Another Essay: Incentive

I've noticed that it has become more difficult for video games to capture my attention lately. I blame growing up. But actually, I blame only myself and my personal need for video games to offer me something profound. In fact, I think the only reason anyone would ever play a video game is to gain something spiritually satisfying. Yes, we play video games for fun, but the question I intend to answer is the following: what makes certain video games fun for some people and not fun for other people? Why do we personally choose to play the games we choose to play? I've been dwelling on both the question and its answer for a long time, and I believe the answer is "incentive".

       INCENTIVE FOR THE PLAYER                                     INCENTIVE FOR THE AVATAR

These are the two categories under which every single video game ever created falls.
So let's discuss each form of incentive separately:

       Incentive for the player - "If you play this game, you will gain skill".
We know that there are some video games out there that require skill, practice, and repetition. We know there are games that are designed to force the player to improve their skills in order to overcome challenges. We know there are games that require us to become better at its end than we were at its beginning. If you, as a gamer, are drawn to these types of games, then you prefer games where the incentive is for the player. A game where the incentive is for the player is a game designed with the progression and fluency of the "player" in mind. These games can be identified as having minimal or no story, a multiplayer mode(s), a scoring/ranking system, or a competitive push.
Still don't get it?
Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Guitar Hero, Bejeweled, Flappy Bird, and Angry Birds are all games where the incentive is "if you play this game, you will become better at it/ you will become better than your friends/ you will achieve a higher score than other players/ you will be the best player". The magic behind these games is that when they're being developed, game developers can devote more time to the game's ability to entertain instead of the game's cinematic appeal. The games mentioned above are all examples that are simple in concept, but are played aggressively and religiously. The best games where the incentive is for the player has players playing for dozens, sometimes even hundreds of hours as they each compete and practice and train in order to become the "best". The end goal of these games is determined by the player, not the game. Do you want to be the best Tetris player? If you do, that's awesome, but remember, no one told you that you had to - you set that goal on your own. The problem with these games though is that if the gameplay doesn't compel people to play, then nothing else will. No one will bother competing at a game liked by 0 people- a game that simply isn't fun. Why would anyone want to waste their time becoming good at a game about which no one cares?

      Incentive for the avatar- "If you play this game, your avatar will gain skill".
Then there are some games where we fall in love with a character, or grow to loathe an enemy, or decide that we want what our avatar wants. If you are drawn to these games, then you prefer games where the incentive is for the avatar. The avatar is the character you play as on the screen, and these games involve the gamer pushing the character around from place to place witnessing what he/she witnesses and feeling what he/she feels. These games can be identified as having a deep story, deep characters, motives, and choices with an emphasis on progression or working from a beginning to an end. It is important to note that it may not be necessary for the player to gain any skill at all while playing these types of games. To elaborate, I am borrowing the term "avatar strength" from youtuber Egoraptor, which he describes as a technique used by game developers in order to create the illusion of progression- a game that becomes easier not because the player is becoming more competent, but because his avatar is becoming more capable (stronger, faster, etc.). For example, imagine you're playing a game where your character wields a sword that can kill a given enemy in 4 hits. You then reach a certain point in the game where the sword gets upgraded as a part of the story, and now you can kill that same enemy in 2 hits. YOU did not become better at the game, but your avatar did. Because you played the game, the avatar gained skill. The magic behind these games is that you get the chance to relate to a character in a world to which you would never ordinarily be exposed, you get to watch a story unfold, you get to feel empathy and patience and attachment to characters for a short while, which are all profound feelings! The problem with these games though, is that if the developers fail to create an avatar worth caring about, then the game probably won't be very good. I recently played Tales of the Abyss, a game where the incentive to play was exclusively for the avatar Luke whose purpose in the game was to fulfill his destiny as the chosen hero. Luke, though, was an asshole, refused to develop as a character, and was an absolute displeasure for me to have spent 12 hours with. Why the fuck would I want Luke to gain anything? I didn't care about my avatar, so I didn't like the game. Tales of Symphonia, Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, and the Paper Mario games, however, are all games in this category that established more likable characters, and were more popular because of it.

Now for the surprise category: the games that consider both types of incentive, games that emphasize the progression of the story AND the acquisition of skill to the player. Examples? Some of the best games out there: The Halo games, Legend of Zelda games, The Last of Us, Resident Evil 4, the Metroid games, Pokemon, and the Final Fantasy games. These are all examples of games where the skills acquired by the player contribute just as much to the gaming experience as the game's characters do. I care about Link in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess because he is a good guy, looking after the children of his village while harboring affection for the mayor's daughter. At the same time, though, I feel personally empowered as the player when I find the double claw shot item and am able to spend hours zipping around Hyrule as a character who at that point becomes essentially Spider-Man with a sword. Both Link and I experience the same thrill by riding Epona the horse through the open fields of Hyrule, and we both feel the same grief when our partner Midna has to return to the Twilight Realm at the game's end (SPOILER HAHAHA). The perfect video games consider incentive for both the player and the avatar.

So why did I write this essay? I don't know. To arrogantly exhibit my comprehension of the video game world? I suppose. But really, I hope that someone finds this essay and it makes them realize that the formula for what definitely makes the perfect video game will become cracked soon enough as long as we keep asking the right questions. At the very least, I hope it gets you guys to consider what you love most about your favorite video games and learn to appreciate them for things you never saw before. And maybe, just maybe, reading this essay has helped you guys realize your own gaming preferences and in the future will now have a better understanding of what you look for in a video game. Time for me to get back to Smash Bros. Thank you!





     

MY FAVORITE GAMECUBE GAME

Fin.

Number 2 Favorite Gamecube Game

Only 1 more!

Number 8 Favorite Gamecube Game

Behold my 8th Favorite Gamecube Game.

Namco

I just beat Tales of Symphonia. It was amazing. It was made by Namco. BUT I am not quite ready to write a review on it yet, as it will probably take a bit of thinking to really form my final thoughts on that game, so instead, I am considering which other Namco games I have really enjoyed in the past or present. Soul Calibur 2 is among my favorite Gamecube games ever and that was made by Namco, but what about that round guy? You know, apparently gaming's most iconic character. Not Mario, not Sonic, but the yellow cheese wheel that Americans call Pac-Man!

Ever since his arcade debut in year 1980, Pac-Man has been eating fruit and taking out ghosts in almost every genre that 80s gaming would allow. He has seen Tetris spin-offs and even female spin-offs. If you wanna get your best bang for your buck when it comes to Pac-Man trivia, check out Did You Know Gaming's website for a video all about the hockey puck. You guys are here for another reason though: to find out MY thoughts on a game that I enjoy. Now that you know that today is all about Pac-Man, I bet you're beginning to wonder which game I plan to discuss. Pac-Man on the Gamecube? There's only 1 best answer.

Pac-Man World 2

Pac-Man World 2 is a sequel to Pac-Man World released in year 1999 for the Playstation. Now I admit, I didn't play the first Pac-Man World game so I can't compare it to it's sequel, but I can discuss why I think Pac-Man World 2 is a fun game totally worth the $3 price tag! Hmm, I guess I'll go Gameplay, Level Design, and Soundtrack for this one.

The gameplay of Pac-Man World 2 actually reminds me a lot of Crash Bandicoot with abilities taken from Super Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure. You control a fully 3D Pac-Man in fully linear 3D levels just trying to navigate from the beginning of the level to the end. There are 25 levels spread across 6 different worlds ranging from Forests to Volcanoes and in order to beat the game, you must utilize your jump, butt-bounce, and rev-roll ability to beat every level. It's a pretty simple game that depicts how easily gamers used to be satisfied, but it is a delight to be playing again. When it comes to what sets this game apart from other linear platformers, really, there isn't much to say. This game was, as I like to say, "standard stuff", when it came to gameplay. However, like a fine wine, this game has aged quite well. When it comes to platformers, game developers nowadays have put so much effort into making this genre that tends to be a bit on the shallow side grow. They add guns, gimmicks, and speed to try to set their game apart from platformers of the past. Going back and playing old platformers can cause just as much of a culture shock because the difference between platformers made in 1999 and platformers made in 2007 is just as great as the difference between platformers made in 2008 and platformers made in 2014. True, it may take an experienced gamer to appreciate an older title, but I think that this game is simply so much fun, that the experience necessary to tolerate its age is less vital than it would be if this game wasn't any fun at all.

Now LEVEL DESIGN is another story. Holy SHIT this game just looks amazing. Not that it is graphically extraordinary, but the colors, the art-style, the models, the ghosts, the environment is just so bright and colorful that I feel like I am going to shit balloons for an hour after playing this game! Now this is definitely a good thing in the case of "why Pac-Man World 2 is different and dare I saw better than other platformers of its kind VS. people who aren't me". When a game, especially a platformer, is only average in 1 category of it's core experience, its only hope of doing well in the streets relies in its ability to compensate enormously in its other features. Pac-Man World 2 totally nails it when it comes to level design. This game is a pleasure to look at. Every color is so bright that even Pac-Man himself has a gigantic smile on his face during the entire game! What makes this especially pleasing to hardcore gamers is that this emphasis on color is actually a clever nod to the original Pac-Man back from 1980. Every ghost in the original Pac-Man game was originally supposed to be red. As a result of a survey taken by volunteer gamers back in 1979, each ghost was given their own unique color, Red, Cyan, Orange, and Pink in the final game. The fruit in Pac-Man were also always brightly colored, as fruit is in real life. This importance of color has obviously been cherished over at Namco, as their utilization of bright greens and blues really shows through all of Pac Land, right down to the power pellets.

And to finally make up for the reused platforming concept featured in Pac-Man World, we have the soundtrack. This game's soundtrack....THIS. GAME'S. SOUNDTRACK. is actually one of my favorite soundtracks of any game I have ever played, INCLUDING Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s and Tony Hawk's Underground 2. The game features orchestral music which is actually really well-composed. It has a really triumphant yet accessible feel to it that makes you want to save the damn world while humming. The game has an extremely catchy main theme, and every individual level features background music that is some sort of variant of the main theme. But of course, no soundtrack would be for-real unless it matched up with the theme of the level. Each variant of the main theme in each level is composed with respect to the level in which the song is featured. The ice themed levels are very peaceful with a lot of bells and chimes. The forest levels emphasis a lot of percussion. The Graveyard levels feature a lot of jarring harmonies- you get the point.  And finally, the sound effects. Not much else can be said other than they are mostly the exact sound effects used back in 1980. Everything from eating pac-dots to losing a life utilizes the same sound effects that were used 23 years before this game was released, much like how Sonic's signature ring-collecting sound hasn't been changed since Sonic's debut in 1991. It's clever and familiar as it is always comforting to witness something that simply is not affected by time.

I bet all this talk of Pac-Man has put you in the mood to play! Well that urge, once more, is something that is addressed by Namco in Pac-Man World 2. Among the collectible fruits scattered across each of the game's 25 levels (each of which are about 5 minutes long) are tokens. Tokens can be collected and exchanged for classic Pac-Man titles in the Pac-Man World 2 arcade! Collecting sufficient amounts of tokens will grant you access to the original Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Attack, Pac-Mania, AND brand new 3D mazes that play the same as the original Pac-Man, but were designed especially for Pac-Man World 2. Nothing like a new spin on an old game, especially when you can play the old and new games back to back!

Pac-Man World 2 is a damn fun platformer whose bright colors and surprisingly good music will bring you back to gameplay you may have thought you'd seen the last of many years ago. I'd recommend to Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pac-Man fans, as well as fans of platformers that emphasize collectibles, as there are quite a lot of them in this game. If nothing else has convinced you, if you see it in the store, it will have a $3 price tag and I say that it is fun. Isn't that enough?

I Put This Down: Tales of Symphonia

Mkay so as you all know, I acquired about 20-22 new Gamecube games over the summer. God damn. I haven't even opened all of them yet. I had to develop a strategy in order to quickly play and/or beat all of these games so that I could talk about them here. Typically, I would figure out which games were short, and I tried to blast through them, while allowing myself to spend weeks on longer games, such as Metroid or Wind Waker. Among these longer games was, and still is, one REALLY damn long game. With a typical playthrough occupying at least 80 hours of your life, this next title really had me baffled as far as how I was going to go about playing it quickly. Do I play it every day for a month until it's done? Do I allow myself to take 1000000000 years on it while playing other games in between sessions? Well Ill tell you, what wound up happening was me putting this game down. "Ill play it later" I would tell myself. But days, weeks, maybe a month went by before I finally picked this game up again; this is where our story begins.

Tales of Symphonia

Recently, I've been going around saying "Most of Gamecube's best games came from Dreamcast." It's a hyperbole, not a lie. Tales of Symphonia is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) that came out for the Sega Dreamcast maaaaany many years ago. Despite it's age, it has made a pretty remarkable impression on Gamecube and RPG fans alike. There are many notable qualities this game has. From it's adorable graphics, to it's deep story, this game really kicks ass from beginning until...you put it down. Notice I didn't say "end". It's true- I haven't finished this game yet, but I will. Don't worry. The question today is the same as it always is with I Put This Down:
Why did I put it down?  Why did I pick it up again? What do I think of it now?

Why did I put this game down? Well let's see. I suppose the answer is that I simply didn't have time to play this game. Believe it or not, between my band, school, sleep, friends, working out, getting mad chicks, getting beefy, buying Red Bull, and donating large sums of money to charity, I didn't have a spare 80 hours of my awesome life to designate to this game. It is a shame too because I really do enjoy this game. Tales of Symphonia is the first real RPG I've ever played, so the new gaming experience was very exciting. This game is often praised for it's amazing character development, graphics, fighting style, and soundtrack. The dungeons are fun because the 1 item you have that pertains only to dungeon exploration changes with every dungeon, affectively creating as many different puzzles as there are dungeons. These are all claims that I found too awesome to be true while reading about the game, but it turns out that they are, in fact, true. Those were just a few reasons why the game was all the more difficult to pause. Unfortunately, in the end, the amount of fun the game was to me was not enough to keep me going for more than 20 hours at a time. Ultimately, I put this game down.

 

But then I picked it up again! I think I just missed playing it. The thing about Tales of Symphonia is that the story makes you want to play the game. It's like reading a good book - you may not love reading in general, but what the hell, are you just going to put down the damn book without fucking finishing it? You're already 20 damn hours into it you scumbag! Just finish it and learn what happens. The game is fun to play and the ever-growing story counteracts the sometimes repetitive gameplay. Maybe you find yourself pressing the same buttons over and over, but the reason WHY you're pressing those buttons changes, and so does too your feelings towards the repetition. Considering the game has 80 hours to god damn do it, the character development IS really flawless. You got some dudes betraying you, some people dying, some friends destined to become enemies, some unlikely alliances, all while optional cut scenes take the development one step further by providing you with windows into the personal lives of each of your team members. Is the viewing of these scenes essential for the understand of the story? Not at all, but they are a good example of the steps game designers can take in order to ensure that those who may put this game down pick it up again. As you guys know, this isn't a review, so I can't talk about gameplay that much, but I will say that the fighting is fun as hell, as it takes place in real-time akin to Viewtiful Joe or even Super Smash Bros., and navigating the open hub world is very fun and rewarding. When a developers give you a big map, they want you to get lost. They want you to appreciate what they have created, and I do. I so do, Namco.

So what do I think of it now? I love it. In the end, Tales of Symphonia offers an exceptional gaming experience. Nothing is too challenging, nothing is too annoying. Everything is perfect as far as I am concerned. The idea of playing an 80 hour game is daunting to me, as, like I've said, I've never played an RPG before (I know this isn't even the longest RPG out there, dickhead, so don't yell at me), but I anticipate feeling really good when I beat it. It will be rewarding and I look forward to it. I do feel like I will wind up putting it down in increments of 20 or so hours, but that's fine by me. If spending 80 hours on this game is inevitable, then I might as well enjoy every last second of it. Seashells. Forever.