I Think “Irked” is the Proper Word to Use Here

Here in the lovely realm of Communication Studies that I call my home, as well as in the world of some other social sciences, we’re pretty big on stereotypes. Stereotypes give us these preconceived notions that tell us how we’re going to act with other people. Yes, stereotypes are often painted in a negative light, and when you hear about them they’re more than likely being used that way, but thinking outside of that box, it is simple to see how we use them in our daily lives.

Everyone’s beliefs factor in to their stereotypes, and more often than not, we see that we, as gamers, are rarely credited with a positive stereotype. Michael Abbott once spoke on a podcast (an episode that I cannot remember) that even he, as a professor, gets strange looks when people walk by his office and see him playing something on his PS2 (thus giving me a model to aspire to: an in-office PS2). Even in the world of academia, and in an age when videogames are such a prominent media, gamers and gaming are still looked at as something off-base by those outside of our world.

For a class assignment, I chose the topic of communicating while playing games, specifically, whether players prefer online or local co-op. However, when discussing the assignment with someone, a comment was made that irked me at the time, yet for brevity’s sake, I chose to look past it. This comment was along the lines that it was strange for me to choose communicating while playing games as a topic, because videogames are primarily an isolated activity. Like I said, I didn’t comment on it, but it’s had me thinking about it since yesterday.

How many people of the world still hold this view? In days when online co-op shooter Left 4 Dead has gigantic billboards and the Wii is bringing together people in living rooms across the nation, while also letting thousands of people play locally or online in Mario Kart, do people still view games as primarily anti-social activities? I know the nights my friends and I get together for some L4D online, or gather at my house for some Rock Band 2 would argue otherwise.

The Mii Effect – Ripples in a Pond

I originally wanted to just write a short post on how I was pleased to see that Microsoft was using the Avatars as a system of advertising, but not making it horrifically blatant. I’m just glad I was able to get a top hat and dress my guy up like a geeky, white version of T-Pain. Browsing the avatar clothing selection, nothing actually shouts out to you and says “HEY THESE CLOTHES ARE FROM THE NEW GTAIV EXPANSION!!” but instead promote them simply through a page on the Spotlight tab and leave it at that. I think that Giant Bomb was right on the money in their episode of the Bombcast that achievements should unlock bonus avatar clothing. Then not only would my 1100 gamerscore in Fallout 3 represent my dedication, but my Xbox LIVE avatar’s T-51b power armor would show I’m really hardcore. Looking at your Friends list and seeing your friends in Altair’s robe or Scorpion’s gi would let you better understand what kind of games your Xbox LIVE friends enjoy.

I commend Nintendo for bringing the Miis to the console generation. The Miis were just a stone in a pond for the advent of caricatures of ourselves on our consoles, and with Xbox LIVE and Playstation Home avatars, we are beginning to see the first ripples it is causing. When Miis were new, it was great to play around with, but stock facial features and lack of additional content made the fun run dry shortly after the well was sprung for hardcore gamers. The Check Mii Out channel was a great attempt to show off Mii creativity, but it never really let people express themselves. Sure you can make a face that looks like it has a penis on it if you move the nose and mouth properly, but does that really represent you? (If it does, talk to me again when you’re out of sixth grade).

This is where I feel like Nintendo shortchanged all of the hardcore fans in the Mii system. Everyone can point the finger at Microsoft and Rare saying that they were late tdo the party, and that they were ripping Nintendo off, even if the horse’s mouth says otherwise, but at this point, it’s easy to see that they kicked the game up a notch. (One could also make the argument that the idea of the avatar is hardly Shiggy & Co.’s brilliance, thanks to this thing called the internet, but for a console’s operating system they were the first.) It’s like that children’s song that says “Everything you can do, I can do better.” I feel like my avatar is a more accurate representation of myself (albeit slightly more absurd given my current outfit) than the highly cartoony Miis are. And, with the much lower barrier of entry to connecting to friends via Xbox LIVE, I feel like my avatar represents me more accurately to my friends. For example, I just ran into a friend the other day who I have not seen in at least 6 months, and we exchanged gamertags. When I checked his profile, I looked at his avatar and immediately could see the resemblance between his avatar and his real self.

What we have now are gaming consoles that take on aspects of social networking and expand the idea to allow further interaction. In this Web 2.0 world, we’re looking at more users with data presented up-front than ever before. In the early days of the internet and computer mediated communication, scholars found a lot of people hiding behind the veil of anonymity and refusing to establish our identity. However, today’s internet provides countless ways of self-expression on the internet, allowing us to establish a social presence that probably rivals that of a face-to-face encounter.

The Social Presence Theory of Short, Williams and Christie (1976) is one of the oldest theories on computer-mediated communication in our field, and was born in a world where Web 2.0 sounded even dumber then than it does today. The theory posits the idea that communication is more effective when we have more of a social presence, and our presence is most prominent in face-to-face communication. By their origins, online gaming removed our social presence entirely and replaced us with an in-game presence that often reflected the game more than our self. This is what leads to a lot of players in online gaming acting like total jerks, thanks to that anonymity. Looking at the way Miis and avatars bring in a social networking, and possible extensions outside of our consoles, we could see a future in which people are less likely to act like a complete ass in an online game if they feel like they know their team better.

I’m not saying everyone needs to look at the Myspace pages of their squad in Call of Duty, but maybe showing the avatars in the lobby may give you a better idea of what type of people we’re working with. A better online community would create an even bigger draw for whichever console manufacturer can pick it up. This is where Sony has the opportunity to pick up the pieces on home, and create exactly the type of situation I’m talking about, such as with Warhawk. The idea that gamers can take their avatar into Home and congregate with others in the Warhawk War Room to discuss game tips and strategies and then launch right into a game is really an exciting idea, and as a communication technology researcher, it’s something that I’d be really interested in seeing how it plays out.

Again, I originally wanted to just say how cool it is that I can get a top hat for my avatar.

Princes to Princes, Part Two: Parables and Parrying

So, apparently I don’t have a good understanding of the word “tomorrow”. I started writing about Prince of Persia monday. I also started catching up on 30 Rock, and that was very much conflicting with me wanting to write a blog post. Then the season 5 premiere of LOST happened, so that threw me off again.

Anyway, back to comparing Prince of Persia to Sands of Time. So far, the tally looks like Sands of Time – 1, Prince of Persia – 1, on the basis of platforming (the meat) and graphical presentation (the potatoes) respectively. This lecture is on the combat (the side dish) and the narrative (the gravy). Now that I’ve managed to make myself hungry, let’s have a drink of PoP. (I acknowledge the fact that that pun was horrible.) As before, SoT is obviously Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and PoP refers to the new one without a subtitle.

I can’t help but feel that in both games, the combat is one of those things that was shoehorned in because someone at a dev meeting said “BUT YOU CAN’T JUST HAVE THE PRINCE RUNNING AROUND DOING A LOT OF PLATFORMING! THERE NEEDS TO BE COMBAT!”. In the cases of both games, I disagree. In SoT, the Prince had a goal that was not directly combative: retrieve the hourglass. In PoP, the Prince aids Elika in healing the land, which for all intent and purpose, does not sound combative. However, as most platformers these days exist with enemies as a function of the level design as obstacles, or to break the flow of platforming by showcasing another way in which the Prince is acrobatic. My complaint against the combat in PoP is the same complaint I levied against the platforming: it is down to such a simplistic level that it is essentially an elevated quick time event. What makes the combat worse is that there are actual button-mashy or timed press quick time activities that actually occur. While this makes combat simpler and allows you to view the acrobatic combat stylings of the fresh Prince and Elika, you again do not get as engaged. This unfortunately also makes it aggravating though, as you’re often required to do things at such precise times it simply becomes a game of trial and error. This gets even worse near the end of the game, when the enemies are much faster and you cannot get a hit in without leading with a parry attack, which requires an extremely precise timed press. SoT allows much more room for skill and flair in its combat, and provides the Prince with a bevy of abilities that actually make fighting scores of monsters easier and less frustrating than the two-on-one battles of PoP. You may have to use more button combinations in SoT, but it creates a much more fun combat style.

The thing that really kept me going with PoP however was the story. I always wanted to know more of what was going on. Even when I got all the achievements for talking to Elika, I continued to do so because the interaction between her and the Prince was easily the most engaging part of the game. The Giant Bombcast from last week or so mentioned their favorite parts of dialogue, and one they mentioned was the game of I Spy that the Prince starts, much to Elika’s chagrin. The way the characters played off each other was very well done, even if the Prince had that tendency to come off as an arrogant ass, but even when he did, Elika called him out on it. Since the dialogue was all optional, I knew I could skip it, but I did not want to, as this world and these characters were something I gained a legitimate interest in. Unlike SoT, in which the narrative is far less engaging, and exists mostly just to explain why you are in a certain section of the palace at that time. I do not care about the relationship between the Prince and Farah as much as I do the Prince and Elika. In fact, the thing that I am most interested in about the Prince is the fact that he arbitrarily rips pieces of his clothing off at seemingly random times, or when he talks to himself occasionally and subsequently calls himself out on it. In the terms of narrative drive, I give the award to the newer PoP.

Here’s the part where I should draw my conclusions, but by now the tally is obviously split, and there’s no other factor to really establish a clear winner, and I think that is the point I’ve been trying to reach all along. These are both great games, but for different reasons. Sands of Time is a really great platformer with a well done combat system, where as Prince of Persia is an amazing looking game with a fantastic story that also happens to be a platformer. The critics simply just shit on the new Prince of Persia because it is not exactly like the old one. Sure I have complaints with it, but at the end of the day it is just as engaging as the old one, albeit for different reasons.

Apples to Apples, Princes to Princes

I decided to write a post before midnight for once, which is rather uncharacteristic of me. Then I started playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and as a result, this post comes to you after the clock strikes midnight and my laptop turns back into a pumpkin.

So, I started playing Sands of Time a few weeks back on the PC, had PC issues about 12% into the game, and then went out and picked it up for PS2 because I wanted to play the other 88% of the game. Coincidentally, as I got about 50% into SoT, the new Prince of Persia arrived via Gamefly for my Xbox 360. So, I decided to play that one and finished it in a few days. Now, I’m back to Sands of Time, and just got to the 75% point in the game. It was an interesting experience going from one Prince to another, and since it’s an issue of apples to apples, here’s just a few thoughts on comparing the two. PoP will designate the newer title, while SoT will obviously designate the Sands of Time.

First off, SoT excels in the one place the Prince is known for, and that is his platforming ability. While the skill sets between the two Princes largely overlap, the only thing I miss going back to Sands of Time is the gauntlet for sliding down a wall (which I had tried to do earlier tonight when I got back to SoT only to find out harshly that it was not available anymore). What I didn’t miss were the Elika powers. Namely, the one I referred to as Prince the Hedgehog, the green plate, which caused the Prince to run headfirst in a single direction: up. This meant the player controls his horizontal movement, dodging obstacles and enemies, however, the game forces you into quite a bit of trial and error with this section, since you can’t exactly see too far ahead. Most of all though, this detracted from what I wanted to do the most in the game, and that was jump between ropes and walls and platforms. The moves were more gratifying to perform in SoT, simply because it did not simply feel like a series of implied quick time events, where I knew I had to hit only one button to move from one action to the next.

However, PoP may not have mechanics that are up to par with its predecessor, but it really excels in the narrative and graphical directions. I know comparing this generation’s graphics to the last is not necessarily a fair fight, but hear me out. A lot of the environments in SoT are dark palace rooms or caverns, without a lot of glitz and glamour to them. Even as far as PS2 games go, there are other games from 2003 that look better, such as FFX-2 (which is not a good game by any means), but the game is not about style, it is about platforming. The world of PoP is dark and and depraved after the release of Ahriman, and lush and vibrant after Elika begins healing the world. Assassin’s Creed showed a lot of potential in the engine, and I really loved the environments that game created. Coupling that with the distinctive art style of PoP creates a really impressive world that I simply loved exploring just to see the art style and graphical design of the areas. The world had a good sense of openness to it as well, giving me a few issues of GTA-esque “wrong turn” syndrome as I suddenly found myself facing an enemy in combat.

As for the combat and narrative, well…. I’ll leave that for tomorrow (cliffhanger!).

Hero’s Best Friend

Fable 2 managed to grab me because of its world, and that kept me interested in the story, which got me involved with the characters, namely, my fellow Heroes. Or, at least I tried to get involved with them. Since the support characters are very sparse, and exist only within the story based missions, you would think that they’d take this opportunity to flesh them out and give them a greater place in the world. I found myself gaining no attachment to the other heroes in the story, even when they were in jeopardy. The only one I felt I really knew was Hammer, only because she was around the longest, and the most vocal. Even Theresa only seemed to serve the role of a quest-giver. This is really a disappointment, because I felt like I knew more about the final villain than my teammates, and there we were fighting his troops together.

However, the one character I really gained some feelings for was my dog. Since I was good, my dog was a blonde color, so he was aptly named Luke. Not as in Duke, but as in Skywalker. He ran when I ran. He fought when I fought. When he got hurt, I healed him. We played fetch together. He aided me in my expressions (and covered his head with his paws for others). Overall, though, I felt as if this in-game dog really captured the spirit of a real dog. Unlike Fallout 3’s Dogmeat, who instead had the spirit of a party member. I found myself spending more time healing Dogmeat than I did caring for him. The plus side to Fable 2’s dog is that you don’t have to tell him anything. He automatically finds his treasures and barks for my attention. Dogmeat just attacked anything that was near, and getting him to find ammo or health was more of a chore than anything (and because of this, I rarely used him for this purpose). The fact that Luke waited by my side as my hero grew, and that he ran to greet me at the docks as I returned from a quest showed me that he cared for me before I even began to care for him. I applaud Peter Molyneux and his crew for creating the most inspired character in this year of gaming, and possibly one of the most emotionally realistic support characters of all time.

Until I am able to venture forth to Knothole Island, this is all I’ve got on Fable 2 for now. Coming up soon: My thoughts on 2008.

I’m Pretty Sure Venn Diagrams are Necessary Here

Nope, not Fable 2. I’ll come back to that. I’ve got another train of thought.

I currently still live at home with my family, and for the holiday, my dad decided to buy Wii Fit as a “family gift”. I’ll admit that I have not touched the Wii since I put down Super Mario Galaxy back in January. On the other hand, my parents have gotten quite a bit of use out of the game playing Wii Sports. They sometimes take to calling the WIi the “Wii Machine”, which brings an entirely different image to mind, but that is neither here nor there. They’re particularly fond of the bowling in Wii Sports. My parents used to be very enthusiastic about bowling. They own their own bowling balls, and I’ve seen my father bowl a perfect game. However, as they’ve gotten older, my mother’s knees have gotten bad, so Wii Sports gives them an opportunity to do what they used to love in an entirely new way. They also enjoy the fact that they can use their Miis for an even more immersive (and I’m using that word sparingly here) experience.

So, on Christmas day we set up Wii Fit and everyone found out their BMI and COB and all that jazz, and took turns on the mini games. I lost interest after finding out that I am almost overweight and slightly off balance, but the rest of them had fun with the hula hoops, ski jumps, etc. They weren’t even doing it for the health aspect, they were just enjoying small chunks of pseudo-games that they were able to play. As I watched, it was extremely clear that this game was, without a doubt, the epitome of non-gamer, casual gaming.

My dad also bought my mother AMF Bowling World Lanes, also for the Wii. This is a strange game. It’s made by Bethesda, or at least an offshoot of Bethesda. You know, Fallout 3, that game that I love from only weeks ago. They hated it, and wanted to return it. It is a bowling game in which you pick a stereotypically ethnic bowler, and bowl around the world. My parents were excited with the prospect of a potentially more “realistic” Wii bowling game. However, the lack of Mii support frustrated them. They liked how Wii Sports let them live out their old bowling days vicariously through their Miis. Instead now, my mom was playing as a cowboy, and she was not pleased. They also did not like the fact that they had to go through menus, select bowlers and locations, and then on top of that, the controls were more complex than those of Wii Sports, so they could not hook the ball the way they used to.

That brings me to my point here. Who exactly is a game like this made for? The onslaught of Wii shovelware is made with the mindset that they’ll be able to hit this newfound casual demographic that owns a Wii with Wii Sports and rarely anything else. The people in this demographic, however, are hard to please.

They like things simple and easy. To be frank, they like things that Nintendo is making. After explaining to my parents that not every company uses the Miis, they were pretty disappointed. What’s the chances of them buying another third party Wii title now that they know that there will not be more of the same, but something totally different that may be completely foreign to them? I know my parents aren’t going to be the only ones in this boat.

I Fought the Law and the Law was Scripted

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m playing Chrono Trigger. This is, at least, my sixth time playing through the game. If that doesn’t suffice as a neon-glowing statement of fanboyism, I don’t know what does. This is more or less my first attempt at a relatively academic blog post, so please, bear with me.

For whatever reason, when I play Chrono Trigger, I always play the beginning of the game the same way, even though I know how the events will pan out. I’m not using spoiler tags or anything here because the game is 13 years old at this point, and if you play games and don’t know a damn thing about this game, there is something very wrong with you. In all honesty, this is the first two hours of the game, so if people have any experience with this game, this is the part they encounter.

So as Crono, you enter the Millennial Fair, and you hear Lucca is setting up her new machine at the back of the fairgrounds, and proceed to make your way there. However, in front of Leene’s Bell, you run into a girl and her pendant goes flying. Here is where your actions begin to come under scrutiny. At this point, I always talk to the girl first to make sure the pendant. I wait when she wants candy. I leave the lunch alone. I take the cat to the little girl. Say it’s all my fault in court. However, when it comes time for Crono to fall victim to the judge’s gavel, I always get thrown in jail.

I understand that the event is scripted, and that no matter what, I will be hitting the pen as a result of the plot. However, as I sit there in the trial and watch the jurors account for me as “not guilty”, and see the judge still sentence me to three days of solitary confinement. I can’t help being struck by pangs of dissonance. Despite the fact that I know that I have to spend time in the slammer, I can’t help but feel defeated when I do, regardless of my verdict.

It may have something to do with the first time I played it, where I was destroyed by a totally “Guilty” verdict. That time, I grabbed the pendant first, got impatient waiting, ate the lunch multiple times, etc. Yet, I came away thinking “In this game, I can change the past. Next time, I’ll change how I play it.” So I did, again and again, and now I find myself here.

In my paper on games and narratives (ha! I’ve finally mentioned it!), I began to explore the idea of applying Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm to gaming. Stealing Wikipedia’s line, the theory states that “all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling… and so human beings experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives”. The way we judge narratives is based on fidelity/rationality, or coherence/probability. This begins to tie in to the oft-discussed topic of ludonarrative dissonance, which Michael Abbott describes very well by saying “The world is alive with possibilities, except when it isn't. The world responds to my actions, except when it doesn't,” (in regards to Fallout 3).

Chrono Trigger is a game trying to tell the story of a ragtag band of spunky heroes trying to save the world (or, everything Squaresoft put out up until about… well, still). I want to experience everything the game has to tell me, or has for me to play. I want to enjoy the story and the gameplay. The reason I begin to feel this dissonance is when Chrono Trigger stops being a game and starts telling the story. You can almost imagine the narrator saying, “Regardless of his actions, Crono was thrown in jail…”. As the gavel swings down, and the judge sentences Crono, Fisher would feel the narrative fidelity/rationality snap under pressure. Suddenly, the story we’re being told is no longer coherent with our world view. We know that if a jury finds you not guilty, you walk free. If O.J. Simpson can walk free, Crono should too. I'm feeling all sorts of narrative static, because this “interactive experience” decided it wants to be a scripted chain of events again, and because these events are not the norm of what I hold true. Granted, we have to suspend our disbelief to some extent, such as when fighting monsters or using magic, but this apparently universal concept of justice seems to be shattered.

I know Yakra did it, but in the end, I’m still always pissed.

A Dream Coming True?

It was a mumbled rumor on the internet months ago. Today, I saw rumbling of it on Joystiq, Kotaku and MTV Multiplayer. Then, the icing on the cake came in a Wall Street Journal article. Tomorrow at 10 AM EST, the world will find out, the where, when, why and how. We already know who. The Beatles coming to Rock Band has the potential to be the highest selling track pack/expansion that the game could get.

I'm not going to lie, this is no way an unbiased article. This is where I pull out my fanboy card for both Rock Band and The Beatles. I actually have a band in Rock Band 2 named Beatlemania! with John, Paul, George and Ringo in it. No matter what they release, how they release it, I will slap down my USD or MSP or whatever currency it takes to purchase tracks. I can only imagine rocking out to "Helter Skelter", or wailing through the solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", or even singing some of their poppier early work such as "From Me to You".

No matter how you slice it, having the largest rock and roll band in history in Rock Band is a very big deal.

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