Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning - OpenLibra

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new party members reveals he has a heart condition. Suddenly, the player is now the authority figure. Part of the problem with the Main Quest in these narrow moments is that even narratively they are somewhat contrived. Although having your Dad kill himself to take out a few Covenant officials is dramatic, the fact that he is dying to keep them from controlling a water filtration system makes the stakes seem low. It’s not as if we’re talking about a bomb or the Forced Evolution Virus (FEV) at this point, the Enclave simply declares that they want control of the facility. After several more quests involving the G.E.C.K. and dealing with the Enclave, the player is eventually put back into the same linear situation. Someone has to go into the irradiated control room and open up the water pump or the facility will break down. Rather than be able to send in one of your radiation resistant NPC’s, you are forced to choose between going in yourself or sending in Paladin Lyons. You can also infect the water with the FEV virus if you want to kill off all mutants, but there’s never much of an argument for why anyone would want to do this. Unlike all the complex choices and interactions of the entire game, in this final moment the player can only choose between good, bad, and really bad. The DLC eventually fixed it so that the player simply goes into a coma and wakes up two weeks later, rendering the decision more palpable for people. Yet the final quest is not without some of its own eloquence. When you step into the irradiated chamber you have to put in the key code to unlock the pump controls. No one in the game has ever specifically told you what it is. In a long discussion at Gamers with Jobs Commenter Nyles explains[115], “The way I see it, figuring out the code is the game asking you: do you care about this story? And if you do, you know the code. If you don’t, you go get a walkthrough, or look for a way to solve the puzzle with the tools at your disposal, which leads to annoyance and frustration.” Countless times your father has recited the sequence to you when quoting your Mother’s favorite Bible verse and it’s even in your own notes, which are typically only there to enhance the story. In some ways, despite the linear design in this last section, it is the only time the game really engages the player with how they personally have been playing the game. Did you really care about the characters in this story or were you just going through the motions for the good ending? Subsequent playthroughs of Fallout 3 invariably result in discovering the same quests in new ways or being able to unlock different details about the individual vignettes. Characters missed will be met and 142
weapons lost will change playing styles dramatically. Random encounters and clues skipped amongst the rubble change how you play each time. Many places throughout the game don’t even have quests driving your progress. The abandoned Vaults tell their own stories simply through bodies, bits of old records, and shattered machinery. Blasted out factories that seem boring the first time visited will, on a return trip, lead you to noticing two skeletons clutching one another in a corner. None of these things are spelled out for the player. Often heartbreaking, occasionally funny, but never forgettable, the Capital Wasteland is a place that Fallout 3 successfully takes the player to and allows them to explore however they like. Its mystery only deepens each time you enter it anew. ENDNOTES 104 http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/43230 105 http://www.gameobserver.com/features/inside/all-platforms/ gameobserver-interview-with-bethesda-softworks-130/ 106 http://ikereeder.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/subsuming-theego/ 107 http://fullbright.blogspot.com/2009/01/storymaking.html 108 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3769/ game_design_psychology_the_full_.php 109 http://martianmsgs.blogspot.com/2009/02/fallout-3-annoyances.html 110 http://forums.theirisnetwork.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1457&sid=fcc9fbce1f8d19226df58772713bd7b3 111 http://chungking.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/ fallout3malefemale/ 112 http://insultswordfighting.blogspot.com/2009/01/big-picture.html 113 http://www.hitselfdestruct.com/2008/11/escape-fromvault-101.html 114 http://mwclarkson.blogspot.com/2008/12/bellum-omnia-contraomnes.html 115 http://mwclarkson.blogspot.com/2008/11/theres-nothing-in-itfor-you.html 116 http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/43230 143
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Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value
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Table of Contents Thank You. Well P
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Introduction Well Played 2.0 More P
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Cloudmaker Days: A Memoir of the A.
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abbreviations from the Periodic Tab
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that curtain was. This decision was
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experience. The ambivalence I felt
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special treat: in very faint text w
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storytelling where the topic is act
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16 It’s striking that an experien
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57 http://www.argn.com 58 http://ww
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the level of interactive engagement
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he wants the honor and glory for hi
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cinematics are units that go beyond
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differs from the first checkpoint).
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oom that you just saw in the vision
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Figure 10. Screenshot of the Castle
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fight, the space is large enough th
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scenes have more of a pounding elem
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going to have a successful ending (
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Interestingly, it doesn’t rewind
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note, I actually let myself get kil
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an attempt to inject it into gamepl
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Team XBox. Prince of Persia: Sands
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Gray discs require two adjacent bre
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my own music,[72] or more often, I
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allows five discs before a new row
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Chain Factor functioned as the “t
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I think, what well-designed virtual
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The genius of this system is that t
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haunting (and haunted) games I’ve
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Compared to “Sabre Wulf” and
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altitude) depending on the moment o
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Aside from that thread that explora
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would make anyone feel eager to pla
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learn on how to jump and take the o
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DREW DAVIDSON et al. (2008). Beyond
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her picture. When opening the locke
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The story advances with the explora
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Favorite moments Nothing would stop
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than yourself. Your character is re
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on presence, flow, and learning. Ho
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oach did not serve as a distraction
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game. However, some players felt pr
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sugary sweets from the picnic blank
Page 91 and 92: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Findin
Page 93 and 94: 30 square kilometers around the Che
Page 95 and 96: Deus Ex and System Shock to set the
Page 97 and 98: the dreams,” muses this nameless
Page 99 and 100: fails to realize that the Zone is n
Page 101 and 102: leak, empty land-scape highlights t
Page 103 and 104: The storyline, characters, and even
Page 105 and 106: enough. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warf
Page 107 and 108: developers utilize environmental es
Page 109 and 110: The title of the novel is a referen
Page 111 and 112: And yet the same sun, the same moon
Page 113 and 114: (www.perimeterpartners.com), Bill H
Page 115 and 116: Actraiser Andy Jih While many other
Page 117 and 118: simple to dive into: run left and r
Page 119 and 120: the only task left is to go to the
Page 121 and 122: have ended the game simply with an
Page 123 and 124: For an adventure game to succeed, i
Page 125 and 126: cinematic, Manny despairs of his lo
Page 127 and 128: normal day-to-day life to reach new
Page 129 and 130: weren’t completed due to budget a
Page 131 and 132: mechanic Elementals that look like
Page 133 and 134: gameplay mechanics in Fallout 3. Th
Page 135 and 136: with moral dilemmas is done with th
Page 137 and 138: contained vignette will also make m
Page 139 and 140: One of the most discussed Quests in
Page 141: the grove to help the Wasteland whi
Page 145 and 146: nonexistent, and few gamers I talk
Page 147 and 148: Cyan is notorious for baffling play
Page 149 and 150: Figure 2: The Cleft in the desert,
Page 151 and 152: “writing” Ages, housed in “li
Page 153 and 154: ook, that book appears in your Relt
Page 155 and 156: visits to solve, each player needs
Page 157 and 158: them prideful and greedy. The impli
Page 159 and 160: midst and walking down the path. If
Page 161 and 162: Figure 17: Decoding the door in Ede
Page 163 and 164: As mentioned earlier, central to Ur
Page 165 and 166: Immersive Game Design: Indigo Proph
Page 167 and 168: compartmentalizes all of the conten
Page 169 and 170: immediate connection between player
Page 171 and 172: initiating a similar game-ending ev
Page 173 and 174: interactions have even greater sign
Page 175 and 176: was trying to concentrate on inputt
Page 177 and 178: Lions & Jackals: The Politics of Fa
Page 179 and 180: Banga, meaning “the all-powerful
Page 181 and 182: ealization of what he turned into.
Page 183 and 184: Maybe 80% of our players are just l
Page 185 and 186: Jeffries, L.B. “Far Cry 2: The He
Page 187 and 188: Looking beyond the moments, it is i
Page 189 and 190: prowess. There is some level of apt
Page 191 and 192: solid short-term goal, much like fi
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time or exploring the same game lev
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and seamless; the player is whisked
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Rasmus: I have an absolute love for
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feeling that there is something int
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sessions make it easy to get into t
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the game sometimes. Isn’t this a
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Jesper: I would argue that the disc
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incredibly exciting and rewarding,
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playing games — ironic, I suppose
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Sutton-Smith, Brian. 2008. Play The
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dilemma itself. Should I, the playe
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Pool of Radiance Sam Roberts Pool o
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play experience of Pool of Radiance
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probably at what might be called th
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containing a moment of choice, is a
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interpreted, without remaining hide
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Making and Unmaking Place in The Da
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technical accomplishments, the play
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understanding.”[160] Time of day
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ears).[167] Videogames take advanta
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the orphanage, church, warehouses,
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Golden Arm and His Girl Friday, tel
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directions except toward the goal.
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This dynamic is played out in a sho
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169 Celia Pearce, “Narrative Envi
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ilovebees: Playing and Designing in
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Curious parties falling through the
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Columns of paired numbers appear, l
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may be, they may still need to be n
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strength of its developers and its
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Resident Evil 4: The Mercenaries Mi
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skills at RE4 have earned you the p
Page 257 and 258:
Another important factor that adds
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The strongest pressure on the playe
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• Do I have enough health left to
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New Section Francisco Souki It was
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the game stayed true throughout the
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a reflective Mamma mia! You only ne
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point it all took shape in my head.
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neutral planet, the attacking ships
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want to attempt to play at an exper
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abusive language. Most importantly,
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Stephen Jacobs is an Associate Prof
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granted by the EPSON Ibérica’s
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and Second Person. He is cited in m
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of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Sim
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designing and developing cross-medi
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