An Intimate Moment With the Computer

I decided to sort of write about Portal 2 this week, a game that fills me with anxiety largely because I think that the first game may be one that really doesn't require a sequel. However, a few words from the game's writer, Eric Wolpaw, about the importance of intimacy to the first game has me feeling better about the possibility for a follow up.

The notion of intimacy between the player and GLaDOS in Portal is actually my real topic though. Mostly I am simply proud of myself for having written a piece on Portal that never mentions cake or uses the phrase, "still alive," even once.

To read more about intimacy and the Portal experience:

An Intimate Moment With the Computer

Moving Pixels Podcast: War Stories in Video Games, or Lovin’ the Battlefield

Every good game is premised on a bang.

Our second part of a six part series on storytelling in games, "War Stories in Video Games, or Lovin’ the Battlefield," is live at PopMatters. The episode is hosted by Rick Dakan and includes Nick Dinicola, Thomas Cross, and myself.

You can listen at us here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: War Stories in Video Games, or Lovin’ the Battlefield

Hippolyta: A Study in Simplicity

Sticking with the topic of elegance, I am looking at a flash game this week called Hippolyta. Unlike my discussion of shotguns last week, however, this is a look at a form of elegance whose simplicty begets challenge. In other words, Hippolyta only makes play look effortless. This is one elegant game that is difficult to master.

To read more:

Hippolyta: A Study in Simplicity

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Role of Story in Video Games

So, a few of my colleagues and I that contribute regularly to the Moving Pixels blog decided to experiment a bit with the spoken (rather than the written) word. We have recorded several podcasts for the past month or so with an eye to possibly starting a regular feature on PopMatters in which we discuss games in (hopefully) interesting and thoughtful ways.

We certainly aren't the only ones that have done so. The Brainy Gamer features podcasts on a semi-regular basis as do the fellows over at the Experience Points blog (both of which I listen to with some regularity). Our idea was to launch some episodes in the form of a "mini-series" that would feature us taking on a larger topic (in the case of our first half dozen podcasts -- storytelling in games) and run with ideas about the topic for several weeks.

Our inaugural episode features a conversation between Rick Dakan, Nick Dinicola, Thomas Cross, and myself and can be found here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Role of Story in Video Games

Elegance Is a Shotgun

Talking about the visceral experience that games provide is difficult.

It is much like talking about why music has a certain "mood" to it or trying to decribe the feeling conveyed by an abstract painting. These experiences are so gut level that they are difficult to put into words.

I have been groping around for years for a way to convey to others the pleasure that I get from using the shotgun in a first person shooter. And it has finally come to me, it is the very definition of elegance:

Elegance Is a Shotgun

Review: Bioshock 2

It has been a weird week for me, and I had to bail out on blogging Wednesday due to some pressing real life matters (like some emergency roof repair).

Nevertheless, I did get the chance to get a review up at PopMatters before the weekend of Bioshock 2.

I think that the first Bioshock is one of the most important games of the last decade in terms of setting a standard for how atmosphere can be evoked through the tiniest visual and oral detail and also for wedding serious philosophical themes with complementary gameplay. Thus, I come at the second game with high expectations (as well as some significant fears).

Jordan Thomas and his team have done a smart thing with the game by both shifting its focus from the philosophical to the persoanl, but also, by reconsidering the issues of free will and determinism raised by the first game in a new context. Luckily, they also do a good job at wedding those themes with the gameplay once again through a few subtle tweaks to the original's mechanics. It is a serious game about parenting, which is pretty unheard of in the medium.

I don't love it as much as I do the first, but it is pretty damn good in its own right.

To read more:

Review: Bioshock 2

Sorry, Dante, but your princess is in another castle

More just thinking aloud this week (that's what blogs are for, right?). On the heels of my essay praising The Romance of Karateka, I got to thinking about failures of romance in gaming, most particularly the failure of Dante's Inferno to make the effort of pursuing Beatrice feel essential and worthwhile.

Somehow I think that some of the two game's differing effectiveness in conveying a romantic story using a common enough motif in gaming narratives, the damsel in distress as goal, is contingent on the audiences that are targetted by the narrative. The level of maturity of the audience that each game seeks to address result in radically different outcomes.

To read more:

Sorry, Dante, but your princess is in another castle