Alternate Reality and Canons

Regarding our recent conversations on canons and what is accepted as part of a canon and for what reason can lead to questions of video games entering a canon of literature. In Jones's post this week about alternate gaming realities creating engrossing stories and well-visited places like Hogwarts, the question can be raised "If a game based on a canon of literature that both draws from and expands on some sort of popular literature, such as Harry Potter, would this game be accepted as part of the canon or merely as an extension of the story in a different medium?" I think that this question is relevant in many current games that are based and mirror popular books or movies, but what is most important would be some sort of video game, like the one based on The Matrix, that actually told a part of the story and was and is considered part of the canon, similar to the graphic novel and the anime Matrix films. I suppose that a video game would then have to expand on the story rather than simply repeat it in game form, but it is an interesting idea that games could some time become part of canon that includes both paper text and mechanics of games.

Speaking of mechanics of games and consoles, it is interesting that something that is not an episodic saga could be considered something similar to a canon, specifically Final Fantasy. As the universe, characters, plots, etc. change from game to game, all games could be considered part of the Final Fantasy canon because their link is the game mechanics and the way that the game is played and the player interacts with the story. It is interesting and I think lends to the validity of textual studies (in the way that our class examines video games) as it illustrates the importance of the simple text of the game and what makes a game important in the eyes of the eyes of the players as well as the developers.

Gaming Audience Shifts

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/2/12/7015

This ars techinica article refers to the numbers of games bought in 2006 and what it reveals about who are playing video games now. The genres that were most commonly purchased were sports games and license games (games developed with Disney titles, etc.) illustrating that a wider variety of people are playing video games and that the market is making tons of money off games sold to people who are not as interested in the high-tech hard-core games. The concern of the author of the article is that the games that hard-core gamers play tend to cost much more money to manufacture than the games that topped the best-seller list, therefore the hard core games may lose their place in the market. It makes me wonder why video games are produced and if some are designed as representative of the potential of video games to serve as an art form, as prototypes or groundbreaking technology, or if they are simply designed to sell copies.

The compromise would be something like Zelda Twilight Princess, designed with beautiful graphics and serving as a fulfillment of Miyamoto's ideal of the stoic hero while remaining wildly popular with hard-core gamers as well as casual users. It seems that there are many more games however that simply focus on selling copies, like Madden, where graphics hardly change, where game play is the same, and where the only reason to develop a second or third Madden game would be to sell to those who had not bought a previous copy or who like sports games and do not really purchase games as a "connoisseur". If these games were to become the only available because they sold the most, I expect that video game development would slow and that console hardware technology would also plummet as games would not require faster and larger memories. However, these games and the new Wii console illustrate the growing popularity of video games and the new heights the technology could reach. Plus, there will probably always be a market for hard-core gamers considering that they would demand or create their own high tech games.

So I understand the author's concern, yet I think that these lists demonstrate a more positive future for video gaming considering that more people are buying games and consoles who are not hard-core gamers and that they could potentially appreciate the games and technology as art forms or even legitimate representatives of society.

Myst

I have finished the game, and I have to admit that I used Game FAQs to figure out each and every puzzle. As much as it was convenient to get through the entire game and not lie awake at night thinking of the rooms I could not get to or how I could figure out each puzzle (which was what happened the first night I played Myst without cheats), beating the game is not satisfying! It is like I skipped to the last chapter of a book, figured out the story, and then read the book from beginning to end knowing where each twist in the plot was ultimately going to lead. It made me think of how much gaming has changed with the availability of cheats on the internet versus actually having to go out and buy a book or suffer your way through puzzles on your own. In each game my boyfriend and I play on a console, we get stuck on a certain boss or have somehow overlooked a important item that is essential to the completion of the game. The way games are now, like Zelda Twilight Princess which we recently played, it seems that there are so many levels and tricks to each that it would be impossible to circle back through the entire game and figure out where we went wrong. In those cases I do not exactly mind using FAQs, although as soon as we read what we have to do it seems that the solution was fairly easy, hindsight being twenty-twenty and all. With Myst though I feel like I cheated myself out of a very fun game which would have taken me much longer to complete yet would have given me so much satisfaction to do.

My overall gaming experience with Myst was rather enjoyable. Despite the fact that the game's graphics are dated and that there is not much of a reward system for completing each Age, I loved that it was simply puzzles and that the violence was all implied and backstory, as we discussed in class. I am no good at first person shooters and can never get a handle on button combinations in the newest games, so the simplicity of Myst, as far as controls and story go, made it much easier for me to play and kept my attention better than simply running through mazes shooting zombies. I think that I might play the next game, Riven, and try to complete it without cheating. Wish me luck!

Playing Myst was enlightening as well. It was interesting to see where all of the breakthrough games drew their inspiration. Half Life 2's use of subliminal messages in order to locate items (placing the delta sign on walls where one could walk to locate med kits, etc.) must have derived from the changes in music that occur in Myst once you successfully complete a puzzle to let you know that something has changed and that you can advance through the story. I also really liked the choice at the end of the game (I chose the green book because I knew it was the right ending) because it reminded me of Fable. Fable is a great game because the player has ultimate control over the destiny of your avatar, and although you learn the same backstory no matter which personality you give your character, you really feel like you have free range over the video game and that you could go back and play it all differently to change your gaming experience.

So I am looking forward to playing the Myst sequel and to showing my friends the similarities between this dated game that many people despise and some of the new games that people praise for the originality and cleverness!