Weird Preview of the Week: Blueberry Garden
Comment by: unmarkedone
Nominated by: hikergirl

So that's how baby party hats are made. I always wanted to know but was too afraid to ask.

Gore Verbinski Pontificates About "Zero Narrative"
Comment by: JustThisGuy
Nominated by: Tikey

I think a lot of folks are missing the point here. I don't care for Verbinski's movies, but he's bringing up some very valid points as someone who is outside—and thus unaffected—by the game industry. He's coming into the game late, without all the preconceived notions that us gamers share, but with a solid sense of critical grounding on the matter. It's a bit like how the best movie/book/art critics are generally not practitioners of the craft itself; they offer fresh takes—context, if you will—on a lot of things that the actual content creators take for granted.

Verbinski's remarks are exciting because he's treating games as a completely separate medium from movies—they share certain superficial similarities but still have irreconcilable differences. Games have not matured. For them to really mature, they have to define their own distinct standards of criteria that fall outside the current narrative paradigms.

All that said, I think Shadow of the Colossus is a fine stab at this sort of null-narrative—a historical analogue to Don Quixote, if you will—precisely because it offers an experience that can't be replicated in any other medium. SotC would make a horrible movie and a boring-ass book. And that's how game developers should look at it: i.e., by asking themselves, "How can we create an experience on this medium that either cannot be replicated or is inferior on another medium?"

Gore Verbinski Pontificates About "Zero Narrative"
Comment by: dv8godd
Nominated by: DaiMacculate

First, everyone was happy as pigs in shit to give Witz the hammer... he was gonna clean up the chaff. "Hit 'em hard, Witz!" was the war call.

Then, everyone got annoyed that he wasn't issuing enough warnings. "That was a little extreme, huh Witz? Maybe you should have just warned him" was the call from the crowd." So Witz mixed his bannings with his warnings.

So then, the crowd cried once more, "why did you ban him? You're power hungry... you're banning everyone now". No one wanted Witz to use the ban.

And now the crowd says "you should stop warning people, that's a sign of your power-hungriness too".

Know what? If you ask me, I think everyone should stop taunting and second guessing the hammer in the comments sections. Try emailing Witz directly if you think his job is so damn easy or he's doing it wrong... or drop a
private message in his profile. All this giving him shit in every other post for doing everything we've asked of him is really pissing me (and I imagine Witz as well) off.

Seriously, the point of these sections are to stay on topic and not get derailed in unnecessary bullshit (like this and/or fat jokes)... yet so many seem so keen on having their say over whether or not he's doing a quality job. First, that's not your call. Second, there are better ways to handle your grievances than derail comment sections with "I'm probably gonna get banned for having an opinion, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE SAID" type crap that is the new "in thing". No, it didn't need to be said, and if did, have some goddamn tact and don't harp on the men doing these jobs here in the commentary all the time. They have email addresses listed in the sidebar and messages in their profiles for a reason.

The only real reasons, then, to bring it up here in comments is because you feel either:

A) You need the support of the community to make your point relevant. Well, if your opinion is so weak that you need other people to help you make it... probably not worth saying it then.

B) Your voice is not yet respected enough to make the point on your own. And if that's the case, you probably shouldn't try to dictate site policy anyway.

Just let the man do his job, already. Sheesh

Gore Verbinski Pontificates About "Zero Narrative"
Comment by: JustThisGuy, Z-Word, zoesch
Nominated by: Witz

by Z-Word at 10:47 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
...Verbinski does have one good point tho (just to steer this back on topic), that this whole notion of videogames needing Hollywood screenwriting talent is misguided. Videogames need *good* writers, but they need writers that understand the vast differences between the narrative structure of games and films. Getting some Hollywood hired gun to write your game could actually do more harm than good.

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by JustThisGuy at 10:53 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
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I think a lot of folks are missing the point here. I don't care for Verbinski's movies, but he's bringing up some very valid points as someone who is outside—and thus unaffected—by the game industry. He's coming into the game late, without all the preconceived notions that us gamers share, but with a solid sense of critical grounding on the matter. It's a bit like how the best movie/book/art critics are generally not practitioners of the craft itself; they offer fresh takes—context, if you will—on a lot of things that the actual content creators take for granted.

Verbinski's remarks are exciting because he's treating games as a completely separate medium from movies—they share certain superficial similarities but still have irreconcilable differences. Games have not matured. For them to really mature, they have to define their own distinct standards of criteria that fall outside the current narrative paradigms.

All that said, I think Shadow of the Colossus is a fine stab at this sort of null-narrative—a historical analogue to Don Quixote, if you will—precisely because it offers an experience that can't be replicated in any other medium. SotC would make a horrible movie and a boring-ass book. And that's how game developers should look at it: i.e., by asking themselves, "How can we create an experience on this medium that either cannot be replicated or is inferior on another medium?"

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by zoesch at 11:07 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
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@JustThisGuy: Exactly, every medium needs criticism because otherwise it becomes stale.

His point is simple, I think Z-Word nailed it perfectly, movie writers basically know how to write for the screen in a non-interactive fashion where the plot needs to unfold on 120 minutes or less. Gaming needs writers who understand that at best gaming is a collection of interactive mini-scripts (Where the story and the action are independent of each other but are interwined) that vary depending on game progress... that collection of mini-scripts will need to be coherent and make good use of the interactivity to enhance the story, not to convey it.

I take Grim fandango as an example, I love the story, love the characters and love the game, but there was a very marked divorce between the gameplay mechanics and the story, it still inspired a very strong emotional response, be it either because of the maddening puzzles or the actual cutscenes.

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by JustThisGuy at 11:32 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
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@ianp622: Something like that. What I really enjoyed about SotC is that the game forces you to create your own dialogue, your own script, and your own motivations. It sets a very specific framework and then asks the gamer to fill in the blanks—why am I playing? Why do I care? And why is this scene affecting?

By forcing the participant to craft their own narrative, SotC is allowing the gamer to bring their own set of contextual, experiential values into the system, engaging them in a way that a novel or a movie cannot. It is very close to being the first post-modern victory, completely inverting the traditional modernist model of authorial intent as the end-all, be-all; the player is the author, and the narrative only means what the player wants it to mean.

All that said, the neat thing about SotC is that it sets up the contextual framework in a way that no other medium can. However, I'm not yet entirely convinced that it also wasn't a lone shot in the dark; that is, I'm not sure if the experience can be replicated without seeming either trite or derivative. But gaming is still young and full of potential—we'll see what happens.

Finally: man, Tetris. The ur-text of the modern contextless null-narrative device. That game inspired a lot of emotions in me: panic, frustration, anger, cathartic release. I think every game dev should ask themselves one simple question during the concept phase: how can my game be like Tetris?

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by JustThisGuy at 11:46 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
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@Camann: @mind in rewind:

Man, can we please stop jizzing over Bioshock? The narrative was remarkable for a video game, but trite, unengaging and often downright jejune in comparison to other narrative forms. In fact, if it was translated on to the big screen, it would be just like a Verbinski flick: great production values, great atmosphere, but absolutely zero content with pretentious aspirations to greatness (that is, it's screaming "I AM BIG AND IMPORTANT AND HAVE DEEP MESSAGE" without realizing it has neither subtlety nor content). Ultimately, the game was quiche: it looks substantive on the outside, but ultimately it's only filled with hot air.

The problem with Bioshock is that it adheres too closely to narrative devices that have been fully explored in much greater detail (and often to better effect) in other narrative forms. Bloody hell, it exploited narrative devices that were better done in its predecessor SS2—and even back in the heady days of '99 and LGS, the same criticisms would have applied.

Bioshock wants to be a movie, but doesn't take advantage of the fact that it is a game first and foremost. I'm not saying that it either fails as a game or that there's no room in the VG market for cinematic experiences; however, Bioshock is certainly neither the first nor the definitive shot fired in exploring the full potential of games as narrative devices.

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Z-Word at 11:55 PM on 03/10/08
Admin Reply
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@JustThisGuy: In describing how SoTC affects people you're sort of describing how people are moved by great art in general — which of course is the Holy Grail of gaming, right? Even if you and I were both profoundly affected by a painting or a song or a novel, it's unlikely we'd be moved in the same way for the same reasons. Maybe a song would touch you because you find the melody beautiful, while maybe the lyrics would make me think of a relative I'd lost or something. Yet we'd both think it was an amazing song because we'd both be applying our own emotional context to it. If more games could do that... wow. That'd be something.

And I think Witz would probably swing the hammer if I called Gore a "fatty", whether or not it came after some insightful piece of blather. ;)

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by JustThisGuy at 12:07 AM
Admin Reply
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@Z-Word: You know, I've been thinking—all of five minutes—about what you said, and I think that you're tangentially raising a very valid point that needs to be highlighted. Games should not aspire to be a movie or a novel—they should aspire to be a painting or a song, offering just enough of a contextual framework for the participants to apply their own experiential values. The narrative should not be forced on the player; instead, it should merely be suggested, providing the proper prompts to nudge the player towards finding the "correct" (and I do use that term ever so loosely) values to apply.

I understand that completely runs contrary to what I said earlier about coming up with new standards of criteria specific to gaming, but I think your analogy is rather apt. Games have an advantage in that is allows a much larger canvas than a picture or a song; instead of capturing a single moment, it can span an entire narrative structure without imposing a rigid, forced narrative path.

Law & Order: Celebrity Betrayal Announced
Comment by: Modus_Operandi
Nominated by: HoserHead

Alot of people wondered why this game didnt make its debut on current
consoles. The simple fact is no system to date can accurately render
Sam Waterston's eyebrows.

Cats Kotaku In 2008 Bloggies
Comment by: Pezdispenser
Nominated by: Mint

I voted for Kotaku out of pity, we all knew the cats would win though...

The one with the cat saying his pee froze but he wasn't done yet was teh awesomenesssauce.

The Haunted Ms. Pac-Man
Comment by:
Nominated by: Modus_Operandi

My 360 was haunted awhile back. It would turn off mysteriously at odd times. Sometimes it would claim it couldnt read my disc. Still other times it would flash various red lights like the Devil or the aliens from Close Encounters. Spooky right?

Super Mario... Corset?
Comment by: Sloopydrew
Nominated by: Nirolak

"Gaming themed shirts? Check. Gaming themed socks? Ditto. Gaming themed corsets?"

Now all we need are panties and bras and we can have a gaming themed strip show. Finally, a justifiable "woo-hoo!" and "Mamma-Mia" from Mario after all these years.

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