Player Expectations.

Courtesy of Critical Distance last Sunday, I was directed to these two articles analyzing Modern Warfare 3.  The first, written by John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun, is fairly critical of MW3's design and lack of choice. The second is a rebuttal by Brendan Keogh (a writer for Edge and Kill Screen) defending the game a bit more.

When we play games, we tacitly agree to a contract.  We agree to be bound by the rules of the game as long as the game will give us the experience we're looking for.  In soccer, that means that only 11 players can be on the field at a time.  If we didn't follow this contract, some teams would rush the field with 25 vs. 5.  The experience of competition and teamwork that most players play soccer for would be ruined by the unfair odds.  In Hide and Seek, opening your eyes while people hide ruins the exploratory and deductive fun to be had by actually following the rules.  Likewise, by obeying the rules of video games, we gain the entertainment, challenge, competition, etc., that its gameplay has to offer.

For example, no one complains about Zelda's linearity.  I've never read a review that complains that a Zelda game doesn't allow you to join Gannondorf or asks for the ability to kill random townspeople.  No, in Hyrule, we are on our best behavior.  We put the cuccos back in their cages, we go on fetch quest after fetch quest, we save the children, rescue the horse, and, at the end of the day, prevent the end of freedom and goodness at the hands of Ganon.  In so doing, we feel like a hero.  We are challenged.  We participate in a story of courage and sacrifice.  These choices are part of what we expect from the game and we submit to the limitations of "goodness" gladly.

I think this is the central point that Keogh makes in his follow-up article.  Modern Warfare 3 makes no attempt to be a free-flowing, open world game where choice is a central theme (and mechanic).  This in no way makes it less of a game (After all, choices are still being made on a moment-by-moment, objective-by-objective level), it just makes it a different kind of game than Walker wanted to play or expected to play.

The core difference between Keogh and Walker's playthroughs also comes down to their beliefs of what a player should be.  Increasingly, I think this is what will divide games more than anything else in the coming few years.  Must players, necessarily, be the sole decision maker for how the game progresses (e.g. Minecraft)?  Or can players take a slight back-seat position to the designer's decisions (e.g. Final Fantasy)?

I wholeheartedly support Keogh's final conclusion and I think he says it more elegantly than I could.  So here it is:

So this is what I ask of you [Walker], and of all videogame critics and players alike: stop using “freedom” as a metric for a game’s quality or, even worse, for a game’s gameness. Every game is a dance between player and code, but that doesn’t mean the player always gets to lead. A game that leads the player can be just as meaningful, significant, intelligent, stimulating or exhilarating as a game that lets the player do whatever they wish (within the games confines). The player is not the centre of the equation, and neither is the game. It’s the interrelationship between the player and the game that matters most.

Juxtaposition.

Yet another video and a response...



My work is pretty awesome.  For those who don't know, I run all the technology at the media department at Cornerstone University.  (We have a Vimeo account.  You should check it out.)  Lately, my boss has been incredibly gracious in allowing me some student workers that can help me a few afternoons a week.  That has left me with time enough to a) take care of longer term needs and issues, and b) start learning and doing new things.  So, in addition to some dinking around with Adobe After Effects, I've been trying to brainstorm some short film ideas.

I'm not much a a short writer.  Most of the ideas that I get excited about are absurdly large journey stories.  My poor players in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign have hiked around most of the continent just to satisfy my lust for hugely epic narratives.  So, to get myself in the mood for writing shorts, I've been watching quite a few short films.  On the clock, no less. 

16: Moments is one of the films I checked out today.  I loved it.  I thought it was incredibly unique.  There are no words at all, yet it is packed with simple meaning.  I have heard that the power of filmmaking comes only from the juxtaposition of images and the audience's interpretation of those images.  16: Moments is this idea boiled down to its simplicity.

Now, its meaning and power do not simply come from the images.  The soundtrack does a heck of a lot to enhance the theme of everyday life and beauty.  But most of the heavy lifting is done by the editing and beautiful cinematography.

Ultimately, I think that this short is about the beautiful moments that make up our lives.  The fluidity of motion between most of the shots helps the viewer to thematically connect the two shots into similar ideas.  (Side note: isn't it amazing that the human brain can, in hundredths of a second, determine complex and abstract relationships between two moving pictures?)

Take, for example, the segment from about 1:14 to 1:39.  It's a brief story of life.  From the first shot of the fisherman casting his line to the shot of the footprint disappearing in the sand, every shot is a reference, in some way, to a life story.  Some of the shots only make sense looking backward, but it still makes sense.  The fisherman casting his line (looking for the girl).  Two teenagers kissing in the hallway (young, innocent love).  A bird chirping in spring (the season of love).  Unwrapping a condom (a little more mature love...).  A drill going into a two by four (...).  A couple holding hands as they step down stairs (maybe even a little more mature?).  Baby pressing footprints.  Baby walking.  A gravedigger at his work.  Finally, footsteps in the sand (recalling this poem, perhaps).  In 25 seconds, we're given a look at a life.  All through the juxtaposition of simple clips and the natural, cultural connotations that we have inside us.

One of the other things I love about this video is that it is beautiful without caving to the DSLR "look" that is so, incredibly pervasive in short film these days.  Yes, bokeh is beautiful.  Yes, I love high contrast images and tight depth of field.  But 16: Moments manages to be beautiful even though some of the shots look like they were shot with a news camera.  Almost everything in frame is in focus.  It looks like it may have been shot at 30fps instead of 24fps (like film).  It flies in face of what is popular right now while retaining a cinematic beauty that continued to compel me to watch.

I continue to be fascinated by short films like this.  Though I'll never be able to write one, they still inspire me with concepts, ideas, and themes that I want to draw on in my future writing.

What stuck out to you as you watched?


(Huge shout out to http://www.filmgen.com/.  I've been trawling their archives for good short films yesterday and today.)

Work.

Since I'm on Blogger at work, I figure I might as well talk about it for a moment.

Currently, I work at Cornerstone University. (Coincidentally, I also graduated from here in 2009.) My job title is "Media Technology Coordinator," but all that really means is Studio Technician. I keep all the gear running smoothly in the department, teach students how to use the gear safely and effectively, and administrate all the post-production workflows for our film students.

Unsurprisingly, this is not what I wanted to do with my life. In college, though I was a film major, I worked largely in pre-production and writing. I want to be a game writer and designer. But you know what? I love my job.

One of the reasons why is the phenomenal progress we are making as a department as far as skill and quality of output goes. We finally started a Vimeo account a few weeks ago and we're sharing what we've done with the world. I'm really proud of what our students have done.

This is one of our music videos from last Fall semester. It just won Cornerstone's Creative Arts Festival (which is pretty cool) and will be making the festival circuit soon.

The sheer improvement over the music videos from the last time the class ran is unbelievable. (I was in that class and, frankly, I won't upload the video we made out of embarrassment.) And all of it - from the music writing and performing, the recording, the concept, the pre-production, the filming, the editing, and, now, the distribution - was done by Cornerstone University students.

I'm quite proud of where we've come from and I'm excited to be a part of where we're going.

(That being said, my passion still burns for video games and I'm working quite actively to get there. See the cool sidebar to the right about what I'm working on now to achieve that goal!)

So... did I mention that you should watch our videos on our Vimeo account? You should.

Megaman: the Fan-Made Movie.

I was reading Kotaku the other day and found a link to a fan-made Mega Man movie. I was, naturally, dubious. Fan-made things, while filled with passion, are not well funded. (Grayson, a fan-made Batman movie trailer (yeah, just a trailer) is probably the highest quality fan-made product I've seen.) But still. Mega Man is a property ripe for the picking when it comes to film adaptations and I wanted to see how well the filmmakers did with its potential.

There were some things that this film did right. Some good cinematography, for example. Some darned decent CG stuff for a film with (probably) a shoe-string budget. And really, the production design was pretty impressive (again, with the caveat of the shoe-string budget). All of these things were good enough.

What wasn't good enough was the script.

Many things could have fixed this script.

1. The story needed to start in media res. As I recall, the original Mega Man story begins after Wily has already done damage to the city. Mega Man runs through levels that are populated with Wily's robots, eventually ending up at the work-sites of the robot masters. I think these writers confused the idea of a first act with exposition. The action - and, therefore, the story - doesn't begin until 30 minutes into the film. So for 30 minutes, the audience is treated to every boring detail and meaningless conversation that makes up character motives. Starting in media res would have been a much more conflict-driven way to see those motives played out, not have them explained in a monologue.

2. Dr. Light should have died at the end of Act 1. Or, at the very least, taken away from the Hero. This would propel his actions, leave him without a mentor, and would give a lot more credence to Wily's insanity and threat. As it was, Light stayed on and didn't do much besides equipping Mega Man to fight the Act 3 battles.

3. Wily, while goofy in the original games, should not have been so ridiculous... His faux accent, poorly dyed hair, and constantly sweating face did not leave any sense of threat or depth to his character. Now, a goofy looking guy actually being threatening - actually being cruel - that I can get behind. For example, his lines after kidnapping Roll are a small sample of how crazy, cruel, and evil he should have been. Mocking. Sneering. A little immature, but also willing and able to do evil, evil things. I think Kefka from Final Fantasy VI would have been a good model for this kind of villain.

4. The dialogue was painful. I didn't know people could even try to play some of these cliched lines as seriously as these actors did. Do I remember specific examples right now? No. But just imagine. Every "I'll get you next time!" and "Thank God you're alright. I didn't think you'd make it" played out over and over again in different contexts. The only way to fix this is to take a harder look at each character, their flaws, and to actually speak the lines before the actors getting in front of the camera...


Don't get me wrong. I am really impressed by the director, Eddie Lebron. He clearly has some chops in pulling together a technical team to pull a 96 minute fan adaptation of a popular video game franchise. They really did accomplish a lot. It just pains me to see the script in such shambles. Without a solid story, all of the resources go to waste.

My question is this: how do I find these filmmakers? I honestly think that Mr. Lebron's resources could have been much better used had he a better story and screenplay. I also honestly believe that I could have helped make that story and screenplay better. How can I get to these directors early enough to help them tell the story they want to tell?

Moral of the story: let Kemp read your screenplays! Please? I like doing it. I think it'll be better afterward....

Some cool links.

I hate it when I have these thoughts.  And I'm really passionate about them.  And I rant and rave in a draft blog post.  But I never go back to make it an actual post with, you know, good english and persuasive arguments.  And then I find articles online that express exactly my thoughts in a better way.  Here are some:

Gamasutra - Truth in Game Design

Good stuff.  So good, in fact, that I overcame my fear of commenting on strangers' websites to submit an additional thought.  My concern is that for some idealistic and truth-loving designers out there, there exists the temptation to make designs transparent, to make the truths easily graspable (It's the preacher in me...).  However, I suppose I once again come back to the idea of virtue in difficulty (wherever I read that).


Identification, Please

This is, quite simply put, why I don't like FPS games.  There is no character through whom I can care about the world.  I, as Kemp Lyons, do not care about that mess of pixels and binary in the games I play.  But if I have a character to play as, I can care through him or her.  Sean Sands says it in a little more scholarly, less personal way than I would have and I'm grateful for that. 

There may be more.  I'm not sure.  But these two articles really stuck out to me today.

Read this.

http://stillsearching.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/are-you-a-christian-hipster/

This article sort of echoes some of my own observations and satire of the current Christian culture - especially at a Christian school.

Yay satire!

New Years.

I know I'm quite a bit late on the New Years' bandwagon, but I really wanted to do one of these posts (like everyone else in the world [that I read, at least]).

I'm still not finished processing through preparing for the year, but I wanted to chronicle what I've got (sort of like how Mr. Ransom did it; I'll do a follow up with some more specifics [mostly for myself and my records]) Here are some of my thoughts so far:

It's my senior year. That has so many ridiculous ramifications that it's... ridiculous. It is literally impossible to predict what my life will be like past June. Lord willing, I'll be in California doing a sweet internship. Or I could be in Grand Rapids, living with Buddy and Kyle for a bit doing... something. Or I could be in Albuquerque, living with someone and doing... something. Or I could be in Florida... You get the picture.

I have really gotten a lot of inspiration from the various blogs I've been reading and the movies I've been watching. God is really trying to tell me something. I think the credits song of Yes Man says it best: "It's time to man up." Of all my priorities and goals, it's time to actually start doing. Anything.

I want to establish my lifestyle this year. This has a lot to do with my reading on The Simple Dollar and The Art of Manliness, in addition to my convictions about how Jesus would have us live. There are so many dreams I have for the future, but they almost all involve how I live.

One of the things that I don't think I can commit to this year (but want to as soon as possible) is to spend one hour a day learning one thing for one year. (Again, I refer to the Simple Dollar link above.) There are so many skills and knowledge I want to have. For example:

• Learn French well enough to be conversational. Enough to watch a movie, for instance.
• Read music and play piano.
• Perform basic car repair.
• Draw locations and characters (for concept art).
• Program in C++ or C#
• Write. From blog-style to articles to screenplays to prose to...
• Photography.
• Cooking.
• Physics. I love physics and wish I could learn more.

I think I'll end this rambling and unfocused post with a question: If you could spend one hour a day practicing one thing (knowledge or skill) for one year, what would it be?

I can't believe I'm doing this.

Found this from a game blog I read.:

Your First Name of: Kemp

• Although the name Kemp creates an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes an emotional intensity that is hard to control.
  
• This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the solar plexus, and nervous system.
• The name of Kemp gives you a very inquisitive, restless, seeking nature.
  
• You feel impelled by intense desires that you cannot comprehend or satisfy.
  
• You have had the desire to accomplish something outstanding and to do something very worthwhile for humanity, especially early in your life.
  
• This name gives you a versatile, clever, analytical mind, but unfortunately you cannot direct your interest toward an undertaking for long, as you do not have the patience and practicality for systematic hard work and attention to detail.
  
• You resent obstacles, delays, and restrictions.
  
• This name gives you ambition, high ideals, and much creative ability, but the intense dynamic nature is too often spent in feelings and in moods, rather than in constructive action.

Hello World.

I've been trying to kick my butt in gear for a while now to launch a blog dedicated to video game design, story, and other random media related thoughts, so I finally did it.

Check out all its majesty at thekemp.wordpress.com.

(Theoretically,) This still means that I'll be updating this blog as well, but I will be trying to put more thoughts more frequently over there. I hope no one is too terribly insulted.

Passage

Whoever you are, download this game now. (It's less than 1MB.)

Then unpack the .exe.

Then open the folder.

Then play the game.

It's like poetry for video games.