DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

WHY ARE SO MANY MAINSTREAM GAMES TOO SCARED TO BE GAMES? - by Mr Biffo

30/8/2016

27 Comments

 
Picture
What are games? Sometimes it feels as if games themselves don't know. Or, more accurately, the people making the games don't know. I go to the cinema, or switch on the TV, to watch. I buy books because I want to read. I listen to music, because I want to hear.

I play games to play - to feel involved - but too often games seem to be confused about what they're for, throwing in things for you to read, or watch, like an insecure chef preparing a soup, which she serves with a hamburger in case her customers don't like soup. Or, rather, a chef who pads out her soup with cornflour and sawdust to make it go further.

Admittedly, the definition of what a game is can be far broader than cinema or literature, but I wonder if that's simply because games are still fumbling around for what they are. Or are ignoring what they are because they're in denial about it, wracked with shame and guilt and feelings of worthlessness.

I've always resented action games which fumble for profundity by bolting cinema or literature onto their carapace. Role-playing games are the most obvious culprit, deepening the history or lore of their worlds with extensive journal entries, or text from old books, or runes, or written on the back of potatoes.

Presumably you can blame Lord of the Rings for these misguided attempts at densification. Frankly, I've never had much time for it, and you only need to look at the Zelda games to know how you can give a game world a sense of history through gameplay and art design.

The same has been infecting action games in recent years, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has finally pushed me over the edge. I'm done.
Picture
RIGHT
If you ask me, games got it right from day one, pretty much - Space Invaders, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Atari's Adventure (arguably the forebear of The Witcher, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and others) had faith in their core gameplay without a need to invite other mediums to the party. 

Since then, games have slowly crept away from that purity of design, quite literally "over-egging" their "puddings".

​It seems to display a lack of faith in the imaginations of the player, as if the developers responsible feel the need to over-explain everything. Imagine if the original Star Wars had been shown in the cinema with a series of annotations flashing up on the screen, explaining the plot of the prequels, or everyone's backstory. 

I always read the journals - I try to sit through cut-scenes - but I can't think of a single instance where a dropped diary, or text entry on a computer terminal, has done anything other than bore me. They've never had any impact whatsoever on the gameplay part of the game. They're a distraction, and frequently tedious.

I know there are those who argue that they're a way of deepening the experience, and that they're optional. But what if they're not? There's always that fear that you might miss out on something important. I'm always disappointed.

Speaking as somebody who writes scripts for a living, exposition is anathema to storytelling. You show - don't tell. And most games fail to realise that. On the occasions when exposition is unavoidable, the best way around it is to at least make it entertaining. In my CBBC show 4 O'Clock Club we usually cut to a song when it's time for an info-dump, or to reveal a character's inner workings.

I'm not arguing that games should do the same - that is, have musical sequences (although... thinking about it... I'd prefer that to the tired text journal approach) - but there should be enough latent information in the world itself, through the characters, your actions, the items you find, the places you visit, that you can tell its story without reams of text, or unskippable, unenjoyable, ten minute-long cut-scenes.

Picture
SPINE
Of course, this doesn't apply to all games.

Some need their text - it's either central to, or part of, the gameplay. But it's when action games seem to lack confidence in their existence as games that it makes my spine prickle.

I wonder if it comes down to that general sense of misguided snobbishness that the wider world has towards games. That they're for children - so developers strap on "grown up" mediums such as cinema and literature. 

Which is absurd, because lest we forget that cinema is home to Pudsey the Dog: The Movie, while the shelves of Waterstones are filled with books ghost-written by YouTubers.

Unfortunately, I have always found the approach jarring, and it is becoming increasingly so for me as time goes on, as games become more complex and polished. True maturity is knowing when you can just be yourself, and stop pretending to be something you're not.

Outside of Nintendo, indie games are - as always - often where games as a storytelling medium come into their own. Her Story, 80 Days, Firewatch, and Thomas Was Alone, have more affecting story than most triple AAA games, by using restraint, and economy. By remaining focused.

​Aside from a few exceptions - Bioshock, Portal, Half-Life 2 - it doesn't feel like mainstream games are there yet. That's a shame - because the day every game like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided lets its core gameplay stand without all the po-faced padding, and heavy-handed exposition, is the day that we'll finally be able to say that games have grown up. That they're their own medium, which can stand beside, but remain distinct from, all other forms of storytelling.

​That's when gaming will finally be able to realise its potential, and stop being held back by its need to feel accepted by society. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
REVIEW: DEUS EX - MANKIND DIVIDED (PS4, XBOX ONE, PC - PS4 VERSION TESTED)
I WAS A BAFTA GAMES JUDGE BY MR BIFFO
REVIEW: THE WITCHER 3 (PS4/XBOX ONE/PC - PS4 VERSION TESTED)
27 Comments
Chris
30/8/2016 10:48:31 am

One of the books in Skyrim is a Choose Your Own Adventure.

There are thousands of readable books in Skyrim, but that's the only one worth reading.

Reply
Spiney O'Sullivan
30/8/2016 12:04:12 pm

I quite like text dumps and audio logs in games. They offer a bit of extra depth for players who want to go further into the source material, while not harming it for people who just want to get on with shooting things. I believe that the new Doom does this quite well. In-depth backstory for anyone who wants it, pure demon shooty bang bang action for those who don't.

(And yes, I do happen to love Assassin's Creed and try.to collect all the database entries)

Reply
Paul Morris
30/8/2016 12:35:23 pm

Unrelated but are you doing any more Zombie Dave T Shirts? I'd really love one now i can fit into one

Reply
Darcy
30/8/2016 12:42:28 pm

All I can think of right now if Final Fantasy 13 and its awful, awful glut of made up words and overlong database entries attempting to elaborate on what was a pretty bare bones plot. And then I remember the sequel, where it got even worse.

It's like they're intentionally targeting the sorts of people who hang around TV Tropes and think they're qualified literary critics because they over-analysed a Japanese cartoon.

Reply
Jez
30/8/2016 12:48:39 pm

You're right I think, and here's my illustration. I have been trying to play Rise of the Tom Braider but have been frustrated by all the collecting, crafting and being bombarded by logs, journals, pamphlets and such. So I stopped trying and bought kirby: planet robobot which has no such extraneous guff, instead just fun, relaxed gaming. I'll do my best to get back to Laura's adventure but when time is precious give me something simpler.

Reply
timmypoos
30/8/2016 09:12:22 pm

Kneel before me Tom Braider, then rise as Sir Tom of Braidings!

Reply
combat_honey
30/8/2016 12:56:59 pm

I'm in two minds here. On the one hand, like Spiney above, I think it's great to have all the extra lore for those who wish to explore it, and think that, even if you don't read every newspaper, just the fact that they exist is enough to add to the illusion of a real, living world. But on the other hand, I do get very protective of the 'purity' of gaming when big developers seem to think that the way forward is to make games more like films/TV.

Take Quantum Break for example - a subpar 3rd-person shooter bolted onto a mediocre TV show. When this sort of thing is presented as being "innovation" and "the future" I get irritated and wonder if the people who push games in this direction actually play games themselves. (Has anyone ever bought a game so that they could see a waxy, mo-capped Kevin Spacey?) And it annoys me that we're supposed to be grateful for this 'Hollywoodification' of games, as though TV and cinema somehow lend credibility and quality to the (presumably 'inferior') medium of games. Games are capable of developing their own language, but the influence of cinema and other media is stifling it, at least in non-Nintendo AAA games. Imagine if in the early days of cinema the film companies had no faith in the ability of moving images to tell stories, and so just used text for everything instead because that's what novels did...

Reply
Egbert The Eater
30/8/2016 01:30:28 pm

Waxwork Spacey was my only reason for buying Advanced Warfare.

After eating him, I threw the rest in the bin.

Exosuits hurt my molars and QTE chases taste like moth vaginas.

Reply
Da5e
30/8/2016 01:25:36 pm

I liked the book in Skyrim about Katatonia.

Reply
lilock3
30/8/2016 02:10:27 pm

Back in the 90s I had a mate who'd always skip past cut-scenes, mission briefings, etc. and then not have a clue what he was doing in the game. That was more from his lack of attention span than any inherant problem with the cut-scenes (whether they were awful to sit through or not was immaterial).

Reply
Nocturne
30/8/2016 02:16:28 pm

I liked the story delivery in Hyper Light Drifter which just gives you a couple of images in a speech bubble to tell you what's going on in an area and that's mostly just to tell you where the boss that needs stabbing is.The design of each region and what you encounter there does enough to fill the gaps in without having to sit down for storytime.

I enjoy games with lenghtier story elements as well but I never both reasing journals and terminals. If there's something essential tucked away in a single paragraph of one journal amongst hundreds that i miss then that's a failing in game design as far as I'm concerned.

Reply
Damon link
30/8/2016 02:21:20 pm

"​It seems to display a lack of faith in the imaginations of the player"

Investors. What you're thinking of are investors. Investors have no imagination. It makes it difficult to pitch a project which requires the imagination to people who have none.

Reply
Ganapan
30/8/2016 04:50:04 pm

You're wishing for Dark Souls in this text! But it seems that it didn't click with you... so.. Im only saying that because I like it for all these reasons, not only difficulty. Ok, I'll leave now.

Reply
timmypoos
30/8/2016 09:04:39 pm

I should have read the comments properly first as I said the same thing as you further down, great? minds and all that!

Reply
Paulvw
30/8/2016 06:09:09 pm

A musical sequence in a game would be awesome. I'm imagining the Mass Effect 2 crew busting out a number on the way to the suicide mission appearing from nowhere like 'wise up' in Magnolia.

That's cooked my swedes.

Reply
Damon link
30/8/2016 06:54:30 pm

Mystical Ninja Staring Genomon on the N64 actually has musical sequences in it. They are hilarious.

Reply
timmypoos
30/8/2016 09:16:55 pm

And first person mecha robot fist fights! love that game :)

Spiney O'Sullivan
30/8/2016 11:32:54 pm

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell also has a musical interlude to tell some of the story. Most of the story, actually, since there isn't much in there.

Col. Asdasd
31/8/2016 07:58:03 pm

GOWWWJUSSSSS... MY STAGE!

That and its criminally underrated sequel are some of my favourite games.

Matty link
30/8/2016 06:12:11 pm

"I wonder if it comes down to that general sense of misguided snobbishness that the wider world has towards games. That they're for children - so developers strap on "grown up" mediums such as cinema and literature."

I think that is the case, but along with it comes a sense of inferiority amongst some "gamers", with the desire to prove a point. It's the same reason various media originally for children and teenagers (notably superheroes) has felt such a need to lay on the "dark" and "adult" stuff in the last decade or so. "You think this is for kids?! WELL LOOK AT THIS!"

Games aren't a "medium alongside cinema and literature" in my opinion, they're games and really they're comparable to sports and board games. There is media that can goes along with the game (I usually make the comparison with the physical pieces in board games) which have their own aesthetics and artistic worth, be that music, visuals, story or whatever. You could argue that the likes of "Gone Home" are a form of interactive novel or even film but that's because there's not all that much game there: a game would get in the way of the story.

Reply
Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
30/8/2016 06:19:52 pm

Gayness Ex has always taken itself far too seriously, with the po-faced script and endless trawling of office worker's emails trying to find passwords. I think it's so people can be pompous about how they're more intellectual than you if it doesn't bore them.

I personally prefer Starbound, where you find lore books, and while you are reading them (or trying to drag them to the trash) some ridiculous looking monster charges into you and kills you.

Reply
timmypoos
30/8/2016 08:59:57 pm

Yep. I was thinking of DA inquisition after the first few paragraphs, then up it's screenshot popped. Great game though especially if you've played the prequels and can happily skip the 'lore'. Dark souls is an example worth considering as far as gameplay and story are favourably balanced.

Reply
Chris Wyatt
30/8/2016 09:15:00 pm

The mention of text in games immediately made me think of Panzer Dragoon Saga. There were some quite lengthy passages in the inventory that you didn't *have* to read to be able to complete the game, but made a nice break from the game.

I don't know... if I'm forced to read something boring, I'll be pissed off, but if it's something that I don't have to read, but I want to because it's interesting and well-written, then great.

The only caveat is that I absolutely obsess about exploring every nook and cranny in the game, to the point where I will make every game tedious and boring, even if it's not supposed to be... It's a problem. So, if there is some boring text, I'll probably be compelled to read it all even though I'm not enjoying it.

P.S. Pudsey: I watched it a few weeks back. I actually didn't think it was as bad as the reviews claimed. I guess I appreciated it's quirkiness, and maybe I was a little biased knowing that Mr. Biffo was involved. That said, I do, unashamedly, enjoy some pretty crap movies; e.g. A Night at The Roxbury is car crash entertainment that I just keep coming back to.

I suppose what those 2 movies have in common, is that they don't give the sense that they're taking themselves too seriously, which is something I feel that I can detect and appreciate.

But a turd is a turd. You can analysis it all you want and it's still a turd. But even a turd requires effort sometimes. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this analogy? Maybe I'm trying to say that turds are sometimes under-appreciated?

Reply
Barrybarrybarrybarry
31/8/2016 06:32:11 pm

Also, apparently Peter Serafinowicz is in Pudsey.

And also in Deus Ex Mankinivided.

Illuminati.

HA! Illuminati. They sound like 12 year olds.

Reply
Barry Blamalow
31/8/2016 07:54:16 pm

Hmmm...

I half agree with you mate. Concerning the new Deus Ex, I've kinda got addicted to digging through computer files to find the little nuggets of info that flesh out the world. It's the horrific animation during dialogue scenes that kills the storytelling for me. If you're trying get me to feel for these characters, having them move around like robots in pain is not gonna help. I know you cant motion capture a game as huge as Deus Ex, but having every encounter with every character look so fucking awkward just kills the story dead in it's tracks every time. I appreciate the ambition, but it just doesn't work.

I felt more involved and invested in the world of Inside than I have any game recently. Not a line of dialogue. Not a single cutscene. Just a perfectly realised world expressed with nothing but gameplay and art design.

I think a good way of working out a game has succeeded in telling a story is whether or not you can actually remember it. I liked the last Deus Ex game but even after that recap movie you can watch before starting Mankind Divided I had no recollection of what on earth happened in Human Revolution bar shooting people, reading emails and hacking doors.

I remember every little moment of Portal though.

Reply
PS1Snake
1/9/2016 02:00:15 am

When I think of a game bogged down with text, I think of Final Fantasy XIII. They essentially buried the story in an endless series of database logs. It just felt lazy. I gave up on XIII after 13 hours.
These days I enjoy games that embody a strong arcade-like purity of purpose spirit despite not belonging to the arcade genre.
In my opinion, arcade games demonstrate the confident, no-bullshit, focused approach that many modern console experiences increasingly seem to lack.
I think the obsession with creating cinematic experiences plays a part in this - games want to be interactive films, It's all about realism and creating life-like characters that people can resonate with.

Reply
The Lusty Argonian Maid
1/9/2016 12:46:11 pm

I collected every book in Skyrim. Even built a custom library using the Creation Kit to hold them all in alphabetical order.

I also have no friends.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ