It’s Time for Movie Mode

As my latest “summer of unemployment” draws to a close (I’m starting a new gig as a Sr. Producer at Paramount Pictures in their new “Digital and Interactive” group next week), I’m forced to reflect on what I “accomplished” during the last 2+ months of “down time.”  Sadly, the answer is, “not very much.”

When my unemployment began, I delighted in telling people, “I’m actually looking forward to having some free time to focus on some things that I’ve been wanting to do more of.  For example, I’d like to spend some time on my blog, and try to get through some of the great games that came out in the last year that I haven’t had time to play.”  It was an exciting prospect and I certainly meant it when I said it.  In fact, I even tried to follow-through on it.

I especially wanted to spend some quality time with the highly-lauded Grand Theft Auto IV.  After all, I had read reviews that compared the game to Coppola’s Godfather films and Doctorow’s Ragtime.  Others made equally bold claims (which were later effectively, and wisely, retracted).  It was described as the game that could finally, conclusively, demonstrate that games are “art.” (Don’t worry, this post isn’t about the “games as art” debate.  While I think that GTA IV was certainly an impressive accomplishment that serves to advance the “art” of video game creation, I think that it fares very poorly when compared to works such as these).  It was my obligation, as a video game developer, to play this game.

Regardless of the apples to oranges problems with such a comparison, I can at least say that I didn’t have any trouble watching The Godfather to completion.  GTA IV, on the other hand…simply lost my interest.  At around the 12-hour mark, the game ceased being “fun” and became a chore.  My overriding emotions were frustration and tediousness (I’m not 100% certain that’s technically an “emotion,” but I think you get my point).  In fact, I realized that I’ve basically had this reaction to several of the “best” games released this generation.

In particular, I’m thinking of GTA IV, Bioshock, and Mass Effect.  All three of these games have received stellar review scores.  All three of them were particularly praised for the quality of their story.  And all three of them I found difficult to finish, despite the fact that I was, in fact, engaged by their stories.  Two of them (GTA IV and Mass Effect) became so mind-numbingly tedious to me that I couldn’t force myself to go on.  I managed to complete Bioshock, but I played-through the second half of the game begrudgingly, mostly so that I would be able to engage in an informed conversation about it with my friend Matt Sakey.

While playing all three games I found myself thinking at times, “god, I really do want to find out what happens…but the actual ‘playing’ part is killing me.  I wish that someone out there would take the time to just record all the interesting bits, boss fights, cut-scenes, and stuff and then post them up on YouTube or something so that I could watch them.  Just cut-out all of the basically repetitive, mundane, “filler” that’s required in order to meet the 10-20 hours of gameplay/”not a rental” requirement.  I’d happily devote an hour or two to just watching the story.”  (For the record, someone may have done this. I haven’t really checked YouTube, but that’s not the point).

I think that there is probably an awfully interesting philosophical conversation to be had about what this realization implies for the direction that games are headed.  On the one hand, it seems to support the assertion that narrative is a dead-end for games.  That, as games get better and better at narrative, they get closer and closer to films (a medium to which they still pale in comparison) and that the interactive elements only serve to detract from the narrative experience.  On the other hand, one could argue that this is a sign of how effective games are becoming as narrative devices and that there’s no reason that compelling stories and genuine “fun” should need to be mutually exclusive.

These questions are really best left to game designers and philosophers, however, and I am neither of those things.  I’m a Producer.  My concerns tend much more toward the pragmatic and, as I mentioned, I’m about to start a job managing the creation of games for Paramount Pictures.  So, regardless of the outcome of that argument, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be asked to help make some games that contain narrative.

And here is where I think that my experience with these games may have led me to an actual, honest-to-goodness, genuine, game design innovation.  (At least, if someone has already thought of this and implemented it, I’m not aware of it).  I think that the time has come for “Movie Mode.”  I am firmly convinced that story-based, narrative games ought to allow “players” to experience their stories without having to actually, actively, “play” the game.  If your game’s story is interesting enough that someone would be willing to sit beside me on the couch and watch me play it (I’m thinking of YOU Portal, Zelda, Halo…the list goes on), then why should it require ANYONE to actually play it?

Now, I realize that this is probably virtual heresy for many game designers/developers out there.  I can hear the cries now, “but the fun comes from the challenge!” and “it’s no longer a game!” or “it’s not even interactive anymore!”  Please, take a deep breath, and try to remember that the alternative is the status quo, a reality in which most people who buy your games NEVER actually finish them.  Next, set-aside your technical concerns.  For most games, it would be technically doable, if not trivial, to record a default, scripted, play-through that could be played-back in real-time, as if being controlled by a player.  (Sure, there might be some complications, but I challenge any programmer/engineer to explain why it would be impossible for more than a small percentage of games.)  Now, try to think about the possibilities…

Players like myself could play a game as long as they are interested, set down the controller, and “watch” the rest of the game.  Wouldn’t such a player be much more likely to say to themselves, “hey, I know that I eventually got bored with Mass Effect’s pathetic text-box-based excuse for exploring the galaxy, but I really did enjoy the story, and I’m sure that they managed to figure out that alien planets should have some sort of trees on them, that every gang of bad-guys in the galaxy probably doesn’t hang out in one of three generic bad-guy base layouts, and that a good RPG requires more types of loot than guns, bullets, and armor.  Maybe I’ll go ahead and get the sequel, if for no other reason than that I’m curious to find out what happens in the story…”

Or, players (also like myself) might say, “you know, I’m kinda interested in this Metal Gear Solid 4 game.  I realize that everyone says that it’s mostly just for people who are already fans of the series, though.  Maybe I’ll go ahead and get the first 3 in the discount bin and watch them on Movie Mode so that I can be ready for the new one when it comes out.” (Feel free to replace all MGS 4 references in the previous hypothetical with Diablo III references).

Or, players (also like myself) who get all the way to the last battle in Fire Emblem only to realize that their strategy of protecting their main characters from permadeath by always keeping them out of harm’s way and thereby crippling their level progression would make it literally impossible for them to beat the final boss because those are the only 2 characters in your party who can damage it might say, “screw it.  I’ll just watch this boss battle on Movie Mode,” rather than discarding the game with disgust and hesitating to ever buy another Fire Emblem game again.

Or, players (that I certainly would have been one of)  might get bored/frustrated with the Library level in Halo: Combat Evolved, and put it into Movie Mode only to watch the game get to a later point where the action picks back up, or a new mechanic is introduced, or a particularly exciting boss appears, and then grab the controller back and say, “wait!  Maybe I do want to play this after all!” (I’m also convinced that this “jump-back-in” functionality would be technically possible for a significant percentage of games).

I think that the list of benefits goes on, but hopefully you get the point.  I hope that I get the chance to explore this idea with an actual, commercial, title sometime soon.  If not, however, I hope that someone out there that’s making one of these great games that I’ve had such a hard time forcing myself to finish will read this and think it makes some sense.  In the meantime, I’ll spend my few remaining days of unemployment playing WoW and Civ IV.  They may not be the industry’s greatest narratives, and I may wind up with less to show for this down-time than I had originally hoped, but at least I’ll be having a lot of fun.