Words by Greywolfe
I remember the first video game I ever played.
It was the summer of 1979. My father, my sister and I were heading off to get drinks of some persuasion. It was the beginning of the golden age for Coin Operated games. Essentially, you dump a quarter into the game and play as far as you can on three lives, sometimes accumulating extra lives as you bumped your score past a certain marker. Maybe you got 20,000 points and now you had an extra life. Or perhaps you found a certain token in the game and that added to your lives tally.
I remember the first video game I ever played.
It was the summer of 1979. My father, my sister and I were heading off to get drinks of some persuasion. It was the beginning of the golden age for Coin Operated games. Essentially, you dump a quarter into the game and play as far as you can on three lives, sometimes accumulating extra lives as you bumped your score past a certain marker. Maybe you got 20,000 points and now you had an extra life. Or perhaps you found a certain token in the game and that added to your lives tally.
The games were two dimensional, but sadly, the plots were very one dimensional: You Have To Save The World!
SPACESHIP! Also, many happy hours blasting geometrical shapes in Asteroids
Technology as a limiting factor
Games technology was such that graphically, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. In the case of my first game, everything was jagged, geometric shapes. No roundness at all. No colour, either. Just two dimensional sprites on black and white.
That was Asteroids, of course. And that year, we played many rounds of it between my father and I. When we encountered Space Invaders, we played that too. And then Donkey Kong after it as well.
There was Frogger and Tapper and Pac-Man and all the while, in the background the games began to evolve, but one theme began to stick out among all of them: no matter what game you were playing, you were always saving the universe.
Gaming grew up and took root in our living rooms – there was the Atari 2600 at first, and after that market crash, the NES came along to rescue gaming as we know it. And through all of this innovation, the games never moved on.
Admittedly, in those times, there were memory constraints. Complex story wasn’t possible in a universe where 8-bit was the norm.
But the problem is, we aren’t in those times anymore. It’s 2015, we have more graphical fidelity than we know what to do with, better sound systems than we ever could have dreamed of and great control methods [like touch] that have – in some ways – changed how we game. But we’re still saving the world.
I have lamented, before, that our gaming stories aren’t varied enough and I think that’s kind of problematic. You could level some accusations at gaming as a whole about this particular issue: we’re not grown up enough, yet, to have story diversity, or we’re only telling these particular stories because they “suit gaming,” but I find both of those assertions to be problematic.
Gaming is – at a conservative estimate – forty years old – if you want to count older “concepts”, then video gaming stretches all the way back to the 60’s even. That’s fifty years. At this point, gaming is also vast. There are a lot of people making games. That we’re treadmilling on “let’s make a game where the hero saves the world” is a bit frustrating.
Likewise, nothing “suits gaming.” Gaming is a vast, vast ocean of all sorts of topics. High fantasy, Cyberpunk, the simulation of life. Within those broad arcs, there’s a lot to look into and yet...we’re always saving the world, or more problematically, always rescuing the damsel.
That was Asteroids, of course. And that year, we played many rounds of it between my father and I. When we encountered Space Invaders, we played that too. And then Donkey Kong after it as well.
There was Frogger and Tapper and Pac-Man and all the while, in the background the games began to evolve, but one theme began to stick out among all of them: no matter what game you were playing, you were always saving the universe.
Gaming grew up and took root in our living rooms – there was the Atari 2600 at first, and after that market crash, the NES came along to rescue gaming as we know it. And through all of this innovation, the games never moved on.
Admittedly, in those times, there were memory constraints. Complex story wasn’t possible in a universe where 8-bit was the norm.
But the problem is, we aren’t in those times anymore. It’s 2015, we have more graphical fidelity than we know what to do with, better sound systems than we ever could have dreamed of and great control methods [like touch] that have – in some ways – changed how we game. But we’re still saving the world.
I have lamented, before, that our gaming stories aren’t varied enough and I think that’s kind of problematic. You could level some accusations at gaming as a whole about this particular issue: we’re not grown up enough, yet, to have story diversity, or we’re only telling these particular stories because they “suit gaming,” but I find both of those assertions to be problematic.
Gaming is – at a conservative estimate – forty years old – if you want to count older “concepts”, then video gaming stretches all the way back to the 60’s even. That’s fifty years. At this point, gaming is also vast. There are a lot of people making games. That we’re treadmilling on “let’s make a game where the hero saves the world” is a bit frustrating.
Likewise, nothing “suits gaming.” Gaming is a vast, vast ocean of all sorts of topics. High fantasy, Cyberpunk, the simulation of life. Within those broad arcs, there’s a lot to look into and yet...we’re always saving the world, or more problematically, always rescuing the damsel.
The Ankh. Fashion Statement Symbol of Avatars Everywhere!
Historical Games That Overcame The Technical Constraints
Looking at the history of gaming, there are a handful of stories that stand out for how very different they are. Ultima 4 is one of those – while, yes, there is a theme there of saving the world by becoming the avatar, the actual ideal of the avatar – a being that strives to live by a certain set of standards – has never been explored again, really in a video game. Some games come sort of close – Quest for Glory keeps positing that the Paladin is righteous and just, but then the game wants you to tap the left button a million times to level up your parry.
Likewise, Planescape: Torment was all about how you are immortal – and what that actually means for you as a person. There hasn’t been another game with quite that sort of story-driven scope since.
And finally, from the annals of history, we have Sanitarium – a game – literally – about a man trapped within the four walls of his own mind. Some of it is incredibly disturbing. Some of it is emotionally harrowing, but that journey has never really been replicated much [save for Psychonauts]
But these are just some standouts. And even then, they’re only a handful of games. Most old games – as with modern games – are content to let you blast away the aliens so that you can rescue the damsel in distress, but before that, you’d best kill your ten rats so you can grow amorphously stronger.
Likewise, Planescape: Torment was all about how you are immortal – and what that actually means for you as a person. There hasn’t been another game with quite that sort of story-driven scope since.
And finally, from the annals of history, we have Sanitarium – a game – literally – about a man trapped within the four walls of his own mind. Some of it is incredibly disturbing. Some of it is emotionally harrowing, but that journey has never really been replicated much [save for Psychonauts]
But these are just some standouts. And even then, they’re only a handful of games. Most old games – as with modern games – are content to let you blast away the aliens so that you can rescue the damsel in distress, but before that, you’d best kill your ten rats so you can grow amorphously stronger.
Rewinding time was an incredibly strong hook for Braid
Modern Games That Are Deeply Emotional
For the most part, our modern games are simply content to settle into the groove of the universe-rescuing trope, but a select handful have decided to embrace other ideas – more personal ideas.
One such is To The Moon. To the Moon is effective on many levels. It seems like a traditional JRPG, but it averts that trope fairly early in the game. It tells a very effective, very personal story about one man’s last, dying wish and it does so with more nuance and emotional punch than very many AAA games could ever hope to muster given their larger budgets.
Another fantastic and thought-provoking story shows up in Braid – while I don’t really care for the mechanics [sometimes, it can be a little /too/ gamey], the reveal at the end is quite shocking. Saying any more would spoil the game, but it is refreshing to see at least one writer try something different.
Finally, there is the masterpiece of Limbo – which is just about finding [what might be] your sister across a very desolate and helpless seeming landscape. There’s no real text in limbo, nor any real communication, but the way the world is set up and the situations the protagonist must steer himself through all help the player bond with the protagonist in ways that few games ever really try.
One such is To The Moon. To the Moon is effective on many levels. It seems like a traditional JRPG, but it averts that trope fairly early in the game. It tells a very effective, very personal story about one man’s last, dying wish and it does so with more nuance and emotional punch than very many AAA games could ever hope to muster given their larger budgets.
Another fantastic and thought-provoking story shows up in Braid – while I don’t really care for the mechanics [sometimes, it can be a little /too/ gamey], the reveal at the end is quite shocking. Saying any more would spoil the game, but it is refreshing to see at least one writer try something different.
Finally, there is the masterpiece of Limbo – which is just about finding [what might be] your sister across a very desolate and helpless seeming landscape. There’s no real text in limbo, nor any real communication, but the way the world is set up and the situations the protagonist must steer himself through all help the player bond with the protagonist in ways that few games ever really try.
Conclusion
Frankly, I think we can do better. I think we can tell many different stories using many different devices and themes. The technology certainly exists to support these ideas, they just need to be embraced by more writers.
Images Courtesy of Pixabay:
Pixabay
Pixabay