Culture Bred Through Game Design
August 23rd, 2008
There were two articles which inspired me to write this piece so I’d like to call them out before I begin. They are Wanted: World Games by Chris Plante and The (possible) Source of Classical & Western Game Design by Richard Terrell.
Culture can roughly be defined as a set of socially transmitted norms that characterize the behaviour of a community. Our culture affects our understanding of the world around us and hence dictates how we behave in this space. Therefore when games are created, culture is inevitably bred through game design.
At this point in time game development is largely polarized between Japanese and Western (read: American) game design (European culture if often misinterpreted by the larger audience and as a result is often unfortunately left out). So to begin with, let us analyze some examples of how American and Japanese culture is expressed through games and what the overarching differences are.
One comment that has often been leveled towards the divide between Japanese and American games is the question of violence. Japanese games almost always go out of their way to provide reasoning behind violence. Think of the samurai who fights for honour or to avenge a tragedy in his life (typical example; home town being burnt down). The ninja’s actions are justified as he is retaliating to the violence bestowed upon him and due to the importance of face value in Asian culture (respect to elders, naming conventions in language) he is allowed to create violence, he is allowed to kill those who stand in his way. Unnecessary violence then, pushes against those ideals: if the ninja was to attack people because he felt like it would be a fun thing to do, within the village he’d lose face. Examples; Street Fighter, Ninja Gaiden Metal Gear Solid, Onimusha.
Furthermore when violence is used in Japanese games it is often heavily stylized, reflecting a cultural side effect of the Hiroshima bomb disaster where animation and art was used to displace people’s trauma of the devastating attack. The threat of nuclear bombs is also evident in numerous Japanese titles.
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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