Shamus has another great article up, this time using GTAIV and Saints Row 2 to illustrate the difference between gaming on rails and games that allow the player to make choices and experiment.
I’ve written about choices in games before, and I suspect I’ll do it again, but it’s nice to see someone else doing so, and finding concrete examples to do so. I’m decidedly not a fan of this sort of game, since my inner thug is plenty (over)satiated with the mayhem and murder in MMOs and JRPGs, but the “sandbox” nature of a “toolbox” game is appealing, at least in the abstract.
Perhaps that’s why The Incredible Machine is still among my most beloved games. For me, the best games give you a goal, some tools, and allow for multiple solutions. They get bonus points for allowing players to define their own goals, and create emergent gameplay.
Tish Tosh Tesh 
Oh, nice that someone discovered one more thing that I do not like about the GTA series. And that some people do not like the game, I got the impression I am abnormal for not liking the game, as everyone else does.
In fact, I have many more issues with the game, I really do not like it. I once completed GTA Vice City and the really forced cool & crime cliche made a rather disgusting impression on me.
I can’t stand the games or the themes, m’self, but I’m not exactly “mainstream”. I’m glad that Shamus is “taking one for the team”, as it were, digging into these things. I like his efforts at digging into the design aspects of the Fable games and Resident Evil games for much the same reason. These are games I’ll never play, but I see in Shamus a critical vision that is similar to my own, so I appreciate his view on these games.
There are just places I won’t go, even for the sake of education. Life’s too short to put up with that sort of compromise.
Long, you’re German, right? I’m idly wondering if that sort of cultural difference might be a factor in your view on GTA. I certainly don’t get the appeal of a host of Japanese games, for example.
I will say this. His points are spot on.
I’m having way more fun right now in Saints Row 2 than I ever did in the GTA series.
For all of the flash of the GTA games (and it is GOOD flash btw), SR2 does much better of job of letting you mess around.
Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive who likes to sign his comments because it makes them 10x more valid)
Yes, I am German. There are some differences in what people play, but in general Germans import much more american/british fantasy literature than they are producing themselves, the same for movies and computer/videogames.
Let me guess, you think Germans hate acting against the law in general? And thus do not like GTA and so on.
No, it is also very very popular in Germany, it is just me who does not like it. 🙂 There are some stereotypes about germans that date back to WW1 and WW2. Like being hard-working, obedient to authorities, militaristic and so on. “Made in Germany” was once supposed to guarantee good quality, but given the fact that german software companies released incredibly (Gothic III had a patch on release that was almost the size of the CDs/DVD it was delivered on) buggy games to the public, it does no longer hold true…^^
Germans like WoW. There are two parties, the younger Germans and the elder Germans, who are on the fence regarding FP shooters. Counter-Strike is usually blamed for turning kids into suicide spree killers. This is the only game politicians who know nothing about the genre usually have heard about, even if it is stone-old.
A typical german genre is economy simulations and “Aufbau-Strategie”, basically Sim City style games like the “Settlers” or “Anno 1601”. They are also acceptable to parents, as the military part is underdeveloped and not the main part of gameplay.
Germans nowadays turn away from anything related to war like vampires from light or a cross. I guess this is the result and success of too much de-nazification. It is also deplorable that German kids know more about every era of world history than about WW2. In the 10th grade of the Gymnasium (“a school of secondary education found in several European countries that prepares students for higher education”, say Wikipedia somewhat between college and high school) students are usually taken to a former KZ/concentration camp and watch a video about Nazi guards killing Jews in gas chambers or with machine guns, so that they never forget what happened. In fact kids are only taught about the events that lead to Hitler becoming the big boss, and then WW2 is totally skipped. I shit you not. There is also hardly any talk about WW2 at universities either. I had to read Ian Kershaw’s Hitler Biography and tons of literature from British authors and must say they have a much more scientific and sociologic approach to how the Nazis got in control and what enticed people. Even German historians of some renown still follow the somewhat questionable idea that a crazy madman alone bewitched all Germans and after his death, the charm was suddenly gone, as you could not find a single Nazi or Nazi supporter in Germany anymore at all…^^
Though Germans know little about America in general, we know and watch the same kind of silly daily soaps, talkshows and also play the very same games.
The typical German view of Asian games and players is that they are stupid grind games, and that Asians love to grind, btw. Germans usually hate the micro-payment game model, and cannot understand that Asians pay and play in Internet Cafes or how Starcraft is even shown on TV in Korea.
At the same time German gamers often import US games in their original version, the german version is often censored to show less violence, often in a very silly way.
The most severe culture shock I ever experienced was as I was eating breakfast with the son of an American soldier in Bamberg. He ate a giant pancake with more sugar on it that I would have eaten in a year. My teeth still hurt just from thinking about it.
I would say Germans born after 1960 are very americanized in regards of movies, computer games and fantasy literature. Older germans prefer crime fiction, known as “Krimi” in Germany, and sometimes read a Thriller, which is also acceptable. But computer and video games are definitely a japanese or american thing they know nothing about.
Bottom line, Germans play mostly the same games as Americans and usually think in similar ways about them. With FPS games being the scapegoat for every massacre nowadays, and a major difference in reception of computer game violence by younger and elder german generations.
Actually, no, I didn’t have any preconceived notions about Germans. That’s why I’m glad you wrote about it. Sorry if that didn’t come out right, I’m just genuinely curious as to whether there was a social aspect to your reaction. Thanks for responding! 😀
I will say that Settlers of Catan is brilliant, though.
http://www.amazon.com/SETTLERS-III-GOLD-pc/dp/B00004XOS6/
These Settlers, not the Settlers of Catan. But those are great, agreed. 🙂
I do keep meaning to check out that game. It’s been cited as an inspiration for our Keflings game. So many good games, so little time. 🙂