This is something that all games (video or otherwise) do well. They introduce simple concepts that are easy to understand and then slowly require the player to master these rules to progress.
World of Goo
I started playing World of Goo last weekend. I’ve been playing it obsessivley since and beat it just a few days after purchasing it. I’ve spent a large chunk of my free time moving the slimy building “blocks” around the screen.
Sitting here now I’m trying to isolate just what about this game made it so engaging. I suspect that like many things that people find entertaining over sustained periods of time it is that the rules are easy to learn but difficult to master. World of Goo is easy to pick up and play, even if you’re unfamiliar with video games, in minutes you’ll be manipulating the goos into simple structures like bridges and towers and unconsciously dealing with such complex issues as weight load and structural balance. The game slowly demands that you construct better and better structures in order to solves the puzzles while providing a sand box mode where you’re free just to build with the the goos.
This is something that all games (video or otherwise) do well. They introduce simple concepts that are easy to understand and then slowly require the player to master these rules to progress. Using our brains natural tendancy to reward itself when it solves a problem to keep us playing their game!
If you haven’t tried the game yet I hope you’ll at least pick up the demo, and give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.
Want to keep playing after the console’s turned off? Pull out the dice and tokens analog gaming lives on! This time I talk about Survival Horror video games their history and their analog equivalents.
Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark. These names are instantly recognizable to gamers. If you haven’t played the games or are not of fan of survival horror games you’re still aware of them and their meteoric rise to the top of the gaming charts (since to be replaced by the FPS). But where did the idea of a survival horror come from and does it have parallels in the pen and paper, analog world of gaming? The answer is of course that it does!
The survival horror genre of games takes a number of disparate elements and combines them to create a unique experience for the player. The recipe looks something like this: 1 part horror movie, 3 parts adventure game, 2 part action game, 1 part RPG, and 4 parts paranoia and tension, mix, bake at 450 degrees. Viola! Survival horror. Resident Evil is usually pointed at as the first survival horror game, and the game created the label. There were a numbers of video games released before Resident Evil that contained some, if not all, of the elements of the Survival Horror genre, the oldest being Infocom’s The Lurking Horror (1987). It was a text adventure game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s writings and known for putting the player on the edge of their seat.
Sweet Home
Capcom’s Sweet Home (1989) was a horror RPG while not the first graphical horror game (the Atari 2600 had a few but thy’re universally bad and fail to create the fear/tension that is the hallmark for the genre) is an early attempt at creating a game that recreates the fear and tension that horror movies aim at. Sweet Home has been acknowledge as one of the prime influences on Resident Evil.
Alone in the Dark
The other big influence was Infogrames’ Alone in the Dark (1992) series. Alone in the Dark was a third person 3-d adventure game that put the player in the role of a man (or woman) trapped in a house consumed by evil, and while combat played a role in the game it was secondary to exploration and puzzle solving.
With Resident Evil, the genre was labeled and came into its own. The franchise was wildly successful, despite its flaws (and there were many: clunky slow controls, mixed visuals often too dark, inflated difficulty through item scarcity, restricted saves (damn those ink cartridges), an incoherent story line, etc.) No, the reason Resident Evil worked was that it gave the same chills and bumps that shock horror films do. It kept you on the edge of your seat, it created tension and paranoia, and people loved it. They still do in a way, though the franchise has moved closer and closer to becoming a FPS.
Arkham Horror
Survival horror didn’t start on consoles though. The horror genre is old, remarkably old, and just a little younger than story telling itself. Our oldest written sources are full of ghosts and nightmarish creatures. Modern horror’s roots can be found in the 18th century. Gothic horror rose in the mid 18th century and was focused on “an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere.” It was this genre that Lovecraft made his own in the early twentieth century, coupling extreme emotion with alienation and existential horror. It is in the world of table-top RPGs that we find the earliest instance of a game attempting to evoke horror, tension, and paranoia in the player.
The Call of Cthulhu RPG was first released in 1981 and was set in the 1920-30’s that Lovecraft set his own stories the plots that players play start out innocent enough but usually end with the player’s character going insane, if not being horribly maimed or killed by some monstrosity. Some of the game’s more prominent themes were awe and terror of the unknown and the price such knowledge had on the human psyche
In 1987 Call of Cthuhu was adapted for a board game: The Call of Cthulhu: the Board Game. The board game attempted to distill Lovecraft’s mythos and the themes of the RPG into a board game that could be played in an hour or so opposed to days. Unlike acting (on the screen or role-playing) that can create an atmosphere of paranoia and tension through editing and surprise, the board game does so by slowly escalating the difficulty of the game and putting a random time limit on the players before some terror is unleashed upon the earth, an encounter the players rarely survive . These two things created the tension, paranoia, and at times the fear that are so essential to the horror genre.
I really enjoy Arkham Horror but it certainly isn’t for everyone:
The game in all it's esoteric glory
There are hundreds of cards and tokens and the rules aren’t intuitive. Despite this I love the game and it is possible to pick up the game on your own with a couple of understanding friends around to help you figure it out. I’m always trying to rope 3 or 4 friends together to play the game, those who aren’t intimidated by the board inevitably find they’re having a good time. If you’re not into competitive games Arkham Horror is perfect as everyone has to cooperate in order to beat the game. If you’re looking for a less complicated co-op horror game A Touch of Evil is good as well. So next time your power goes out whilst playing Resident Evil 5, light some candles, and pull out Arkham Horror and play to keep the terrors coming!
Resources: Fantasy Flight Games – the publishers of Arkham Horror and its expansions, Flying Frog Productions – the publishers of A Touch of Evil, Chaosium – The publishers of Call of Cthulhu, Let’s Play Already: Arkham Horror – An in-depth play through of the game with commentary, pictures, and rule explanation, I used this to help me play my first game
I’ve only played Dungeons and Dragons once. I was 20 and drove an hour and a half to an acquitances house and jumped into a compaign already underway as a dwarf paladin (I think). Sitting in a garage with people I barely knew, rolling dice for reasons I didn’t know wasn’t much fun. I was invited back but I never accepted the invitation, I decided I was nerdy enough playing video games, board games, table-top war games, card games, etc., etc.
So it is with the greatest surprise that I find myself currently addicted to the new facebookapplication, Dungeons and Dragons Tiny Adventures. The great thing about it is, I don’t have to do anything! I don’t have to know the arcane rules, I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not, I don’t have to create a character… In actuality the application is nothing more than a paper-doll program with narrative, and a little bit of social interaction thrown in. Not much to it, but I’ve only been playing for about a week and my character is already nearing level 10 (which as I understand is where normal DnD characters max out, you need more books, or something, after that).
So if you’ve got a facebook account and want the easiest possible introduction to what DnD and roleplaying games are, click the link above and start adventuring!
My last Analog Gaming was about two specific games. This one is going to be a little broader, especially when talking about the “Analog part”. This episode of Analog gaming though is about story and choice.
In traditional literature, you get a great story but no choice, and in the majority of great games you are presented with a lot of choice but very little story (this includes Bioshock, and whatever game happens to be your favorite). The earliest time when listeners/viewers of stories were given more choice in a narrative was probably with ancient poets, who could and did tweak their stories to appeal to their audience; we still do this today around campfires and with friends. Plays allowed us to see the action rather than just imagining it, and it allowed the playwrights and actors to put subtle changes into a story or present it in such a way so that it was new and different to their audiences as well. Always, however, the choice has been limited for the reader and the audience despite the fact that most people dream of being the protagonists of their own adventure narrative. How much more exciting would the Battle of Troy been if you had played a part in it? Would MacBeth had ended as it had if you had been the the young Prince’s confidant and friend?
Quest For Glory: So you Want to be a Hero?
Dungeon and Dragons changed all that! Here was a system that put you and a group of your friends into the role of the heroes of an epic medieval fantasy adventure. The 4th wall had been broken but in reverse. The actors were not acknowledging the audience. Rather the audience was storming the stage, the directors chair, and the writer’s box! Dungeon and Dragons though is a fairly simple system: it’s good at telling an action adventure set in a cliché fantasy world with a story that only serves to string together random raids of dungeons for loot, and that isn’t for everyone. The amazing thing about D&D was that it opened a lot of people’s eyes. It let them see that one could build a system in which story telling could spring free-form out of the audience, and, boy, there were a lot of systems to build.
The best systems didn’t focus so much on monsters and far away places but on characters, people, and the roles they played in their world (regardless of settings), here there was choice, a lot of it. If everyone did their job, the result was a great story that was richer, deeper, meatier than most of what you can find on your bookstore shelves.
Some of these great story, character, and ethic-based RPGs were made by White Wolf. Systems like World of Darkness and Promethean are much more than stepping into a dark fantasy world where you have special powers, but where you also explore morality, pride and the burden of knowledge, mortality and what it means to be human. These systems take common and well-known horror stories and turn them into serious philosophical discussions about the human condition, and these discussions are received from on high by an author or game designer. The story springs organically from the players themselves, guided by a Game Master or Story Teller.
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Many of the earliest video game makers learned gaming around tables with books stack around them rolling dice. They were veterans of Dungeons & Dragons and several other role playing games. These video game pioneers were trying to recreate their experiences on the PC; games like Ultima and Wizardry were early attempts at this, and Oblivion is one of these games direct descendants. Early on in video games, Japanese and Western developers split on how these games should be made. The Japanese decided to take the numbers, algorithms, and charts found in pen & paper RPGs and ignore the story making part. They took all the busy paperwork of the format but ignored the player’s contribution to the RPG formula. The end result of this were games like Final Fantasy, a series that has not progressed much beyond its initial offering (discounting graphics and more complicated number schemes). JRPGs do not offer the player any control in the story, they are merely along for the ride. JRPGs are much more like movies or novels in that sense, in which the player has no control over where the story goes, and characters develop little. When there is character development, it resembles the author’s intents and desires rather than those of the player. This was not what RPGs were made to do! This is a step backwards from the pen & paper version.
Western RPGs have tried to remain closer to their analog roots, or they were until they became influenced by JRPGs and action-adventure titles. Very few games even tried to capture high ideal of analog RPGs. Sierra On-Line’s and LucasArts’ early adventure titles took the idea of a free roaming environment that pen & paper RPGs had and used it as a location for game protagonists, but the player was restricted by the limiting nature of their computer and the game’s programming. While games like King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Monkey Island promised freedom, players were limited by the games parser and the straitjacketing effects of the storyline.
Pen and paper RPGs are so amazing because the players are free to do and try anything once in the game world, and they are responsible for their actions. There are a few games that tried, they tried and failed but the effort was well worth it. They come close. Sierra On-line’s Quest for Glory series is a a great set of games. It was Sierra’s attempt to combine their traditional adventure games with RPGs. These games succeeded so much so because player’s decisions made a difference in the game. There were entire sub-plots that some players would never see if they didn’t take the time to explore their environment – the Rusalka and Domovoi quests in Quest for Glory 4 are good examples of this. They also are on this list because what you decided to play as changed how you’d solve the puzzles and over obstacles in the game. If you were a fighter you had to think like one, using brute strength to progress. Thieves would have to be crafty, and wizards had to use their spells and arcane knowledge. This is what RPGs allow you to do: slip into a role and explore it. Even today you can pick up a video game RPG, and your class is nothing more than dressing for the character it effects game-play minimally or not at all. (Oblivion is a big offender in this regard, it doesn’t matter what type of character you role, you can beat the game with a sword and shield, and some magic scrolls.) Deus Ex was great game that showed how decisions, ethics, morals can be explored in a video game, and just like QFG, how you played your character determined how you would react to the various puzzles and dilemmas the game presents you.
Dark Heresy
Video games still haven’t been able to live up to their analog ancestors. You can have a lot of fun playing Oblivion, Fallout, or System Shock but eventually your going to find a wall, a limit, imposed not by the world you inhabit, but the programmers and designers of that world, because it is beyond the machines capacity to handle or the games. This is not a problem in analog RPGs; you’re free to ignore the just about everything and do whatever you want in the world, and while doing so explore what it means to be good, or evil, friendship, love, greed, corruption.
I’m involved right now in a Dark Heresy campaign. The game is set in a gothic dark future where technology is magic and there is no hope for human existence. The game’s premise is that you are a government investigator of sorts (think film noir, mystery, and sci-fi put together.) It’s a neat setting but early on into the campaign and our group of people are dealing with fundamental issues of trust, teamwork, success, what it means to be human, insanity, corruption, faith, common decency, and the love of Mankind! None of this is anywhere in the books, or in our Story Tellers notes. They sprang from the players and we’ve been allowed to explore them, it’s been one of the most exciting things philosophical discussions I’ve ever participated in and none of us knew we were even having one!
If you’re interested in any of these RPG systems, just follow the links, they’ll take you to their respective websites. Or if you’re looking for something else in Analog RPGs explore the RPG Shop or head to your local hobby store on a weekend and see if anyone happens to be playing, or ask to see their bulletin board, RPGers are always looking for new recruits!
