Cut scenes, health packs and cheat codes. They're all video game clichés, but necessary and even helpful ones at that. Over at Slate, Chris Baker has an insightful piece up on how old hat makes your gaming experience more enjoyable. He writes:

Every time you fire up a new title, you've got to learn how to look around, run, and fire an Uzi all over again... Each game world is like a foreign country, full of unfamiliar sights and sounds and seemingly arbitrary rules. How do gamers survive in these strange lands? Clichés. Loads and loads of clichés.

Baker's right — the tried and true really construction basic gaming grammar and without them we'd be lost. Game clichés? Live 'em, love 'em, need 'em.
Game Cliches [Slate]

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