Saturday, November 10, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Dreamfall and the Illusion of Narrative Agency
I began playing Dreamfall: The Longest Journey earlier this week, and finished it just last night. I actually abstained from reading reviews about it until afterwards, just to see if my opinion of the game agreed with the general opinion. That seems to be the case. The general opinion (and my own) is "riveting story, beautiful artistic direction, great voice acting..... and not much as far as actual gameplay goes".
I thought the game was tremendous. I actually was not a great fan of the original game, The Longest Journey. The overemphasis on April Ryan being "special" and "the savior of the worlds" and so on really killed the game for me. It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it was too wrapped up in the theme of "you are special" to allow its other themes to shine. Not so in Dreamfall. Zoe Castillo, the new female lead, is, for most of the game, spectacularly normal. She suffers from lethargy and indirection. Given that I was playing the game because I was feeling a bit lethargic, this of course caused me to have an immediate and arresting interest in Zoe and what would happen to her. I won't try to summarize the rather dense plot. I will say, though, that it elegantly constructs a meaning for Zoe without the explicit "this is your mission... this is your purpose in life" hammer that's so easy to apply. It doesn't feel forced. She does only what she feels is needed, then understands late in the game that doing what was needed is enough.
Of course, Zoe's personal journey is one theme among many. The game benefits from its multi-perspective approach. The player controls Zoe, April Ryan, and a virtuous but deadly apostle from far off lands in turn. During sections where these characters converge, the tension I felt was close to unbearable. Though a similar perspective technique could be employed by a film, there was some... factor... something about alternately controlling two non-omniscient characters that gave a palpable feel to the situations.
I could comment on the game's presentational and narrative strengths ad nauseum, but I feel that I must take issue with its highly linear, non-interactive structure. Rare indeed is the game where I feel agency over the story. Games tend to give me story, then agency, then more story. The two modes alternate. The best games, as many people other than myself have theorized, are those that give the player meaningful in-game choices that affect the story. I partly agree with this, but I would further postulate that the best games are those that give me the illusion of agency over the story. Honestly, I have very little wish to tell myself a story. The concept of "cooperative storytelling", where the designer gives a framework for the player to create his own story, doesn't appeal greatly to me. In this respect, I think I agree with Ebert; authorial control is a fairly central component of narrative and art. A story that I create for myself, by myself, will almost certainly be derivative. As such, I would prefer a game that is in truth linear, but gives me the impression that events somehow hinge on my actions. To accomplish this illusion, one needs to play the story; not just watch it. For examples, see Max Payne 2, Beyond Good & Evil, or the new Sam & Max episodes: linear, but since I am living the story, interacting with it, I feel that I matter. I am NOT the co-author of the story; instead, I empathize with the characters and am part of it. The two positions are incredibly different.
So, on this count, Dreamfall fails. It's a glorified movie. Most interactions are limited to walking 10 feet from one event trigger to the next (apart from the puzzles... but I've made it clear that I would rather there be no puzzles whatsoever in adventure games, unless they are very well suited to the scenario. Again, see the new Sam & Max episodes for good use of puzzles). If one were to divide the game by percent into story and other parts, about 90% would subjectively be the former. Because of this, the game fails horribly as "a game" since story is largely given via cutscenes. So, in a sense, I don't take issue with the linearity of the story. I take issue with its heavy use of non-interative methods to convey this linear story.
Ok that's enough of a ramble for now... certainly more to say to clear up what the difference is between giving an item in Dreamfall versus using an item in Sam & Max, but some other time...
I thought the game was tremendous. I actually was not a great fan of the original game, The Longest Journey. The overemphasis on April Ryan being "special" and "the savior of the worlds" and so on really killed the game for me. It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it was too wrapped up in the theme of "you are special" to allow its other themes to shine. Not so in Dreamfall. Zoe Castillo, the new female lead, is, for most of the game, spectacularly normal. She suffers from lethargy and indirection. Given that I was playing the game because I was feeling a bit lethargic, this of course caused me to have an immediate and arresting interest in Zoe and what would happen to her. I won't try to summarize the rather dense plot. I will say, though, that it elegantly constructs a meaning for Zoe without the explicit "this is your mission... this is your purpose in life" hammer that's so easy to apply. It doesn't feel forced. She does only what she feels is needed, then understands late in the game that doing what was needed is enough.
Of course, Zoe's personal journey is one theme among many. The game benefits from its multi-perspective approach. The player controls Zoe, April Ryan, and a virtuous but deadly apostle from far off lands in turn. During sections where these characters converge, the tension I felt was close to unbearable. Though a similar perspective technique could be employed by a film, there was some... factor... something about alternately controlling two non-omniscient characters that gave a palpable feel to the situations.
I could comment on the game's presentational and narrative strengths ad nauseum, but I feel that I must take issue with its highly linear, non-interactive structure. Rare indeed is the game where I feel agency over the story. Games tend to give me story, then agency, then more story. The two modes alternate. The best games, as many people other than myself have theorized, are those that give the player meaningful in-game choices that affect the story. I partly agree with this, but I would further postulate that the best games are those that give me the illusion of agency over the story. Honestly, I have very little wish to tell myself a story. The concept of "cooperative storytelling", where the designer gives a framework for the player to create his own story, doesn't appeal greatly to me. In this respect, I think I agree with Ebert; authorial control is a fairly central component of narrative and art. A story that I create for myself, by myself, will almost certainly be derivative. As such, I would prefer a game that is in truth linear, but gives me the impression that events somehow hinge on my actions. To accomplish this illusion, one needs to play the story; not just watch it. For examples, see Max Payne 2, Beyond Good & Evil, or the new Sam & Max episodes: linear, but since I am living the story, interacting with it, I feel that I matter. I am NOT the co-author of the story; instead, I empathize with the characters and am part of it. The two positions are incredibly different.
So, on this count, Dreamfall fails. It's a glorified movie. Most interactions are limited to walking 10 feet from one event trigger to the next (apart from the puzzles... but I've made it clear that I would rather there be no puzzles whatsoever in adventure games, unless they are very well suited to the scenario. Again, see the new Sam & Max episodes for good use of puzzles). If one were to divide the game by percent into story and other parts, about 90% would subjectively be the former. Because of this, the game fails horribly as "a game" since story is largely given via cutscenes. So, in a sense, I don't take issue with the linearity of the story. I take issue with its heavy use of non-interative methods to convey this linear story.
Ok that's enough of a ramble for now... certainly more to say to clear up what the difference is between giving an item in Dreamfall versus using an item in Sam & Max, but some other time...