"Pushing" (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, May 31, 2016, 15:45 (3102 days ago) @ someotherguy

Uncharted isn't exactly moving games forward as games. As a storytelling medium, sure (which is important, I agree). But as games? With gameplay? I don't buy it.

They are absolutely.

When Tim Rogers reviewed the Last of Us, he said the game had an:

"ability to put us a hundred percent into the moments editors would leave out of a film."

That one sentence had such a profound effect on my view of video games.

That right there is their contribution. I used to think story and interaction were 100% at odds, and the narrative certainly is. But, both the story AND the game are enhanced when you give the player the ability to control these moments that aren't necessarily part of the narrative. You have to do it right though. Scattering audio logs is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to let the player explore. To let the characters have conversations while you are traveling from one place to the other. Environmental storytelling. Stuff like that.

And this is part of the"gameplay". These are moments that otherwise wouldn't work because you are not in control. You are still playing the game even when you aren't shooting.

I took the time to examine a poster in Last of Us. Teen Wolf. Ellie then asks what it is, and Joel tells her about it. Ellie then asks why he as a grown man saw that movie, and he deflects. Holy shit. If you've been paying attention that moment is actually huge and tells you so fucking much about Joel, and it was brought about because of my curiosity and my choice. My play. You can completely miss this. No film would spend 20 minutes in a jeep driving to a volcano with the characters shooting the shit, but it works because you are doing it.

Naughty Dog understands this notion of using interactivity to develop emotional engagement better than any other studio in history. They are not perfect, and even they fall back on to the audio log bullshit. But I'll bet they can craft a game where they don't have to.