Let Me Tell You What: Engaging Gameplay

This is going to be short, so I’ll skip the opening paragraph.

I don’t take many people’s full word for anything. Call me paranoid, crazy, whatever you like, but even my own wife is capable of bending the truth when it suits her needs. But we’re not talking truth or lies here, we’re talking individual tastes in video games. When Leigh Alexander tells me that she thinks Cibele is more engaging than Fallout 4, as far as she is concerned, that’s perfectly fine. She’s keenly aware that no one in gaming save for people she adores will ever influence her or change her tastes in games, but that does not often stop her from espousing her opinion online anyway and snarkly suggesting that your tastes are shit. Come now, Leigh, I’ve been part of the anime community for sixteen years. I’ve played the pretentious hipster card many times.

But let’s not judge this on the person but the content. While I have not played Cibele, I have played games in that wheelhouse before. Comparing it to a large, open-world game like Fallout 4 is unfair to both games. People play different games in different genres for different reasons. When I played Analogue: A Hate Story a few years ago, I was engaged in the game mostly for the characters and the story. The creator could have told her story in a short novel, or a video series, but she chose an interactive medium instead. She probably chose that medium because she wanted the player’s input, their interaction. She didn’t want the player to just see the story, she wanted the player to be the story. But it’s up to the player to really get something out of that experience. Not everyone will sit through reams of dialogue for the final payoff. Expecting the general gaming populace to interpret your game the same way is silly, and most of you indie developers know it. The good ones don’t go looking for fame, fame comes to them.

With a universe like the Fallout series, the interaction around your player character is often more engaging than the character itself. Certainly your character has lines and interacts with other characters, but you could easily spend four hours wandering around the wasteland just interacting with the ruins of civilization. One of my favorite franchises in this respect is the Bioshock series. Even though it is a first-person shooter and your primary goal is to fight your way to the end, I could not help but stop and admire the art deco style and feel of 1950’s and 1960’s American culture. Game designers could easily just put in the bare-minimum effort if the objective is just shoot people and win the game. Establishing a universe means you’re establishing something that people stop and look at, and can go beyond just that one game.

This is what separates the game medium from the movie medium. A movie does not give you a choice in what is being presented, and while the surroundings may be visually stunning, you can only see what is presented to you. You are beholden to its pace. A game of similar magnitude gives you the freedom to explore those surroundings and feel like you’re a part of the story. The post-apocalyptic wasteland in Fallout interests me because it’s a world stripped of our modern comforts, a world stripped of order and justice. Like the Borderlands series, it shows humans at their most weakest and most vulnerable state, constantly on-guard from other humans, creatures, and even the radiated land itself. Jim Sterling did a video some time ago about the companion system in Fallout 4 and how “progressive” it is because you can choose a same-sex partner, but let’s think about that for a second, you’re in a wasteland! I would imagine that for the first generation or two, they might try to stick to established social norms pre-nuclear, but as time winds on and society continues to erode further, most people probably stop giving a shit. I am not criticizing Jim here, actually, I agree with him, but I also think he rather misses the point given the universe the game is trying to establish. I mean, if I survive nuclear war, I’ll still probably like women, but a super mutant might be fine too.

I don’t doubt that Cibele is an engaging game built on a solid premise and story, and I might even give it a spin myself to be my own judge. But let’s stop trying to divide the gaming community by pigeon-holing all gamers, Leigh. We’ll do what we want. I know that frustrates you, but when you’ve figured out how to become The Supreme Being, let me know, and I’ll start building the shrine.