Recently a screenwriter I’ve met posted that many video games are “more like films where one can participate in the narrative and fill in the off-screen boring bits” (here he cited RED DEAD REDEMPTION as well as MAFIA 2).
A preference was stated for games that “obey the rules of good narrative structure, i.e., they leave out the goddamn boring bits” (here he cites UNCHARTED 2 as well as BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 and MODERN COMBAT).
I’ve played UNCHARTED 2 and RED DEAD REDEMPTION and I understand what he’s getting at. What’s funny to me is that not three clicks later I read an editor’s note in a FILMMAKER magazine email blast trumpeting the virtues of boredom as a path towards discovering art.
I’m not gonna address the “games as art” issue but I think there is something both great and insidious about these massive sandbox games and I’ll use RED DEAD as my touchstone. I think it’s awesome that there is an entire world to explore. Should you grow tired of the narrative, you can always roam about and discover new pockets of land, hunt game, meet strangers, cheat in a game of poker, toss horse shoes, go to a movie, challenge someone to an arm wrestling match, take a job as a night watch man, bust broncos, herd cattle or just collect some flowers. It’s a fun way to get lost, and lose a lot of productive time (do you hear me BORDERLANDS?). Actually, that’s my complaint: there’s too much to do. Honestly, after your escapades in Mexico I was ready for the game to end, not introduce a whole new third plus a coda. And heaven help someone like me that gets obsessed collecting all the trinkets (I resisted this in RED DEAD but did manage to collect all the feathers, statues, codex pages, paintings, weapons, armor and seals in ASSASSIN’S CREED 2).
And that’s my complaint when I’m playing solo.
But then there’s the online component. I think that’s where the sandbox styled games triumph. Sure, the UNCHARTED 2 online multiplayer experience is fun but does it come close to RED DEAD where not only can you duel but you can also posse up to tackle missions, hunt game, race horses or just wander off and pick flowers?
So while I understand the joy in simply taking an active role in a movie-like narrative, I think it’s in these massive game worlds, worlds with that allow for online social experiences with our friends, as well as the potential for boredom, that games will be able to distinguish themselves as something more than just movies staring a superhero version of us.
That said, I’m dying for FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS, CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS and ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD to hit my mailbox this fall (what kind of gamer do those choices make me?).
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