All art forms have their zeniths, apexes, summits, peaks, etc. and games are no exception. Most submissions to any art form are valleys (low points) or simply messettas that keep the status quo (dont add anything new). The stars and superstars, in the form of the artist that “sells” the art to be something Genius in of itself, or it could be the piece itself, preserved for humanity’s benefit, are found and needed for any art form to be legitimized. Games are trying, to say the least, to gain some of the before mentioned: art, and worthy artist of teaching everyone else. A couple posts ago, I mentioned “THE A LIST” of games. And like a critic that has eclectic tastes in music, never knowing how to categorize something Pop/commercial like, but able to categorize weird tastes, our list is bound to be made up by weird critics and their tastes. However, it feels weird to know that many people (non critics) will continue their existence completely ignorant of those beautiful sparks available in games, just like there are many that ignore other great examples in other media. I’m one of them… I can see the growing list of important books i’ll never get to read pile up next to my bed… And I also have that list of books that “i should pick up” but wont… “I’m a slow reader”: a fact and excuse at times. That’s not really that dissimilar to how bad many of an older generation say they’ll be at any game.

Imagine the current generation of old people loving the wii… One of the reasons may be because using the arm as a whole as an input device requires less precision than using the fingers, and therefore offer more “usable precision” based on the design of the recognizable movement by the computer and therefore less performance precision. Many of our elders have lost that motor precision, one required to do simple things such as spoon feed themselves, etc. On the wii, its analogue of the simulated movement is “more” accurate, and thus requires less learning or practice to achieve. A stab/hit/swing was something that a person that is now 78 might have been learning how to pretend to do as a child playing cops and robbers in the backyard, whereas pressing a button that is mapped to stabbing is something that a person need to grok in their head in (possibly) the following number of steps a) the animation, b) the direction the orientation of the character shows onscreen, c) the resulting action collision test, etc. I can definitely say that the range of motion available to the parent appendage of my hand (the forearm) needs less coordination than the root of the hand (wrist), complexity is increased when considering the control of each finger in all degrees of motion, in effect, as the tree of degree’s of freedom branches. I cant believe that developers refuse to consider a person with arthritis; they may have less pain on their shoulder than on each finger… you are 5 times more likely to receive an injury on any finger than on the upper arm, since the fingers are more versatile and more frequently employed by its MASTER.

I suggest that we always consider the motor handicapped and ask the same questions we do when designing for less hardcore audiences… will easy, med, or hard be enough for them to enjoy a game? What about me as I get old and lose motor function due to the natural process of aging? Will I need special calisthenics in order to beat level 1-1 in Super Mario Brothers? can I compete in tetris? am i relegated to only play games like Myst (not used pejoratively)?

In other media, these problems seem to have som form of solution. For example: glasses (hearing aids… first row, etc) help people read books or see better, nurses help by reading to the blind, but when it comes to games, there’s nothing to assist playing games yet. In fact, most games pride themselves with being difficult… hardcore is an unfortunate composite word used by our industry. These devices, invented due to a “handicap” or old age, or whatever, when used to help those who typically cant enjoy the art with normal means… are equalizers.

What about game systems or storytelling devices used in games? can they evolve so that the comprehension level remains steady or grows with age? A boy reads a book, views a painting, watches a play and may not understand the subtext, but as they age, this ability only improves… games seem to neglect this (as so many other things) as they also seem to be locked in a perpetual teenage frenzy. Which leads me to this question, who is going to have the valor to make games for an aging gamer market? And, are they going to ignore that the aging gamers consider fewer games to factor less importantly in their lives, especially because they aren’t being cultured by the creators or market to expect more mature -Older- topics?

Still, bringing the human condition to games and using games to help the human condition is a worthy problem to solve… how to empower this medium with the ability to speak to humans and help humans use games as a tool for themselves. I have noticed that the more “civilized” cultures are the ones that empower those less fortunate with “equalizers” that allow them to enjoy a better quality of life. Maybe there is no solution. hell, there isn’t a standard agreeable definition of what love is… maybe it’s unsolvable at most development budgets, even Blizzards, or the games that solve it, just wont be accepted in the current market. And sadly, a many seniors who’ve figured out a thing or two about a thing or two wont be able to participate on adding their wisdom to society through games. Considering that many artists did some of their most important work right up to the moment they died of old age, which ones are contributing with their sage like wisdom, by stating it in game form to their young-lings.

I don’t know exactly how I will feel when I’m older and My hands aren’t able to do the juggling it used to do when I was younger. Maybe  I’ll feel like Michael Jordan at age 80, who’s only way to relive dunking the ball will be by looking at his old videos… only a memory. This doesn’t happen with other mediums, what can we do about this?

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I wonder,  will a person watching a video of a game play-through absorb the story the same way as playing it?

There are game design problems that i have a hard time trying to discuss with coworkers. Perhaps the problem with games is similar to the situation I sense from the literature world. To many people, literature is perfect; it needs no improvement. A writer writes something, a reader reads it, repeat… and it’s been like that for a while now, why would it change and why would it need to?

well, in the case of the written word, it’s simply because more people are able to have their written word read by readers today than ever before in history; hence, this blog… I remember the first blog entry that i read like a book was The Darth Side to cure the pain I felt from episode 3 after the “NOOOoooooooo!”.

It seems to me that a big problem with games is trying to narrow down its core strength as a medium. If we put aside the question of games being art for a bit, we’re left with games being a medium that like literature, music, theatre, etc, is used for commerce. However, one thing is clear, each one of those mediums have a strength that people use to better deliver an information payload.

I suggest that language and the printing process is the technology of literature, and that its STRENGTH is narrative; one that can be delivered and crafted from and into language by a writer.

I;ve always wondered how writers feel about the cliffs notes versions of their books. Upon the inception of cliff notes; something Susan Capozza shared with me that might address this is the reader response theory. Here’s my conundrum: If i read any Shakespeare play, as long as I’m intelligent enough, i can read between the lines and deliver to my subconscious the “message” that the work speaks of, which usually, ends up addressing something about the human condition. This in turn forms the experience that Sir William intended. If not, well, at least Shakespeare had enough “pop sensibility” when writing a deep play such as hamlet, to write in it enough “action” to keep my “dumass” entertained; i may even tell others to read it because it is action packed, not because of its soliloquy.

True, there have always been book clubs that agree with their perhaps elite version of the REAL message, but the problem with Cliff Notes lies in the cementing of that or any consensus, making the experience way more rigid than an art medium really cares about solidifying any message. Is there a benefit to that concensus? Sure, but it becomes dangerous to the reader when it presents itself as an authority, depriving the reader from the ability to learn to draw his or her own conclusions. In other words, give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish, he’ll eat forever.

Are there some artists out there that are control freaks? Oh yeah! Yet, having an institution represent that, forces the message to be static, and thus, any book’s audience is fatally corralled into two camps, you’re too dumb to not get it on the first read (in which case it feels like they provide the message for dummies edition cliffs notes)  henceforth excluded from THE club… or the kool-aid drinking elite. There are ranges as with anything, true, but the majority of cliffs notes purchasers are those who NEED to up their reading comprehension through practice, not lecture.

Having a solid message is alright. Many painters had to actively fight to make sure that some kings didn’t get away with a “commissioned” painting. Some, lie Goya kept their integrity by placing hints of how awful the rulers were with new symbols depicting cruelty or by simply painting without beautifying them… go check out Francisco Goya’s stuff (he’s awesome).

Not drawn by goya, but anyway, we’ve all seen this picture.

Once people arrive at a defined consensus, people may keep further exploration from discussion; where further discussion may have been beneficial to everyone. In this drawing, showing both the old lady and the young one becomes important for the whole drawing. Now, different people see different things initially, some Old, some Young, but once somebody shows the one that’s missing from their perception, it virtually becomes impossible to remove from ones awareness. Sometimes people insert that perspective into the human condition and aid the art work and thus, its artistic merit grows. Just think about the “better” writers, who manage to deliver the message perfectly, to everyone! most of the time. They probably write simpler topics to convey to everyone. Topics such as sitcom, family oriented themes, basic instincts play to a larger majority because it’s easier to experience those feelings that are global to the human community. In contrast, the super writers that only book experts “get”, usually become important within that circle of (some would say) snobs, but are surely important nonetheless. James Joyce’s Ulysses is surely a book that i may never get to read, but i can respect what others say about it. To go even further, I may try to read, and may try to understand, and may finish it, but it doesn’t guarantee that I have the required intelligence to understand what others receive from it.

What about games then? Maybe games have such difficulty establishing themselves as self important to the global community because of this lack of layering, or obfuscations as mentioned @ GDC this year. Titles like “the marriage” play with this. I would say that the ones David Hellman brought in are not examples of this blog entry because he uses only the visuals as the duality layer. Jason Rohrer has 2 (Gravitation, Passage), Braid may be another… these are games that act like priests marrying gameplay to story… Are there others worth while? In other words, which games have “captured” an action, assimilated it into its interactive vocabulary, attached symbolism to its assisting assets connected to the “story” (if present) thus helping the player act/think/feel/grok in the same language, reinforcing in them the higher concept the developers (may or may not have) imbued into one of the games layers? The only reason that “the marriage” makes “connects” the story of Rod Humble’s marriage and immerses the player into his experience of what marriage is, is because it is CALLED the marriage. If it were titled “twin siblings” with the same mechanics, (yes, there may be incongruencies in the emergent tale), but i would not (perhaps) see the circles floating around as “affairs”, I may perhaps see it as beer, who knows… one things for sure, i cant see that game as anything else because of the words that cement the idea.

In essence, what if I somehow derrived a story or a message from Minesweeper? would we all arrive at the same story goal?

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Braid seems to belong to the category of HEAVY(as said by Marti McFly) games I can recall before Braid: Passage, Portal, The Marriage, bioshock, alice, Ico, Oddworld (stranger especially), Grim Fandango, Civ, Deus Ex, spore (the preview), Cloud, Phantasy Star 2. Yeah, I’m name dropping, listing my pedigree, whatever… but although I’ll swear by them, these aren’t necessarily my favorite games, just games that I feel can live and breathe outside the video game realm. They should be stored in the vault of human achievement, yeah, the one that stores all our artistic merit.

I’m certain that I’m not alone in this feeling. We sometimes use HEAVY games just for chitchat, even with people who can’t stand or understand video games, which of course, bores and annoys them. My parents and friends, are a perfect sample audience of those that are annoyed to no end by my insistence (other mediums do the same with their supporters). Even some epiphanies Ive had about life are directly atributable to games They wont EVER care about in the most remote sense. And I want to emphasize EVER… they will die without even understanding the hand-holding bond those games create between an important story topic and some amazing gameplay.  Of course, there are many games with little lovely moments that show this flirting courtship. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if the total sum of this union amounts only to the occasional booty call to help others witness this relationship, most people I know wont grok the connection. Others that play games to study them, speak about games as if they just read the first printing of romeo and Juliet, or THAT episode of General Hospital, etc. regardless of where the example comes from, the same passion and excitement pours out of their shared thoughts. So, I’m pointing out the range between examples of the same “genre”… in games I don’t know these are set yet. In SAT fashion, Romeo and Juliet is to General Hospital as ____________ is to Super Mario Brothers… Braid seems to fit this.

Braid adds words to the answer; that solution space.

Braid is something like a diagonal sidestep, if that makes any sense. It doesn’t try to be super popular, but it know how “polished” it is. Topic wise, it takes the untrodden path in contrast with the topics used for most games today (war/politics, sci-fi, fantasy, etc). So it steps aside from the conventional, “safe”, genre. As these topics exploited in OTHER artistic mediums(regretful loss, remorseful memories); Braid in turn, ends up delivering a very psychologically introspective game, with a lot of “applicability” to one’s self… taking that forward step by showing how the mechanics used in this game are IMPORTANT to the storytelling, not just the story. Superficially, I think Braid’s analogue would be The Beatles’ In my Life (with mellower music); beneath the surface, apparently, it has a lot to do with undo-able hell.

In My Life’s lyrics are easy to “get” and easy to experience. Who hasn’t wished they could  go back to their childhood places? Like Mitch Hedberg says: “I wish i could play little league right now… they’d back the fuck up!” We all want to revisit, conquer those losses, and relive the wins… While playing Braid, I actually wondered if this game was Autobiographical; kinda saying, “Wow, Jon! it’s as if you wrote that song for me” and he could turn into an acerbic John Lennon and treat me like John Lennon treated a fan that shows up at his house in the “Imagine” documentary without offering them a sandwich. I actually hope in a way it wasnt; making it simply an example of some good, creative writing that reaches inside me, not just Braid being Jon’s experiences packaged and resold – which it isnt. A director that only direct autobiographical stuff usually has issues when directing other people’s great scripts… heard Ebert say that once and it made sense.

If, in games, you need to play the game in order to get the message, then it definitely states that games are contributing significantly to the art world, and that the voice (its quality, inflection, accent, etc) is as important as the message. If my dad can “get” it without experimenting or playing with the design choices, then the gameplay is superfluous to the message Braid is attempting to deliver, and a movie such as The English Patient, or in this case, a song like In my life would suffice for that artistic topic, e.g. I can tell you how star wars starts… ends, but the experience (Empire strikes back!!!!!! especially) MUST be viewed.

Braid has that message found in those places, only because it is a message that will continue to reappear throughout human history, or as long as human beings are able to experience a sense of loss. It’s no wonder why new songs still talk about “baby, i love you, i miss you, forgive me” (also mentioned in Braid). But it goes a bit further than that. I can totally skip parts in Braid. I can’t do that as easily in other mediums. Maybe in paintings. I can block out a portion, never ask anyone and draw my own conclusion about that white spot next to that Jesus figure and go on my merry way and wonder what that flat cloud of white meant (was it finished, was it intentional). In songs, I can replace, “rape me” in my head with “rave me” if i never bothered to look up the lyrics, or Jimmy is actually kissing this guy (Purple haze) and I’ll continue to think that… fine! But most of these occur because of a mistaken observation on part of the user done by ACCIDENT… mostly, hardly ever intentional. Either Braid actually invites me to randomly access bits of info, or just frankly doesn’t care. It certainly allows me a freedom I wish people and life afforded me, to actually be selective about my bad memories. Like they say, “those with a clean conscience, have a bad memory”… and the fact that this game allows that, that alone, helps the interactive medium have a unique say.

It Ends

But underneath it’s belly, after its conclusion, “The Princess” feels as perverse as “The Precious”. I’ve read some Internet blogs that say how it’s like this or that, trying to derive it’s true definition. I wonder how much the truth actually matters.

So, It’s all Peachy?

DO I have some complaints? yes… one would be that only Braid and the Princess, and maybe the effects on the background seem to have anything to do with the actual story. The monsters are too generic… Psychonauts had the “figments”, objects that had agency into both gameplay and story and storytelling… very few things in Braid have much to do with that… though I feel it’s my lack of perception that blocks that awareness. Replayability is low… save for speed runs. I would like to “perform” this game in front of others to see how they feel the story, but since the story is delivered in text, it would be “stiff” for the delivery of that performance to stop in front of those books and have the viewers read it. Oh, and the mechanics are too good to be left in only those levels, not saying that the game is short, but i wanted more (I think Jon intended this, so kudos).

I’m sure we can all agree (if you made it this far) that this “dissertation” feels longer than Braid feels to play, and still, Braid will provoke you to think about it this long… even long after “finishing” it. Like Harvey says and I love reading, “Amazing. Braid is Amazing.”

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I want to destroy without thinking

I want to construct till it snowballs

I want to play agame that plays itself

I want to accrue wealth

I want to sustain a system or play a game till its blindingly fast no one around me can understand what’s going on

I want to play a game that reminds me of saturday morning cartoons

I want to play a game that makes me feel guilty about having done something, but then forgives me so i keep wanting to do it

I want to play a game that teaches me superflous things, a la Discovery Channel, so i can bring it later to the “water cooler”

I want to play a game that shows im the best in the world

I want to play a game where I risk something seriously, so that i am exillarated

I want to play a game that teaches me how to recreate something in the real world (like drums or surgery)

I want to play a game that makes my girlfriend and i share an activity like renting a movie as an excuse to make out or just have a good friday night

I want to play a game that helps people around me understand how i feel, like a sock puppet at the psychologist

i want to play a game that lets me customize and show off exactly who i am

I want to play a game that helps me with school

i want to play a game that makes me feel like a good girl who falls for a bad boy just to piss of her father

i want to play a game that brain washes and helps me quit smoking, withou it being a 12 step program purchase

I want to play a game that helps me make friends by gettin them to understand my stuttering and insecuritieas as something trivial

I want to play a game that shows me how the other half actually lives and helps me live that way

I want to play a game that people at cnn are telling other that they have to play it

I want to play a game against someone “important” so they say wow, email me anytime

I want to play a game that leaves tangible rewards

I want to play a game that helps me understand why im dying

I want to play a game that plays itself after i beat it, so I can relive the experience while i just weant to play something on the tv that isnt cable or a movie…

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