Chris takes issue!

You'll have to excuse the blog's poor state. HTML is Greek to me and I don't think anyone actually reads this, both of which keep me from feeling embarrassed.

In the last post I noted how in-your-face games are the bulk of a year's release schedule. I've thought some more about it since then and I have taken issue with the way games are designed, or at least how they make you feel. Whether or not it is intentional is a whole 'nother discussion.

My issue with games right now is that they require you to become more neurotic, more obsessive and skittish. Think of mindset when you're playing Frequency, or Guitar Hero, or Team Fortress 2. Part of this is personal - we each have our own unique physiological reactions to certain stimulation - but you cannot deny that a slaughter-fest FPS like TF2 fucks with your mind. Instantaneous death feels bad.

It is the mark of a good game when playing it makes you more contemplative rather than less. I don't own an Xbox 360, but Braid certainly seems to have had that effect. You might say 'well, not all games have to aspire to high-art, there is a place for the relentless, fast-paced experience'. That is absolutely true, but if you think about it even the worst of cases, like say Counter-Strike, could be made more contemplative. Instead of assaulting you with round after round and cramped maps developers could make use of the space and create natural empty zones. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think you should literally have to switch your console off in order to get some rest from a game. You can see now why I own a PS3 *cough* Home! *cough*. But isn't that a brilliant idea? Instead of navigating games via menus, you could simply be placed in a world within the game world that isn't part of the game itself. You still retain the same control mechanism, but you are in a representation of the menu. Games like Psychonauts, Katamari Damacy, and Super Mario Galaxy suspend your disbelief for just a little bit longer with their seamless environments. This gets me into another issue that I think is the greatest detriment to the flow of a game, and subsequently to any hope it may have had of being cinematic: loading screens. But alas, that is for another time.

Adios amoebas!