Archive for January, 2008

A lot has been said over the past few weeks concerning the sexual content of Mass Effect, most notably the controversially unresearched Fox TV spot below. As a former member of the dev team responsible, (who directed a portion of the motion-capture actors involved - though full cutscenes weren’t my gig), I can perhaps speak with a little more candor on the subject.

To recap, the story so far:

1. Conservative radio journalist posts 3-page condemnation of “Virtual Orgasmic Rape” allegedly portrayed in Mass Effect.
2. Fox picks up the story, (shown above), draughting book author and panel to blast the game’s supposed pornographic nature.
3. Gamers take offence to the author’s comments, particularly the fact that all of the commentators neglected to actually play the game, spamming reviews of her recent book on Amazon, (some of which is hilarious).
4. EA, (now the parent company of BioWare), issues a statement to Fox, requesting that they officially correct their misinformed allegations.
5. Fox responds to EA, inviting them onto the show for a second, predictably biased, debate.
6. Original conservative radio journalist apologises for his error-strewn piece, surreptitiously removing the initial post.
7. Author apologises, retracting her erroneous statements after finally observing someone play the game.

EA is correct in saying that this is not only a gross misrepresentation of the game but is also disappointing to someone that worked on a project he considers offered a somewhat more mature and substantial experience than that described in the segment. For an altogether more accurate description of the “Romance Plots”, as they were always named during development, Marie-Jo has posted an excellent write up. I know that others still at BioWare share this sadness that the game has been run through the mud due to a combination of ignorance, self-publicity and a prescribed agenda masquerading as journalism.

However…

Can we honestly, as an industry, say that these kinds of criticisms leveled against us are wholly without merit?

One thing I’ve been repeating a lot recently is that I’m sick of games that involve nothing more cerebral than just shooting people. That kind of baseless content is indefensible against mass-media criticism, and to be perfectly honest, is hard to justify as a daily job let alone a creative one. There’s an almost automated reaction against any form of censorship of videogame content but how often do we, as developers and as gamers, stop to consider the cultural validity of the way we spend our downtime?

I’m not here to argue whether “adult” games are influential to minors that shouldn’t be accessing that kind of material as that’s another debate more well-trodden elsewhere, nor am I to take apart the arguments and sheer lack of research present in the above piece, (which hardly deserves debate), but regardless of the answer, consider this. Videogames, by their very virtual nature, can conjure up any kind of experience imaginable. In the words of my first Lead Programmer, “Anything’s possible, it’s just a question of time“. Why then do we continue to churn out endless waves of purile and/or conflict-orientated entertainment, and more to the point, why does the general public continue to lap it up?

Our greatest mission going forward, (one that is shared with all the most passionate developers I speak with), is the search for legitimacy as a creative medium and cultural validity as a form of entertainment. I believe Mass Effect is one of a small but growing number of videogames that can stand against the generic criticism thrown around by the sensationalist press, which makes it all the more frustrating that it should be singled out in this way.

I finally concede defeat - I’ve played a Wii game that isn’t shit. Despite being a huge fan of the Zelda series, I found even the Wii launch title Zelda to fall flat on its face after just an hour’s play and has never been touched since. I did, however, receive a copy of Mario Galaxy for Christmas this year and actually found myself laughing while playing. On reflection though this wasn’t because of enjoyment of the game, which is fun in an old-fashioned, time-killing kind of way, but instead an appreciation of Nintendo’s genius behind such a no-risk design.

In the game, each and every level merely consists of a connected series of “planets”, (or rather floating platforms tethered together by splines on which Mario can travel). These planets feel like a series of unrelated test-levels where the designers were free to come up with various unique gameplay mechanics that would never have any adverse effect on each other. A safe, non-cohesive progression like this must have allowed for great experimentation at the Kyoto-based developer without fear of a quota of levels to hit. I imagine a minimum of 100 stars was laid down and 10 times that many were created, with only the best retained in the final game.

The non-linear order of level completion is unhindered by something so complex as a story, and as such the designers were free to create a game where good old-fashioned gameplay and fun take precedence over innovation. I’ve spoken to several colleagues that hail Call of Duty 4’s often one-time uses of game mechanics, with the downside only being game-length, (as re-use is a given standard in game design), but I imagine Infinity Ward were not afforded the same freedom as Nintendo due to the necessity for a cohesive linear narrative.

The reason I write this is that, while clever, it seems that every new challenge we face in bringing gaming to a more mature level is all but undermined by Nintendo. From consoles aimed squarely at children and non-gamers to consistently immature games sporting vacuous subject matter that conform to many a critic’s interpretation - is this really where games should be going?

A spot of reminiscing was had this week after I spied my first ever project, Tom & Jerry: War of The Whiskers, (hey - we’ve all got to start somewhere right?), on the latest list of original XBOX games made compatible for the XBOX360. It brought back both good and bad memories to throw it in, (I no longer own an original XBOX), but best of all was seeing it in all its 4-player, HD glory. Why Microsoft made the recent compatibility change I have no idea - especially as they’ve yet to give and update for my copy of Spiderman 2, something I rubbed in to swinging-system co-designer Eric Pavone at work.

Perhaps they’re gearing it up for release under the XBOX Originals incentive on Live? That might make sense as the 360 is severely lacking in games aimed at children and Microsoft recently broadened the Family Settings in the 360’s latest dashboard update. More likely, though, it was a freebie that just happened to work after a general update as the game sucked balls for anybody above the mental age of 3 while simultaneously sporting a ridiculously steep difficulty curve.

In light of Kotaku’s recent gallery of games industry work desks I thought I’d add my own to the mix, taken late last year to accompany my testimonial on the Eidos Montreal website.

As you can see, I run a tight ship… I’m sure the sterile environment will change over time as we’d only been in the studio for a couple of months when the picture was taken. Yes, I do look like a cock with that awkward smile and pose, though in my defence I didn’t plan on wearing a shirt that “went” with the Lara poster - that was just sheer coincidence.

Jurie Horneman, (Champion of the recent Manhunt 2 credits fiasco), has posted links to several galleries displaying animation of Eastern European origin. I don’t know about North America, but these kinds of disturbing and unsettling images were all part of growing up as a kid in Europe, especially a kid interested in animation.

Lately I’ve been hunting on the internet for some of the more obscure feature-length animations I soaked up at a young age and repeatedly came across the work of the late René Laloux, creator of Fantastic Planet, Gandahar and Time Masters (shown above) among others. I’d highly recommend looking out for any of these - there’s something about classic European fantasy, (and absent from their Western counterparts), that takes the imagination to a somewhat more unsettling yet provocative place.

Speaking of the West though, I did find a similar tone in Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice. Of interest is the fully rotoscoped approach taken by the film that not once conflicts with the cartoony visual style - something quite encouraging in these days of motion capture.

Capcom have released two ingame videos of their upcoming Street Fighter IV. Anybody who knows me will understand that this is incredibly exciting, especially as the moving images have quashed any fears brought about by the dodgy early screenshots from EGM’s cover story last month.

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A name like a bad guy from a Van Damme flick hasn’t stopped Johnny Lee from creating some incredibe 3D apps using a Wii remote connected to a PC, most recently this fantastic DIY Desktop Virtual Reality Display.

I recently saw Beowulf in full Imax 3D and came out wondering two things.

• Why did they bother to make it in CG anyway?
• Why aren’t we pursuing full 3D in games?

I’m sure we’ve all played a round of Quake with cheap VR glasses at some point in the past, but could you imagine how impressive the current generation of games would look, even if the quality was likened to split-screen to provide two displays? The VR fad all but died outside of academia since it’s brief flirt with the mass audience via more up-market arcades in the 90s, but I’ve always believed it will resurface at some point when the technology becomes affordable, (and side-effects like headaches and nausea are overcome).

With major hollywood directors like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson now looking towards 3D to bring crowds back into the cinemas, I’m confident the experience provided by film’s linear and passive nature would be easily trounced by that of a fully interactive 3D world, the likes of which videogames have been creating for decades.