Videospielkultur.org – Presenting the hero’s journey as a narrative strategy in video games

A month has passed already – time flies, it seems, at least in “real” life – since I had the honor of giving a presentation to our very own Videospielkulturverein e.V. here in München. My topic was the so called “hero’s journey”, a comprehensive abstraction of the structure of mythological narratives, which was defined by famed comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (among others) and popularized with the success of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” movies. This structure has since become a failsafe dramatic blueprint for modern American cinema, and as such, also an influence on video game designers looking for ways to tell a story through their medium. Such is the case with 3D Realms’ first person alien shooter saga “Prey“, or at least that was what I was trying to show with my presentation.

All in all, I am happy with the way it went down, but I have to admit that it was not a good idea to demonstratively play the game while trying to elaborate on its mythological structure at the same time. Focus on the playing of it all tends to keep you away from the level of abstraction needed to properly analyse the game. Or so I have found, as my remarks became increasingly descriptive. Next time, I definitely need a demo player to help me out!

Anyhow, thanks to Tobias Wildner’s dedicated work, pictures of the event are now online. What’s more, the whole talk will be available for download – soon. So stay tuned for updates on that. Meanwhile, everybody thank Tobi very much!

There ain’t no “y” in “death”: Thoughts on style in John Woo’s “Stranglehold”

As you know, there is no “I” in team. Nevertheless, the fact that videogames are a wholesomely collaborative experience from time to time takes a step back in order to enable a single player’s task: A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, and sometimes, that just might be following the trail of the lone ranger, righteously rightening the wrongdoings of countless scoundrels – by shooting everyone in your trail/path/way, because, and that is the real beauty of games like John Woo’s Stranglehold, literally everyone you encounter in the course of the game is a bad guy. You can’t do wrong giving bad guys what they asked for.

So, once the morals are thus clearly and constantly out of the way, JWS expertly demonstrates how to make the death of bad guys solely a question of stylistics. In the realm of JWS, the gamer’s efforts in staging his vendetta in an aesthetically pleasurable way are constitutive for further progress, as they will be rewarded in the form of enhancement of the avatar’s abilities. So, as there is no “y” in death, the question can only relate to the “how” of it all. Thus the “h” in “death”…. obviously!

GTA IV will not play with cheaters

More than two weeks ago, News for gamers already had gamers reporting that cheating on in GTA IV blocks your achievements. Now, I am just coming out of an intriguing discussion with my esteemed neighbor Max, who has spent some 18 hours of game time with GTA IV and to whom I am indebted to regarding this information. It seems as though cheating affects not only your XBOX Live score, but gameplay elements as such: Upon cheating, vigilante missions, which by default can be taken on when capturing a police vehicle, are no longer accessible.

So first of all, there is an in-game consequence to cheating and second, it lies in something at least I have not yet heard of: Whole elements of the game will not be revealed to gamers who choose to use a feature of the game itself, provided by designers. In my opinion, this constitutes a moral judgment on the nature of cheating on the part of the game’s designers, the consequences of which the gamer has to suffer. Which I find precarious. What do you think?

Time slows when you’re having fun (playing Trackmania Nations Forever)

“Time flies when you’re having fun” – or so they used to say. Upon playing Trackmania recently, I’ve come to find the opposite to be true. Trackmania is such a fast-paced experience that I actually wound up being exhausted after what felt like hours of trying to beat gold medal times. Coming out of the game, only about half an hour of real time might have actually passed during any given session. I think that’s quite an achievement in immersive gameplay.