As I posited previously games are a form of communication. The ways in which the player is able to express their intent to the game is only half the equation. Players perform actions in the world, using sentences formed from nouns, verbs and adverb-verb pairs, and the game responds by modifying the nouns (objects) and their […]
Some games are simply frustrating. They are not necessarily difficult games, they just feature some section or encounter that is out of balance with everything surrounding it. I’ve been playing through God Of War and reached such a section. It’s an environmental puzzle which requires me to maintain my balance while walking along a series of beams […]
Playing a game is a form of communication. Players express their intent and the game provides feedback on the state of the simulated world, quantifying and contextualising player actions. All forms of communication require the establishment of a common ground, this is done in games by providing both the game and player with a selection of nouns […]
It’s not uncommon for me to have several games at various states of completion at any time. Sometimes my progress in one title will suffer because I’m more engaged with another; sometimes real life gets in the way. In extreme cases it can take several months, before I have the time and inclination, to return to a game. I strive […]
What does it mean to kill a virtual character? In a strictly mechanical sense killing a character is a means of removing their ability to interact with other objects in the game world, it’s a state change from active to inactive. Playing through Deus Ex, with the Vintage Game Club, I’ve found that frequently myself and others […]
The ability to play a role is one of the manifold reasons people choose to spent time with games over other forms of entertainment. The ability to assume a new identity, to make choices as a different character, to manage the development of that character, is a vital part of what makes narrative games pleasurable and meaningful. So why […]
Now that it’s done I’m starting to regret it. I said it in such a throwaway manner, I guess I wasn’t really certain it would have any effect. After all I’d seen first hand what Agent Navarre was capable of. It’s still hard to believe the power contained in those two words. I didn’t really have […]
For a choice to be meaningful, for the making of it to be worth consideration at all, requires that it be an informed one. We need to have an idea of the consequences of any choice, there needs to be a discernible difference between taking one action over another. An uninformed choice isn’t really a choice at all. When random […]
Aristotle understood the power of suspense, of tension. The unknown is vital for both good drama and good games. Without some degree of uncertainty regarding events there is little tension, little drama. Though often the overall outcome is not where this uncertainty lies. In a single-player games we know that if we keep playing for long enough we will […]
Almost since their very inception artists working within the various traditional entertainment media have been pushing against the boundaries of what is possible for narrative within their chosen field. In literature we have works like the Dictionary of the Khazars that encourages readers to piece together the “story” from fragmented often conflicting accounts, while in film […]