(no subject)

[egypturnash]

As a side note, since some people seem to want to convince me that Bioshock is actually a really good game - an opinion you're welcome to have; it's clearly a finely-crafted instance of an experience I simply don't care to have - I would like to note that so far, the only FPS I've actually enjoyed as a game is Thief, which I've been playing on and off the past week via Rik's machine. I had fun with System Shock 2 a couple years back but by the end, I was sick and tired of the basic game mechanics and just wanted to find out what happened to SHODAN. I really don't like FPSs.

As I've gotten older, I've slowly learnt how to see people as, well, people. I'm not very good at it; I never was. As video-game technology marches on, the creatures the games pit you against have gotten more like people. When I play some games made in the last decade or so, I can feel them training me to see people as just things. I'm still working out what factors make this happen; it's only a handful of games that do this so far.

I really think that the increasing drive for 'realism' in video games means that the game industry has a big moral quandry coming up. The forty-year-long focus on the hurt button as the core mechanic becomes creepier as the things you hurt become more and more like people. What happens when the project lead on a game focused on killing and blood plays his game and feels that weird sense that it's gnawing away at something in his soul? What happens when this is a regular occurrence?

A few major choice-points over, there's another me who went into video games. Is she (or he; I might never have transitioned in that life-path) getting ever more uncomfortable with these themes, or has it been completely burnt out of her by this point?

Comments

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Now, this having been said (four times over!) I'll note that Metroid Prime 3 has had me on the edge of my seat 'cause the FPS elements are perfectly balanced with the non-FPS stuff and the (admittedly way too simple) puzzle stuff and the wonderfully matured plot. It's amazing what happens when you have to try to tie a whole established mythos together at once, and seven other games have established one hell of a sprawling mythos.

Then again, if they'd made it a side-scroller, I'd probably not only be just as excited, but more likely to replay it. I grok 2D games more. I don't get lost as much, and I spend less time map-checking and more time just exploring and taking it all in. I've played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night well over a dozen times. Metroid Prime 2 got one and a half plays.

As a note, I think the 'gazillion hours to beat' thing is a bit weird. Many of the old-school games that we spent months on... well, they took months when you totaled up the time spent mapping for oneself, the frustration of fiercely limited controls, the confusion from poorly-translated text if it was there, and the fact that they were much more likely to use the same elements over a hundred times in slightly different ways and today's audience won't stand for it. If every area doesn't have a wholly divergent set of graphics, then they don't even consider it finished. Times have changed and so have gamers.

Also (and forgive me for rambling!) we were much likely to dig out all the quirks and nooks and crannies of a game when it was the only one we had, or one of only a small handful. Purchasing power now means we can buy every interesting game as it hits. Back then? Hell, I never actually owned Super Mario 2. I rented it for one weekend (beat it, too — mad gamer!)

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Oh, I got Metroid Prime 3 on the day it came out and I love the hell out of it. This from a person who hates FPSes with a passion. Really. I was a little disappointed that some elements weren't fleshed out a little more, but otherwise the game was everything I had hoped it would be.

The planet Elysia was downright orgasmic. I won't spoil it if you haven't made it that far, but I was terribly excited to see it all through the first part of the game after seeing the concept art for it.

I'll definitely have to replay because I missed two pickups and several scans. I can't complain, because I enjoyed it all the way through. Maybe I'll do it on a higher difficulty this time.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

As a note, I think the 'gazillion hours to beat' thing is a bit weird. Many of the old-school games that we spent months on... well, they took months when you totaled up the time spent mapping for oneself, the frustration of fiercely limited controls, the confusion from poorly-translated text if it was there, and the fact that they were much more likely to use the same elements over a hundred times in slightly different ways and today's audience won't stand for it. If every area doesn't have a wholly divergent set of graphics, then they don't even consider it finished. Times have changed and so have gamers.

This is 100% true. The days of the 100 hour RPG aren't OVER, but they're numbered.