Dream Games

I often have dreams about games I've made, and of course they're the awesomest ever in dreamland, because they follow dream logic. When I wake up and start reviewing my awesome new game idea, it is usually quickly apparent that, in real-world logic, they wouldn't work at all.

All the same, I try and write them down, because even if they are meant for the land of dreams I occasionally pick out some idea or mechanic or insight that could be useful later. In some cases (like tonight) I wake up immediately after the dream and can not get back to sleep until I write it down.


Tonight's dream game was a pen-and-paper RPG of sorts. I was gathered round with people who were presumably my friends (in my grandma's old basement, but that's an aside). One person was chosen to be the main participant in my game, and the rest gathered round to watch. I was DM, of course.

I gave a premise, that he was stuck in Hell, but had gotten there a non-traditional way. Then I gave him a set of objects I'd gathered to use as inspiration. Now, he was to tell the story of why he was in Hell and how he got there, improv-style, to the other people gathered round to listen.

The player launched into an epic story, and we took occasional breaks for snacks (and to allow the player to plan ahead some thoughts). The rules allowed that some of the audience could choose to do some storytelling themselves, and step in front to take the role of a character in the main story, then tell a bit from that character's perspective (which would inevitably steer the course of the main player's story when he took to the stage again). Two people did this in my dream.

All the while, I was watching and listening and taking notes.

When the storyteller was finished, we took one final break, as I set up the adventure. The short adventure was the character trying to get out of Hell by climbing some crazy tower (I had a cool little set piece to represent it). It was totally improvised, using information I'd learned from the main character's story.

When we all gathered back, I took over the story to explain the premise, and then we played through encounters as the main character climbed up the tower. All the encounters had something to do with his "how-he-got-there" story that he'd just told, and the audience was all anxious to see if he would get out.

Sounds pretty fun, yeah?? In dream world, that is. I don't know if anyone in real life is as good and brave at improvised storytelling as that. But, I do really like the idea of a pen-and-paper RPG adventure that other people watched as an audience, and for whatever reason were really invested in the outcome.

Food for thought!

MW2 Controversy: a rant to other game devs

So, the controversial Modern Warfare 2 footage leaked out, and now all the world's in a hissy fit. Some are in a hissy fit because they are offended by the content, while some are having a hissy fit over the fact that anyone would be offended by the content. Most of these arguments I've read (from both ends of the spectrum) are from people who work in games. It's a lot of the same bickering over and over, which mostly induces eye rolling in me.

BUT. I think it's a shame, because people can't put aside their bickering for two seconds to look at an interesting phenomenon, which could be extremely useful to us as game developers!

The two ends of the comment spectrum are equally frustrating. On one end is the "how could anyone defend this, it's an abomination!" view. At the other end is the "how could you be offended by this when you play/make other shooters? You are a hypocrite!" The middle is peppered with milder, yet still annoying views, like the ever so common "IT'S A GAME."

When I watched the video, my response was "wow, that's pretty horrid! I hope there's a way to skip it, because I don't think I could play this and I wouldn't be able to complete the game!"

Enter the people who don't understand how I could feel that way when I play other shooters - the implied hypocrite stance. I don't understand this reaction! One shooter evoked an emotional response in me, one did not. You can't control the emotions that you feel, they just happen, you can only control your actions. The fact that one evoked an emotional response in me does not mean I'm a hypocrite, you guys.

ESPECIALLY since that seemed to be the whole intent behind the controversial sequence: to evoke a powerful emotional response. And they succeeded! They did their job, guys, it worked on me. They were TRYING to get me to have an intense emotional response where I may not when playing other shooters, that's why they treated it so artfully.

It just happened that the emotions evoked in me exceeded some threshold, into the repulsion territory, as in "wow, I can't endure that, abandon ship!" It's the same reason I can never watch Boys Don't Cry ever again.

Anyway, what's the thing that everyone's missing which I implied earlier? Well, if people could stop "how dare they"-ing Infinity Ward for including the sequence, and if people could stop saying "I wasn't offended but you were, therefore there's something wrong with you," we could get a good learning opportunity out of this.

You can't deny that this scenario is different than other shooters. People love to bark "how is this any different than x, y, z?" and I'm like, "well, HOW?" Explore the answer to your own question rather than using it as a way to say there's something wrong with that person who felt something. There might be something useful in the answer!

It evoked a strong emotional response, others did not, and I'm not the only case here. Shouldn't we, as game designers, be looking at WHY that happened? How mysterious! Why did this segment have such a different impact on this person? Was it the content? Was it the polish put into the ambiance? Was it the timeliness of the content? Was it some more complex arrangement of attributes that, standing alone, would not have been sufficient to evoke an emotional response? How are the people who had a response different than the ones who had none? Did it hit close to home for them on some level? Is there a correlation in demographic for the ones who did or didn't?

Aren't we always after tools and methods to create more emotional experiences in games?? We should be picking this thing apart and researching it, not arguing and accusing each other of being flawed because someone did or did not have an emotional response to it.

GEEZ, you guys. To hell with the lot of you! Hrmph.

Rant over!

Uncharted 2: A first look

I just played the first bit of Uncharted 2, and made this tweet: "Uncharted 2 has the best acting and dialogue I've ever seen/heard in a game. EVER."

However, I feel I need to clarify my point. Seeing as I've just resigned myself to the fact that all voice acting in all games is going to be shitty, regardless of how good the game is, such a compliment seems meaningless without qualifiers.

So, here is a better metaphor. You know the L-Curve, right?

http://www.lcurve.org/

Now, instead of family income, pretend that graph is for "quality of voice acting in games." The majority of the football field encompasses "all games." The last stack there at the end is Uncharted 2. You'll have to zoom out several times.

There, I feel like my comment has been qualified.

Happy

Today I was eating an orange, which at the time was the tastiest orange in all the land, and I realized that I'm living like a queen.

I have this little home, and it's perfect, and it's pretty and the light shines through every morning and makes little rainbows. And there's an uppity hummingbird who chirps demandingly at me if his feeder is empty, but that's okay. And there's all this water! Look at all the water we have! It's like a miracle! We can swim in it, and take baths in it - queenly activities, don't you think?

And I can lay on the floor and stare out the window if I want to, and that's okay.

Oh, what a happy time I'm having!

Art Books - Internet Garage Sale

I have a few art reference books that I have no use of anymore, but I remember how very valuable they were to me when I was drawing and learning the ins and outs of rendering anatomy and all that, so I'm selling them (hopefully to some artsy folks who would get good use out of them).

Prices are cheapsville, with shipping costs on top.

If you're interested in one, shoot me an email (since my journal propagates to so many sources, I don't wanna play the timestamp game with comments) - wertle at wertle dot com

Bridgman's Life Drawing - George Bridgman
Selling for $2 plus $5 shipping

How to Draw the Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach - Louise Gordon
$5 plus $5 shipping

Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters - Robert Beverly Hale
$6 plus $5 shipping

Anatomy for the Artist - Jeno Barcsay
$5 plus $5 shipping

Costs may vary a bit, and if you'd pay with a credit card through PayPal, it'd be a little more for the fee they charge the seller, stuff like that. Basically, email me and we'll work out the exact price :)

Lavender leaves?

Hey Internet. So, I've started taking clippings from my herb garden to dry, and I'm wondering what I can do with my lavender. It's a young plant, so it probably won't bloom until next year, but the leaves smell wonderful!

When I look up uses for lavender (culinary or otherwise), almost all of them involve using the buds or dried blossoms. What about uses for the leaves? Anyone know any good ones?

What I want for Christmas

I'm really bad at asking for Christmas presents, mostly because when someone asks me, my mind goes totally blank. Sure, there are things that I think "this would be nice to have," here and there throughout the year, but I can never recall them on the spot.

So this year I started keeping track of things with Amazon's wishlist, hence this materialistic post. Not that I want ALL of these things, but it gives a narrower pool of selection than I usually leave my exasperated family with. Oh well!


Games
Now that I'm a game designer, I feel justified in seeking out new games to play, or old games to play, or the like.


Boom Blox Bash Party - because my original copy of Boom Blox gets more play out of it than pretty much all of my other Wii games.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - because I'm always on the lookout for cooperative 4-player games.

New Super Mario Bros - because I'd like to get more games for my DS.

Rhythm Heaven - see previous note about expanding my DS collection.

Far Cry 2 - I saw several talks about this game at GDC, and I'm curious to see if it is all that it claims to be.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - wait, didn't I already beat this?? Well, yes, but it was so good that I feel like I want a permanent addition to my library. Plus I'd like to try it again on hard some day.

Stuff for my bike
Now that I'm primarily a bike commuter, I could use a few tools to make my life easier and safer.

Bike Gloves - because they do make things more comfortable.

A standing pump - I have a hand pump right now, which is good for emergencies, but I don't have the arm strength to get my tires to their max PSI



U-lock - I only have a little cable lock right now.

Cat Stuff
When the new year rolls around, I want to get a cat! Some help on the starter supplies would be awesome.

A litter box

Cat tree

Clicker training kit!

That's a pretty healthy list right there. I also want to get yankee candles and more kitchen stuff, but that's all gift-card-worthy business.

Ta-da! A list at last.