Gameplay is a Vehicle

Gameplay is an important part of a video game. In fact, it's what makes a video game, well, a video game. Without it, we just have a movie. In most cases, the focus of a game is on its gameplay and mechanics. In others, it's a way to progress the story with elements of interactivity. Gameplay is the vehicle in how the medium moves along, while the game's layout and story is the track.

A while back I was playing Final Fantasy X in an effort to work through my backlog of video games. I can't say that I've picked up the game for a while. However, it got me thinking about the mechanics of the battle system, and how it differed from my other experiences with other Final Fantasy games. FF X uses a turn based battle system, that also changes with the actions that the player takes. For instance, a standard attack will keep the order of battle. However, if I decide to use an item, use an ability, or cast a healing spell, the order is changed. This allows me to strategize, and puts more weight on the decisions that I make in battle. Though, admittedly, I was playing Final Fantasy X for its story, as opposed to its gameplay. While the battle system is solid, it's nothing all to special. Granted, it's a majority of the game, but it's more of a means than a focal point. Final Fantasy games, and other RPGs, are primarily all about the story that they want to tell. However, gameplay is still important. Gameplay is the reason I haven't invested as much time into other Final Fantasy games. I find that the ATB system isn't functional, nor conducive to carrying the game. There's nothing wrong with a turn based battle system. Pokemon proves this with every game. Turn based is safe, and reliable. Like a mini van.

That being said, other games have an immense focus on their gameplay, such as fighters, platformers, shooters, and the like. These games spend a long time in development having their mechanics worked on. Having them be refined to the highest end. To make the controls tight and responsive. Super Meat Boy is a good example of this. In SMB, the player has full control over the character, yet is sent against nearly impossible obstacles. These boards are extremely difficult, but can be overcome with skill and patience. It's all possible within the confines of the games mechanics. Like a driver trying to shave off seconds to get a better time each lap, or to move up to the next position on his conquest for first place. Games that focus on their gameplay are like sports cars. Their fast, responsive, and extremely dangerous because you'll end up dying a lot. Though, when you've mastered it, you come off looking like a badass because you can swerve around corners and maintain control every inch of the way. Games with gameplay are its primary function are like a Lamborghini.

Some games don't necessarily have a set track. They allow the player to go anywhere, and do anything that they want to. These games can go off the beaten path, and go mudding, get dirty, and have fun doing whatever catches their fancy. Skyrim is one of those games. Skyrim allows players to go wherever, and do whatever they please. If they wish to become a master of the arcane arts, then they can do so. If a player wants to become a master of the sword, wearing heavy armor, and carrying a shield to plow through enemies because stealth is for the weak, then they can do so. If the player wants to be a deadly shadow that takes out his enemies from a distance, or slit throats, then they may do so. If the player wants to become a werewolf; and the list goes on. Other games like Just Cause 2, let the player go wherever they want, and blow up anything they want. These game can allow for total exploration, for both on and off road. These games are like a Hummer.

Some games try and do something different. Some games experiment. They've still got four wheels and an engine, but there's something... different about them. They don't obey what is traditionally considered a game, they do things differently because they understand that games can do more. The Walking Dead video game by Tell Tale Games tells an emotional story, with character, and heart. The game doesn't really have anything of a traditional game. There isn't much action, yet there's a lot of drama. There is gameplay to be sure, but not as we understand it. Games of earlier days were still experimenting with gameplay, and game design. The Dreamcast is home to many of these, including: Ecco The Dolphin, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, and Shenmue are only a handful of games that broke the mold of what a game is. These kind of games take what we know as a game, and modify it to become something more, something different, something wonderful. These games are kind of like... well, this:

As important as gameplay is for a video game, it's really more of a vehicle. How much fun you have with that vehicle is how well it functions. Game play is absolutely crucial to a game, as it can make or break it. There have been several times that I haven't completed a game because of its broken gameplay, as everything hinges on it. That being said, it isn't everything. If Mass Effect didn't have the story, or universe that it did, it wouldn't be the same game. 

What are some games that you play for just the gameplay, or vice versa? Are there games out there that you couldn't care less how the gameplay and mechanics were so long as you got to experience the story? Let me know in the comments!

Good News Everyone!

Recently I have received a job wherein I write about video games and get payed to do it. Granted it isn't much money, but all the same, I like writing for a publication.

My post, as seen here, is about video game choice.

I kind of geek out about Bioware games, because I tend to do that, and because Bioware games are really good at making games choice. Though, if there is one gripe that I have with Bioware choice games is how direct they are with telling the player what kind of decision they made. Though there is quite the sense of dread in KOTOR when trying to play good, and the icon for "dark side points earned" shows up on the screen. However, Bioware games have become less ambiguous about the choices that the player can make. Now they are just down right overt. Top choice = good guy, middle choice = boring and lame, bottom choice = jerk. That's no way to go about it. Choice in video games should be masked in a more creative way, or at least in a way where there are more than three options. Other Bioware games, such as KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins, have it so that there are multiple dialogue options, and it is rather unclear, in some cases, which one is which. Modern Bioware games have it so that the line of dialogue is masked with one of the three choices and the general point of whatever the character is going to say. For example, at the end of Mass Effect 3, one of the choices is simply "Commrades..." as Shepard prepares to deliver a rousing speech to his, or her, crewmates. Whereas KOTOR, out right gives the full line of dialogue. The main character isn't voiced, yet the tone of the line is present in the given circumstances and wording.


There are more ways to make decisions that with words. Games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored have their morality on a more binary level of simply: to kill or not to kill. Going through a run of Dishonored, knocking out your victims rather than slitting their throats would be taking the moral high ground. However, proving your innocence of a murder with murder is just nonsensical. What if Dishonored didn't allow you to murder, that would be an interesting dynamic. What if it left you with no choice at all? What if you were forced to sneak, steal, and gather information, and not be able to counter attack and kill? However, one thing that really upset me about Dishonored, was the fact that during the loading screens, it overtly told you what the consequences of killing and doing bad things were. That, and the fact that only killing seemed to upset the balance, not the side missions for the crazy blind witch lady that told you to go poison the brewery with the plague. Everything is just fine with that. There is more to a morality mechanic that simply not killing.

The original Deus Ex game constantly kept me on edge about where my decisions put me in the grand scheme of things. There are multiple ways to handle situations. Given how old the game was, it seems like a lot of modern games are following in its footsteps with how many motifs that they are taking from this one game. The original Deus Ex game was released in 2000. Deus Ex encouraged avoiding enemies rather than confronting them head on, or not killing them and simply knocking them out. These are major concepts that are explored in today's games like Mirrors Edge(2008), and Mass Effect (2007). These elements used to be a core component of game design, now they seem to be marketed as selling points.

Video games have become so linear that once while my brother was watching, he was astounded at the fact that I could go around the enemy while he was watching me play Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Choice is what separates video games. Choice is what allows players to further immerse themselves into the game. Not just what character class or what gun to use, but the choice of story, of character. That is what makes a truly great game.

It's been a while....

So, yes! Indeed it has been quite some time since I have updated my blog. For shame. Yet! I am still ever persistent to continue to write.

I find that in times of boredom and woe,
I go back to the games that I used to know.
A game called Mass Effect
Wherein I can erect
My own kind of hero
Full of hate, or respect
Her name is called Shepard
Though her first matters not
Off to a Prothean dig site
Where I meet Ashley, who's not all that hot
Geth robots swarm the ground
gunning down humans
leaving dead bodies all around
What's this?
I exclaim
A lazy factory worker taking the piss?
Napping behind crates and barrels
While my Turian friend takes a shot from his who doesn't miss
This poem isn't that good
it's been a while since I've done one
It's rather chilly, I'll pull up my hood.


Sorry, I just watched some video about video game poetry, and got into the spirit of things.

All the same, I've gone back to retreading the Mass Effect Series.

Mass Effect is an iconic franchise that made it's way on to the Xbox360 about two thousand ought seven, and was immediately a smash hit. The game created a believable and fantastical world that players could get lost in and one heck on a bad guy that made you want to hunt him down across the entire galaxy and end him. Which is exactly what you do.

I love the Mass Effect series and I always find myself going back to it whenever. This time around, I've decided to do a straight play through of all three games sequentially. To make it even more difficult, I'm doing my best to complete a Renegade run. For those of you who don't know, Renegade is when you make bad guy, or rather, jerk like decisions and actions. Being a renegade in the Mass Effect universe is difficult for me, heck even in this universe it's difficult for me. I always feel empathy towards the characters in the game, even if they're jerks I still feel for them.

Mass Effect is a totally awesome game that needs to be played by all. So good in fact that I wrote a bad poem about it. Either way, it's still a good game. What games do you find yourself going back to when you don't know what to play, or what games have you challenged yourself into marathoning through?