How Does it Feel to Play a Video Game?
August 6th, 2008
Since I first picked up a controller and pressed the buttons, to see visual confirmation on the screen, I became fascinated by games. As a child, I played them for hours on end when I could, discussed, defended and debated them in the playground, drew pictures of them during free time and art classes, read about them and wrote stories about them. Despite my interest in the medium there was and has always been resistance. By my parents who restricted play time, from classmates who stigmatized me and my friends as social inadequates, in the media whom link video games to negative social behaviour.
Throughout all of the hard times though there was something to keep me going. Something that I have faith in. Allow me to try and explain to you what it is:
When we play games there is a psychology deeply rooted between us and the experience. With the experience being feedback generated from gameplay. The interlocking of player and experience builds up an affinity within us, creating an obvious affection towards this medium. We receive visual confirmation on screen and hence relate to that, even in the slightest form. It is this affinity that I’m attempting to describe that is the core of the playing experience.
When discussing the social difficulty of being a gaming enthusiast it is easy for me to lay the blame on those outside of our collected group. This is not the case. The reason why our parents, friends, media feel this way towards us is because we have a disconnect created through misunderstanding. They have never been hit by the same impact from games that we have and no one has ever sat them down and tried to explain to them how it feels to have that impact. In a nutshell: they fail to understand and we fail at explaining it to them.
Deep down within all of us enthusiast there is an utmost love and respect for the games we play and overall we only want the best for our industry. This is, of course, very much influenced by the ‘experience of play’ which I tried to describe.
Our problem is that we fail to correctly inform our peers of the impact that games have on us. We fail to technically justify what it it exactly, within the game and all its mechanics that send endorphins rushing through our head. Infact, worse than that we still fail to justify this to ourselves. In which case how can we possibly describe it to others.
Additional MGS4 Commentaries
August 4th, 2008
It’s been well over a month since I first finished Metal Gear Solid 4 (you can read my original impressions here). Since then the constructive discussion regarding the game has been limited to the “IT’S ART!!!!” versus “tHE story SUX!!” argument evading any attempt to define this complicated title. Most notably though a few bloggers shared their own opinions on the matter, although there are so few of us to make any real difference.
Basically that’s my excuse to plug away at a few more ideas about the game that have developed over my time away.
Past, Present, Future
Before I get into it though, I ought to contextualize MGS4 within the scope of the previous games. I personally regard the original MGS, MGS3 and Metal Gear II as my three favourite titles in the series. Each of these games finds a steady equilibrium, harmoniously balancing the numerous gameplay constituents that the series is famous for, such as action, stealth and non interactive narrative.
The other main benefactor of these games comes from the storyline which is ambitious but never to the point of harmful. In each of these games, the story is generally comprehensible, believable and balanced well with the gameplay. While ‘fantasty’ based elements are a rarely discussed staple of the series, these games use it only for metaphoric purposes and never to conclude storyline plot holes (ie. the magic fairy did it). For example; Psycho Mantis is a psychic who can do all sorts of unreal actions (floating, controlling minds) while it’s not real, it by no means damages the game in any way, only enhancing the experience.
MGS4 and The Three Flavours of Filler
August 2nd, 2008
Wow! I’ve been going a little crazy when it comes to writing about games lately and have about a months worth of pre-written articles in the bank! As you can imagine isn’t a common scenario for me which is why the following article is even more of an embarrassment.
Recently Michael Abbott of Brainy Gamer fame wrote up a second round of Metal Gear Solid 4 commentaries after being prompted by questions from another blogger Steve Gaynor. I too had a few things to say about the game and had infact said some of them already in one of those pre-written articles, waiting to be posted on the site. It was as I was writing up my comments over at his blog that my creative juices took over and a selection of great ideas sparked, refining my original concept. In the end I was so pleased with my conclusion that after much moral dilemma I decided that it’d just be best if I post all of my thoughts here as they were far too developed to remain as a single comment. I am indeed an embarrassment.
You can read Michael’s post here. My comments are a bit messy but I’m sure you’ll get through, there are, of course, spoilers but no deal-breakers;
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