I am going to just come out and say it. The essence of gaming is not interaction, but impact. Interaction is the bong, impact is the drug. Some of the street names for this drug are “Feedback”, “Consequence”, “Payoff”, or “Reward” but the chemical name is Impact.
There are many reasons gamers seek to be entertained through playing games: to pass time, to relax, to satisfy the human need to explore, to escape, to exercise control. In every case however, from Scribblenauts, to Mass Effect, to Geometry Wars, to Gears of War, to Flower - the single, common thread all games share is that through an interface, the gamer interacts in and with a virtual world in an attempt to impact it. Type in the word “shovel”, and the scribblenaut digs a hole, plants a seed, and then harvests a carrot. Pull the trigger of your shotgun when you are standing next to a locust, and your COG soldier blows the locust to pieces.
Impact is the payoff: the body that gibs when we shoot it, the grass that changes color when we pass over it, the face that smiles when we select the correct dialog.
Conversely, the absence of impact is when our actions do nothing. We scream in frustration, “Lag!”, or “WTF?! I shot that asshat 3 times and nothing happened!” Indeed, “lag” is probably the biggest impact impounder out there. It is the DEA of gaming. It is well-funded and ever-present, hiding in the lines, at the switches, even going undercover in the developer’s own code.
Sloppy controls and ugly textures etc. are yet other factors that damage the bong and interfere with the delivery.
Some developers like Santa Monica Studio and Epic, with their respective GoW series, have chosen to go with big payoffs of blood and gore for every action the gamer performs. Other developers, like Infinity Ward and Bungie are more stingy with the drug. Avoiding gibs and wanton destruction, they instead use “impact boosters” like pop-up medals or points, to make their lesser quantity of Impact more potent.
When I read that Splash Damage had decided to avoid gibs I was admittedly disappointed. I will never forget the first time I saw gibs in Return To Castle Wolfenstein. I had lobbed a 'nade into a room and after it exploded, all that was left of the enemy was his foot in a shoe. I was hooked. I am not a big fan of slasher movies, but I sure do enjoy gibs in games.
Splash Damage has assured us that their decision to forgo gibs is for reasons of game design. They "hope to have as much gameplay in our [their] death mechanics as most games do in their life mechanics” (Gamesradar Hands-On) and gibs would interfere with that goal. Cool. I am actually really looking forward to the unveiling of these mechanics.
Gibs are not necessary. As I mentioned earlier, Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare games don’t have gibs either. They do, however, provide extraordinarily stimulating feedback for everything you do: the little crosshairs become engorged when your shots connect, the sound changes from pfft pfft pfft to thuk thuk thuk, points flash above the head when the enemy goes down, and if earned, announcements of “Kill streak” “Avenger”, and “Buzzkill” with yet more points are splashed across the screen. Bungie in Halo 3 similarly dishes out medals for almost everything you do. Good players will often have medals literally streaming across their screen like ticker-tape.
Splash Damage still has months of development time to work on their “impact boosters”. Though I suspect some of the graphics are just placeholders, I want to comment on them anyway. I really like the font and color of the xp scores that pop up when an enemy is taken down. It matches the art style and stands out nicely against the background. I think, however, that they need to make the initial flash larger, then let it shrink and fade off the screen so that it lasts just a little bit longer.
The reticle is refreshingly different from anything I have seen before, however, I think it is too fine, especially when indicating shots on target. The pinpoint dot simply turning red is not enough. Maybe the dot could turn into an engorged 3 or 5 point star or something. However, in changing it, I would avoid anything reminiscent of MW2.
There is a fine balance between too little and too much or too distracting, but I would love to have some form of flashy feedback to indicate that various objectives have been completed, people have been healed, levels have been upped, etc. etc.
I don’t think it is enough that developers approach the concept of impact intuitively considering for themselves, what happens? how does it look? how does it feel? I think that they need to make deliberate examinations of their systems of real-time visual reward, with the attitude of “How can we add more without risking distraction or irritation?” and this, especially if they are forgoing gibs. It costs money, but I would bet that IW spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee hours working on just that. Furthermore, I don’t think it is the leveling/prestige system of their MW games that keeps gamers playing them. It is the details, the little things. The fact that every time you do something, you get rewarded. Your actions almost always have significant and flashy impact. That, and tight controls (a good bong) is the secret to their success, imo.
:stroggtapir:
