from the business • CAA, ICM and other talent agencies work - for what amounts to lower pay. success of online multiplayer gaming? hire dedicated game agents to And more jobs are being sent overseas Will we apply those lessons to other snatch up developer talent and to all the time. game styles and find entirely new ways hook their traditional media clients of funding development and reaching our into this new, lucrative medium. Will the real future please stand up? audience, or will we just keep doing Depending on how you look at things, things the way we always have? • Spielberg and lots of others at the you can paint a picture of gaming’s individual level decide the time is bright future of growing profits and Will we even bother to address the right to try their hands at game importance, or one of doom and gloom myriad social issues facing us? What do development. (We kinda own their — of irrelevance and stagnation. Either we think about gender issues, legal core 17-24-year-old male could be true. Which future is our real issues and generational issues as they demographic.) future? Will we go mainstream or impact developers, publishers and marginal? players?

Such an outcome seems far less certain margins of social awareness, profitability to me than to the true believers. I see us and creativity! approaching a series of crossroads, any one of which could lead us to Heaven or Well, that’s precisely what I’m saying Hell, toward a position as a mainstream and, yes I’m serious as a heart attack. medium or toward our traditional Whether I end up looking like a crazy position as a marginal industry, a doomsayer, walking the streets marginal activity for kids and a marginal mumbling about the end of the world, or contributor to world culture. like a patriot who roused people from their slumber to confront and defeat a Racing toward all of these crossroads at real threat will depend on which choices once seems like a demand to pause and we make at the upcoming crossroads. make conscious decisions about what we That will determine whether gaming And, finally, shouldn’t we spend at least want our medium, our business, our remains at or returns to marginal status a little time considering our place in lives to be. — as a business, as an art form and as a world culture - the place we currently medium of personal and cultural occupy and the place we’d like to Whether we succeed and soar to new expression. occupy? Am I the only person for whom heights or fail and return to our status as the word “legacy” (and I don’t mean my the marginal medium we used to be will And for those of you who think I’m being personal legacy!) carries more weight be determined by a host of critical an alarmist, that media don’t rise and with each passing year and with each decisions we make over the next few fall in the way I’m describing, let me lurching move toward the mass market? years. (But no pressure…) assure you they do. Media move around in cultural significance and profitability Lots of people clearly don’t see these Chicken Little or Paul Revere? all the time. We’re not the first medium questions as significant — there’s been Right now, you might be asking to face this. so much written and said in recent years yourselves, “Is this guy serious?” Surely, about gaming’s inevitable march to we’re not at any risk of losing the ground • When was the last time you went to mainstream acceptance, it’s easy to stop we’ve gained over the last 20 years! a vaudeville show or listened to a thinking, to assume everything’s OK and Surely, we’re not headed back to the radio drama? destined to stay that way. • Have you visited an arcade recently? S.-centric, urban, hip hop action games we’re appealing to more women all the (OK, I guess there’s still Dave & and alien invasion scenarios. time (finally!). Both of which lead to... Buster’s.) In other words, I can see us limiting An Online Crossroad. What impact will • How many years has it been since ourselves to the same subset of online distribution and social play have Broadway was a vital part of adolescent male players we’ve always on our players, our games and our American mass culture? reached. And if we do that, it’s back to business? Is there a future for traditional the margins for us. single player games, or will we take the • And does anybody outside the world branch in the road that leads to a of comic books really think adults are I went down to the crossroads... Fell predominantly or exclusively online and/ going to embrace “graphic novels” as down on my knees or multiplayer gaming future? serious literature anymore? Maybe as Let’s get more specific. What fodder for movies, but I doubt the “crossroads” are we approaching, and And just as we’re having to deal with Spider-man movies have convinced where do the roads branching from these these Really Big Issues — as if they many librarians to put funny books crossroads lead us? weren’t enough to challenge us and on their shelves. threaten our future — we face other, For starters, there’s a Cultural more specific crossroad-like choice Let me be clear. I don’t believe we’re Crossroad. Games have traditionally points, all worth thinking about before going to go away — gaming isn’t a fad been a marginal or niche activity, but we reach them: like the hula hoop or Nehru jackets. It’s now we’re moving into the mainstream, hard to imagine a scenario where which leads to... There’s a Regional transition — the gaming just… fades away. We’re gonna increasing importance of foreign markets be OK. It’s just that it’s relatively easy A Generational and Gender and foreign developers (defined as for me to imagine scenarios where Crossroad. Games are beginning to “whichever country you’re not from”). mainstream audiences get sick of us, appeal to a broader audience than ever, This has profound ramifications for sick of the product we offer them, sick which frightens the older, non-gaming developers and marketers. Will we pick of repetitive, seemingly-but-not-really generation and places new demands on the easy path of making games for interactive, emotion-free, slam-bang, U. developers in terms of content. And ourselves, or will we adopt a more international attitude? And how will we take advantage of, or compete with, an And when it comes to Business issues, thus opening ourselves up to more favors the well-off, publisher-funded international resource pool that’s often there’s no shortage of questions and (and more original) game styles? developer. cheaper and no less gifted than potential transitions: homegrown talent? • Will we stick to the traditional path to And finally, perhaps most importantly, • Will games continue to be a market of Publisher Funding/Big we face a Content Crossroad. Gaming, There’s the upcoming Platform “blockbuster” business, with every Studio Development/Big Box as a medium, has traditionally limited its transition, of course, but that’s not all we title the equivalent of a big budget Retailing, or will we find new ways to subject matter to adolescent male face. In addition to the Xbox 360, PS3 summer action movie? reach consumers? Will we create a fantasies — sports and power fantasies and Revolution, there’s the increasing development culture and a business — but now, we have to appeal to a more importance of cell phones and PDAs (and • Will we be dominated by the Big model that supports the two-guys (or diverse audience. PCs, of course) as gaming platforms. Media players, enviously eying our gals)-in-a-garage model? Or, should We’re entering a world where players will revenue numbers? we all plan on lucrative and fulfilling In the next installment of this article, have more and more ways to access careers as workers bees in a game we’ll look at each of these issues in a bit games. Will we stick our head in the • Will we continue to churn out licenses development hive? Just as the gap more detail. stand and assume PC games are and sequels, or will we find ways to between rich and poor is widening in separate from console games which are broaden the range of development most Western nations (and certainly Warren Spector is the founder of separate from mobile games, and so on? funding schemes, development the United States), the game of Junction Point Studios. He worked budgets and development processes, game development increasingly previously with Origin Systems, Looking Glass Studios, TSR and Steve Jackson Games. Film theorists talk about The Hero with a In an industry that spends ever- Thousand Faces – the idea that every increasing amounts of money on ever- story from the Bible to Star Wars is the diminishing improvements in graphics same myth, retold in infinite ways. and sound, Resident Evil 4 is symptomatic of a very large problem. The gaming world has its own version. Despite how far gaming has come, Call it “A Thousand Heroes with Just dialog, plot and character, the very One Face.” essence of storytelling, are still treated as amateur add-ons. We meet this hero everywhere. His emotionless delivery is that of a hundred A game like Resident Evil 4 shouts its identical anime heroes; his lines are a plot at us in letters 10 feet high because confusing mix of action movie cliché and it doesn’t know any other way. plot exposition that would make George Meanwhile, many gamers just reach for Lucas blush. the start button, unable to care.

Take Resident Evil 4 – a big-name game, Games Say the Funniest Things a million-seller. When our hero, Leon, While no expense is spared in hiring the goes up against his traitorous former best professionals to create visuals and partner, Krauser, in a stunning cut-scene, audio, the amateurish nature of this we’re expecting a good line - something industry’s writing is plain to see. Game to match the game’s beauty, in which plots still read like fan fiction. Characters everything from Leon’s hair to Ada come straight from the Big Book o’ Wong’s dress ripples just right. Hell, we’d Action Movie Stereotypes. The dialog and probably just settle for an old-fashioned voice-acting in the majority of games are Arnie-style one-liner. so poor that, like in B-movies, bad dialog is starting to become a tolerated, even Instead, we get, “You’ve lost it expected, element. completely, Krauser!” “Enough talk. Die, comrade!” and, “Prepare for your If you don’t think dialog is important, death, Leon!” consider Shenmue. Sega spent over $20 million recreating, in painstaking detail, Japanese, the game is remarkable, Ryu ga Gotoku is not perfect, but it’s a the feel of Japanese back streets, right creating that most unusual of feelings - step in the right direction. This is where down to the vending machines. that these are real people, with real lives games must look – to the professionals. on the line. Think about that. $20 million, and the We Control the Horizontal only thing the majority of players took To do this, Sega hired Seishu Hase, a Imagine the possibilities. Bungie is one away was the most famous bad line in writer with a rich collection of crime of the few companies that seem to gaming: “Do you know where I can find novels under his belt, to turn director realize story is serious, but Halo 2 was a some sailors?” Toshihiro Nagoshi’s vision into an letdown, with a derivative, rambling engrossing story with characters that narrative, poor macho dialog and oh-so- $20 million, and all we got was writing ring true. witty banter. (We’ll be kind and assume that was, at best, functional, at worst, time constraints were responsible for the downright embarrassing. $20 million, Hase is someone non-gamers in Japan wretched “cliffhanger” ending.) and the best option was an actor last have actually heard of. He’s won prizes seen playing the Cookie Monster on a for this. And it shows. But what if Bungie were to hire, say, Sesame Street tour. someone like Joss Whedon to put some In a story of love, death and betrayal, real punch and character into the space The gamers who stuck with Shenmue we play Kazuma Kiryu, a loyal and marines’ dialog in Halo 3? were rewarded with an incredible, violent former yakuza. Professional immersive experience. But how many actors deliver the characters’ lines with It’s time gaming found different ways to people did the game’s hammy delivery emotion and panache, from the tell its stories. It would be a start to put off right from the start? respected Tetsuya Watari, who plays make a serious attempt to hire Kiryu’s mentor, down to the voices of experienced professionals or look for Dragon’s Quest street hoods. The lines of the arrogant new, creative writing talent to add to the In Japan, at least, Sega’s latest multi- upstart who betrays Kiryu drip with many wonderful programmers, artists million project gets things right. Ryu ga menace; he makes us hate. Compare and musicians who make such Gotoku, meaning “Like a Dragon,” may this to Resident Evil 4, where, at best, convincing worlds. yet end up with anime characters we feel ambivalence, and at worst, spitting poor one-liners when it arrives in boredom. But beyond just improving the quality of the West, as the prosaic Yakuza. But, in its current plots and characters, there is so much more gaming can do. All it plot. Gaming is interactive; why, then, is needs to do is broaden its horizons. the cut-scene still holding us still, shouting, “Here comes the story bit, Gaming is good at adventure but poor at concentrate!” It’s time to look for other other types of stories. Has there ever ways to tell the story, in-game. Maybe, been a gaming Tragedy? The closest we then, we could even try some character may have come is Shadow of the development beyond getting the +10 Colossus, a game remarkable mostly for Dwarven Armor. its total lack of story until five minutes before the ending. What of Comedy? We’ve long known that a mediocre game Mystery? is one that just gives us the gold coin or the big gun. A good game doesn’t put Unlike budget-restrained movies, gaming them in our hands; it encourages us to is a format with limitless capabilities, explore, makes it fun and forces us to where the creators can shape our vision find them for ourselves. to anything their imaginations can conceive. Instead of another RPG based Someday, a game will come along that on Arthurian myth or a shooter that rips doesn’t shove the story down our throat, off Aliens’ marines, think of the but encourages us to discover it for Gamecube’s Eternal Darkness (its ourselves. Lovecraft derivation aside) as just the tip of the iceberg – a game which spans Then, we can make our new, different 2,000 years, a dozen characters, multiple heroes. different points in time and space. Gearoid Reidy is a journalist working in There are no longer any borders. We are Japan covering everything from politics constrained only by our own creativity. to gaming. He prefers the latter. You can find him at www.gearoidreidy.com. Gaming can look beyond the mood- ruining cut-scene device to hammer out One moment, you’re neutralizing a pawn “Cedric— to complete a mission objective and Please speak to Cook about last capture points. The next, you’re a vile night’s dinner. While, technically, the murderer ambushing a penniless grunt menu conformed to my instructions, to get your hands on the castle’s loot. I suspect that the lamb was What happened? somewhat older than this spring’s, and I am in no way fooled by his The guard opened his mouth, that’s what practice of warming the salad to happened. You’re playing the first of disguise wilting. If Cook is incapable level of the “immersive sim,” Thief: The of finding adequate ingredients, he Dark Project, in 1998, when the can be replaced. polygonal soldier whose gullet you were —Lord Bafford” about to lance with an arrow mumbles to himself on his patrol. By itself, it’s just a simple tool to evoke an opinion about the absent lord whose GUARD: Everyone above me gets all stuff you’re stealing. (Probably, you get the favors and I haven’t had a thing more satisfaction out of robbing a to eat in days. whining schmuck.) But, if you happened to overhear that first guard’s mumbling, Words change everything. Like dousing the words amplify each other. Now, Lord or lighting a torch changes the nature of Bafford is complaining about the the environment in Thief, hearing, technical conformity of his meals while reading or missing a line of text changes his soldiers are going hungry. the intellectual landscape for the player. Consider how this note, pinned to the Are you going to try harder to boost kitchen wall in that castle, changes the every scrap of his loot, ‘cause that’ll way you render the environment in your show him? Or will that just get his imagination: hungry guards punished for incompetence? What’s going to happen This background isn’t just color, it’s vital in the castle after you’re gone? for creating a living environment, and that’s vital for stealth games. For the It doesn’t matter. Nothing happens after player to feel like an intruder or a sneak, you leave the castle — when you’re the environment can’t seem to be finished, it ceases to exist. What matters waiting on him. Guards must seem is you bought into it implicitly for a oblivious to the player’s presence (even moment or a minute or 10 minutes, though they exist solely for him). So, while you played. You enjoyed the overheard conversations and peeked-at illusion. So, it does matter. notes may be unconnected to the game’s story and inconsequential to the GUARD: What is that smell? Smells successful completion of the level, but like… old meat. they’re essential to the voyeuristic atmosphere that defines stealth The devil’s in the details. One line of gameplay. For a stealth-minded player, dialogue makes a room smell like rot. each uninterrupted conversation is a One note conjures a person out of reward for quality quiet — proof that nothing. In Bafford’s castle, his journals she’s a masterful sneak. show he suspects someone called Ginny is stealing from him, and he’s trying to A living background creates an illusion of dig up dirt on “Viktoria.” In your agency for both the player and the imaginarily rendered game world, these environment. When Doug Church, a people exist out in the city somewhere designer on the original Thief, talked now, but you don’t know who’s just about agency at Gamasutra, he was background or who might step into play. speaking mostly about how players need Anyone could be Orson Welles’ Harry to feel their actions have meaningful Lime. effects on the game world. “Agency is more important for playfulness than how he witnessed his father’s army unit entertainment,” said Church. get killed by American commandos during another thunderstorm decades In Thief, the illusions of agency enable ago, in Guatemala. The Americans play. It’s possible to complete the spared the women and children. Bafford castle level without stealth, killing every bloke in the joint and GUERILLA: The Americans are not running like a maniac through the halls. butchers. Their weapon is fear, and It’s undeniably entertaining, but what fear does not spread among the makes stealth play exciting is the dead. expectation that consequences exist for such behavior, even though no one can If you grab and interrogate the guerilla, actually step out of the background to he says: punish you. The next level begins how it begins, regardless. Words making you GUERILLA: I knew you would come think the background environment is to finish what you started. Kill me. I more powerful than it is fool you into long to see my family again. thinking you’re susceptible to forces that have no actual agency over you. The sim This creates a context for the action you has immersed you. take next. If you kill him unnecessarily (butchering him), you’re un-American. The illusion has a real voice. When words Plus, Sam Fisher’s greatest weapon is change the choices you make, they have fear — is it smart to throw that weapon genuine impact on gameplay. In the first away, or let the guerilla live to spread level of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, as fear? Kill him and you bring a poetic NSA ninja Sam Fisher, you’ll overhear a symmetry to his story. Leave him pair of guerillas talking during a heavy unconscious and you change his life, thunderstorm. One of them describes maybe for the better. Except none of that’s true. Nothing The illusion is fertile enough for happens to that guerilla after this level. imaginations to take root in, to grow fan Outside the game environment, you’re missions like the dozens at The Circle of just picking a shoulder button to pull. Stone and Shadow, the Thief fan hub. But if you grabbed the guerilla instead of Players are invested enough in the shooting him because you wanted to background to catalog and keep it in hear more of his story, the words compendiums. Kieron Gillen’s feature- affected you. Whether you chose to length article about the terrifying knock him out or kill him, your choice Shalebridge Cradle level of Thief: Deadly was informed by his words. If they Shadows shows how fear conjured into changed the way you played, the the game through journals and ghostly conundrum was real. voiceovers — from words — lives on after the console is off. In an interview with 1Up.com, Chaos Theory writer Clint Hocking said, “I think For these players, the words have those kinds of conundrums make Sam’s created a world. Like magic. character more engaging. You’re kind of playing Sam the way you think Sam is.” Thus, if we react to the guerilla’s Will Hindmarch is new at this. He is also dialogue differently, you and I end up the developer for Vampire: The Requiem with different Sam Fishers. My Sam at White Wolf Game Studio. Fisher wouldn’t kill a soldier he could spare. Yours might. We come away with different agents in the game. It makes your play experience that little bit different from mine. EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS

Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Gregory Lincoln Contributing Editor Lead Web Developer JR Sutich Whitney Butts Director of Advertising Susan Briglia Research Manager Web Developer Nova Barlow Erik Jacobson Media Sales Associate Laura Rotondo Contributors IT Director Chris Dahlen Jason Smith Chairman of Themis Group Will Hindmarch Thomas S. Kurz Gearoid Reidy Warren Spector N. Evan Van Zelfden Game of the Year because it’s the most bizarre story ever In 1998, GameSpot selected Grim told. But it all begins to make sense, as Fandango to be their game of the year. It you follow the lives of people living in marked the end of an era for adventure the Land of the Dead, a world not unlike games, and though they are still our own. produced, this was the high-water mark for the genre. To wit, you start as a travel agent selling after-life travel packages to lost souls. No other game has come close to its After learning something is horribly perfection. Once, I told a videogame wrong, you join the underground, later magazine editor I considered Grim becoming a busboy, a casino owner, a Fandango the finest game ever made. sailor, a middle-manager and in the end, “Yes,” she replied, “But I enjoyed just a soul heading for the ninth playing Half-Life more.” underworld, for your eternal rest.

If the game had any flaw, it was inherent The writing is exceptional, with a depth to its genre: Adventure games are of humor, wit and elegance rarely found completely lacking in actual gameplay. in games. Tim Schafer provides over “But,” I said, “Half-Life is just one thing, 7,000 lines of sparkling and memorable just sci-fi.Grim Fandango contains all of dialogue. The characters are the human experience.” unforgettable. And the fiction makes excellent use of an excellent setting. The And that’s the thing about Grim story makes you believe such a world Fandango. The story, fiction and writing could exist. contain the whole human experience, but the game elements themselves: art, Ivory Tower music, sound, design, location - they If you were to enter a university to study encompass the whole of great art. architecture, you might be required to describe “an aesthetic experience you Grim Fandango thrusts you into the have had that was brought about by an story. It’s impossible to describe well, architectural space or sequence of spaces, either interior or exterior. Try to Perfection Solidified Somewhere between one-third and half link the nature of the experience to the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, of Grim Fandango takes place in a city nature of the space.” “Architecture is frozen music,” a quote called Rubacava. You spend the night which is brought out and dusted off for running through darkened streets, past If you were an average student, you every single discussion of (either) craft. glowing street lamps, up elevators, down would write about how the Eiffel Tower Steven Poole took it a step further: “If stairways, under silent dirigibles, across makes you feel, perhaps your tour of the architecture is frozen music, then a bridges and causeways... The compelling Hoover Dam or the feeling of pathos videogame is liquid architecture.” moments are those when you’re summoned by the Vietnam Memorial. If exploring, walking from one location to you were particularly bright, you would Two things are clear. First, Goethe would the next. What might have been loading write about finding yourself in a little have loved videogames. And second, screens are, instead, a series of piazza with a fountain at its center. Amid there is some connection between this aesthetic experiences. young shade trees, you sat on a brick idea of architecture and music. Games wall and watched the stream of water for provide a powerful combination of the Rubacava is a city of calm beauty, six or eight hours. And then, you might two, and other elements, too. There is languor even. Spending one last night reflect that time is malleable. play between the fact that game there leaves an impression on the player. elements are fixed and rigid, yet non- That is why, if I could visit any place in Whatever example you would describe, existent and malleable. Games form a the world, it would be one that doesn’t you wouldn’t write about a videogame. A kind of lucid architecture. Real cities exist. It compels me more than Vienna, mere videogame, even if it contains are built in real time. But a virtual space or London, or Peking. I want to walk the architectural elements isn’t enough to can be constructed with buildings streets of Rubacava, though I can’t, for I cause an aesthetic experience, is it? Can springing up at will. Those who build exist and it doesn’t. It has captured my the power of architecture – architecture worlds exercise this lucid architecture. imagination and my heart. Because all that doesn’t exist in the physical world – the details in Grim Fandango are so well still cause the reaction of people existing Hyper Reality executed, Rubacava lives on in my in that physical world? Some people spend their whole lives imagination, and I find it far more vivid, planning dream vacations. They will more beautiful than any real city I have The answer, without shame, without travel to a far off land, see its sights, and ever seen. question, yes, a videogame can. return home once more. Rhythm and Blues Grim Fandango had been in print since The game’s architecture is a mixture of its release, selling for $10 in jewel cases any American city from the ‘30s and from publisher LucasArts. Just recently, ‘40s, the style of the Art Deco period the game is no longer available, even on and the unmistakable lines of the Aztec Amazon. Retail supplies have dried up, empire. The music is also remarkable. and now used copies of the game are Composed by Peter McConnell, it selling on eBay, with a marked increase features performances by real musicians in final bid price. playing in small combinations. The freely available soundtrack was positioned as The reason this game is still sought by “Big Band, BeBop and Bones.” people so many years after it first came out is because it’s a true work of art While it sounds ambient upon first made up of ineffable elements. It’s a listen, the music accounts for a great game about music, ambience, deal of the game’s immersion. As you characters, dialogue, moving clouds. play the game, the music is an always present, always welcome element. If I will return to Rubacava, to walk the you turn the music off, the experience streets, knowing it will be just as I suffers. As you alternate between imagined it. The music will play, the playing the game and listening to the water will ripple, the moon will shine. I soundtrack, you begin to fully appreciate will have an aesthetic experience the complexity and synchronization of brought about by an architectural space. the game with its soundtrack. And, perhaps, you will, too.

Invisible Hand N. Evan Van Zelfden expects great In the free market, art equals capital. It things for the future of games. Games can be manipulated, but good art has are the greatest art form to date, he staying power and will retain value, asserts. This is why he plays games, simply because it is good art. writes about them, and continues to work in the industry of games. If you can walk, you can dance. Or at least you can pogo. Dance enthusiasts tell every novice they can learn it if they try, and yet swaying to the rhythm isn’t the endgame of dancing. If you take a ballroom class, say, for six quick weeks before your wedding, you just get a glimpse of what it leads to: You spent a few hours practicing a foxtrot. But go to a ballroom dancing championship and you’ll see years of mastery in every move. Real dancers know the steps cold, combine them in creative ways, and change plans on the spur of a moment. And they’re having more fun than you.

On The Escapist blog, Joe Blancato recently asked, “Is dancing more fun when you don’t know the steps?” Sometimes, yes - and sometimes, no. Just as dancers have their learning curve, in gaming, skillful players study combo moves. If you learn how to hit the buttons on the right-hand side of the controller in complicated sequences and at exactly the right time, your on-screen character will do something exceptional. In fighting games like Dead or Alive Ultimate, you might trigger a special move, like teabagging your opponent. And many action and RPG games reward you for mixing up the A’s and the B’s to finish off the enemy. But in those cases, the combos usually feel like “bonus” moves: They help you beat the game, but you don’t absolutely need them. On the Xbox, Ninja Gaiden stands as one weekend. And even Ninja Gaiden of the console’s most difficult and relented when its 2005 update, Ninja intricate action titles. It’s unforgiving Gaiden Black, added a simpler “Ninja from the first boss fight to the last – and Dog” mode to help struggling players get it’s practically un-winnable unless you to the end. learn and use every special move available, from the basic combos like the But who gave us the right to finish a Izuna Drop or the Windmill Slash, to game? The makers of story-driven titles running up and along walls to fly down think watching the final scene is the and rain blows on your enemies. Just reason you play. But not every dancer getting to level five of that game ranks gets to enjoy the Viennese waltz, and as my greatest gaming achievement, not every gamer gets to beat Ninja and I’m playing on “Normal” difficulty; Gaiden. Mastering the controls, and I’ll bet the only people who can beat it especially those game-specific combo on Master Ninja level probably are ninjas. moves, is the goal; winning the game means you’ve learned them well enough Unfortunately, challenging games aren’t to get confounded, frustrated, then in fashion right now. The story-driven, satisfied and finally rewarded by the “cinematic” games of today assume the pleasure of doing something well. customer won’t get any value from a Anyone can play a game – but game if they can’t finish it, and they challenging games encourage us to play make it easy for any player to muddle well. through. Compare Ninja Gaiden to a newer martial arts adventure, Jade Chris Dahlen is a freelance writer for Empire. In that game, you can mash a Pitchforkmedia.com, the Boston Phoenix, single button through almost any fight, Signal to Noise, Paste, and The Wire and you only set up a “harmonic combo” (New Hampshire). His website is Save if you want to see more blood. Your The Robot. grandmother could beat Jade Empire in a whiny emo hero, but a real jerk), a JR Sutich, Contributing Editor storyline that’s more interesting than Darwinia, without a doubt. From its Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit 10,000 Tolkien rip-offs, AND be fun to graphic style to the game play, it had me about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from. This week’s play, all on God’s Own Platform, the at hello. The fact that it came from the question is: Gamecube? Sign me up! It’s a shame same guys who did Uplink was just a the voice acting made me consider bonus. Honorable mention goes to taking an ice pick to my eardrums. Relentless: Twinsen’s Adventure.

Greg Lincoln, Associate Publisher Joe Blancato, Content Editor I’m a bit of a sheep, so I don’t play a ton Katamari Damacy, at least recently. of games. I play what I can then talk That’s not to say I liked it, though. I about with others. If I had to say made it about six minutes before something that stands out, I’d say running back to my comfortable nest of Gearoid Reidy, “A Thousand Heroes the first game I had ever played that F.E.A.R. I really liked how much they sports games and MMOGs. with Just One Face” was that open-ended, up to that point took advantage of as much of the senses There are plenty of mold-breaking everything had been very linear. as possible and truly felt like an Julianne Greer, Executive Editor games out there - the problem is that interactive cinematic. Oh, and it scared This question is almost impossible to most of them just aren’t very good as Whitney Butts, Lead Web Developer the freakin’ poo out of me on multiple answer, as there have been many over games. Super Mario 64 is my pick - it To me, revolutionary is what drew me in occasions. the years: Tetris, The Incredible may not have torn up the rule book and made me stick to playing Machine, The Legend of Zelda, and so entirely, but it did rewrite it and added a games more than any other game I had Jon Hayter, Producer on. Most recently? Indigo Prophecy – dozen brilliant sequels. previously played and that game was I know it’s early, but Elder Scrolls IV: though it was a return to the adventure Half-Life. Oblivion. I haven’t been into any game style of game, the story was involving Jason Smith, IT Director this much in years. I’m a huge fan of and really, a bit of a head trip; the Without a doubt, Ultima IV. Sure, there Shannon Drake, Contributor “Sandbox” games, where the purpose it gameplay was unique, but not was a plot in there, but you could easily Baten Kaitos. You mean RPGs can have to discover your own gameplay and overwhelmingly difficult; and the game get lost in exploring the world and an awesome card battle system, a content, and this title is definitive of that was the perfect play-length for my busy discovering its secrets instead. It was protagonist who’s kind of a dick (and not style. Go out, buy it, enjoy it. life at about 12-13 hours.