Blogs of the Round Table: Be Who You Want To Be

This is my entry for the April’08 Round Table. Blogs of the Round Table was brought to you by Man Bytes Blog. Man Bytes Blog:smart banter; unusual topics.

I am not an adrenaline gamer, I don’t appreciate the fine art of shooting or destroying things. I am not a competitive gamer, I don’t like beating my friends or getting the best armor set. If Oblivion is any indication, I am not that much of an explorer either, because after I saw one beautiful grassy plain, I saw all of them. What I am, I realized, is a character gamer and the games I like represent that.

What I have come to call character gamer is a type of person, namely myself, who enjoys the freedom unique to games to be and do what you would not be or do otherwise. To put it short, my favorite games allow me to create my character as I see fit and try, either successfully or not, to respond accordingly.

Part of the reason for my fondness for character customization comes from the fact that, being a female (I know, you must be terribly shocked) I grew up playing video games with male protagonists and seeing time and time again members of my gender acting as helpless princesses or tantalizing vixens. Given the shortage of women as protagonists, It is only reasonable that I’d always pick Chun-Li or Sonya or any other woman available in arcade fighting games. When I first played Baldur’s Gate (the first game I was given the choice of creating a character from scratch) it was without a moment’s hesitation that I chose the female avatar. Even nowadays, there isn’t much in terms of strong female protagonists and perhaps that would explain the large amount of women gamers in rpgs and mmos. Avatars are, afterall, an extension of ourselves.

As time progressed I adapted the art of avatar making as a way of indulging my inner thespian and have been disappointed more than once when a game ignored my attempts to ’stay in character’, if you will, to just push me along the ordinary path of swinging a sword and saving the world from certain destruction. The few games that have responded to my choices as the player, like Fallout, Arcanum, Planetscape, Steambot Chronicles and, in part, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 among others, have quickly found a way to my “games to swear by” list. While they were, at times, essentially linear, they went out of their way to ensure that the player feels like they have contributed to the story and not just moved their character from point A to B.

Having said all that, it seems like the tide is turning for us character gamers (for I am sure there must be more than one out there). Many of the new releases, such as Fable 2 and Mass Effect, feature, if not character customization, then branching storyline and multiple endings and, while they are still on rudimentary stages (such as the clear cut good vs evil) they are certainly a step at the right direction.

Meanwhile I will keep refusing to use that better armor in WoW just because it would make my lecherous rogue, still exuding the rancid odors of her grave, look like a color-blind clown…with huge shoulder pads.

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

The Interactive (Writer’s) Quill

It only takes one look at this blog’s header to know what my stance is on the Writer/Designer discussion.

Part of my fascination with video games is that it is a revolutionary tool for storytelling. It is a brand new way of getting a point across, be it fulfilling a fantasy, educating or just telling a funny story and there is plenty of untapped potential in this new medium. As it often happens with such, the individual roles during the creation process must be redefined and the two articles are a reflection of that change.

Not all games need a story and that thought must have been lurking in Mr Maxwell’s mind as he wrote the controversial article. You can make a game without a writer, without a story even and it can still be great. We have seen this formula time and time again in the 90s and even nowadays with games such as Peggle, Guitar Hero and Dead or Alive. In fact these three genres: puzzles, simulations and fighting games rely on game play alone to make it an enjoyable experience. That does not mean, however, that they cannot benefit from a storyline. Puzzle Quest, for example, was made unique by having the depth characteristic of role playing games and a casual, almost bejeweled-like game play.  Even Rockband’s career mode had some plot to it and, while you can argue whether it added anything to the game’s experience, it certainly did not detract from it.

What we are seeing nowadays is more emphasis on story. There are plenty of excellent writers out there working on some great titles, just as there are excellent game designers who value a good plot as much as good game play. So much so, that developers are now hiring narrative designers, men and women whose job it is to combine storytelling and game play into one singular experience. The tendency is to abolish the archaic, here is a cutscene that tells you what is going on, now here is a level for you to play, here is another cutscene method of storytelling and enter what will be a seamless experience.

It does, however, takes a special kind of writer, I think, to write for games. The job is similar to (and please excuse the very geeky reference) being a Dungeon Master in a tabletop rpg game. Most people generally perceive the game designer as the ominous role but it is much more fitting to a writer. A DM usually doesn’t make the rules or the character classes, sometimes not even the setting and major characters, but he is still responsible for making the players feel part of that world. He will sell magical potions, describe the dragon’s tomb or act as the lovely elf maiden in need. In short, the DM, like video game narratives, makes the world believable.

To me, this means game writers must be inventive and more generous than their film and television counterparts, because in the end it is not their story that they are writing, but the players’.