Women as Vending Machines

The Quill has decided to interrupt her three month sabatical to present her readers with an article of the utmost importance:

Women aren’t vending machines by Alex Raymond

Please read and feel free to follow Raymond’s literary advice.

And if any of you would like to complement the reading by visiting the author’s blog, it would not be frowned upon.

I for one think there are very important issues being brought up. Having been waiting for the release of Dragon Age since the beginning of the year, for all their talk of maturity I think they are severely lacking in their romance department.

But maybe that is just me. Any thoughts?

Prolefeed: E3 09 in comments

As if to compensate for the quiet, business-like manner E3 was conducted last year, the media spared no expense to transmit every single facet of the expo this year. Even mainstream shows have joined the bandwagon and reported on the event. As a result, we were bombarded with information on what was shown and, more importantly, what was not.

It was, in my opinion, a spectacle like we haven’t seen in a long time and there is no better way to exemplify this constant exposure to live feeds, videos, updates and game play trailers than the comments being posted real time by those who watched. It was like sitting in the press conferences with the entire world at your side and people were vocal in the half-angry, half- believing way that is only possible on the internet.

Here are some of these comments chosen randomly from Gamespot and Kotaku, unabridged:

Microsoft Press Conference:

microsoft is wack…where are all the exclusives…

Natal is awesome. I´m speachless. I tought we should see this kind of interaction (voice,face and body movement) just in SCI-FI movies.

Milo looked fake. It was reaching in for the picture before she was done. Why not show it to everyone on the big screen? Why “selected” people?

Natal looks very awkward. It looks like a mix of movement recognition with predetermined animations.

Nintendo Press Conference:

I hope that the third party developers pull something out of their sleeves, cause that wasn’t a good showing at all. (Metroid & Conduit seemed to be the only cool things I seen.)

Aw shit. Here we go. More Wii Fit Balance Board…

Let me love you again Nintendo! );

Sony Press Conference:

want to play god of wr 3 demo!
also why would they use helios the god of the sun to attack that titan with fire. he looks like a titan volcano surely another god would be more effective against him. other than that i loved god of war i will deff get this game!! not even zeus will stop me getting it!

I´m on my knees begging you…DOWNLOAD OPTION PLEASEEEE!!!! :´(

Well, that motion control system seems kinda silly, not that inventive… Think the Natal will win that one…

I think Forza will be better than Gran Tourismo. But, for me it’s no big deal. I prefer unrealistic race games like Motorstorm.

~*~

Oddly enough, while most of the comments being posted in real time during the Microsoft press conference were related to either the curiously named project Natal (for those who don’t know, Natal is christmas in portuguese and also refers to ‘birth’ though not without some religious connotation of eventual rebirth.) or the Xbox’s lack of exclusive titles, when it was Sony’s turn to unveil its ‘wand-like motion sensor controls’ the crowd appeared unimpressed. When it was commented at all it was only to compare it to Microsoft’s creation.

Overall, an E3 filled with hate, happiness, anticipation, disappointment, joy, laughter and, after a short hiatus, boothbabes.

EDIT: On that note, here is a video that describes E3 better than words ever could. Enjoy!

GDCing 09: Of Attendees and Volunteers (part II)

from gamedev.net, taken by David Michael

Wednesday is perhaps the biggest day of the Game Developers Conference. In it, the GDC transforms from peaceful educational summit to the display of colors, sounds and ideas that made it one of the most important gatherings for game industry professionals in the world. One of the biggest concerns of those attending it, however, is deciding what events to attend. The conference is so large that there is a lot happening at the same time and, unfortunately, when there are so many overlapping speeches, keynotes and roundtables, it is impossible to go to everything.

Leigh Alexander covered the IGF Mobile Awards, a recent yet often overlooked event of the GDC. In her words:
“I never thought too highly about mobile games up until last year — until the iPhone era, really. And even thereafter, although I’m an iPhone user, I still was highly doubtful that I’d ever use it as a gaming platform.[...] We already know that design innovation is going to come out of the independent space — now add in the low barrier to entry for iPhone apps compared to even XBLA/PSN or Wii Ware development, and that means even more indies are going to be proliferating on that platform. Plus, with the new SDK Apple’s going to release at some point in the near future, there’s going to be more multiplayer functionality, in-game DLC, and just about everything we’re used to on the platforms we already use.”

Considering how prevalent mobile phones are becoming and how quickly they are establishing themselves as gaming platforms, I definitely advise anyone with the proper hardware to check out the games listed in her Gamasutra article .

Another event of GDC that does not get nearly enough attention are the roundtables. Those vary a lot in quality, but for the most part, if it is a topic that interests you than these are worth at least for the networking. Unlike sessions, where attendees are expected to sit quietly while they are lectured by speakers, roundtables offer the opportunity to discuss and interact with speakers and other attendees from topics as varied as race, gender, game design and copyright laws.

Andrew attended the Anti-censorship Committee Roundtable led by Daniel Greenberg which, according to his notes (which can be viewed here)  talked about the problems and challenges of censorship, particularly in the US. He also received a ‘cheat sheet for the ESRB that I’d be definitely interested in taking a look at some point.

Grant also attended a roundtable on Wednesday, though his reason for being there highlights one of the perks of volunteering at the GDC. More often than not, volunteers are sent on events merely because someone has to go and set up the room, badge the doors and hand out those omnipresent survey sheets. This means volunteers go to unexpected sessions on subjects they know nothing about. Grant Shonkwiler, for example, went to an IGDA roundtable simply because he had to be there, and says: “I got this shift randomly and knew nothing about it except it was a round table for the IGDA. Come to find out I complained about my local IGDA at the right time because a bunch of east coast game developers were present, I ended up joining the discussion as much as working it. What was great is we broke out into strike groups and discussed what we wanted to accomplish in our personal careers and helping the IGDA over the next year. It was a great session and I met some awesome people, and hopefully we can revitalize some of our east coast chapters.”

Trevin York, also a Conference Associate, worked on the roundtable ‘How to Sell Your IP to Hollywood (Without Selling Your Soul)’ which “revolved around video game intellectual properties transitioning to movies, discussing whether this was a good idea, what a deal might consist of and why, and things to watch out for.” In his opinion, by the time the meeting ended, the topic was just getting started.

I’d also like to point out that, out the 4 people whose entries I have avidly read, only one went to the big event, the Nintendo keynote on Wednesday morning. It was generally perceived as a lackluster event made special for nothing if not the free DS Game that Iwata distributed to the audience. Most people I talked to at the conference agreed that there was little reason to attend a keynote since those are the most well covered events of GDC.

As for myself, I attended the panel on Evolving Game Design with Emil Pagliarulo (lead designer of Fallout 3),Goichi Suda (or Suda 51), founder of Grasshopper (No More Heroes and Killer 7), and Fumito Ueda (lead designer and director of Shadow of the Colossus and Ico) and saying that it was interesting or insightful wouldn’t begin to cover it. While I would have liked to hear more on the general state of the industry and the theory behind their game design ideas, it was a great panel. Gamasutra has a great article on it by Christian Nutt which is well worth reading.

Unfortunately as a CA, I left early to help the technicians with the translation equipment, task that only ended 2 hours later, which is a pity because, like Leigh I would have loved to be able to say ‘”let me bear your children’ to Suda 51 even if I too can’t speak Japanese.

Obviously, there are more to GDC than sessions and roundtables and keynotes, but more on that on the next entry…

[The entries discussed here can be seen in Sexy Videogameland , Now Playing, Andrew's Site and GShonk's Weblog ]

GDCing 09: Of Attendees and Volunteers (Part I)

First of all, allow me to introduce the  four people whose blogs will receive a slightly higher attendance this week. On one side, carrying ID badges and having been denied free breakfast this year, we have…

The Attendees

Leigh Alexander: games journalist and news director of Gamasutra (previously mentioned, generally with fangirlish glee, in this blog)

and

Andrew Armstrong: games historian, IGDA member and friend of the blog (Hi Andrew!)

On the other side, weighting a total equivalent of 1 million billion dry sandwiches and sporting the second brightest yellow t-shirt in San Francisco is…

The Volunteers (aka Conference Associates)

Trevin York: fellow Art Institute student and game designer of future epics

and

Grant Shonkwiler: programmer/designer hybrid for Merit Entertainment  and winner of the theoretical ‘Games Industry – Best Rookie’ award for 2008

Hopefully, they will still talk to me after this is all done.

GDCing 09: Of Attendees and Volunteers (Introduction)

from Gamedev.net, taken by Kevin Hawkins

Volunteer X is not a witch.

However, it did not stop the others from lynching him. The head executioner (who, by some remarkable coincidence was, in fact, a witch) had pointed at him with one hand, raised the other and, in the cacophony of noise that had taken over their small village, proclaimed “X must be a witch because only witches need to hide their identity.” Before he knew it, X was dead and the villagers slept soundly, knowing they had done the right thing.

Until the next day, that is.

The game of Witch Hunt is a long standing tradition among volunteers at the Game Developers Conference. It features intrigue, lies, suspense, violence, supernatural events and even romance. Indeed, Witch Hunt could have been a Hollywood movie for the sheer amount of drama in its circles. X, who had never been a witch himself, found it was impossible to apply logic to the mafia/werewolf clone and would much rather play Rockband with the other addicts in the room next door.

~*~

Like the year before, the Game Developers Conference took place at the Moscone Center in sunny San Francisco weather. Like the year before, yours truly attended as a volunteer and as such wore a t-shirt of such garish color as to be avoided by any person with good sense. Unlike the year before, GDC proved a much easier task and much more pleasant one at that.

This year I have diminished the participation of the inconspicuous volunteer X to talk about ‘Personal Agendas’.

Personal agendas are the ‘meat and potatoes’ of GDC, it was the reason the conference was created in the first place, some odd 20 years ago. In it, developers could meet friends, schedule meetings, show off their pet projects, network, and in so doing, hopefully, further their careers. As the conference began to grow, journalists from every game publication out there took notice and it became the perfect place for an exclusive interview with generally busy game industry people.

So, in an effort to show how many different people, with different agendas and points of view attend your usual Game Developers Conference. I have decided to steal present 4 different perspectives on the same day of GDC 09.

*cue mysterious music*

World Builder

While yours truly prepares for another exciting Game Developer’s Conference, I leave you with a truly staggering video that, if you haven’t seen already, you really must.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

It touches a special chord in anyone who has ever struggled with a 3d software, spending countless hours wondering why the *censored by the Interactive Quill Decency Committee* are all the vertices jolting upwards, or the texture backwards, or the faces have mysteriously multiplied themselves when you were not looking.

Please watch the video before proceeding, I assure you it is well worth your time.

Back? Good, welcome back.

What did you think?

More than a visual experiment, this video made me wonder about the future. Not the near future, but the Gibsonesque nano-powered future where the Internet would be populated by hundreds or thousands of generic avatars and constructions, badly rendered copies of celebrities and amateur renditions of famous cities across the globe. I’d imagine some people would pay quite a bit of money for custom generated virtual worlds or maybe it would be just so streamlined only a few people would be able to make something truly original.

Virtual spaces is a current obsession of mine, I’m afraid, especially when it comes to interactivity. Unfortunately, to reach the point where we can achieve full holographic immersion into a 3d model will take a long time and more than a few technological breakthroughs.

Still, it is a fantastic prospect, isn’t it?

On Endings…

Recently, Mr Christian Majewski, who is one of the writers for Game Design Reviews and the Game Design Scrapbook blogs, mentioned in a post whether it is worth it having multiple endings in video games.

It is true that in this day and age many games boast of having multiple endings where the player must make ‘real’ choices and it is also true that people rarely replay a title to see the other endings. I know of several people, myself included, that are more inclined to search you tube than spend another 40 hours on the same game.

This made me think a bit. I mentioned in the past that character customization is one of my main interests in a game but I must admit I am one of those people who rarely pursues a different ending in a game (Knights of the Old Republic not withstanding), though I always liked the idea of multiple endings (as seen on my own design submission for BoRT last month). It is with some sadness that, on introspection, I find that most game endings are lacking.

In fact, I could categorize their endings in three different categories:

Mystery Endings

Examples: Silent Hill series, Star Ocean, Chrono Trigger, dating sims

This one is popular with Japanese titles. It features several different endings and choices do affect it, unfortunately, you rarely know what those choices were. Dating Sims, where the goal is to win the love of a partner of your choice, often have the player make decisions such as “go left or right” and this can be the difference between meeting the person you want or ending alone…or dead, even. This is usually balanced by the games themselves being very short and very forgiving so you can rewind and try another path at any given time.

Unfortunately, the Silent Hill series (known for 30 hours of grueling, often terrifying, play) also uses this type of ending. A Silent Hill game typically has 4 endings (5 if you count the secret, spoof ending that can only be acquired intentionally and after playing through the game at least once) but the choices that lead to these endings are often as mysterious as the game’s plot.

For example, in Silent Hill 4, the player meets a strange character in one of the many ‘alternate’ worlds he visits, the character is mumbling and holding a doll. He offers it to the protagonist, if you choose to accept it; you will get a ‘bad’ ending where the protagonist’s quest comes short. The problem is that you will only realize it 15 or so hours later when the game ends, meaning you will have to return to that point and replay those hours again. (And even then, only after going on the internet and finding out that the doll was the reason you failed in the first place).

Dual Endings

Examples: Jade Empire, Bioshock, Fable series, Knights of the Old Republic

Bioware games are known for using this type of ending in most of their games. It is the infamous ‘morality’ endings where the player can choose to be good or evil. Currently, there has been a trend of disguising moral choices by calling them by other names such as ‘paragon and renegade’, ‘open palm and closed fist’, ‘purity and corruption’ but it is essentially the same thing. Saving kittens, helping villagers and being nice earns you the good ending, while kicking puppies, scaring villagers and being rude earns you the evil ending. Players know what to expect and that can work either way: you know when you are making meaningful choices (there is always a meter that tells you how good or evil your character is) but it also makes for a very predictable ending.

This type of ending is difficult to design because the developers have to take into account the player’s motivation and most players will respond negatively if they feel their deeds or misdeeds are being ignored. For example, in Lionhead’s Fable 2, the game is constantly referring to the player as ‘the Hero’ even after said ‘Hero’ kills an entire town, buys their houses and raises the mortgage of future denizens to the highest percentage. Hardly a hero-like behavior.

As for Fable 2’s ending, it seemed to break the fourth wall completely by having the player choose three options that were, quite bluntly, be good, neutral or evil. Mr Elrod from Man Bytes Blog has already talked extensively about the ending of Fable 2, so I will just add that it was a disappointingly simple finish for what was supposed to be an epic quest.

Single Endings

Examples: Shadow of Colossus, Prince of Persia, God of War, Final Fantasy series and etc..

This is the most common type of ending where things follow a certain path regardless of what the player does. It takes away freedom and doesn’t offer allot of consequences either. It does not, however take away from the experience when done well, Final Fantasy games have grandiose endings and players don’t seem to mind the fact that they are doing little more than chauffeuring their character from one place to another.

I count Fallout 3 in this category because, whether you are good or evil, the game will end the same way, with only a paragraph of monologue and a matching picture to account for your character’s exploits in the Capital Wasteland.

I know there is allot of room for discussion here. Even while thinking out these categories I found a few titles that do not match them and I am sure there are allot more. It is just amazing that, for all the choices we are given, games hardly ever give us a satisfying ending to match them.

Blogs of the Round Table: The Portable Crime

For this month’s round table I have decided to re-imagine a classic of world literature, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Before I begin, a short disclaimer: Russian novels are convoluted, filled with long passages about inner turmoils and descriptions of seemingly unimportant locations. Dostoyevsky was considered a frugal writer compared to Tolstoy,but even his best known novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is thick enough to be used as a blunt instrument or to build a house with. In an effort to spare my readers’ sanity, I will give a short summary of the story (warning, contains spoilers).

‘An impoverished student named Rodion Raskolnikov kills two old women intending to steal their money. He anguishes about it for days until he finally confesses to his crime, is sent to jail and atones himself.’

Now you may be wondering: How much has been left out in this summary? Answer; everything. Crime and Punishment is about many things; alienation, guilt, forgiveness, atonement, among others. The actual killing of these two women is told swiftly and early on in the book, and yet many pages are dedicated to Raskolnikov’s anguish and his worsening relationship with family and friends. A re-imagining of this novel would have to focus on the same things.

‘Portable Crime + Punishment’ is designed as an adventure game for a portable console, be it IPhone, Nintendo DS, PSP and etc. The setting would be modern day in a bustling metropolis, focusing on a particular neighborhood frequented by students, peddlers, vagrants and bohemians. The game will be sandbox, in third person perspective with the option of customizing avatar’s name and gender. Taking a queue from Fahrenheit (that is Indigo Prophecy for those in the US), the game begins seconds after the player committed a murder (though the option of having the player actually kill someone to move forward with no reason for doing it is appealing). It is up to the player what to do next, leave the scene of the crime immediately or investigate.

This is a recurring choice in the game, the player can choose to brush through it, avoiding the cops, lying at interrogations and trying to find a way of escaping town or framing someone else, or investigating the backstory by talking to others, searching places and trying to piece together the events that led to that murder. The actual reasons will vary depending on the player’s actions. It could have been a desperate act for money, a moment of passion or, like the book, a thought out crime. Throughout the game: life will move on, the player will be introduced to friends of the protagonist, family members, rivals and be caught up in minor ’side quests’ like acquiring money or stopping his/her sister from marrying a man of dubious character, and how the player chooses to do this affects the character’s past and future.

As for the actual gameplay, the game will have an internal clock (think Shadow of Destiny) so that each day is a chapter and certain events will only happen in certain days. At the end of the 5th day if no conclusion is reached, the protagonist kills him or herself. The player can move about the city in the usual adventure game fashion, use items, talk to people, avoid the cops, commit new crimes or stop them. The challenge of the game is to balance the character’s actions and goals with his/her  ‘hope bar’, if the hope bar runs out, the character kills him or herself.

Why is it portable?

I have always been interested in video games as a social experience so it is no surprise that my game designs follow the same line. The idea is that the player always has the game with them and can share the experience with others. Internet plays an important part because the full scope of the game cannot be achieved by playing it alone. The player is given the choice to ‘confess to someone’, which means her story would be connected with someone else’s, this allows two players to share the same universe while connected. Some of the content will not be available otherwise and some quests have different outcomes when two players work together (or against each other, possibly). Unfortunately, the risk also becomes greater because the two players will share one ‘Hope Bar’ so if one of them becomes disillusioned and kills himself/herself then it is game over for both of them.

My reasoning behind this feature is that, like Raskolnikov needed spiritual guidance from Sonya (a character I particularly dislike but that is neither here nor there), the player will need to trust someone else to achieve clarification for her motives and true redemption for her ‘virtual’ crime.

Of course there is still much to iron out. As it stands my game seems more like interactive fiction than a video-game and there are many other details to think about like the nature of the quests, the end goal, and, obviously, the fun factor, but the main idea is there. Oh and it even has a catchy slogan: A crime you can carry in your pocket and share with your friends.

Please visit the Round Table’s Main Hall for links to all entries.

Seasonal Greetings!

Oh my, how time flies by!

I could try to apologize for the long period of absence but that would be dull and predictable so instead I will move on to less obvious topics.

First of all, I have returned from my excursion in the world of corporate blogging. Yes, it is good to be back home where I can focus on non constructive things, such as long winded articles and possible reviews of old games no one has heard of in a while.

Which brings me to my next topic, 2009.

I am planning great things for this place in 2009. The Interactive Quill will contain less incredibly long articles and more updates. My idea is to give it smaller updates once a week and one long one every month. Wish me luck as my schedule is renowned far and wide for its unpredictable and overwhelming nature.

Also, I will post my own work. I know what you must be thinking: “She must surely have gone mad with power!  Why else would she try to shove her own projects and artwork on people’s faces?! Oh, the humanity!”. But I assure you, dear reader(s?) that this blog’s objective is not to sell its author’s ‘bread’, so to speak, and will only bother you occasionally (read: whenever I get anything done) with my creative ambitions.

To reiterate: I hope you will enjoy the 2009 Interactive Quill, with more links to odd things, reviews of the past, pictures not stolen from the internet and allot more face time with yours truly.

Enjoy what is left of the holidays (if you still can, if not I hope work/school is better than what you left it) and until we meet again!

~Quill

Double Jeopardy Blogging Adventures of Unusual Nature

Those interested in more mundane affairs might be interested to know I will be writing for SOE’s GIRL blog for the next few months. What about? Oh, you know…day to day things, thoughts, game industry stuff, weather, explosions, high class espionage, you know, the usual.