Erwin Schroedinger may or may not have liked cats. Considering his famous thought experiment, one might detect a bit of antipathy towards the critters, as he willingly thought of them in mortal peril, but then, we don’t really know until we open the box and find out.
Do we really know what Star Wars: The Old Republic will be like? Do we really know what the next Final Fantasy will be like? Do we know what the next blockbuster game will be that shapes the game industry?
The future is in a bit of a quantum uncertainty state, especially considering the economic stresses and a lot of shadow play behind the financial scenes. The game industry as a whole is juggling concerns of used games, digital sales, DRM, legal wrangles, censorship, business models and economic viability, and a butterfly over in the Federal Reserve can create storms for the industry at large.
Each individual game that we don’t know about can be said to be in a similar state. Until each one of us takes a long, hard look and observe something, can we really be sure what it is? Perhaps most importantly, do we know what it is for us? Observation and objectivity are kissing cousins, but in the absence of omniscience, all we have is a set of probabilities and guesstimates, measurements of trust and “weighing the options”. Numbered “reviews” are just one shallow, biased tip of the informational iceberg that constitutes an informed purchase.
For example, I love the Valkyrie Profile games. I played the original on a whim, since it was developed by Tri Ace, the guys behind Star Ocean: The Second Story. (A game I picked up on sale and counted myself lucky to have done so. It’s a great game.) I picked up the second Valkyrie Profile (Silmeria) a year or two ago, and have enjoyed it as well. Prowling around Goozex, I happened to notice a third game in the series, a tangential Tactical RPG for the Nintendo DS. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume looked interesting, since I’ve been enamored with Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre of late, so I put in a request for it, and wandered over to GameFAQS to check out the reviews and comments on the game.
It doesn’t have a lot of press exposure (a perpetual problem with the VP series), so there are just a handful of reviews. They tend to fall into two camps, not unlike Schroedinger’s superimposed cat. Reviewers tend to either really like the game or really dislike it. There’s another divisive set of opinions, and it’s curious to me that they don’t perfectly intersect with the “like/dislike” split. Some reviewers think the game is abusively hard, while others think it’s too easy. There are very few opinions in the middle. Some like hard tactics games, but think CotP is too easy, so they rate it poorly. Some like easy games, but think it’s hard, so they rate it poorly. Some like hard games and see it as hard, so they like it, and some like easy games and see it as easy, so they like it.
It’s actually a lot like genetics, with a Punnet square mapping out the probabilities of player response to the game across the two axes: Like vs. Dislike, Hard vs. Easy. Any given player will have their own phenotypical reaction to the game that can only be experienced firsthand, and is entirely dependent on the player.
I find this sort of review set to be more useful than a universally hailed game that nearly everyone drools over. The smaller sample and clear delineation of opinions is more useful to me in determining my possible reaction to the game than a few hundred mini reviews worshipping something like GTA3, which I hold only in contempt (due to the subject matter rather than the structure). Of course, clear writing and explanation of why those scores are what they are is a huge help.
At any rate, even though there is a nice set of quantum probabilities for CotP, and I had a fairly good bead on where I’d sit in the Punnet square, I still had to observe firsthand what the game held before I could really know for myself what my response would be. I found myself looking forward to what I thought the game would be, and hoping for certain specifics. The game was in a state of quantum flux, or at least, my observation of the game was in a state of flux. I was cautiously excited and optimistic.
Sometimes, this is the best part of gaming.
It’s interesting to me that sometimes I like that period of anticipation and imagination better than the experience of actually playing a game. It’s certain that I have more control over my perceptions at that point, and the game is more a product of my imagination than the developers’ work. It can be everything I dreamed it to be and more.
This is not coincidentally how game development works as well. Devs have great ideas about what they want to do, and it’s only as the project moves on through time that the quantum states settle down… sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. This is why the concept stage of a project can be far more exciting than the production phase.
Hype machines, like that built around SWTOR, are the game equivalent of a flux capacitor, framing the experience in such a way that people can superimpose their own wishes and aspirations on the game and get excited about it. Even though no two people will have the same genotype, they can still get excited about what the game might be when that box is opened. Good hype magnifies the flux, letting players rush ahead with their own imagination. Great hype keeps the capacitor from overloading by injecting just enough stabilizing reality to keep expectations within the reach of the developers, or at least within a few percent of reality.
Of course, with all of this, reality doesn’t always comply. It’s wise to temper expectations, since reality doesn’t usually measure up to our wishes. This is why sometimes the heady rush of “what might be” is more exciting and fun than the mundane realizations about “how things really are“.
This is why I love being a creative sort of person. I spend a lot of time thinking about the “what if” and “if only” aspects of life. Then I go out and create, making imagination into reality. It’s a nice mix of dreaming and work that I find very satisfying.
This is also why I keep wishing that games would allow players to control more things about the game, making more choices with consequences that reflect the player’s actions, rather than their reactions to dev-imposed ideas. The reality of a tightly scripted game on rails doesn’t mesh well with the freeform expectations of many players who succumb to the hype machine. If a game is designed to give players control and mold the game’s reality into something more closely approximating the players’ dreams, it has a chance of forging a deeper connection with the player.
Not all games can work like that, but I think that the best games will try to give players as much control as possible. It’s why storytelling in games is more about how the player acts and reacts, and less about what the devs created. It’s one thing to “play” through a barely interactive movie, it’s quite another to mold a game world to your whim. (And notably, even in something like FFX or FFXII, players are given significant control over how their characters develop. That is no mistake or coincidence, and without that control, the games would be significantly weaker as games, and may as well have been movies like Final Fantasy: Advent Children. It’s a different sort of storytelling. Both are certainly valid and valuable, but will scratch different itches.)
We may not be able to hold on to that “what if” Schroedinger dream state as we go through life, but the more power we have to make the most of what reality does come our way, the happier we are likely to be. That usually just means controlling ourselves in the real world, and our reactions to events. In games, though, where “what if” is a key component of how games work and how the narratives function, players can have extraordinary power. It is a blessing and a curse of games, part of their unique potential and power, and it needs to be exercised carefully.
*Addendum* I wrote this in bits and pieces, and since starting it, writing about Role Playing has rippled through those blogs that I frequent. Wolfshead has a great article up, and Psychochild wrote another great one earlier, and even the Rampant Coyote chimes in, each linking to other ones worth reading. This is tangential to those concerns, but some of the themes of Role Playing intersect neatly with the ideas here espoused. Namely, player imagination and power to change the world, since those tend to be huge tools for the player interested in playing a Role within one of these MMO worlds.
I’ve actually always thought that would be the draw of these games, to be able to assume a new identity within a completely fictional world, taking part in and changing things aggording to those “what if” questions. The reality to date has been somewhat… different, and ultimately, underwhelming in my eyes. I’m actually not all that disappointed, since such design might have the potential to be even more distracting from the real world, and the current generation of these games is plenty deleterious as is. Still, current MMO design is so underwhelming compared to what I imagined for the genre years ago (reading ads for Ultima Online) that I can’t help but just be less than interested in playing them much. Designing them, now… that’s another thing entirely.
I guess Keen and Syp from BioBreak are the guys who enjoy fantasizing and looking forward to new games more than actually playing them.
See how Keen crashed with Darkfall. This is why I am taking the pessimist stance on SWTOR, because both are pretty hyped about it. OK, Keen is a bit wary of some design elements.
I usually start refering to the good old times and Ultima Online every time a DikuMUD comes along… very predictable. 🙂
Keep on dreaming, Tesh. A lot of MMO gamers do it, and the “perfect” world does not exist yet for most of them, not even for some guys that are madly in love with Age of Conan but hate Funcom (waves at Openedge1).
I think MMORPGs are still at the very very beginning. Most MMO gamers can probably agree on this, MMOs have a certain lure (a certain Korean professor said that they “acknowledge our identity” and this is the main lure) and charm, yet still could be so much better.
It is about time for the revolution, or do they really want Blizzard to lead the way? I would rather expect Blizzard to polish and make gold of the good ideas of others. 😉
“It’s interesting to me that sometimes I like that period of anticipation and imagination better than the experience of actually playing a game. ”
I used to do a lot of public speaking. People would ask me how I could be so cool under fire. But as far as I am concerned the actual speaking part is kinda boring. But the five minutes before I got on stage, OMG, that was the thrill! By the time I opened my mouth it was all over.
I used to have this problem with music and books. There’s just so much out there that it’s overwhelming, and no real way to know if you’ll like it.
I think for me, the most important thing is to have some friends whose opinion you trust, and who know your tastes really well.
For example, I just got sent a beta key from a friend for Heroes of Newerth, with a comment about how this is the perfect game for me and exactly why he thinks I’ll like it.
You can have a similar experience now by listening to last.fm, or pandora, or by reading book reviews from people you know on goodreads. Web 2.0 can be pretty annoying, but it’s really excellent when it comes to helping us more easily find things we will like.
Mike
mikedarga.blogspot.com
Every game I’ve followed from hype to storefront has always disappointed me. I guess I get lured in to the grand visions of the designers, and then become disappointed when they underdeliver or deliver something else entirely.
The games I end up enjoying are usually the ones where I had no clue when the game was coming out, what it was about, or that it even existed. A friend will usually ask me to try it. With no predispositions, I’m free to enjoy the game for what it is.
[…] in MMOs: why you can’t just live the dream Tesh wrote an insightful post discussing why daydreaming about what a game might turn out to be like can be the best part of gaming. We all have our ideal types of games, our ideal IPs or genres, our ideals of what a game could be […]
As soon as I start playing a MMO there’s a feeling of that anything is possible. The player really believes at this point that they truly have choices but due to the limitations of virtual worlds — it’s all just an ilusion.
It’s only after we bump into a few virtual walls that we find this out.
Remember the movie the Truman Show a few years ago with Jim Carrey? His character was living in a fool’s paradise — ultimate bliss until he figured out his world had physical limitations. He realized that he really couldn’t go anywhere outside his small enclosed world.
This is exactly what eventually happens to players who play MMOs and those who inhabit virtual worlds if they play long enough. Eventually we see that there are boundaries and limitations. We are not free. We can only go where the developers tell us we can go.
Freedom and choice is just an illusion.
I believe this is why dreaming and fantasizing about video games is almost more enjoyable then actually playing them. Reality is a cruel master indeed.
The problem with your flux capacitator is, that by everyone projecting his hopes and dreams onto it, the disappointment is much bigger when the reality arrives and fails to deliver everything you hoped for.
Basically it is the difference between two scenarios: In the first scenario you find a box on your doorstep, which unbeknownst to you is a Schroedinger box. You open it up. If there is a living cat inside, that might be an interesting surprise. If the cat is dead, you’ll just bury it in the back garden, muttering about “kids these days” having played a prank on you.
In the second scenario you promised your kids the greatest pet ever, which comes delivered in a Schroedinger’s box. You open it up. If the cat is alive, your children might still be pleased, but you could also get shouts of “but you promised us the greatest pet ever, and this is just a cat!”. If the cat is dead, there are tears all around.
So in spite of the box being the same, the hype surrounding the box can only make things worse once you open it up.
Mike, Pandora is brilliant, especially since people want “change” but don’t really want to change. Genetic mutational evolution is a good way to find variation without huge revolutionary leaps that throw people off the bus. (Though sometimes revolution is necessary, too, eh, Longasc? :)) It definitely helps to have trusted sources of information, too. One more reason to have intelligent game reviews and careful reading skills, rather than just going with a Metacritic number.
Daniel, that’s very true. I teach a couple of classes, and it’s always more stressful (and enjoyable… strange how often those two coincide) in the prep phase than in the execution phase. At least, if I’ve done it right, and I’m not trying to wing it. Improv has its own charm, for better or worse.
Motstandet, agreed, I’ve had a lot of fun with games I’ve happened across via random tangents, rather than hype. Star Ocean: The Second Story is one of those gems, and I cherish those memories of just exploring a new game.
Wolf, the Truman Show is a great metaphor for a lot of things, and fits the MMO genre very nicely. Perhaps it’s telling that I keep bumping against that wall and looking for the hidden cameras when I talk design. There’s a reason I’m not as big as someone like Matticus who masters what is there, rather than dreaming of what is beyond. It’s the Explorer in me, perhaps. 🙂
Tobold, I’m not necessarily saying that the flux capicator is the best way to manage hype, just that it’s one tool in a savvy marketer’s belt. You’re right, it amplifies both the risk and the reward. Some people like to gamble big, trying to please those who *do* chime in at the big reveal that “X is the bestest ever!!!1!”, hoping that they exist in the first place, and that they will shout down the naysayers and build a groundswell of word of mouth adoption. That’s the dev mentality of trying to out-WoW WoW, for example.
If I were in charge of a hype machine, I’d definitely keep it low key, but that’s not everyone’s style. I’d rather people be pleasantly surprised, not harboring crushed dreams. I’d rather build from a modest but loyal customer base, rather than try to be the Pepsi of the MMO world. More Puzzle Pirates, less WAR.
That said, I’m not just talking about hype here. I’m also suggesting that game design itself can harness those expectations by making the final game more fluid and malleable, letting players mold the game to their own internal hype. That’s my bottom line, not fussing about the existence or use of hype itself. Hype exists; it’s inevitable, especially if you have a hot IP or savvy marketers on hand. You can either bridle the horse for a trip through the carnival and hope it likes what it sees or give it free rein in a world where its imagination is the limit. (OK, and the technology, but you should see what I’m getting at.)
Just accept them for what they are.
Because even if they adopt what you see as a solution, it’s just an Ideal, and you soon will be back posting about how much the promise of player’s power to shape the world has led to griefing and flying genitalia.
Otherwise you’ll just be unhappy because no existing MMo can measure up.
[…] Far more useful to me are well-written reviews that clearly state opinions and facts about a game. I may not agree with them, but if they are well-written and clearly reasoned, I can get a fair bead on what the game offers, especially if I read a spread of favorable to unfavorable reviews and parse the commonalities. I wrote about this a little bit when I suggested a Punnet Square of difficulty, and how it colored p…. […]
[…] plotting and planning, exploring the potential because that’s all you can do at present. Your’e deriving fun from one of the only exploration avenues open to you without actually play… You’re also trying to maximize the value you’ll get out of the limited time you know […]