Welcome to Suck My Polygons
This is NOT another gaming opinion website, but one that brings something different and valuable to the table as a rare outwards look from inside the industry. There are a few holes I see in the majority of mainstream game critics’ reviews these days, and the rest are more interested in the punch line. I will be exploring some interesting and fresh outlooks on games and I elaborate below on some of the subjects I will be thinking about where others aren’t concerned, namely: the time and budget restraints of development, emotions and interactivity, the story and the sound design,
Game development is never simple
The irony of video games is that their fans are incredibly vocal and opinionated on the internet (mostly due to how comfortably someone can be a jerk when they’re anonymous, and this is something synonymous with online games), when the reality is that almost all of them have no clue of what they are talking about. They make huge criticisms towards game developers assuming that the reason that a game might be flawed is simply because the people making them are just not that good, and that they themselves should be making them instead.
The problem seems to be that people mix up good game design with good game development. The ignorance towards the challenges of video game development is staggering. In my experience within the games industry, game titles may release to terrible reviews and consumer comments like “how could they fuck that up when there are so many first person shooters to learn from?” but the people working behind the lesser acclaimed games are very talented individuals who deserve their place in the industry. They don’t control the politics.
When people complain that the Transformers game isn’t as good as the movie, it’s not because the team isn’t talented, it’s because they have been given half the time to develop it than they would have needed because it needs to release the same day as the film. A game like Rage has been in development for seven years, whereas the new Harry Potter has been in development for less than a year and with all the creative restrictions that come with a franchise tie-in that you don’t get with an original IP. That’s why they didn’t get to do this or that, which seemed like such an obvious design choice to you. Other than time restraints, there is budget. God of War 3’s production values are through the roof but at the expense of $40 million. Other AAA games will only cost a few million.
So this misunderstanding of the struggles of game development does raise the question of whether games would be rated differently if the management of game development were in the criteria? Although out of public view, managing budgets and deciding what is worth aiming for in the allotted time of the project development is an art in itself along with design, sound, art, and code. I’m sure we have producers to thank at the heart of games like Uncharted 2 and the battlefield series. With this in mind, I will be judging games for the right reasons. Average games are good games, and great games are underrated achievements.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t differences in the raw talent of game development teams. I still can’t get over the all-round sensational quality of the aforementioned Uncharted 2, the unique, inspirational, visionaries of Bioshock, the innovative attitude of DICE, or the seemingly organic creativity seeping out of every pore of Media Molecule. Although without a strong bond and consistent production goal, many of these names may not be what they are today.
Interactive experience
So, this is the kind of mindset I will take when I talk about games, but I will also be very interested in the artistic side, and I don’t always mean in the arty-farty way. Sure, I will discuss where games have helped to justify the industry as an art form because to me this is very important as long as we don’t lose track of what we play games for, but in a more primitive way I may wish to dissect what it is that provokes feelings of exhilaration in a gun fight. I may see potential in a generally poorly rated shooter and slate a highly rated one, but I assure you this is not in deliberate pretention/bad taste. There will be some controversial moments, not for the sake of controversy but instead to draw attention to subjects that would be overlooked from a traditional perspective in order to grant admiration, or to raise faults that can be learnt from for the good of future games.
Wanting to explore how games create emotion can give the wrong idea but it’s what affects all of us when we can’t put the controller down. Most people agree with me that it felt great when you were awarded 10 points for a kill in Modern Warfare 1, but felt much better when they bunged a “0” on the end of that when you got 100 points for killing someone in Modern Warfare 2 even though they were essentially the same game mechanic. When Battlefield 3 showed people stopped caring about Modern Warfare 3 because they were too busy drooling over the gritty, documentary edge to the weight, visuals and most notably audio of the Battlefield trailers that highjacked the attention of the gaming world. It’s still just blowing shit up, but we know there is a distinction between the two games, and I want to highlight what makes one superior to the other on deeper levels than are generally discussed. There are a lot of dull games with some great pleasures hiding within and I am interested in digging these out where they are usually overlooked.
It’s unfortunate but understandable that whenever critics and gamers talk about their experiences in games, it is through gameplay and graphics, but never audio. Audio is never considered because sound is not supposed to be noticed. Whenever a review says “the sound was great” then it’s a catch 22 for the audio department, who are trying their best to stay hidden, because audio is a powerful tool that is supposed to inform audiences unconsciously. If no one notices the sound, then they have done their jobs. Every sound down to the pitch of someone’s footsteps is designed in order to deliver a specific emotion or piece of information to the player, but generally reviewers are not educated in this depth and will mark sound down for repetitive music or bad dialogue. I have some background in this area and so will be giving some deserved attention to how audio will aid the experience had by gamers, and as a trade off I will not be talking so much about visuals, which are covered much elsewhere.
Story makes a difference
Another big thing that I will be digging into a lot is storytelling in games. Now before you sigh (too late maybe) I’m all for old school games where story virtually doesn’t exist (even though as humans we naturally try to make sense of most things through story and even forge them ourselves), but the fact is that most big games these days insist on dragging us through a storyline with voice actors and cinematics. It’s generally treated like a tick on the box and never taken any further. It seems to be of very little importance to some developers to actually provoke the interest and emotions out of the audience like real writing and directing is supposed to. Having a bit of educated knowledge in this area, I’m going to take it fairly seriously (as long as they try to take it seriously themselves, even if they aren’t very good at it).
I feel that most big time game reviewers have no right to have a section that rates the story, as they have no idea what makes a good story in the same way that they may have a good critical eye on design and graphics etc. I saw a big name review give Heavy Rain 9.4 out of 10 for story, and this is beyond ridiculous. Here the reviewer has been seduced by the confidence in which the story is told through music and replication of cinematic techniques, and potentially is receptive enough to the idea of games being a good storytelling medium that he wants to look at it positively and not critically, which he doesn’t have the skill set to do anyway. Another magazine said something akin to “sure it’s only as well written as an average Hollywood movie”, when this again is an ignorant statement, because the competence of writing in that game is nowhere near even the most terrible of movies that would get green-lit in Hollywood. Anyone who challenges that statement would not even get a reply because I would immediately know that they haven’t a clue about the craft of storytelling. Bouncing off that paraphrasing above, even Uncharted 2, which has some of the better writing in games, would only just scrape the average mark in Hollywood, but with this being an interactive medium I believe there is a greater involvement from audiences in a story than if they were not involved in playing out the time between the beats. So to conclude after that rant, story has the potential to enhance the enjoyment and involvement in a game even if it isn’t that interactive. Good writing beats shallow cinematisation. It must be taken seriously or left alone, otherwise, we must accept being forever looked down on as childish entertainment, a play thing, a waste of time, a “game”.
As I said before, you may not want story in your game and think that this is a pointless endeavour, and that’s fine, who needs story in an online deathmatch right? But storytelling isn’t just dialogue and characters, it is atmosphere, environment, and purpose. Story is why Call of Duty is based in modern warfare and Gears of War is some futuristic alien nonsense. But think how it affects you when you’re playing online and the graphics and sound are so visceral that you feel like you’re in the middle of a war zone, and then someone dressed as a clown comes dancing past you in his new modified outfit… it takes you right out of the game. Storytelling extends into online worlds, and it concerns me when someone will break their painstakingly crafted atmosphere by throwing in novelties such as a skeleton running around in Uncharted 2 (see, it’s not perfect).
Story also concerns those moments of gameplay that try to convey story through interactivity, as is a big focus in Heavy Rain, and can be seen in Shadow of the Colossus or Metal Gear Solid 4. Whether it’s mashing a button to unify your tired finger with the tired character crawling across a room on screen, or the ‘say apple’ button turning out to be the jump button when pressed to simulate brain damage in Portal 2. This type of gameplay is interesting and worth exploring but feels gimmicky and undeserved if the story doesn’t manipulate us to care about why we’re doing this, and it comes across quite shallow when something like Heavy Rain strips it of credibility by drawing so much attention to itself.
To conclude
Take a look at the rants on offer and you may discover an insight here that you won’t get anywhere else. The aspects that I have mentioned here are touched on in general gaming discussion and reviewing but are not generally understood. I may know less about art and programming, but development, design, sound, and storytelling are equally vital to the gaming experience and there is a lot of alternative views to be found here. Enjoy, and feel free to put in your constructive two cents.
