Apr 4
Finding a Way through The Lands Between
Despite all the radical change around us today, all art expression is an attempt to create parameters of a metaphorical world through techniques of interpretations and representation which engage viewers in what all humans do to try to make meaning out of the world.
-Margot Lovejoy
For this week’s reflections, I’d like to focus the topics of cybernetics as it pertains to the nature of video games, specifically open world role playing games.
I referenced some of the concepts from the Games as Cybernetic Systems chapter in Rules of Play.
The field of cybernetics has grown out of system and information design theory. The fundamental concept is that an individual or machine can take a course with a goal in mind, assess their progress toward that goal, reassess their relation to that goal, and bearing in mind the lessons learned from where they started to where they are, self-correct to continue toward that goal.
Looking at two of the larger video game releases of this year, Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring, we can see two types of cybernetic systems at play.
The Typical Modern Day Open World RPG
In a game like Horizon Forbidden West, you are placed into a sprawling world full of locations to discover and quests to fulfill. As seen above, the game’s map displays a variety of marker locations to tell you precisely where you will find specific areas of interest in the game.
In the game, you meet a variety of non-playable characters (NPCs) who will give you small tasks to fulfill, unlocking various rewards at their completion. You can look at a detailed overview of the map, outlining specifically where to go for pertinent items and quests. The quest log in the game also provides a list of tasks given to you by NPCs in the game.
This system creates a very straightforward cybernetic system in a game with a large open world. It can be difficult to know exactly where to go and to keep track of what you have or have not done.
There is also a compass that updates with the player’s movement. You are able to select a quest from your quest log or create your own waypoint and the compass will constantly provide you with visual feedback on whether you are heading in the right direction.
Occasionally, you will run into an obstacle (like a large unscalable mountain or river) and find that you have to employ a correction mechanism in order to reach your goal.
The homeostasis in this game, which the developers hoped to employ through their interface and map/quest system, is to keep the player moving forward and having fun. There is a sensor attuned to a particular quest line, a comparator gauging the player’s position to the desired location, and an activator which ends the display of that waypoint when the player reaches their specific destination.
Is this Fun?
Horizon Forbidden West is undeniably a beautiful game with massive amounts of content to keep the player engaged for many hours. If your goal is to keep yourself occupied while looking at pretty visuals and an enthralling storyline, then yes.
But as discussed in Adam Curtis’ All Watched Over By Machines Of Love & Grace, the homeostasis of a system is not necessarily its natural state. As nature feels the effects of forest fires or floods, the participants in that ecosystem don’t return to the same way of doing things. An ecological system responds to these kinds of interruptions dynamically, not necessarily returning to the status quo.
Elden Ring
On the opposite end of the spectrum from Horizon Forbidden West, we are given FromSoft’s Elden Ring.
Playing Elden Ring, you are given very little information about who you are or what you are doing. There is a brief tutorial that says R1 to attack, L1 to raise your shield and then basically throws you in front of a vastly overpowered enemy.
You walk out of the main tutorial area and there are no beacons in the distance beckoning you to go there. The developers at FromSoft don’t demand the player to play the game in any one particular way. They allow the player the autonomy to figure out the feedback loops of the game on their own. You can try going down one road and find that you immediately are pummeled by a behemoth Tree Sentinel. The player can then ascertain, of their own volition, that this may not be the best way to go. But the game does provide the agency to player to overcome this challenge if they wish.
I am of the opinion that this is the better route for game developers to take in future development. In playing this game, I have found organic indicators of success or failure on my own without having it plastered in my HUD or buried in a menu somewhere. I experienced the world’s ecosystem organically and experienced it as if I were an actual Tarnished finding myself in this world.
