Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!


Contact
Ace:
aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck:
buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD:
cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix:
mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum:
petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton:
sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com


Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Saturday Morning Open Thread | Main | Hackaz: we in U ride'n medical stuff »
July 27, 2013

The Last Of Us

This isn't a videogame review of the new Playstation 3 game The Last of Us. It's more a reflection what a game is...and what it isn't.

Naughty Dog (the game developer) has been making "movie games" for most of the PS3 generation (with the Drake's Fortune series and now this one). Which is to say, they are building scripted, dramatic stories with segments of player control but no real decision-making ability on the part of the player. The game only moves in one direction, and you are essentially on rails for the entire experience. Thus, to me, it isn't a game -- it's an interactive movie.

And this is a problem, both in terms of design and in terms of art.


A movie and a game are two completely different forms of entertainment. Movies are a "lean back" kind of entertainment: I participate as an observer, a Greek Chorus, an assessor, a judge, a jury. I do not interact or guide the action. I watch events unfold, and judge the outcome based on how well the production achieved its goals. A game, on the other hand, is a "lean forward" experience. It is interactive, and I am in the game to win or lose. That is, the whole point of a game is to allow the player to affect the outcome. Without that power, the experience is not a "game" at all.

The "interactive movie" concept is unfulfilling both as game and as movie. As a game, it fails because the player can have no real say in how the story unfolds or ends. You are an actor in the drama, in other words -- even less than an actor, really, since you can't even put your own spin on the drama. As a movie, it fails because the drama is broken up by the interactive portions; all the running and jumping about actually kills the dramatic momentum.

The Last of Us is beautifully mounted, and might have made a decent movie. It's garnering raves as a game, however, and I simply can't fathom this. It's not a game, any more than the Drake episodes were "games". You can't control the path you take, you can't make any real decisions about how the story will unfold, and you can neither "win" nor "lose". You can finish the "game", of course, and get the ending that all players will inevitably get, but there's no real skill involved. Even the clumsiest, slowest, dumbest gamer -- me -- will eventually get there. There is no way to "lose" this game other than to choose not to finish it.

It makes me wonder why Naughty Dog has decided to go this route. It costs a huge amount of money to make a video game like this -- as much as it would to just go ahead and make an actual movie, in fact. So I wonder why Naughty Dog doesn't just do that: make a movie. The kind of interactivity you get in this game actually detracts from the dramatic arc, and it adds very little. Oh, it's exciting in parts and has some interesting puzzles...but in the end it's a waste of time because you can't change anything. You can't "win" because there's only one way the video game can end. There's no real achievement involved.

The usual response from the game studio is that giving players too much choice over the outcome of the game ruins the story. This was the excuse behind Mass Effect 3's shitty ending. The writers had a vision that they were bound and determined to see to the end, and they only allowed players to influence that vision up to a point...which was actually none at all, since the end result was the same no matter what you did. To many gamers (including me), it was a giant "fuck you" from the studio. It made all those endless hours of gameplay and "moral choice" completely meaningless.

If this is the direction video game developers are going, I don't understand why they don't make movies or write books instead. If you're going to call it a "game", that implies that I have a significant amount of control over how things will come out. It's up to me to win or lose. I may violate your "artistic vision", but games are defined by rules, not plots. If I play within the rules, the outcome is perfectly acceptable, even if you don't like it.

Oh, and about that "artistic vision" thing, Naughty Dog developers: your writers aren't exactly Hemingway. As drama, the game strives to be deep but barely achieves mediocrity. Mostly, it's the equivalent of a B-grade zombie flick. The game takes itself so damned seriously, and marries itself so totally to the "harsh and gritty" world, that it's a bummer to play. That's okay in a movie, which is over in a couple of hours, but it's a drag in a game that can stretch on for 30 hours of play-time. Fallout 3 had the same gritty, depressing vibe, and it also got to be a chore to play for long periods of time. But at least Fallout 3 was an actual game, where you could actually affect the outcome.

People are throwing accolades at this game like roses at the feet of a diva, and I just don't get it. It's a great-looking game, and the voice acting is pretty good, but as a game it's a pretty abject failure.

digg this
posted by Monty at 11:42 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "Morning, insomaniacals. My cough comes and goes, ..."

zefal: "Is she married to the guy who told the FISA court ..."

Ciampino - The good oils are expensive: "Yes my mistake about olive oil. Also coconut is ok ..."

Skip : "Seems a good rule of thumb Illegals head to a dec ..."

Miley, okravangelist: "Avocado oil is good for homemade salsa. ..."

RickZ: "Since we're talking all these fats, where does res ..."

RickZ: "[i]Porn star breaks down in tears after bedding 10 ..."

Ciampino - Nooooo!: "So there are 100 men who don't mind sloppy seconds ..."

bear with asymmetrical balls: "And yet the whore has learned nothing: [i]Despi ..."

bangsar penthouse forsale: "https://stanproperty.com/penthouse/ Wow, that's ..."

Ciampino - Noooooo!: "Nooooooo! Walgreens is so American and everywhere ..."

IRONGRAMPA: "The heel of a fresh baked loaf of bread (still goo ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64