This week's video-game convention in Santa Monica - the invitation-only E3 Media and Business Summit - put a couple of major issues in clear perspective.
July 15, 2007 (Press Release) --
Here's an inside look at the impact of Nintendo's Wii console and the industry's struggle to add a literary dimension to some of its games:
The "big three" console makers divide into two categories: Microsoft and Sony are in the same neighborhood of the same universe and thinking about games in basically the same familiar way. Nintendo, however, has moved to a universe that's far, far away and is thinking about games that could change everything we know about entertainment.
Consider this: Microsoft and Sony displayed intense, shoot-'em-up, military sci-fi games ("Halo 3" and "Killzone 2") to add a final flourish to their elaborate press conferences. Nintendo? All the momentum at its event led up to the unveiling of "Wii Fit," a relatively genial "game" blended with exercise and health components.
In other words, Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Sony (PlayStation 3) still want to be identified, first and foremost, with games that entice hard-core players. That's why they make expensive machines (with traditional controllers) that boast high-powered technology and game series of intimidating complexity. In distinct contrast, Nintendo has chosen a strategy of a lower-priced console (with a one-hand remote) that's ideal for clever but easily understood games of nearly universal appeal.
As Microsoft and Sony increasingly broaden and refine their lineups to include simpler or more varied games, they'll talk up the ways they're serving casual gamers and the family audience. And sometimes they'll have a compelling case. (Remember how Sony's Eye Toy camera incorporated physical fitness with an innovative control system?)
Nevertheless, Nintendo is well on the way to being unique in the minds of consumers because of price, hardware design, game library, and its clear sense of mission and vision.
That's not to say Nintendo is guaranteed infinite success. Unique is fine until it becomes passe. What if the next unforeseen technology revolution makes the Wii look prehistoric?
All we know for sure is that every video-game company can be defined these days by how similar or different it is in relation to Nintendo. Eight months after the debut of the Wii, the range is enormous.
Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, says he now thinks of Sony as being as different from Nintendo as it is from companies in vastly different businesses, such as Nike. He's comfortable with that, and it will be fascinating to see how he feels about it, say, two years from now.
The industry's thought leaders - people including LucasArts President Jim Ward and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello - still talk passionately about the need for video games to have much better stories. They believe it's doable, even though well-paced game play can seem antithetical to a strong narrative, and it's something they're working on now, not down the road.
That makes it all the more unfortunate to report that story material of literary credibility, emotional depth or simple freshness was not easy to find at E3.
Even more frustrating, one of the major LucasArts storytelling initiatives is devoted to a military sci-fi game that stood out because of its slick software rather than its much-touted script. The game, "Fracture," is being developed for 2008 with a detailed plot about a futuristic war, and the combat includes "terrain deformation" weapons that hint at an amazingly creative playing experience.
Throw a tectonic grenade, for instance, and a ridge of earth forms in front of your soldier, providing cover and posing new tactical decisions (take the high ground on top of the ridge or anticipate a flanking attack as enemies adjust?). Throw a spike grenade and your soldier can run into position to ride a rising column of earth for a better shooting angle.
The demonstration session for all that action was preceded by a summary of the underlying story, which is being advertised as deeply imaginative, yet intriguingly plausible. Maybe, just maybe, it will be exactly that in the finished game. Maybe level after level of absorbing character development and convincing dialogue is yet to come. But at this early demo stage, the narrative seemed like one more transparent contrivance that was stuffed with buzzword cliches (genetics, cybernetics, etc.). And games that make this kind of initial impression rarely get significantly better.
The starting point - sci-fi war - may pose an insurmountable problem. Figuring out how to weave a resonant story into an interactive medium is challenge enough. Doing it within the overused genre of sci-fi war may have raised the bar impossibly high.
It's hard to think of a company that's better suited to overcoming the video-game story problem than LucasArts. The gap between "Fracture" and a solution tells us just how big the task is.
"I think it's going to be awhile before the video-game industry has its `Citizen Kane,' " said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, which is developing "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" for Ubisoft.
That game probably offers the best teaser for seeing emotion within a typically emotionless shooter game. The game won't be released until November at the earliest, but it may be the one to make real headway.
Author: Mike Antonucci
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/
The "big three" console makers divide into two categories: Microsoft and Sony are in the same neighborhood of the same universe and thinking about games in basically the same familiar way. Nintendo, however, has moved to a universe that's far, far away and is thinking about games that could change everything we know about entertainment.
Consider this: Microsoft and Sony displayed intense, shoot-'em-up, military sci-fi games ("Halo 3" and "Killzone 2") to add a final flourish to their elaborate press conferences. Nintendo? All the momentum at its event led up to the unveiling of "Wii Fit," a relatively genial "game" blended with exercise and health components.
In other words, Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Sony (PlayStation 3) still want to be identified, first and foremost, with games that entice hard-core players. That's why they make expensive machines (with traditional controllers) that boast high-powered technology and game series of intimidating complexity. In distinct contrast, Nintendo has chosen a strategy of a lower-priced console (with a one-hand remote) that's ideal for clever but easily understood games of nearly universal appeal.
As Microsoft and Sony increasingly broaden and refine their lineups to include simpler or more varied games, they'll talk up the ways they're serving casual gamers and the family audience. And sometimes they'll have a compelling case. (Remember how Sony's Eye Toy camera incorporated physical fitness with an innovative control system?)
Nevertheless, Nintendo is well on the way to being unique in the minds of consumers because of price, hardware design, game library, and its clear sense of mission and vision.
That's not to say Nintendo is guaranteed infinite success. Unique is fine until it becomes passe. What if the next unforeseen technology revolution makes the Wii look prehistoric?
All we know for sure is that every video-game company can be defined these days by how similar or different it is in relation to Nintendo. Eight months after the debut of the Wii, the range is enormous.
Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, says he now thinks of Sony as being as different from Nintendo as it is from companies in vastly different businesses, such as Nike. He's comfortable with that, and it will be fascinating to see how he feels about it, say, two years from now.
The industry's thought leaders - people including LucasArts President Jim Ward and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello - still talk passionately about the need for video games to have much better stories. They believe it's doable, even though well-paced game play can seem antithetical to a strong narrative, and it's something they're working on now, not down the road.
That makes it all the more unfortunate to report that story material of literary credibility, emotional depth or simple freshness was not easy to find at E3.
Even more frustrating, one of the major LucasArts storytelling initiatives is devoted to a military sci-fi game that stood out because of its slick software rather than its much-touted script. The game, "Fracture," is being developed for 2008 with a detailed plot about a futuristic war, and the combat includes "terrain deformation" weapons that hint at an amazingly creative playing experience.
Throw a tectonic grenade, for instance, and a ridge of earth forms in front of your soldier, providing cover and posing new tactical decisions (take the high ground on top of the ridge or anticipate a flanking attack as enemies adjust?). Throw a spike grenade and your soldier can run into position to ride a rising column of earth for a better shooting angle.
The demonstration session for all that action was preceded by a summary of the underlying story, which is being advertised as deeply imaginative, yet intriguingly plausible. Maybe, just maybe, it will be exactly that in the finished game. Maybe level after level of absorbing character development and convincing dialogue is yet to come. But at this early demo stage, the narrative seemed like one more transparent contrivance that was stuffed with buzzword cliches (genetics, cybernetics, etc.). And games that make this kind of initial impression rarely get significantly better.
The starting point - sci-fi war - may pose an insurmountable problem. Figuring out how to weave a resonant story into an interactive medium is challenge enough. Doing it within the overused genre of sci-fi war may have raised the bar impossibly high.
It's hard to think of a company that's better suited to overcoming the video-game story problem than LucasArts. The gap between "Fracture" and a solution tells us just how big the task is.
"I think it's going to be awhile before the video-game industry has its `Citizen Kane,' " said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, which is developing "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" for Ubisoft.
That game probably offers the best teaser for seeing emotion within a typically emotionless shooter game. The game won't be released until November at the earliest, but it may be the one to make real headway.
Author: Mike Antonucci
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/
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