Book quotations

Ince, S, 2006. Writing For Video Games. London: A & C Black Publishers Limited.

Interactivity

P13 – ‘A fundamental difference between games and most other media is interactivity. Books, films and television programmes, for example, are instances where the reader or the viewer plays a very passive part in the unfolding of the story… The advancement of the plot, the revealing of the story and the development of the character are not reliant on the interaction of the consumer. The experience the creator intended is basically the same for everyone.’

P13 – ‘The nature of a game’s challenge to the player means that no game can be all thins to all players… The labeling of games into types or genres is a hotly-debated topic, but one that enables the potential player to judge whether they are likely to enjoy the gameplay experience or not.’

P15 – ‘”Games are not films!” has become almost a rallying cry amongst those who are worried that looking to the film industry for parallels will take games in the wrong direction. Certainly, there is a lot to learn from the skills and experience of those who have developed their careers in other media, but game developers know that they must do so in a ways that take nothing away from the nature of their games. For instance, elements like the cinematic use of cameras have been tried in games on numerous occasions with mixed results, mostly due to the imposition of such cameras getting in the way of gameplay and frustrating the player.’

P16 – ‘In many games the identification of the player with the on-screen representation – the avatar or player character – is an important part of the gaming experience. Few such representations have become as widely known as Lara Croft, the all-action heroine of the Tomb Raider games, but her iconic status is as much a testimony to the importance of strong game characters as to the compelling interactive nature of the games she appears in.’

P16 – ‘Creating fun, interactive games is about setting challenges for the players and giving them the means to meet those challenges in a satisfying way. Challenges and objectives should be a mixture of short term and long term. In a simple game like Pong, the short term, or ongoing, challenge is to keep the ball in play. The long term objective is to beat your opponent… Very few games will succeed that are based on a single gameplay mechanic or do not vary the nature of the objectives, so power-ups, better weapons, decreasing time limits and more complex game levels are pretty much par for the course. Interactive variety is very important.’

P16 & 17 – ‘cut-scene – a scene triggered by conditions in the game in which the player has no input… Depending on the nature of the player, these cut-scenes may be seen as a reward for completing the level or as an obstruction… Some game styles are moving towards cut-scenes with an interactive nature… Adapting such interactive dialogue into more action-packed genres is often a challenge, though, because many action game players see it as a distraction and may choose to skip the scene altogether if they have that option.’

P17 – ‘As a writer it can be very frustrating to learn that the game has a system which allows the player to skip cut-scenes and even interactive dialogue. Why has the development company gone to the expense of hiring a writer… Because the player must have as much freedom to choose their own experience… The gameplay experience is everything and if the player feels that the cut-scenes are getting in the way of that experience their enjoyment will be reduced… By creating characters and dialogue of high quality and interest, the players will hopefully find themselves in the situation where they have no interest in skipping the scenes because they add something extra special to the gameplay experience.’

Interactive Storytelling

P19 – ‘How we want to use interactive storytelling will depend on the type of story we want to tell and the type of game in which we are telling it. ‘

P19 – ‘In linear storytelling, at its most basic, the player interacts with a game in some way that reveals the next piece of the story… This method of delivery is rather like a person walking through the rooms of a house and in each room they enter they find the next pages of a story manuscript.’

Williams, J.P. and Smith, J.H., eds., 2007. The Players’ Realm – Studies on the culture of video games and gaming. USA: McFarland & Company.

The Player’s Journey

P174 – ‘Most players of MMOG’s (massively multiplayer online game) do not role-play a fictive character but instead play themselves in another world… In the most extreme state of immersion, the object that a player controls is not seen as a representation. Rather, the player has the experience of being the object:

A persona is a player, in a virtual world. That’s in it. Any separate distinction of character is gone – the player is the character. You’re not role-playing a being, you are a being; you’re not assuming an identity, you are that identity; you’re not projecting a self, you are that self. If you’re killed in a fight, you don’t feel that your character has died, you feel that you have died. There’s no level of indirection, no filtering, no question: You are there (Bartle 2003: 155)

(diagram -> role players & players who play themselves may become players who develop a persona)

The Sims Online

P204 – ‘I was a solitary game player. I enjoyed games as an escape from reality… and sociality. I did not play to be more social, but to be more asocial.’

P205 – ‘ The Sims Online was meant to bring online gaming to a wider networked public not interested in killing monsters, but who might be drawn to virtual socializing and friendly competition… TSO was a place for the casual gamer to make the move to online gaming through a careful alteration of The Sims into an online, persistent world.’

P206 – ‘TSO did not meet the industry’s high expectations… ex-players (mostly beta-testers) of TSO loudly panned the game… calling the game an “expensive chat room” where nothing of consequence happened… a key element was lost – not the consumer desires so often thought of in relation to TS, but control desires. So while on the surface the two games looked similar, the different rule sets resulted in greatly different play experiences, and a loss of a critical element, control, that players of TS had initially found pleasurable.’

Console & Computer Cultures

P223 – ‘scholars focus on many new media-related issues like interactivity and immersion. In order to do so, they often truncate games into one unified field rather than examining them as related, yet disparate, fields of computer and console games. Computer and console games differ in use and in the cultures that they create because of differences in game-play, game usage, and game type… The differences between console and computer gaming communities are formed through the game interfaces, the spaces of game play, and through player perceptions that often mislabel consoles as boys’ territory and computer systems for girls and polder players.’

P224 - ‘Gaming cultures often divide themselves based not only on game titles (e.g., Star Wars) or game narrative types (e.g., horror games), but also based on gaming platforms (e.g., Xbox).’

P225 – ‘The portable gaming market directly relates to the gaming platform because the manner of game-play and the games themselves are specialized, especially as game developers create games for a so-called casual, quick-play market.’

P228 – ‘the typical console interface features a controller pad with several buttons and directional-sticks or pads for movement… The typical computer interface consists of a keyboard and mouse.’

P231 – ‘Arcade games, home video games, and desktop computer games each operate within their own social space(…) Home video games must be played where the television is located, which is often a large and public room. Although one or two people can actively participate, everyone who sits in or walks through the room shares the experience of the game(…) Desktop computer games, played where the computer is located in an office or perhaps a bedroom, are comparatively antisocial, for they are often designed for a single player. On the other hand, desktop games may use networking to expand their social space. (Bolter and Grusin 1999: 102)’

P234 – ‘as Rider notes:

PC gamers are often tech junkies. They like to fiddle with their boxes, take great pride in pumping up their video resolution until their graphics card screams and begs for mercy, and they like to share and show off their knowledge(…) Console gamers just don’t want to be that bothered with the technology – they don’t want to install patches, tweak settings, or work to play the game. Consoles are made to be powered up and played with little to no hassle (2002: para. 5-6)

Miller, C.H, 2004. Digital Storytelling: A creator's guide to interactive entertainment. UK: Focal Press.

P8 – ‘The earliest games were developed not for idle amusement but for serious purposes: to prepare young men for the hunt and for warfare.’

P9 – ‘The sporting competitions that have come down to us from ancient times contained many of the key elements that continue to be hallmarks of today’s athletic games. Furthermore, they are also the distinguishing characteristics of the majority of computer games as well. Both types of games are;

• intensely competitive;

• demanding of one’s skills, either physical or mental;

• regulated by specific rules;

• clearly structured, with an established way of beginning and ending;

• and played to achieve a clear-cut goal; in other words, to succeed at winning, and to avoid losing.’

P10 – ‘Children’s pastimes range from ”quest” games like hide-and-seek, to games that are more social in nature, like jump rope, to games of skill, like jacks. Children also enjoy make-believe activities like fantasy role-play… A more sophisticated form of role-playing games can also be found in adult games, played both with and without the computer.’

‘The expectation of having fun is one of the primary reasons that both adults and children have traditionally engaged in games and other play activities.’

P12 – ‘As for the brilliant modern author James Joyce, many now consider his novels to be a precursor of digital hypertext. In computerized hypertext, words are linked to other related “assets”, such as photographs, sounds, video, or other text. The user who takes advantage of these links is rewarded by a deeper experience than would have been possible by following a simple linear thread. Joyce, particularly in his sweeping novels Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, used a similar technique of associations, allusions, word pictures, and auditory simulations, though all on paper and within the covers of his novels.’

‘In theatre and in motion pictures, writers and directors have also experimented with non-linear methods of telling stories. The Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) wrote a number of plays that probed the line between reality and fiction. His plays deliberately broke the “fourth wall”, the invisible boundary that separated the audience from the characters on stage, and divides reality (the audience side) and fiction (the characters’ side).’

P13 – ‘This breaking of the fourth wall, while relatively unusual in the theatre and in movies, is a common occurrence in interactive media. Video game characters address us directly, and invite us into their cyberworlds.’

P63 – ‘Within the community of interactive media professionals, a vexing question has been batted back and fourth for years. The question goes something like this: Is it possible to have a successful work of interactive entertainment that is a pure story and not built on the mechanism of gaming? The question can also be reversed in this way: How much story can you tell in a game? Or even: Is it necessary to have any story components at all to make a good game?’

If you examine most interactive works, they are constructed on a gaming model: They involve competition, obstacles, and a goal; achieving the goal is usually ta work’s driving force. While stories in traditional media use these same elements, they are less obvious, and great attention is placed on other things such as character development, motivation, the relationship between characters, and so on.’

The difference between stories and games

P64 – ‘(game designer) Roach says, “a tory is an artifact you consume and a game is a process you enter into, and create an artifact.”

P64 & 65 - ‘One of the challenges Roach sees in constructing a nongaming interactive story is the task of providing the player with motivation, an incentive to spend time working through the narrative. But he suggests an answer as well. Roach believes that people like to solve problems, the tougher the better, and feels that a major distinction between games and stories is the types of problems they present, plus the tools you can use to solve them.’

Game Genres

P211 – ‘Films, novels, and other forms of linear narratives are often divided into categories, called genres, and the same is true of games… Works within a specific genre follow the same conventions… these commonalities include having similar settings, characters, values, subject matter, action, style, and tone.’

‘Gamers are usually quite familiar with the various genres and have their clear favourites.’

‘As important as it is to have an understanding of genre, the process of assigning a particular game to a particular category can be a bit tricky. No two experts will agree t exactly the same definition of a genre, and no ruling body exists to regulate what game belongs where. Furthermore, the dividing lines separating genres can sometimes be blurry, with a particular game having characteristics of more than one genre.’

• Action Games: These games are fast-paced, full of physical action, and often call for a great deal of hand-eye coordination and strategy.

• Sports & Driving Games: These games focus of various types of team or individual sports, or on car racing. The sports games are highly realistic and call for strategy as well as good control of the action. Gamers may play as an individual team member or may control an entire team.

• Role-Playing Games (RPG’s): In this genre of game, the player controls one or more characters, which are defined by a set of attributes, such as species, occupation, skill, and special talents.

• Strategy Games: These games, as the name suggests, emphasise the use of strategy and logic rather than quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination. In these games, the players manage resources, military units, or communities.

• Adventure Games: More than any other type of game, adventure games feature the strongest use of story. Typically, the player is sent on a quest or has a clear-cut mission and must solve a number of riddles or puzzles in order to succeed. Players also explore rich environments and collect items for their inventories as they move about.

• Shooters: Shooters, as the name suggest, involve shooting at things – either at living creatures or at targets. Players are pitted against multiple opponents, and are themselves vulnerable. However, they may be given multiple lifetimes in the game, so they can come back for another round if they are killed. In a first-person shooter (FPS), you are given the first-person point of view of the action. You play and control the protagonist, but you cannot see yourself. You can, however, see the weapon you are holding.

• Puzzle Games: Puzzle games are generally abstract and highly graphical and call for the solving of various types of puzzles. Some would assert that the genre includes games that offer story-based environments that are generously studded with puzzles.

• Fighting Games: In these games, players confront opponents in an up close and personal way. The encounter may lead to death, or at least to a clear-cut defeat for one of the opponents. The games typically emphasise hand to hand combat instead of guns or other modern weapons.

• Simulations: A simulation may offer the player a physical experience such as flying a plane or parachute jumping, or may offer the opportunity to create a simulated living community.

• Platform Games: These fast-paced games call for making your character jump, run, or climb through a challenging terrain, often while dodging falling objects or avoiding pitfalls. Such games require quick reflexes and manual dexterity.

What makes video games appealing?

P219 – ‘part of their appeal is the way they take you out of your ordinary life and into a rich fantasy world. You get to play an exciting role and do things you’d never be able to do in reality, and all without any actual risk to yourself… You are in control… (game designer) Katie Fisher… says: “Games allow the player to make decisions that can make the experience unique and there is always that pause button”… As to what keeps people hooked, she believes it is the urge to discover what is just around the corner.’

‘Another very basic reason people like to play games is that they are fun. They satisfy a desire we all have to play… Games offer us a socially acceptable form of play at any age, and an enjoyable stimulus to the imagination… People may play… for one of several reasons. It may be because they are:

• looking to escape;

• want to blow off steam;

• enjoy the intellectual challenge; or

• want to compete with other people.’

‘What hooks people initially is the visual and conceptual part of the game – what it looks like, and what it’s about,” he said, “What keeps them (hooked) is the progressive challenge of the game, the gradual increase in difficulty that keeps them scaling the mountain one step at a time.”’

‘Veteran game producer and designer Darlene Waddington… described another reason people get hooked on games: the adrenaline rush. She believes the players become caught up in the intense struggle to work out or overcome a challenge, absorbed to the point of tunnel vision, and when they finally do succeed, they are rewarded with a gratifying sense of relief.’

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