THE MULTIHEADED MAN

authenticdenim:

SORRY THAT OBAMA COULDN’T CLEAN UP EIGHT YEARS’ WORTH OF GEORGE W. BUSH’S BULLSHIT IN JUST UNDER TWO YEARS IN OFFICE, AMERICA. BY ALL MEANS, GO CRAWLING RIGHT BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO GOT US IN THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

How many times do you play a video game and find yourself wondering “what would happen if I killed this NPC?” or “Why is it that when I leave the door in this certain way the cinematic has me go through the front?” These are moments that take us out of the moment in video games and make us realize again that the story is on rails and is we are impotent controllers of a digital avatar. This is known as “gameplay and story segregation”, when you control a person in the game and can’t do a damn thing to affect the story.

Even in a game with branching story paths, there is still the moment that one cannot control the character; you just do tasks and then the cinematic is there. It’s not even a good one sometimes. This breaks the flow in a critical way.

Sandbox games such as GTA have gone a ways to break up this problem, but when you go to a mission, there is still a cutscene, complete with over-the-shoulder cameras and cinematic pans of your objective. Then you are back to your third-person madness of hookers and hijackings.

I look to the ending of Halo: Reach for a shining example of the denting of this invisible wall. (SPOILER: YOU DIE) So you play out your last heroic stand against the invading Covenant, rather than watching it happen. You only can die once, and then it is over. No respawning, no ammo spawns, no hand-holding, and no cut scene interruptions. Until you die, that is. But this last mission builds up emotional content in the battle; you are frantic, you breathe harder, you cannot find cover, and you become entirely responsible for your own survival. And when you die, you are torn to pieces.

I digress, what I meant to say is that games nowadays have greater capabilities for exploration and experimentation than ever, so why doesn’t anybody try to remove this bugaboo and allow the medium to eveolve further? I mean, at least let us move around during the cutscenes or make them into convos like in MGS! It’s one thing when the cinematic/conversation takes place in the same perspective as the gameplay, but it is quite another to die over and over to see the same (now) stale camera angles and conversations over and over! As I have stated repeatedly, it really takes you out of the moment. But then, I’m also the sort of person that likes to watch my movies and play my video games, not really the other way around.

I AM NOT SAYING THAT CINEMATICS ARE BAD. They aid in the creation of atmosphere and mood, but when they are jarringly set in place without graceful segues, then they make you feel like you aren’t in control.

This wasn’t terribly well focused. I’m sorry to everybody who just read this. I hope at the very least it got you thinking. Does anybody have any ideas about what to do with this situation? Does it bother you at all? Or is it just me?

Beef it up and then The Pile

Wash the persons out with sleep

Gargle up the country mile

Hide the Secret, yours to keep

Jumping through the callow walker

Fighting out the Rasta foot

Harken, trepse, and fix the caulker

Job the cackle, render Moot.

“Subvert Enlarging Cherry Bomb!”

Said wrenching gods to Northern Pile

Dance ad hominem the batch

Large waylaid into The Nile.

Lurch be leaping past The Fancy

Tropic pestilence ignite

Read this poem to your children

Blast The Hands away, GOODNIGHT!!

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

YOUR MOM