Post by AllenSmithee on Jul 1, 2011 19:00:29 GMT -5
Games are lonely.
Single player games are lonely, because sometimes it feels like you're an alien and you can't quite communicate.
Multiplayer games are lonely because it is a psycho-samsara scenario -- trapped in a small island with seven other people, infinitely respawning and killing again -- just like DDS.
The focus of this is single player games. I really started noticing this in LA Noire (which is, by the way, probably the shittiest game I've ever played):
What if the only way you could talk to somebody was by killing them. The only interaction led to other's death. If you wanted a hug, wanted an emotional connection, and the only way to get that was to slaughter whoever you touched.
Like a cursed sword, crying out of loneliness, the only thing you can do is kill.
Enter: Video Games.
People say that us sick-fuck gamers are bloodthirsty monsters, who unleash our id-driven desires through video games. Killing innocents, and enemies alike. Why does my 8-year old son want to shoot people in games so much? He's a good kid now, but in the future, he'll shoot up the school!
Well, the issue here is that a lot of games are driven by an addictive challenge -- the arcade sensibility. Risk reward, et cetera. It certainly is an attractive test of reflexes, challenge of strength, daring of carpal tunnel syndrome.
It should be noted now that this does not look much into the emotional aspect of games (an aspect so fucking unexplored and cluttered with garbage (much in part because of the very issue brought up by this topic (that is the urge to kill)) that it makes me really hate the attempts at a narrative in most games (not to mention the AAA, hollywood bullshit that kills it (and kills it again))).
You're a lone adventurer on an alien planet. Captain Courageous: Stranded on the Red Planet. That's you, you're Captain Courageous. Mars is the game disc. Mars is the console. Your view outside of your helmet? That's the television. You can't talk to people without your trusty translater! That'd be the controller.
Well, when you live on Mars long enough, you kind of snap.
I don't think people kill NPCs in video games out of a desire to kill in real life. I think they kill NPCs in video games because they want to talk to people. When you're playing a game, you're turned into a child again and, by golly, you want to touch stuff. Your sticky jam-hands need to get onto everything. But you can't poke a rock in a video game and see if it'll fall. All you can is shoot the rock. So you shoot it, and bullet sparks fly around and the rock is in the same spot. You did nothing to the rock.
But you can push the chair! Only... it is unwieldy. You stumble around and do all that you can to exist in this area, but eventually you realize you can't do much. You're stuck, disabled physically. You can't even talk to people. Well, maybe you can say four things. Six, I guess.
Defensive maneuvers!
Attack the enemies!
Follow me!
Hold your positions!
Yes.
No.
That's all. You wake up and this is all you can say, and most people won't even listen. So when you see people walking down the street, you can't cry out in loneliness. You can only kill. And you kill because you want to be heard, god dammit, you want to be heard.
Single player games are lonely, because sometimes it feels like you're an alien and you can't quite communicate.
Multiplayer games are lonely because it is a psycho-samsara scenario -- trapped in a small island with seven other people, infinitely respawning and killing again -- just like DDS.
The focus of this is single player games. I really started noticing this in LA Noire (which is, by the way, probably the shittiest game I've ever played):
What if the only way you could talk to somebody was by killing them. The only interaction led to other's death. If you wanted a hug, wanted an emotional connection, and the only way to get that was to slaughter whoever you touched.
Like a cursed sword, crying out of loneliness, the only thing you can do is kill.
Enter: Video Games.
People say that us sick-fuck gamers are bloodthirsty monsters, who unleash our id-driven desires through video games. Killing innocents, and enemies alike. Why does my 8-year old son want to shoot people in games so much? He's a good kid now, but in the future, he'll shoot up the school!
Well, the issue here is that a lot of games are driven by an addictive challenge -- the arcade sensibility. Risk reward, et cetera. It certainly is an attractive test of reflexes, challenge of strength, daring of carpal tunnel syndrome.
It should be noted now that this does not look much into the emotional aspect of games (an aspect so fucking unexplored and cluttered with garbage (much in part because of the very issue brought up by this topic (that is the urge to kill)) that it makes me really hate the attempts at a narrative in most games (not to mention the AAA, hollywood bullshit that kills it (and kills it again))).
You're a lone adventurer on an alien planet. Captain Courageous: Stranded on the Red Planet. That's you, you're Captain Courageous. Mars is the game disc. Mars is the console. Your view outside of your helmet? That's the television. You can't talk to people without your trusty translater! That'd be the controller.
Well, when you live on Mars long enough, you kind of snap.
I don't think people kill NPCs in video games out of a desire to kill in real life. I think they kill NPCs in video games because they want to talk to people. When you're playing a game, you're turned into a child again and, by golly, you want to touch stuff. Your sticky jam-hands need to get onto everything. But you can't poke a rock in a video game and see if it'll fall. All you can is shoot the rock. So you shoot it, and bullet sparks fly around and the rock is in the same spot. You did nothing to the rock.
But you can push the chair! Only... it is unwieldy. You stumble around and do all that you can to exist in this area, but eventually you realize you can't do much. You're stuck, disabled physically. You can't even talk to people. Well, maybe you can say four things. Six, I guess.
Defensive maneuvers!
Attack the enemies!
Follow me!
Hold your positions!
Yes.
No.
That's all. You wake up and this is all you can say, and most people won't even listen. So when you see people walking down the street, you can't cry out in loneliness. You can only kill. And you kill because you want to be heard, god dammit, you want to be heard.
Stood
"is it?"
"is it?"
