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Academics Turn Their Attention To Videogames
Onyxviper writes "As one who is an avid gamer, an article by USA Today/AP discussing the growing academic study of games, or 'Ludology', makes some points about gaming that I had only begun to think about. Seems like the plots and composition of the game are starting to overtake the gameplay itself, and it is interesting to see that others are starting to look at it in a more serious light. What do the rest of you think, are any of you actually involved in one of these programs?" Is there plenty important being done in this field, or is it possible that academic study of videogames can tend towards overanalysis?
Maybe you could claim the old BASIC adventures from the 80s didn't have much a plot, but Infocom was famous for them, even Zork has a large background story - or it felt that way anyway, you didn't always know what or why but the feeling was that there was a large back ground. And the latter works got better.
If you look at the current winners of contests, you will see they are about plot and story, in some cases there aren't even puzzles. Graphics has a ways to go to get to this level, in part because there is so much more territory to cover before they get there, and in part because hardware isn't up to some of what is needed even yet.
Of course no graphical adventure can equal a good imagination when you come across a "breath taking view".
Of course overanalysis is possible in the study of videogames as art, but that's not really important. First, video games are nearing the point where, in a few years, it can begin to be considered an art form in the mainstream. However, we're not quite at that point yet so there's no real point in worrying about overanalysis. Second, any art can be overanalyzed so that's really not a concern. You could easily apply lots of analysis for a novel, painting, etc. and just go overboard.
I recently took a course on the history of video games and in the process, we explored a lot of the concept of games as art and I really think that it's the right path to take. When film first started out, it was not considered art and took a good few decades to be considered more than just entertainment. I think the same is true of video games and its transition to both art and entertainment is happening today.
The big concern that I see is convincing the mainstream audience that video games can be an art. Whereas film was widely accessible to all audiences, video games tend to cater to a specific market. The typical gamer is a 28-year-old male and games will need to broaden their base so that other groups (especially women and older generations) can come to appreciate them as an art. Will that happen in the near future? I think so but it's not looking too good when games, like Tomb Raider, that really challenge gender roles fall flat in sales.
But both of my points note something important. The gamer has to be able to step back and look at a game from this perspective to understand what the designer is trying to do with the plot. A large feat considering some gamers consider The Matrix and Half-Life to be original storylines (they're not, they've been done many times.)
Now as a producer for a company whos out to make money, what are you gonna do?
Sacrifice a couple million dollars, piss off the 'casual gamer' base, risk getting bad reviews, and bad press in exchange for a few words along the lines of "Well the game did a good job at trying something new but..."
Or...
Sacrifice whatever storyline or tradition a game/name/franchise, stick with a bread-and-butter gameplay, and the same ol crap that people seem to buy every year in exchange for a few million dollars?
In the end, yes there is a very small field in gaming which could be formed based on studing game storylines. However, games which fall into this catagory are few and far between (pretty much an easy 50% of anyone's gaming library fails to land in this catagory, with a 100% rate of sports games).
I think this is the wrong attitude. Just because something is given analysis does not mean that it must be enjoyed at an academic level. There are plenty of academic papers on Tolkien's novels, but that doesn't prevent someone from picking up his books and reading it for the pure pleasure of doing so. The same can be said of video games.
Plus, not all books that are required reading for analysis are bad even post-analysis. For example, I really enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby and the literary analysis of it only helped me increase my understanding and joy of reading it. This too can apply to video games. I wrote a research paper on Tomb Raider and the issues of gender definition and gender-roles that it raises through androgyny. That doesn't mean I just analyze the game. I also enjoy playing it and kicking ass.
Games vary with tastes just like books. If I were asked to analyze Of Mice and Men I would gladly agree. But ask me to analyze To the Lighthouse and I'd much rather hear nails grinding on a chalkboard. Similarly, ask me to analyze Max Payne and I'd definitely have no problem. But ask me to analyze Daikatana and I'd smash the monitor's screen in with my boom stick. Video games can be enjoyed on many levels (yes, that's a pun).
Both are nice to have in a game, but it must be remebered that it is a *game*. Games are meant to be *played* by their very nature.
Frankly, there have been primarily story driven games known as 'point and click' adventures. They are all but extinct now since they aren't very engaging *as a game* as opposed to a form of *interactive media*.
At the end of the day, when someone plays a game they probably wish to play with it as opposed to interact with it. Its excelent seing new technology such as 'realistic physics' coming into games since this will allow players to play with the game in a new way.
In a way, the storyline is actually becoming a hinderance to gameplay, with more frequent and longer non-interactive 'cutscenes' (not necessarily CGI/movies, but also including those damn 5 second snippets which are in-engine).
A good example of this is in Prince of Persia: Sands of time: At the end of a battle the prince puts away his sword. Slowly. In an in-engine cutscene. I can't begin to articulate how frustrated I was by the end of the game with that. A for more preferable solution, by my reckoning, would have been to have the sword put away automatically whicle I retained control of all of the other properties of the prince, or even better, if I had to manually put away the sword.
Most seem to think that as games increasingly approximate real life they get better (not necessarily a good thing, as games "in principle" games with dragons are better than those without). I tend to agree with how games are heading as well, and I enjoy the reality provided by realistic sound, light and physics. But I note that not once in my life I have experienced a cutscene, or any other situation where I have consciously not been in control of my body (drunkeness is just reduced control!)
The one line summary: Story and plot are good, but not at the expense of gameplay and interaction.
DEATH TO CUTSCENES!
They fear games could be a dead end like comic books ? valuable as a social phenomenon, but outside a select few titles like Art Spiegelman's Maus,
Quite frankly we live in a generation that doesn't crave depth, we can only pray that the future holds some intellectualism. Between youth these days it's considered a disadvantage to be too intelligent. Media is clearly designed for the lowest common denominator and it's much more expensive to try and pursue anything stimulating, thank god for project Gutenburg and bookwarez.
Second, the plot lines will never be open until you have a sentient computer that makes up stuff on-the-fly. As a game developer, multiple plot threads are a nightmare to develop satisfactorily. You can't have the player leave the games setting because you a) can't define the rest of the world b) sell a game where it's possible to get into a situation where the player never completes the game.
In conclusion, I think that studying games and gamers will produce nothing more than useful marketing info. Whether Gaming has a cultural longevity is up to the people who make and market games (What you thought TV Ads didn't change your behaviour?).
Sorry if this is post seems aggressive or obvious.
Thankyou.
"Linux has no idea what orange juice is."