The Shallows

On this very blog, there have been a few postings regarding mobile games.  Anyone who reads them would probably get a good idea of my stance on such forms of entertainment.  I'd like to say that my experience of mobile gaming was positive over all, or that I'm excited about the prospect of more such games to come, or that these smaller games would make a good compliment to the bigger games I play today.  I want to say that I'm open to apps and mobile games, but, unlike Luke Skywalker, deep down inside I know that's just not true.  The following story should illustrate the point.  Since most of the participants' names start with 'J' and since they are all co workers, I'd rather not use real names.  Instead, I'd call them 'J-girl', 'J-guy' and 'J-dude'.

 

So here I was at work, and on my way to deliver some documents to another group.  I caught J-guy and J-girl chatting about iPhone games.  Knowing that I'm a big gamer, J-girl turns to me and says:

 

"Hey, have you heard of this game called Nemo's Reef?"

 

That innocent remark was enough to stop me in my tracks.  I literally stared at her and took a step back, like she just offered me a box of cancer sticks.  I said, "Um… I don't do those." 

 

There was a brief awkward moment where J-girl shot daggers at me with her eyes before J-guy says: "You could have been nicer about it."

 

Which is true, I could have, had the question came so suddenly, I was caught in the headlights.  There was no place to run.

 

J-girl:  "Well, the game lets you build a reef, and you have to spend real money to buy stuff like pearls and…"

 

I forgot most of what she said, but I saw my way out.  "Um… see, that's why I'm not into those things."  It was a feeble excuse, and I know it.  While it's true enough that microtransactions don't do much for me, it's not exactly a dealer breaker IF I really like a particular game.  I've 'invested' before in Dungeon Hunter…

 

It was then that rescue came from the form of J-dude.  He was passing by when he heard J-girl's explaination and nochalantely added, "Those Android apps aren't real games.  Just something to play for five minutes while waiting in line."  Bless you, J-dude, bless you!  The man took the words right out of my mouth, words that I was too scared to say but felt deep within my being.  Like Luke Skywalker, deep down inside, I know this to be true.

 

With J-dude on my side, I was able to snap out of my embarrassment and scurried off like a squirrel with a peanut.  But this exchange taught me something about my true feelings on mobile games.  Which is to say that I think they are rather shallow.  And this reminds me of something else.  A short while I after the incident above, I started and finished a book called The Shallows.  The author was writing about the way the Internet literally changes the brain to think a different way.  There were a lot of comparisons to reading.  By reading, I mean reading books.  It's no secret that web surfers do a lot of reading, same with avid book lovers (such as myself).  Yet, the type of reading is totally different.  Rather than deep reading required by traditional paper bound works, the internet with it's myriad of links is more 'back and forth' and more fragmented in its presentation of information.  The author of The Shallows concluded that web lovers are more capable of multitasking, but the trade off is that they become unable to focus on any one thing.  Book readers are the opposite, featuring laserlike focusing abilities but perhaps not so much good at doing more than a couple things at once.  That is also why the book's title is what it is, because Internet use involves a more shallow way to use our brains and memories.  They are great at picking out info by skimming the top, but not so much when deeper research is required.

 

This is generalization, mind you.  There will always be people more scatterbrained than others, without or without the internet but this is one analogy.  And I find the same when it comes to mobile games versus traditional PC and console fare.  A game that is meant to be played four or five minutes at a time is the definition of shallow and the proof is in the game itself.  My girlfriend recently told me about a mobile game she played called "Candy Crush".  From what I've seen, it like a puzzle game, like Tetris.  The game itself comes with five lives and once those are gone, you cannot play anymore.  To keep playing, you must go on Facebook and ask other users for more lives.  Otherwise, you will have to wait for a specific amount of time to pass before gaining lives back.  So the game itself comes with a caveat that it cannot be played for a long stretch.  It was designed that way! 

 

I can't help but make the analogy that mobile is to consoles as the internet is to books.  One is the shallower experience than the other.  Yet, I don't think I can ever play mobile games with the same enjoyment as I do on my consoles.  There's no way I can ever enjoy games like Candy Crush.  But I'm a bit scared that, by closing off the mobile door this way, it might make me, too, a little bit shallow.

Gaming Update:

Ni no Kuni:  Done!  After over 50 hours!  Absolutely fantastic game.  I wish it wasn't so long, but now that it's done, I miss it.  Such light hearted fare comes along far too rarely these days.

DMC:  Started this again, from scratch, now that Ni no Kuni is done.

Fire Emblem Awakening:  Great game, and still working on it on my commutes and such.

Thinking about Walking Dead

Warning:  There will be spoilers in the article below.  If you plan on playing the game eventually, please do not read.  If you have started the Walking Dead but haven't beaten all the episodes, then please do not read. 

 

I beat the Walking Dead about a month ago but since then, I have been unable to stop thinking about it.  The more thought given to the game, the more I realize that there is a contradiction at the core of the Walking Dead.  They are as follows:

 

1)  The Walking Dead featured the best, the most awsome and the most terrifying (in a good way) choices I have ever made in my history of gaming.

2)  The Walking Dead featured the most ineffectual and the most inconsequential choices I have ever made in my history of gaming.

 

That is the contradiction.  And yet, The Walking Dead is one of the best games I have ever played.  How is that?

 

The answer lies in the past.  Choices have been a mainstay of games since the current generation of consoles.  Fallout, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher, The Elder Scrolls, Infamous and many other titles all share the mantra that 'choice is king'.  Now it pays to discern how these games differ from The Walking Dead, which is in a class of it's own.  In earlier titles, choices have real gameplay consequences.  Chosing route A over route B may mean a shortcut to your objective or a longer path.  Choosing choice C over choice D may reward you with a stat boost versus some additional experience.  In other words you are rewarded, or judged, or punished by the game whenever you choose something over another and there are real gameplay consequences.  By extension, choices in most games are a factor to your character's survival.  Choosing one route over another may make your task more difficult, with a more frequent visit to the game over screen.  Choosing a stat boost may mean a better chance of survivial than just a handful of experience points.  Unless those points let you level up, making your character that much harder to kill.

 

Now contrast this with the choices in Walking Dead.  Absolutely nothing you say or do in the zombie game makes things easier or harder for your character.  Nothing you can ever choose will grant you any bonuses.  In fact, there isn't a single choice in The Walking Dead which affects your gameplay whatsoever.  Especially since the game is so easy anyone can beat it.  And with very few exceptions, none of the choices you make can get your character killed.  Most of your decisions affects the lives of the people you are with.  Your character is mostly immune to the consequences of your actions.  To be accurate, some of the choices you make can get you killed, but they are less of a 'choice' than a failure of saying the right things at the right time.  Kind of like how messing up button presses can get Lee killed.

 

So there in lies the heart of the contradiction.  Without real gameplay or survival motivation, the decisions in The Walking Dead are inconsequential.  And what's even more of a shock:  NONE of your choices matter to the overall outcome in the story!  Every single player in every single playthru will end up doing the same major things and getting the same ending all the time.

 

And yet… and YET…. the decisions DO matter!

 

I think it is because of this very contradiction that this is so.  I think it is the very fact that your decisions make for nothing in the long run which grants the game it's magic.  Because once you take away the threat of death, once you take away the gameplay factors, what you are left with are dozens of big and minor decisions which are pure.  The decisions are there solely so that the player can decide.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Without gameplay factors, the player can focus on making decisions based purely on the story and chracters.  While the way you play may not have any real consequence, that doesn't mean it's devoid of meaning.  Far from it.  Without the game rewarding or punishing the player, the player can focus on the meaning of his or her choice rather than simply which path feature the most rewards.  What it boils down to in the end is that the decisions you made were made because YOU MADE THEM.  There are no excuses or regrets.  It is what it is.  No rewards and no judgement.  And the game cleverly remembers what you said and do, so that even if all players end up watching the same ending, how the characters react to Lee and what they say to him make the difference.  

 

I find that the decisions in this game terrified me because there were no other distractions.  I know I will survive whichever I choose.  I also know that the game won't give me anything for picking one over the other.  The decisions are hard because there are no excuses.  I can't say afterwards that I wanted the experience, or the stat boost, or the short cut.  I can only justify my decisions based on what the story was at the time, or what the other characters were saying and doing.  And it is this… and it is also how the game throws you at the worse situations possible… that make the decisions worth something.

 

I have to take back some of what I said.  Maybe the stuff you pick aren't so inconsequential afterall.  Maybe the reward, and the punishment, of choosing one path over the other is in the story, the characters, and the fact that at the end of the game, the decisions are your's to live with forever.

Gaming Promise Update:

 Still playing the same games, glad to say.  Ni no Kuni and Devil May Cry are still on the list, but I am playing Ni no Kuni way more.  30+ hours and counting.