Gunplay

August 17th, 2007Blog0 comments

Behold, the Citizen Kane of first person shooter video games: BIOSHOCK. IGN sez: “This game is a beacon. It’s one of those monumental experiences you’ll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and indeed must, be measured.”

That’s the highest praise I’ve ever read for a video game. Currently there is an ongoing debate as to whether video games are “art”. I think they can most definitely be. My trusty electronic dictionary states that art consists of “works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. Any medium can become art when its attributes (those facets of the medium that set it apart from all other mediums) work together to achieve that beauty or emotional power.

For the medium of video games, that attribute is interactivity. As the maxim goes, books tell you something, movies show you something, video games let you do something. I believe that video games can be elevated to art if they elevate interactivity to an art — and you do that by presenting insightful, interesting, fascinating options to the player and let him/her choose. After all, the purpose of an artful book or movie is to present insightful, interesting, and fascinating ideas to the reader/viewer. Why can’t a choice (and the ramifications of that choice) be just as interesting?

I am reminded of one of my favorite games of all time, Deus Ex 2: Invisible War for the Xbox. That game was all about interesting choices. As the main character in the story, you would encounter NPCs who would give you offers and make deals during conversations. “If you do this for our faction, you will get X.” The fascinating thing was that you never, ever made your choice during the conversation. Your character would simply say, “I’ll keep that in mind.” You made your choices through physical actions — i.e., you come upon the person they want you to assassinate. Do you shoot him? Do you not? Do you turn on your allies and break your deals? The choices presented in the game aren’t made in dialogue — they’re made through pulling the trigger or not pulling the trigger. As we say in this country, Talk Is Cheap.

So I’ve played the demo of Bioshock. It’s already one of my favorite video game openings of all time. Another thing that games do well is immersion combined with accountability. Let me explain this. Movies do a great job of immersion but leave accountability up to the characters. You’re watching thinking, “How are these guys going to get out of this mess?” Video games insert you into the mess, and you are accountable for getting out. The pressure is placed solely on you. That’s a powerful thing.