Enough Handholding, Already!
I’ll preface this post with a quote from a wise, influential sage: “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” My argument is that modern game developers have forgotten this simple proverb. They don’t trust that their audience can discover how to have fun with a game on their own, and as a result mainstream games have lost an entire dimension of challenge.
Half-Life 2 is a good example of this, but let’s first refresh our memories of Half-Life. One of the mini-boss enemies is the Apache helicopter, an armored flying machine that’s mostly impervious to small arms fire. The easiest way to deal with it is to shoot it with rockets until it explodes; in fact, your first encounter with one is immediately after you pick up the RPG in a cliff side crag. But you aren’t handcuffed to your rockets. Its rotor and engines are actually vulnerable to pistol fire, if you are brave enough to stare it down. You could even try to air burst it with a few well-timed hand grenades. Contrast that to its HL2 analogue, the gunship. It’s only vulnerable to rockets, and there’s a convenient infinite rocket crate near every single gunship battle in the game. There is a certain technique to aiming your rockets so they can’t be shot down, but otherwise that’s all there is to fighting a gunship: shoot x3, restock at crate, repeat. Same goes for the Strider: the only interesting part about fighting one is the mad dash to the win button—erm, ammo crate, that is. (Final Citadel Strider battle excluded, that one was different and fun.)
As I said in my opening, modern games have lost a dimension of challenge. The dimension that HL2 lost is the balance of resource management, i.e. spending your rockets/cells/summonable ninja squirrels now or saving them for the next big boss battle. If there will be an infinite ninja squirrel token crate next to the mini-boss who’s only vulnerable to ninja squirrels, why even bother conserving your most potent ammo? Other games may have lost different dimensions of challenge, be it self-preservation, or directional awareness, or what have you.
That’s just one example of how modern games hold the player’s hand way too much. If you listen to the developer commentary in HL2 Episode 1 and the Orange Box, you’ll discover that they tweaked their maps to accommodate players who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay attention to their environment. This boiled down to looking up, or deducing that they were endlessly walking in a circle for 10 minutes. Around the turn of the century, video gaming got some much needed good publicity when studies reported that games helped hone spatial awareness and coordination. Can we seriously expect games to keep honing our real-life skills when developers are doing their best to remove the need to use them? Looking up is not “hard mode” for Pete’s sake! Doom 3 might have been repetitive and even a little predictable in the way its monsters popped out of every other wall, but at least it taught its players the valuable lesson: “Just because you’re looking forward doesn’t mean the monsters will conveniently appear at eye level.”
In a way, I think a lot of mainstream game development is being held hostage by the notion that games have to be art. Roger Ebert got gamers’ panties in a twist when he said that games cannot be art, and the industry started trying their darndest to prove him wrong, often at the cost of game play. I think a lot of games were designed to be “experienced” rather than “beaten,” which is to say their primary focus is just to entertain the player for 6-8 hours, rather than present challenges that the player derives pleasure from overcoming. That brings us back to my favorite quote in the world: “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Modern games, I contend, are not designed for gamers who can walk up to a challenge and have fun conquering it; they are designed for a mainstream audience, not gamers per se, who (the developers believe) can’t have fun on their own. Well, maybe they’ll never even learn how, if developers keep it up.
The perfect hardcore game, in my opinion, is a sandbox with a goal in the middle. It’s also hard; not Nintendo-hard, but it’s a challenge that may require multiple attempts or a lot of problem solving. The worst possible game is a straight, narrow, corridor of game play, with the goal at the end, and which is consumed and subsequently discarded in 2-3 hours. STALKER and System Shock 2 stand defiantly close to the “sandbox” ideal, brutally slaying newbies yet gradually rewarding them as they master various skills; and I have a hunch that HL2:E3 and HL3 are wavering somewhere in the middle, not yet sure in which direction to fall. Modern mainstream games are not necessarily bad, but they are inching further and further toward the “narrow corridor,” as developers try to handhold players for the best “experience” rather than the best game.
Editor’s note: I’m glad to feature our first community column here on the blog. If you want your article to appear on the blog, feel free to either submit it to nog((at))deadworkers.com or post it at the forums! As always, feel free to comment here, or take it to the forums for more in depth conversation!
Jess, AKA EsBe
I’ll preface this post with a quote from a wise, influential sage: “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” My argument is that modern game developers have forgotten this simple proverb. They don’t trust that their audience can discover how to have fun with a game on [...]
NOG 03: iPad or iFad?
Jim: So, there’s this new thing out there called the iPad.
Jen: i-what?
Jim: I know, right? This is the first I’m hearing about it, too! I hear it plays games.
Jen: Really? I like games. After hearing last week’s discussion on NoG, I’ve decided I’m a gamer. Are those games any good?
Jim: I don’t know! Let’s listen to the new NoG and find out!
Jen: Boy howdy!
This week, we tackle the newly announced iPad. Will it usher in a new era of peace and prosperity by forever putting an end to the console wars?
Wes is missing this week, but Brent, Eric and Spencer are joined in the studio by Hemanena, Timesquared and Waf!
Jim: So, there’s this new thing out there called the iPad.
Jen: i-what?
Jim: I know, right? This is the first I’m hearing about it, too! I hear it plays games.
Jen: Really? I like games. After hearing last week’s discussion on NoG, I’ve decided I’m a gamer. Are those games any good?
Jim: I don’t know! Let’s listen [...]
When Can I Be a Gamer, Daddy?
Raising two kids of my own, one eight and the other three, has given me the chance to see first-hand how games can effect children. There was the first proud moment when my son asked to play my DS, and later when my daughter asked to play “Pweggle” on my iPhone. It was scary the first time; she had the tendency to throw things when upset, and the idea of seeing my iPhone fly across the room was a bit horrifying. Nonetheless, she wanted to play a game, and as a good father I feel I must foster the same love I have for games in my children.
Watching them play these games has changed my opinion on games as a whole. Games have become teaching tools, and it’s hard to limit the use of them when I see how much they help my kids. For example, my son is being tested for the gifted reading class in second grade. I fully believe his love of reading came about from the need to understand the gibberish on the screen telling him how to play games. Now that gibberish is just more words in his vocabulary.
My daughter is learning in the same manner. She has developed coordination that is unbelievable for age, and in addition I believe she is learning troubleshooting skills based on how well she plays the Legos brand games. She’s better than me at them now. It’s can be scary.
Those are just a couple examples of the things I’ve witnessed my kids learning, and I’m sure there are many more examples. For instance, there is an article about a school using video games as a teaching tool over at Popsci.
So this leads us to a few questions:
- When is it okay for kids to start gaming?
- How much should they be allowed to game?
- What are the pros and cons of children gaming?
As always, feel free to comment here or take it to the forums for more in depth discussion!
Brent Copeland
Raising two kids of my own, one eight and the other three, has given me the chance to see first-hand how games can effect children. There was the first proud moment when my son asked to play my DS, and later when my daughter asked to play “Pweggle” on my iPhone. It was scary [...]
NOG 02: What is a gamer, anyway?
Nation of Gamers is off with a bang as we seek to answer the question, “What is a gamer?” Everyone seems to have their own definition, and in this episode we explore the answers; both yours and ours.
Nation of Gamers is off with a bang as we seek to answer the question, “What is a gamer?” Everyone seems to have their own definition, and in this episode we explore the answers; both yours and ours.
WoWoW 53: Let’s Talk WoW
A round table discussion about raiding, badges, professions, stats, and gear. A little of this, a little of that.
(more…)A round table discussion about raiding, badges, professions, stats, and gear. A little of this, a little of that.
RIS 09: …And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Confetti
This week we review “…And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Confetti” by Erik Goes To Germany!
This week we review “…And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Confetti” by Erik Goes To Germany!
