Changing the Game, and Letting the Game Change You

ArenaNet’s latest blog post talks about the adventure (in-game and out) taken by Katy Wells – a girl inspired by the game she loves to bring the journey from the screen into the real world and go on her own voyage of discovery.

I know that for many people being a gamer is something about which they can be loud and proud. Accepting or ignoring all chides and criticism, they balk (or embody) the ever-present “basement dweller” stereotype and wear their gaming passion on their sleeve.

But I believe that, for many of us, gaming is something which we might never feel comfortable sharing with our co-workers, family or (less likely) friends. I work in an office where I can almost 100% guarantee that if I revealed my fanaticism for GW2 I would be met with raised eyebrows and sniggers followed by “but you’re 24, not 14!”. It isn’t that they aren’t nice people, I just don’t believe they’d understand (I told a couple of my co-workers last year when I covered Eurogamer for Talk Tyria – and I’ve still not really heard the end of it). It’s a shame that I don’t feel comfortable enough to share my passion with the people with whom I spend most of my time.

I’ve talked about the stigma attached to gaming before. I think what I said was “Gaming is our crossdressing”. Katy’s adventure is just one example of the many ways in which games can not only enrich our lives, but also be great vehicles for positive change, I hope that such examples can help to not only reverse the negativity which other people attribute to our passion, but also help us to re-evaluate our own acceptance and perpetuation of the stigma as gamers.

Thankfully, this September I have the chance at a new start. I’m quitting my job and embarking on my own 4 year adventure (and at the end I’ll be Dr Knight). I will be starting a PhD course at the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute in Nottingham. Aside from doing very interesting, multi-disciplinary research in a field which I am really interested in, I also have the chance to start again personally – to approach this new group of colleagues/fellow students with an openness which I don’t feel I have with my current job. Gaming and blogging has been a secret part of my life for so long, I’m not sure how I’m going to change, but for better or worse I think it’s time to bring my passion into the open.

[GW2] Finding a Game/Life Balance

I’ve realised over the past few months that my gaming tastes have changed a lot since I left University. At Uni I had a lot of spare time (I did Social Research for pities sake!); I was a bit of an insomniac and never had a roommate or dorm-buddy to worry about keeping up with my late night gaming sessions, I also have a lovely long term girlfriend, so there was never the chance of stealing a likely young wench from the local tavern and bringing her back to my lair. The upshot is that once all of my buddies had retreated to bed, I would have all the time in the world to play games. Games usually meant Guild Wars and Guild Wars meant several hour sessions: vanquishing zones, completing Zaishen quests and going absolutely batshit bonkers in PvP (once the red-mist comes down, my blood-lust is difficult to satisfy).


Since leaving University my commitments have changed. I have a full time job, my own house, bills, taxes and other such grown up things. My gaming time – although very generous (thanks girlfriend!) – has had to change. Mostly, now, it is consumed in bite sized chunks; 20 minutes between when I get home and when I start cooking tea, an hour or so after tea till I begin to feel guilty about leaving the lady alone in front of the telly and then maybe an hour or so once she heads off to bed and before I can’t keep my eyes open.

This disjointed schedule just isn’t conducive to a full-time MMO career, but it lends itself perfectly to console gaming – 15 minute Call of Duty battles, 20 minute FIFA matches or a quick jaunt around Rome in Assassin’s Creed. It’s easier to lounge on the sofa for half an hour and get my gaming fix than it is to find 2 hours a night to sit alone in the spare bedroom hunched over a keyboard.

My worry is that with the coming of Guild Wars 2, I won’t be able to fully commit. If I am going to experience this game, I want to fully immerse myself, I want to have proper time to commit – and I haven’t found a proper way to balance an MMO gaming habit with a healthy home-life.

So, I implore you, good readers; fill me with your wisdom – Have you found that balance? Do you have a loving spouse who games with you (mine is currently addicted to Skyrim, so that means I can steal off and play for a bit longer than normal)? Do you disregard the tuts and sighs which come from a cross-armed partner, as she/he stands in the doorway pyjama-clad and yawning?

[GW2] IG or OOG? Your Extended Experience

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you’ll probably be vaguely aware that I used to be heavily involved in the Alternative Reality Gaming community. If you haven’t been reading for that long you might have at least noticed some odd comments made by certain readers which seem a little out of place. A while back a user called “A Pound of Flesh” commented:

Which might seem somewhat threatening until I tell you that he is a character played by a writer over at "I'll See You in Hell". He plays a serial killer who, after he stalks a young woman, begins to find himself the target of his own demon – the Slenderman. As a reader/player you follow him through his torment and interact with him through the blog and other mediums.

Now, I’ve chided ARG writers in the past for posting “In Game” on my blog (ie, posting in-character) – I’ve always considered this space to be very much OOG (out of game) meaning that as far as the characters in the game are concerned: this site doesn’t exist, and anything I say on here should not be used in their story. The game world and the world in which my blog (and the unforum) exists are two totally separate universes.

I was thinking about this kind of intrusion in terms of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 Extended project which ANet are working on. At the moment all we know is that it likely extends to a downloadable app.

But what if they took it a bit further? What if you could be contacted by text by an in game character (in the guise of some kind of telepathic link) would you be cool with that? Or would you see it as the game imposing itself onto a world where it wasn’t welcome? You could get a telepathic message from Queen Jennah imploring you to meet her at Ebonhawke to discuss battle plans. Your progression through a quest could require you to find a RFID code somewhere in the real world, scan it with your mobile and somehow send it to the game?

Some companies have used ARG elements in the advertising and promotion of games (notably Ubisoft for Assassin's Creed and Valve for Portal). Geocaching, RFID tags, flash mobs, community forums, blogs, YouTube, facebook, twitter, web-based radio, email, SMS, augmented reality, apps, GPS, online or real world character role-play – all of these are valuable tools to the ARG community, and there is no reason why the video game industry couldn’t start to use them regularly. One of the advantages which GW2 already has is a vibrant and interactive community, and these kinds of puzzles lend themselves to groups which can work well together remotely.

ANet have already experimented with ARG techniques – the “OBEY/DISMANTLE” campaign is an example of this, as is/was the Scribe (for those who remember back that far!); they are both examples of the game world bleeding out into the real world. I can’t imagine ANet introducing stories which are dependent on mechanics like these to progress, but in terms of side-quests and interesting festival events; I would relish the chance to put my exploration-head on in the real world.
I think it would be an interesting experiment - where do you want the game to end, and your world to start?

Building an Epic Storyline - Embrace the Destruction

One of the major disadvantages which MMOs are burdened with is that any story cannot make substantive and permanent changes to the landscape. Unlike a single player game, in an MMO the developers must account for every player experiencing the whole world at once, this is because the world is experienced communally. If, in the final battle, the big-bad destroys half the world in a rage then you’re going to have a lot of confused newbies who are just fighting their way through the boars and goblins on the starter island as the verdant land drops away into a chasm of darkness and fire in front of their eyes.


So, the story must progress and any changes must be superficial or temporary – so that half of the content of the world isn’t blown away before the late-starters have a chance to experience it. Now, the trend for “Dynamic Events” aside, there hasn’t been much advancement past this linear design for storytelling (and even Guild Wars 2 tells its main story through a personal, and particularly linear, questline).

Imagine instead a game where the developers accepted that if they were going to have a truly epic story, then it is going to have to have truly epic consequences and that means substantive changes to the landscape to reflect this. They would have to accept that with these changes to the world, player’s experiences would change and those who are tardy to the party are going to miss some elements.

Imagine a game where the story is split into 20 chapters of 3 months each. The developers would plan each section in advance, each with its own internal storyline, and overarching it all a grand story arc which would play out over 5 years and culminate in the final chapter beginning 4 months and 9 months down the line. At the end of each chapter the world would change along with the story: perhaps the main government could be overthrown, a number of the main characters enslaved or killed. Perhaps the glistening capitol city could be completely levelled and replaced by a shanty town. Perhaps half the once green and pleasant eastern continent could be scorched by dragon-flame, turned to dust and ash, dotted by ruins and glittering glass-crystals.

This approach would require the developers and the players to accept the fact that in this format the player is taking part in a story which is much larger than themselves. It is not a “personal” storyline, but a “global” storyline in which they are taking part. This approach means that they would have to let go of content from earlier chapters and recognise that the story is going to progress without them if they don’t keep up. Players coming late would join the story at whatever point in the arc it has reached globally, and not have their own personal story inexplicably starting again with every new character – “Wait... why do I have to clear the village of corsairs? Haven’t all the guys hanging around in Kamadan already done that?”.

One of the great advantages of this approach would be that you can incorporate the all-important temporal element into the game. Your character could age with each chapter (with older characters looking more world-weary, wizened or wise depending upon how early in the story they were created), they could develop scars (ala Fable) or long-term injuries (I’ve always wanted a guy with a limp!) because you wouldn’t be going back to play earlier content and saying “hey, why are you limping? What do you mean war-wound? You’ve only just joined the army”. You could reliably kill off and introduce new NPC characters without them clashing with characters from earlier in the storyline and you wouldn’t have the awkward moment of “I don’t want to bring the Staff of Orr to you, Vizier, I know you’re the Lich. But I’ve got to bring you the staff so I can progress with the story”. Imagine the buzz on forums as the next chapter approaches, the speculation akin to a new game release every 3 months!

It’s pie-in-the-sky thinking, really. You’d need to have enough content within the chapters to keep players interested for the whole 3 month period (and we know it is usually only about a week and a bit before people start maxing out characters on a newly released MMO), and I’m unsure how the completionists would react to having missed content in earlier chapters. It would be a mammoth task. But if we could let go of this compunction to gather every shiny object in the entire world and put it in a box in our Guild Hall, I think it might work. With guaranteed content for 5 years, I’d hope it would allow greater freedom for the real lore-buffs to get their teeth into a meaty storyline – with murder, deceit, destruction and creation on a world-wide scale.

[GW2] This is Keith's Story

The fantastic intro sequences which we’ve seen on Demo playthroughs and released videos always end the same way: after a minute and a half of stunning concept art, brilliantly backed up by a dramatically sweeping score, your character stands brave and tall (well, unless you’re Asura), they tell you who they are; pouring out the innermost feelings which will drive them to fight against the greatest evil before finally, and very proudly, announcing: “this is my story!”


*SHUDDER*

I'm sorry. I feel somewhat silly even typing it. I cringe whenever I watch one of those videos. I cringe like I cringe when I watch the intro to Ashes to Ashes and Alex Drake tells us that: “My name is Alex Drake, I was shot and that bullet took my back to 1981”.

Maybe it’s the British in me; “this is my story” is so terribly self-indulgent. It comes with a certain swarthy arrogance attached: “this is my story, baby, and you’re going to listen”. It commands attention.

I thrive on cynicism, sarcasm and subtext. These devices keep me away from the raw edge which some media like to dance on: the monologues without pretence, the unabashed displays of affection or lust, and the rousing “Independence Day” style speeches. “This is my story” should be said on a cliff edge, staring squinty-eyed to the bronze-tinted horizon, as the wind blows up leaves and cherry blossoms about your gently tousled hair, possibly whispered to a loved one “this is my story” or even shouted at the sky “this is MY STORY!”.

In truth I’m kicking up dust over nothing; four little words and 2 seconds in a vast landscape of playtime which I believe this game will provide. I just know that whenever I create a new character I’m going to have to go “Lalalalala! Can’t hear you, lalalala!” when I reach the end of the opening cinematic.

If I had my way the game would start with something suitably British:

“Oh crap, I am so not ready for this...”

“Me? Really? Alright I’ll give it a go...”

“Can’t Keith do it? I’m about to go on my break”

[GW] Kicking the Habit: Moving from Needs to Wants

My life in Guild Wars over the past few years has been defined two parallel, but often converging, lines of action.

On the one hand there is the line which contains all that I want to do. I want to explore the world, I want to obtain all the titles, I want to complete all the quests, I want to finish the Underworld Elite Mission. They aren't things which necessarily lead to any kind of reward (although most of them certainly do) rather they are things which I want to achieve and experience before I move on with the game.

On the other hand there is the line which contains all that I feel I need to do. This line mainly comes from a sense of urgency I've felt with the impending release of the new game. They aren't needs like how I need to breathe, or I need to go to work to earn a living, but they are actions which I will put above all other actions in the game in order to get done quickly - even if they might be unpleasant or boring.

I understand the pathological connotations of having needs which stem from a video game, it seems rather backward and childish, even anti-social or damaging. But everyone who has worked hard for their titles knows how addictive it can be, and how infuriating it is to leave some of them unfinished when you're SO close.

Over the past year or two the game has seen a divergence between the two lines. I felt that what I wanted to do was slipping further and further away from what I needed to do before Guild Wars 2 comes out. I have wanted to complete the Guild Wars Beyond storyline for a while now, but the need to glug down hundreds of tonics, endlessly zoning between the Guild Hall and Zaishen Menagerie, has somewhat taken precedence and even before that my focus on not losing my Survivor title was my primary objective.

Thankfully, having now completed GWAMM I can feel the two lines converging again. I can say to myself; "I don't really need to do anything", I've achieved most of what I need to achieve to maximise my enjoyment of the new game. I can finally ask myself "what do I want to do". At the moment the answer is "not play Guild Wars" at least for a few weeks. After that, who knows? I still need to complete Underworld (in both Normal and Hard Mode), I'd quite like to buy some obsidian armour and gather a few more minis.

I suppose the title of this post is rather misleading: I haven't kicked the habit at all. I'm like a drug addict who has found the perfect drug and achieved the perfect high. For now there is no need to start injecting myself with anything else (there is nothing else above GWAMM to compare) but as soon as there is you know I'll be right back on the wagon.

[Aion] It's not you, it's me.

It’s a tried and tested cliché – the ex who won’t go away. They are usually the one who burrowed deep into your soul and every moment you spent in those first few weeks of the relationship was exciting and sent a thrill through your spine. Of course, it doesn’t take long before the honeymoon phase wears off and you’re left with the prospect of spending significant amount of time with someone who is boring, difficult and shallow.

You move on, find new and interesting ways to spend your time and forget the vacuous harpy which lingers in your past. Until they send that one email:

Oh you vile temptress! I’d just uninstalled you and now you come crawling back expecting to be welcomed onto my hardrive like the mid-level grind-fest never happened? What about the incredibly laggy fortress battles, huh?! You can’t tell me you’ve changed, I can see right through you. I won’t let you disappoint me again!

Oh, but you are very beautiful…

Guest Post: Top 10 Horror Games

 The following article was written for Distilled Willpower by Sara at Video Game Design Schools.

Although Halloween has come and gone, it doesn’t mean you can’t get in some good scares.  With horror making its way into everything from television series to comic books, video games are no exception.  For those still craving a good scare while gaming, we have gathered the top ten horror games that can literally scare you away from your controller.

1. Dead Space – Is “Aliens” your favorite horror movie?  Even if it isn’t, fans of both horror and space will find loads of both thrills and chills in this game from Electronic Arts.  Players must escape a giant spaceship in which aliens have possessed all the dead bodies. 
2. Resident Evil – There is a reason this video game franchise was made into a movie.  Players often have to escape mansions, cities, and other areas that have been infested with zombies.  It also stood out for being the first game in which zombies, rabid dogs, and other abominations leapt through windows to attack players.  The best choice for horror is Resident Evil 4. 
3.  Silent Hill – This is one of the first games geared specifically towards the horror genre.  There are different versions but most have you sifting through a town of ghosts, zombies, and other baddies to find a missing loved one.  There is even a version where the only light source you have is a simple flashlight.
4. Left 4 Dead – Get more zombies galore in this game.  The zombies themselves make for horrific scenes by doing what most enemies don’t: namely jumping, strangling, and even vomiting.  There are also witches and other frightful moments in the game.
5. F.E.A.R. – Proving that creepy kids aren’t just for movies like “The Ring” is this game.  Alma is a little girl who haunts the world you must conquer in the game.  There is also a sequel rumored to be scarier than the original.
6. Doom – Although the game that spawned a movie starring The Rock can sound frightening, it wasn’t until the third incarnation came out that it became truly frightening.  Because players are forced to hold either a gun or flashlight, not both, they often hear monsters before they see them or can even react to them.
7. System Shock – Similar to Dead Space, this game is all about a haunted space ship, aliens, and more.  However this game often involves artificial intelligence gone mad and even elements of role playing games.
8. Amnesia – Sure any video game can have you battling monsters, but what if you can’t?  That is the premise of this game in which the main character searches for clues to their missing memory.  The game often calls for the player to hide from monsters or even barricade themselves.
9. Dark Souls – Like to combine shooter games with horror?  Then you won’t be disappointed here.  With a game that has players lurk through sewers to find zombies, it can be more horrifying than you think.
10. Limbo – Combine a love of horror and puzzles in this video game.  A bit like the movie “Coraline,” a child escapes into a mystery world looking for their double/sister.  In addition to scary scenes, there are also loads of puzzles to solve along the way.

This article was written by Sara McDowell. She owns the site Video Game Design Schools List and is an avid Gamer. 

Remember, if you'd like to get involved and write me a guest post - just drop me an email! Previous guests posts can be found here.

[ES5] Skyrim Review: Arnold Dracunegger!

It's a little early for a proper review, but the amount of hours I've clocked on Skyrim since it plopped through my letterbox midday Friday kind of rules out me calling it a "first impressions" so here it is - my pseudoreview of Skyrim.

Plot + Sidequests
Dragons. Of course. You can't go two steps this financial year without bumping into a knapsack full of dragons. Hey, can you pass me the salt? - oh, I'm sorry, there's a dragon in the way. Must be because of the Chinese new year.

As usual, you are "the one". In fact, you turn out to be "the one" in a lot of senses. I'm working through a particular guild's storyline and it turns out that not only am I "the one" in terms of being the Dragonborne but I'm also "the one" in terms of being the only person to whom a particularly crispy dead lady will talk. The main story, so far at least, is fairly standard fantasy fare. Dragons bad, kill dragons, use your new found powers to find and kill big badass dragon. Game over.
Well, I say that, I'm not actually far enough through the story to see if Bethesda have thrown in some insane plot twists. I've been far too distracted by the typically bewildering number of side-quests, dungeons, bandit holes, castles, forts, dwemer ruins and guild plots in which to get embroiled.

In Skyrim, as soon as you walk through the city gates there is a scene being played out in front of you. When I entered one city I was witness to a brutal murder, another and I watched as two burly nords bullied a local dark elf, another and a traitor was being brutally beheaded. There is always something happening and something to do. Oblivion had much the same thing, although it felt a bit more structured - you always knew that every town would have a mages guild, fighters guild and a thieves guild, and there would be various little quests to pick up about town but usually you had to go looking for them.

It was a little odd not to be directed straight towards a guild hall. I'd started a sneaky light armoured bowman so I knew I'd be straight off to join the thieves guild, but it was ages before I even knew how to find them and even when I did find out (on a tooltip during one of the loading screens) their base was in a far flung city and it took me a good half an hour to walk there (this was before I discovered the handy horse-and-cart fast travel system). When I eventually could start the thieves guild storyline I wasn't disappointed, I even got to a particularly spectacular part where, having battled with an invisible foe atop a gigantic statue of an elf, I had to find my way out of an Aladdin-esque cave of wonder as it quickly filled with water. And that wasn't even the final quest! When this amount of effort is put into what is essentially a side quest, you know you're on to a winner.


Graphics and Audio
It's a beautiful game, there's no ignoring it. The landscapes are fantastic - at first I worried that the almost constant snow I was experiencing once I got out into the world would obscure the beautiful sweeping landscapes which were so abundant in Oblivion, but once I started to explore and the snowstorm lessened, the vast world spread out ahead of me. One interesting thing to note is their use of light - it really is fantastic, and creates some pretty epic dungeon moments. They've obviously taken a lot of time to get it just right, even to the point of having your eyes take time to adjust to different lighting conditions. I can't really appropriately describe what Skryim is like, so here's a couple of screenshots:

By the way, with that last image - I'd avoid that area if I were you, unless you have an army in tow, of course. Nuff said.

The audio, similarly, is fantastic. They've put together a really beautiful score and it adds to the whole ambiance of every dungeon, sweeping valley or murky castle hall. The ambient sound audio is also excellent, I hurry away from swinging blade traps because the swoosh and slice of those flying axes is almost deafening. I hear most enemies before I see them, particularly howling wolves and the cries of an angry dragon.

I do have one small question though: where on earth did they get the accents for the nords from? You can be speaking to one guy and he will sound like Count Dracula whereas the next will be Arnold Schwarzenegger, one second you're talking to a guy with a Glaswegian bark and the next guy sounds like the Swedish chef from the muppets. It's not a bit issue, just amusing that they've managed to squeeze a linguistic span which traverses almost a whole continent into just one country.

Gameplay
The combat in Skryim has been greatly improved over Oblivion. Magic and physical attacks can now be used simultaneously as you can add different weapons and items to each hand (ie, you could dual wield swords, or have a fire spell in your left and a dagger in your right, you can even dual wield different magic spells and combine their effects). It really adds a new element into designing your character - am I a noble sword and board paladin? Am I a crazy dual axe wielding orc beserker? Am I a wizened old mage with a staff and a lightning bolt spell? Personally I went for the "shoot you in the eye with an arrow from about a mile away and hide" route, and it works pretty well. They've also added in slo-mo killing moves, which add a whole new cinematic feel to close-combat.

What is also quite nice to see is that they've made a concerted effort to introduce the puzzle element back into the game. Whilst, admittedly, most of your adventuring is going to hinge on your combat ability, there is plenty for the sneaky thieves and those who like a good puzzle to get their teeth into. The enhanced menu system really helps here, as you are able to open up your inventory and manipulate every single item in the game. This means that Bethesda can put little puzzles and clues onto an item if they wish - such as the image below (SPOILER btw!) where you have to examine the item in your inventory to learn the combination for the locked door.

Leveling has changed a lot - every action you undertake increases a skill and each time you do this it gives a little exp towards your next level. With the new Fallout 3 style perk system I really look forward to every level I'm able to attain. It adds a nice little bonus for the work you've put in. Plus, with a couple of the perks I've picked up, it means I can slow down time like in the Matrix! Swwweeeeeeettt!

Alright, let's wrap it up:
It's a beautiful game and if you were thinking about getting it then my opinions won't sway you in the matter at all. In fact, from what I can gather almost every person on the planet has a copy of this game by now: my Steam friends list was jam packed with people playing it over the weekend (I myself have almost hit 24 hours which is both depressing and inspiring in almost equal measure).

When I got to Friday evening (having clocked in a good few hours by then) I was starting to question whether Bethesda had made any real advancements from Oblivion, but having played it like a crazed crack addict since then, I can confirm that Skyrim outstrips its predecessor by quite a way and the differences become more apparent the longer you play. Graphics are sharper, audio is richer, gameplay and combat is more varied and interesting, and whilst the plot seems fairly fantasy-standard there are so many side-plots that you will be engaged for months. In many ways its is familiar fare for Elder Scrolls veterans, but it adds so many little tweaks and unusual little changes that you can't help but consume it like Brian Blessed at a wedding reception buffet.

[ES5] Skryim: You S'wit!

Since I started this whole game-blogging lark there has been one thing which has bugged me. I anticipate every hot release, I read up on every game I’m interested in, watch videos, write blog articles and interact with the community. This process has a whole cavalcade (yes, “cavalcade”) of advantages in terms of being prepared for the game, knowing what to do once I get in and maximising my game play right from lift-off and being able to interact with an identifiable community such as you lovely people.

I have intentionally avoided information on the new Elder Scrolls game. I played Morrowind and Oblivion in a similar way – although I went into the games unintentionally blind. The previous games were so fun because I stepped into the world totally unjaded; with no real agenda, no compunction (yes, “compunction”) to see this place first or fight this monster above all others. I went into the game much as the character went into the game – blinking at the sunlight, fresh off the slave ship and naked but for rags and manacles. It was exciting. I discovered things at the same time as my character and at no point did I have to feign surprise so as not to hurt his feelings. In Morrowind, when I ventured into the vampire strongholds I felt true trepidation, genuinely unaware of what I might find. In Oblivion when I swam across the clear blue lake and stepped into that first Aylied ruin on the beach, I had no idea what was inside (turns out it was full of bandits with cracker-esque armour so thin you could have spread cream cheese on it and chomped it down with slices of apple and grapes).

Naturally, there are certain elements of Skyrim which I couldn’t avoid. I know the dragon battles are unscripted. I know you can dual wield weapons/magic etc. I know it has a funky new inventory screen with full 3D renders of every item. I know that there will be an annoying Wood Elf in the starting area who I will later come back and slaughter.

Other than that, I’m going in blind.

And I’d like to keep it that way. So, when the game arrives tomorrow (the British postal system willing) I shall don my 5.1 surround sound headphones and shut the world off – if only for one day. After that I’ll come back to the real world, I promise. But for those first few hours I am going to feel the cold wind in my bristles, hear the crunch of snow underfoot and smell the stench of charred flesh. Tomorrow – for just a couple of hours, I’m going to be a goddamn Nord.

A bit of a whinge about Multiplayer Stories

Most games today claim to want to make the player feel “heroic”. It’s an admirable intent; for a lot of people gaming is a form of escape, a way to be someone they are not – and most of us aren’t axe-wielding defenders of the planet, so it’s nice to be one for a short while. And it works... for single player games. For the most part, in single player games, the whole world must revolve around the player but I would question the applicability of this concept in a massively multiplayer context.

In a single player game the whole world can be controlled by the developer to expand and contract around the player. If they succeed in saving the town then the local crier can sing his praises and the populace can hold a parade in his honor: “Huzzah for Ballbag123, the saviour of Little Fartling!” you can be the hero because the world is built for you to be the hero.

In a multiplayer setting the world is built so that we can all be heroes, I get that. But when everyone is a hero, no one is. None of your actions can have a true permanent affect on the game world as doing so would take that content away from another player. So, we are all supposed to suspect disbelief when the “Great Dragon of Morcock” who you had valiantly slain all but 10 minutes ago pops up again and starts hurling fireballs: “Hey guys, you know that dying thing I did? That was a joke. LOL”.

Guild Wars 2’s (is that correct use of the apostrophe? My grammar-nazi senses are tingling but they may be off as it’s a Monday morning) personal story is seeking to solve a little bit of this problem by creating personalised story which acts almost as a single player campaign built into a multiplayer context. Essentially, it’s a dynamically evolving personal storyline which you can either play on your own, or drag your friends along as well.

I do think, however, that this is a bit of a plaster (that’s a “band aid” to you guys across the pond) over the actual problem. Shoehorning a single player story into a multiplayer game doesn’t solve the problem of how to tell a compelling story in a multiplayer context. Hopefully, the dynamic events system will go some way to patch this particular hole.

I draw the line at Panda

It’s a relatively arbitrary line which distinguishes what is “acceptable” and what is “unacceptable” in online games. If you reject the idea of playable intelligent pandas, why not reject the idea of playable intelligent wolves, cats, bears, goblins, plants or zombies? Why is the panda where the line is drawn?


Is it the markings? Racist! Could you live with playing as a beaver, but not a skunk? As a horse, but not a zebra? As a monkey, but not a lemur? Pfft... you make me sick.

Of course, I’m simplifying it for comic effect. In fact, WoW is a game I know little about and I’m only really using this whole panda- people debacle as a microcosm of the insane logic upon which MMOs are built.

Ps. This post is also built upon my long held assumption that the greyscale animals mentioned above are actually just olde-worlde versions of the other animals I stated. You know, before they invented colour television?

Good Books for Gamers #1: House of Leaves

This is the first post in a series I hope to be setting up over the coming months; Good Books for Gamers. I'll be reviewing books which I believe should be a the top of any gamer's reading list. They won't be like "Big Jim's Big Book of Game Cheats", but hopefully they'll be books which will nurture the kind of mindset which you need to be a good gamer or at least bring up some interesting ideas for your brainbox.

First book in the series is one of my top 5 fave books of all time: House of Leaves

Released in 2000 and written by Mark Z Danielewski House of Leaves tells the story of a number of different characters:

Johnny Truant - a tattoo artist who's friend suggests he moves into the apartment in his block which has just become available. In this apartment he discovers (amongst other weird shit) a mysterious manuscript which he edits and transcribes for the reader, the manuscript is written by the previous occupant of the flat a Mr...

Zampano - a mad old man who lives alone in his flat with boarded windows and blocked ventilation systems. He is writing a critique of a documentary film called "The Navidson Record" which concerns the events surrounding...

The Navidson Family - William Navidson is a famous photographer and he is moving into a new house with his wife and children. Unfortunately, they find that their house holds some pretty fricking freaky secrets. Will Navidson films his exploits in his new home on a video camera; the results of which eventually become the documentary film "The Navidson Record".

(There are also the fictitious Editors who pipe up now and again to edit or paraphrase some of Johnny's ramblings - they are assumed to be the ones publishing the book as a whole).

So, as you can probably tell the book is pretty complex: Johnny is transcribing Zampano's critique of a documentary about a family. It's a book about a book about a book about a film. House of Leaves is a freaking onion, it has so many layers. It's a whole bushel of onions, dammit. Do onions come in bushels? I guess that's irrelevant.

The Plot
Starting from the very bottom of the narrative tower, ie: the Navidsons. The documentary "The Navidson Record" is pieced together out of old family videos filmed by Will Navidson. After a sizable description of the characters and their lives before they moved into the their new house, the story really starts when they discover that their new home is literally bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (they actually get a tape measure out to verify this). But it really, really starts when they come home from a trip to find a new door in one of the walls. A door leading to a hallway which, physically, should extend out into their back garden, but doesn't. The documentary which Zampano critiques mainly concerns the strain which is placed upon the family as Will Navidson and other intrepid adventurers explore the pitch black labyrinth of twisting hallways, shifting doorways and endless chambers which lies behind the new door. Frankly, the whole experience is incredibly harrowing and terrifying!

Zampano's written critique of the documentary is rambling and frequently goes on tangents so immense it's like reading an acid trip. At one point he begins listing the characteristics of various shotguns - right down to their measurements and specifications. 

Johnny transcribes Zampano's insane ramblings for us, but often goes out of his way to describe his own drunken, drug filled, sexed up, insomniac lifestyle. Johnny's story is told in parallel to Zampano's, often in epic footnotes (sometimes taking up whole pages themselves).

Format

What makes House of Leaves so interesting for me is the fascinating way the information is presented to the reader. The text is often distorted to reflect the characters emotions, feelings and situation at the time. For example, when Will Navidson is squeezing his way through an increasingly narrow hallway the text becomes tighter and tighter - forcing the reader to quickly skip through the text and feel the increasing pressure as the blank margins bear in on the text. 

 Similarly, as Will is climbing a rockface we have to read up the page in sections to simulate the feeling of ascending at a laborious pace.

Danielewski employs colour to add an extra layer of intrigue into his text. Every instance of the word house is in blue, every instance of the word minotaur is in red and throughout the book, strikethroughs and purple text is employed - but never really addressed. The book comes with a sizable full colour appendix containing a number of letters to Johnny from his mother and other interesting pieces.

Gaming the book

Why I think this book would be interesting to the average gamer is that it is absolutely riddled with riddles, it is covered with codes, cryptic cryptids and puzzles which, if you don't keep a keen eye, you'd miss. For example, at one point Johnny meets a band in a bar who have read his published copy of Zampano's transcript, not knowing the Johnny is the author one member says: 

"Had he made it to Virginia? Had he found the house? Did he ever get a good night's sleep? And most of all was he seeing anyone? Did he at long last find the woman who would love his ironies? Which shocked the hell out of me. I mean it takes some pretty impressive back-on-page-117 close-reading to catch that one." 

(House of Leaves, pg514)

So, you flick back to page 117 and find (in a particularly rambling footnote on his woman trouble) Johnny says:

"...a wild ode mentioned at New West hotel over wine infusions, light, lit, lofted on very entertaining moods, yawning in return, open nights, inviting everyone's song"

(ibid, pg117)

Which is an acrostic of "a woman who loves my ironies". Other puzzles reveal more about the characters, at one point Johnny's mother writes a letter which contains the code: "my dear Zampano, who did you lose?" similarly in acrostic - suggesting a hitherto unknown connection between the two characters.

This is just one of thousands of hidden gems which are burrowed deep within the book, and there is debate on whether we have discovered them all, and whether we have fully understood the ones we have discovered. There is the matter of the front cover, for example:

As you can see, the front cover is not quite large enough to cover the inside of the book. Almost mirroring the house itself in it's topsy turvy dimensions. Some have gone as far as to say that the book published by the editors IS the house - and the house IS the book. But that's getting into some pretty messed up metaphysical fuzz which I really don't want to get into right now.

My point is that the ability to grapple with puzzles such as the House of Leaves is an essential characteristic to being an effective gamer (well, OK, maybe not some FPS games, but certainly puzzle, MMO and adventure games). Even if you don't buy into the puzzle and game side of it, it's an incredibly engrossing book. Before the end you begin to wonder what part of it is real? Was there ever a family who lived in a house bigger on the inside than out, or was that made up by Zampano? Or was HE made up by Johnny as an expression of his increasing paranoia and madness? Or is it all the insane ramblings of Johnny's mother - alone in the mental asylum?
If you aren't convinced as to how enveloping the mystery is, just take a look at my copy: 

PS. that's how a book SHOULD look by the way - nice and worn. If another person lectures me about "breaking the spine" of a book, I might just go biblical on them.

Milestones - How can I make Time Faster?

The next big game milestone for me is Batman: Arkham City and that's not until October. That's right - OCTOBER! What on Earth am I going to do till then?

And it's true - when it rains, it pours. November sees Uncharted 3 (still working my way through the first game, but it's a lot of fun and I'll probably eventually get this), Modern Warfare 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Saint's Row the Third and, of course, Skyrim. That's going to be one hell of a month.
Ultimately, Skyrim will probably win out and dominate my November, December and pretty much every waking second until Guild Wars 2.

The only problem with this is that I'll be missing out on so many other nuggets of hot fried gold which are on offer.

Guild Wars 2: Limiting Limited Resources

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Unbe-freaking-leafable - Sylvari Week!

Hold onto your hyacinths, people; it's freaking sylvari week! Just like the other weeks, I thought I'd give you the whole branching sylvari story to pan the time between the end of Guild Wars and the start of Guild Wars 2. Also, I will be including as many plant puns as is humanly possible, so I apologise if I branch off onto irrelevant tropics - beleaf me, I'll try and keep them pruned.

The sylvari are a budding new race in the Guild Wars ecology. Their story is fairly cool in my opinion, and is worth telling from the very start:

After the end of EotN Tyria was still not a very safe place for humanity - they faced threats from the remaining White Mantle, Mursaat, Charr and the growing threats caused by the wakening of the dragons. One settlement of human exiles had sprung up in the Caledon Forest (east of Rata Sum, west of the Henge of Denravi). Ronan, a human soldier, had made this his home for himself and his family. Whilst on patrol and separated from his group, Roran came across a strange cave guarded by "terrible plant creatures" - he scooped up one of the fist-sized seeds and fled (hoping to give the seed to his daughter as a present to celebrate his return from the war). Unfortunately, upon returning home, Ronan found his family dead and the settlement ruined by a mursaat attack. In his grief, Ronan planted the seed on the graves of his family members. He swore never to return to battle.
 

Arbor Bay - Ventari's Sanctuary

Roran was joined by the centaur Ventari, who also shared his abhorrence for violence. Together the human and centaur built a small community around the ever-growing tree. As the tree grew, the world changed around it - krytans, fleeing violence in their own lands, clashed with centaur clans across the human kingdoms, the dragons began to emerge and allegiances and borders shifted and tore. Fewer and fewer people were willing to follow Ronan and Ventari's peaceful way of life. Eventually Ronan passed away, and before Ventari did the same he wrote his life-lessons on a tablet and placed it amongst the roots of the Pale Tree.

In his absence, the tree grew for 100 years. Eventually great cocoons began to sprout and twist away from the branches of the now massive tree - from these cocoons came the firstborn sylvari.

Dociu concept art of the Pale Tree

The sylvari almost worship the words written by Ventari on the tablets and attempt to live by the rules he passed on. Whilst in their "gestation" period the sylvari dream of the world, it is through these dreams that each sylvari learns the wisdom of their race. Ree Soesbee describes:

The Dream is a deep well, into which memory and thought are poured as each sylvari learns and experiences the world. A newborn sylvari takes memories from that well in part, not in whole; like a bowl filled with water from that lake, they see only a small fraction of their race’s collective experience. 

So, they are born with a working knowledge of the world - but are able to go out and explore and learn on their own. The sylvari are children in relative terms, the oldest of their race is only 25 when the events of GW2 occur. They bring an almost bitingly sheer look to a world filled with wholly cynical races. Their honesty is often misinterpreted as ignorance, their innocence as helplessness. They may appear to be children, but they grew from a tree grown on the site of a massacre, they bear the weight of the wisdom of a very old and very wise centaur and the passion of a shining blade warrior and their unending curiosity for the new world around them drives their race to expand like so many winding weeds.

I'm hesitant to talk too much about the sylvari culture until we learn a little bit more, that's what sylvari week i is about after all! But that's their history, at least. I'm also not going to talk about the FREAKING AWESOME SYLVARI REDESIGN here - as that's a whole other blog post altogether.

Gaming Jargon - What on Earth did you just say?

One of the big parts of my job is rifling through doctors’ notes. If you have ever attempted this Herculean task you will know that not only are doctors’ handwriting notoriously difficult to decipher, but also the jargon they use is mind boggling.

I understand that in high pressure situations using shorthand is vital to conveying messages very quickly and as such is essential to the workings of a good doctors’ surgery or hospital. However, jargon also serves another important purpose: it keeps people out.
Having a language (written or otherwise) which can only be interpreted by a select few means that certain jobs remain specialised and cannot be farmed out to others. Of course, people who are new to the circle can learn the language but it takes time and hard work to really get fluent.

Jargon is a central theme in hardcore gaming. In fact, jargon is a central theme in gaming as a whole. If you asked a random Joe on the street what a “Next-gen F2P FPS with QuickTime event level boss scenes and a fully customisable UI and HUD” was they’d probably assume you were speaking in tongues and begin hurling holy water at you or beating you with Nile reeds.

Of course, we write “F2P” as it’s easier than writing “free to play” and “UI” as it’s faster than “user interface”. When you’re on a boss raid, or in the middle of a fire fight it’s easier to type “gank prot” than “I’d like everyone to focus their fire on the protector now”. The language of gaming is certainly a language of convenience; with phrases actually flourishing due to their ease of input into a keyboard (“lol” being the paragon of this – it’s so easy you barely have to move your chubby little digits lolololololololololololol jk). But the language of gaming is also a language of exclusion.

Imagine you’re new to gaming; if you were to play a gamebattle alongside one of the top MLG Black Ops players, you would have real trouble understanding what they are saying to you: “he’s top wood”, “two trailer, cap C”, “I’m flashed”. Similarly, if you were working your way through Hard Mode Underworld in Guild Wars you’d find a similar problem: “don’t aggro too many”, “alright, the SF sin can tank and the SH eles can DPS”, “omg mending wammo n00b!”; an all too common occurrence. It would be incredibly confusing, and until you’d taken the time to learn the phrases and experience the game you simply wouldn’t be able to participate. If you’re a bit of a veteran it comes as second nature that when you start a new game, you need to start to learn the jargon in order to be an effective team member. But to those who are just starting out, it must be a hugely daunting task.
I’m not saying it’s a language designed to exclude new players. Multiplayer online gaming is all about finding new ways to connect and interact with people. These languages develop organically and, apart from the select few, I’m sure most gamers don’t set out to develop the most confusing and obtuse language possible. What I’m saying is that veteran players must be aware of the potential barrier their language might pose when interacting with new gamers.