lowspec

Over the last few days an interesting idea has been popping up in various places. Not a new idea, but it seems more refined and widely circulated of late. It’s in Ken Levine’s GDC presentation, via Gamasutra, and I heard it articulated in a recent 1up podcast in which N’Gai Croal was a guest. I can’t remember where else I’ve heard/read it, but here it is, in a sort of nutshell:

Games are lousy vehicles for traditional narratives, but they’re still excellent vehicles for emotional storytelling, provided that the story is shown, rather than told.

Here are a couple of quotes from a summary of Levine’s presentation (via Gamasutra) that illustrate this point:

Levine showed a short demo of the prototype for BioShock — it looked very much like a game that could be released on the 360 right now; a convincing corridor-crawler with creepy monsters to shoot and smashed crates. Levine’s take? “The world is not saying very much to us.”

I read that and then considered the finished product. In Bioshock, every corner of every room tells a story. A tragic, horrific, amazing story. Exploring Rapture, the player is a sort of archaeologist, continually piecing the story of the broken world together through its found remains, aided by careful, emotionally powerful art direction. Portal is another example of a game that does the same thing, to great effect.

More Levine:

“What is mise en scene? Literally, to present or make a scene. Film does this. How did BioShock use this? To tell a story without words.” Rapture was designed to sell the story, and this was accomplished via mise en scene.

Bioshock also told its story via other means, of course, including through found audiotapes which provided plenty of more traditional exposition. But those materials were supplementary. They’re an adjunct to the much more visceral, emotionally compelling story delivered via the presentation of Rapture’s environs.

Shadow of the Colossus and Ico are also perfect illustrations of of how games can effectively show, rather than tell, incredible stories.

Gamasutra has the rundown of a GDC presentation by game industry attorney Larence G. Walters, and it’s an interesting read. Walters notes that despite the steady shutdown of game-regulation laws on First Amendment grounds, the industry isn’t out of the woods yet. Of particular concern are the ongoing “junk science” attacks on gaming from pro-regulation groups. Walters argues for a more proactive, research-based approach from the industry, and says it should be in the business of advancing scientifically valid counterclaims:

The video game industry needs to clearly and overwhelmingly debunk these theories with its own extensive research on the subject. To the extent that the industry can develop a research bank and debunk this junk science and addiction theory, it should do so before it needs it and not at the 11th hour.

And, he argues, it’s a PR battle as much as it is a legal battle, for “the hearts and minds of consumers.”

Before I forget, Colleen Hannon recently wrote an excellent article on the subject of the unsettling relationship between junk science practitioners and media regulation groups over at Gamers With Jobs.

For the HD-DVD format.

…

With Toshiba officially conceding defeat, it’s over.

For Sony, who with the PS3 now have the most desirable video playback device on the market, this is huge. The 360’s lower price, online features, and exclusives won’t be enough anymore.

If Microsoft wants to stay competitive, a substantial 360 price cut better be on the way. Or a new 360 that matches the PS3’s hardware features, to include a Blu-Ray drive, built-in wireless, and a sizable hard drive, for a lower price.

Newly crowned 1up EIC James Mielke discusses his outlet’s reorganization in a lengthy post over at his 1up blog, and just happens to drop this interesting little tidbit:

Also, don’t know if you noticed this or not, but we’re going to be switching our reviews scores from the old 1-to-10 scale to a letter grade format. Some of you will undoubtedly feel dismay at this announcement, but it’s for the better good. Here’s what the official press release says:

“In addition to the reorganization, 1UP Network is making changes with its game scoring system on 1UP.com, in EGM and in GFW. Games will be graded on a letter scale, A+ to F, rather than a numerical scale. All previously scored games on 1UP.com will also be converted to the new letter scale. Look out for these changes in March on 1UP.com, in the April issue of EGM and in the April/May issue of GFW.”

It’ll take some getting used to, but we feel it’ll more accurately convey how we feel about a game. I mean, we knew a 5 out of 10 meant ‘average’ to us, but no one else seemed to get the clue. So we’re changing things around so that anyone who’s gone to school will instantly know how we feel when they see our letter grade on a game review. Feel free to discuss this at your leisure.

Not exactly surprising news. One need look no further than Tom Chick’s defense of his 4-out-of-10 score for Hellgate London, or Hsu’s recent revelation of 1up’s pariah status among certain publishers, to see how the “5 equals average” scoring system drew the ire of gamers and industry types alike.

The bottom line is that if you want to weigh in in the era of review aggregators like Metacritic and Gamerankings you’ve got to skew your scores accordingly. Which is what 1up’s new letter grading system accomplishes, as letter grades neatly translate to percentage scores. The old 1up average was 5. Now it’s C. Which is 75%, right where “average” games fall when their scores are aggregated.

The decision makes sense. The fact that 1up needed to make it shows just how ridiculous this whole game review scoring business has become.

I just have to chronicle this mess for future reference.

Via GamePolitics, we have a transcript (and embedded video) of Fox News’ ridiculously inaccurate portrayal of Mass Effect, wherein Geoff Keighley takes purported “expert” Cooper Lawrence to task in admirable fashion. The subsequent fallout includes a mass trashing of Lawrence’s recent book at Amazon and, eventually, contrite statements on her part over at The New York Times, of all places. EA asks Fox for a correction and Bioware’s Ray Muzyka says the dev team is “really hurt” by the poorly researched smear job.

My take? I can’t say I’m surprised by Fox’s actions, but I’m still disgusted. Keighley’s direct response and EA’s and Bioware’s complaints give me some hope.

I quit World of Warcraft last night. For the third time. For the last time.

I was never a diehard WoW player. In fact, I only created three characters, and I only leveled those characters up to about 30.

The first time I quit I did so out of sheer fatigue. Though it may sound laughable to MMO gamers who cut their teeth on titles like Everquest, even WoW’s gentle grind eventually began to feel more like work than play. I plunged back in when Burning Crusade launched, but after I leveled a Blood Elf Warlock up to 30 I ran out of steam once again.

I didn’t uninstall, though. I’d always wanted to max out at least one WoW character, so when the v2.3.0 patch eased the leveling requirements for levels 20 through 60, I thought I might give it another shot. Given the lack of post-holiday game releases, it seemed like a good time to re-commit to the game. I was wrong. It only took me a few nights to realize I will never earn a standard mount, let alone an epic ride. I’ll never hit level 60, let alone 70. And I’ll never raid.

If I didn’t have a family, or a job, or other interests (including no shortage of other games), I could probably justify playing WoW often enough to develop a social network that would carry me through. But I live on the West Coast, my gaming schedule is erratic, and I generally don’t play games to socialize. There’s just not enough variety and action in WoW’s solo experience to hold my attention.

Know what the real dealbreaker was? The walking. I wasn’t more than a few hours back in before I realized how much I hated hoofing it from place to place, even between quests in the same region. Though some of WoW’s landscapes are quite beautiful, they’re just not all that fun to jog through. Either drop me right in the middle of the action, like Hellgate: London does, or let me travel through remarkable places, like Shadow of the Colossus did.

I’m quite certain I’m finished at this point. Not because I canceled my account. I could easily re-subscribe. I know I’ll never come back because I completely uninstalled the game, and there’s no way I’ll be going through the installation and upgrade process again.

Goodbye, World of Warcraft. Alas, I hardly new ye.