Player Investment (Clever Title Pending)

I'm pretty sure that most of my friends and colleagues will attest to the fact that I prefer to get my points across in a frank but considered manner.

Be that as it may, I tend to avoid buzzwords or catch phrases but recently one has caught my eye, not least because it interests me immensely.

Player Investment.

Now yeah it's been kicking around a while but it's definitely coming to the forefront of modern game design. Almost all modern games have a sort of standard player investment system in place, thanks to Microsoft's achievements and Sony's trophies. But developers are taking this and sprinting off with it, and with good reason too.

Games like Halo, Call Of Duty, World of Warcraft and many others are all supplying us with that carrot that tantalisingly teases us and keeps us ploughing hours upon hours into our games, which previously we would probably finish then leave on the shelf, trade in or flog to a mate.

A few years ago I began to play World Of Warcraft for a number of months in an effort to improve my understanding of the whole MMO genre, I was totally new to the experience and I found it very enjoyable. That said I didn't get hopelessly addicted and I was able to walk away without turning into a gibbering wreck.

The one thing that I have noticed in recent years is how other games have latched onto some of WOW's (and other RPG/MMO titles) fundamental mechanics. I think you could put up a strong argument suggesting that it's down to games like WOW, Ultima and Final fantasy etc that we find ourselves devoutly attempting to climb the ranks and brag to our friends and peers in games that you wouldn't normally associate that kind of system with.
Games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 and numerous others. Can you imagine this back in the days of Quake 3, back then you didn't need any proof of your gaming prowess, you'd just let WASD and the left mouse button do the talking. And even that has changed with the introduction of Quake Live!

Don't let that last little rant fool you though, I definitely approve of all of these "Player Investment" mechanics. These relatively simple systems have been taken and used very successfully to ensure that we're still playing that "one more game" before we log off at the end of a Wednesday night whilst the wife and baby are asleep.

I already briefly mentioned Halo 3, for many there was always a strong desire to reach level 50 ( I never persevered) but Bungie are also taking this much further with Halo Reach, check out this link to see some of their impressive and I think exciting plans.

I guess one negative that does come to mind is that whilst all of these developers attempt to turn their games into huge time sinks, it leaves little time to mess around with other games so in that respect it could well be a very bad thing.

At the end of the day our desire to prove our superiority over others has well and truly been tapped into and I honestly believe that gaming in general is much more interesting for it. I just wonder where does it go next? I don't want to play one game for a year until the next one comes out, though the cynic in me tells me that's exactly what some developers want.

Heavy Rain vs Road Avenger

So recently I played through Heavy Rain and a great game it is. One thing that did strike me was how much it reminded me of an old school classic, Road Avenger on the Mega CD.

For those not familiar with it, the game saw the player play an interactive anime movie by pressing the correct sequence of buttons in time to the on screen activities, you played the roll of a sort of Mad Max crossed with Kurt Russel in Death Proof in a speeding red sports car. The title does a great job of getting the protagonists activities across.

Now clearly Heavy Rain is light years ahead of Road Avenger in terms of tech and art etc, but design, hmmmmn not so much.


Some might say well Heavy Rain is on foot and so has more in common with the likes of Space Ace and Dragon's Liar, which is a fair comment but Road Avenger was better, it felt like the timing was right and that the actions you had to perform were more in context with the on screen action. Most importantly if you messed up it felt like it was your fault, which I'd say is one of, if not the most important things in any video game.

Heavy Rain also does this pretty well, granted there are times when it slips up a little, but for the most part the quick time events seem well authored and sensitive towards the onscreen action. Consequently they can have you on the edge of your seat.

Now I don't know if it's purely rose tinted glasses which has me making this comparison and please don't get me wrong I'm not holding Road Avenger up as a beacon of gaming achievement, and I'm sure that the timing I mentioned previously probably doesn't hold up as well as I remember. But I guess the point I'm attempting to make is that it's refreshing to see developers taking influence from other and often ill thought of areas of gaming's history and importantly improving the formula.

Road Avenger may or may not have given Quantic Dreams some inspiration, the highway section on Heavy Rain certainly suggests to me that it did, but I think it's also fair to say that other similar games of old, like Dragon's Lair etc would have popped up in the Quantic Dreams studio at some point.

Heavy Rain was a brilliant breath of fresh air, but elements of it are ingrained deeply in gaming's past.

Something I intend to bring into play as I continue to expand my repertoire.

Result!

I just found out that I was runner up in the Eurogamer God Of War 3 competition, apparently I've won a GOW3 T shirt and poster.

Well happy with that!

So as I've mentioned a few times I'm looking into learning more about the code/script side of game development.

Recently I came across Flixel essentially a library of Action Scripts put together by the chaps that produced the excellent Canabalt and Gravity Hook HD.

For some reason I seem to have taken to using Flixel and Flex Builder, maybe it's because it's a little more straight forward than coding in C++ and doesnt feel so extensive. But a large part is because of the great effort the Flixel guys have put into making things easy for new starters.

So thanks to the Flixel team and hopefully I'll be able to make more use of my ideas and have something to show soon. Work and being a Dad aside.