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“We need to kill gameplay” says Ex-People Can Fly dev

Riposte

Member
Without gameplay, it isn't a game.

Can we just finally split this industry into "video games" and "interactive stories" so this idiocy can end?

No, that's stupid. It is impossible to not "play" an interactive story. Most interactive story games are simply role-playing games without combat systems.
 

Deadstar

Member
Why can't different kind of games coexist? Not every game wants to be a memorable piece of art. I really loved heavy rain - it even is my gotg actually - but I find myself also enjoying gameplay-only-games or exploring open worlds.

This is the key point. Today a lot of games are made to cater to a wide audience, meaning it has to be all things to all people. Aka watered down garbage.
 
NOVEMBER 8, 2012

The Astronauts developer Adrian Chmielarz, former dev of People Can Fly, explains why developers should “kill gameplay” in order to create a more memorable experience in videogames.


I hate these pretentious jerks.

Having fun is a much more profound experience than something "deeply emotional." Hell, I don't even know what "deeply emotional" really means, as the way games affect people is subjective.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
This is the key point. Today a lot of games are made to cater to a wide audience, meaning it has to be all things to all people. Aka watered down garbage.

Apparently the word "niche" doesn't exist in the gaming industry anymore.
 
as long as i can control an avatar and press X, X, X and talk to npcs and climb ledges, we good. just sell me that game and i'll buy it over and over no matter what it is called...wait a sec...
 
While I'm with him on wanting more "deeply emotional" games, I don't think Walking Dead is a good example of what to aim for. The story and characters are good but there's too little gameplay and I don't feel like there are enough choices given at a time. I guess it's a good starting point, though.

But there's a balance somewhere that needs to be met between "deeply emotional" and still having traditional gameplay elements. I feel like Braid achieved it.
 

Boogybro

Member
Let me explain.

My friend (I should say acquaintance, he's more my wife's friend) is a total Sony fanboy. He worships games like MGS4 and Shadow of the Colossus, because in his own words, they are not meant to be taken as simple fun (since they are art, y'know), and to call them fun is a complete insult.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. :p

The reason your acquaintance likes MGS4 is everything I dislike about that game.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Having read the whole original piece, I think he's smarter than the excerpts from the OP make him appear. The claims he makes are well in line with the psychology of attention, cognition, and memory.

I recommend people actually read it. The headline does it a disservice.
 
Holy fucking shit does anyone here have reading comprehension skills

We do understand, he wants to eliminate the dichotomy between pure gameplay and cutscenes, that's a commendable goal but I doubt most people will agree with this because as of now, every game that tries to do this is more of an interactive movie than a game.

It would've been fine if he said more developers should put emphasis in finding a new concept that blends gameplay and storytelling better, but he said we must "kill gameplay" which doesn't come off as a very goo idea.
 

szaromir

Banned
For all the shit this guy has been talking lately his first game out of PCF better be fucking *mindblowing*.

"Lately"? The guy said back in 2007 that "Halo 3 is objectively a terrible game" and in the same interview that Call of Duty 4 SP campaign is one of the greatest in games ever.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Really, when you think about it, his entire statement is flawed by virtue of his definition of gameplay. You don't need a fail state for something to be a game, and you don't need to necessarily achieve something for it to be gameplay.
 
So, since they can't nail the balance between gameplay and storytelling they decide to cut the former out of the equation instead of getting better at it, makes no sense whatsoever. Sounds a lot like Aesop's "Non dum matura est".
Games can be art. But you have to use the elements of the medium for it to work. Otherwise it's not a game anymore. Cutting out gameplay is an idiotic notion.

Majora's Mask was perfect in this regard, using the gameplay to bolster the story and themes presented.

This, a million times this. Most emotionally packed game I've ever played, made the sadness and resignation of the characters palpable, also reflected in the city becoming more and more desolated. Game makers need to come to terms with their own insecurities towards the movie industry, videogames deserve their own way of approaching the player and there's much more potential than the mere audiovisual experience to be tapped.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
To me it sounds more like if people want to present a good story, they should focus on the story and not the mechanics, not that game mechanics/gameplay should be eliminated from all games.

The way it's written though is kind of confusing.

If he wanted to eliminated all "gameplay" and focus on presentation instead, then I stand by my original statement in telling him to get the hell out of here.
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
Platinum Games exists your argument is invalid

Those are not deeply emotional games, well unless the emotion is FUCK YEAH :p The first quote is actually giving a nod to them in a sense.

If he wanted to eliminated all "gameplay" and focus on presentation instead, then I stand by my original statement in telling him to get the hell out of here.


“If we understand gameplay as something that a challenge is a crucial part of, then none of these moments features any gameplay. You just walk, or swim, or ride a horse, but that’s it. You cannot die. You don’t make choices that have any long term consequences. No skill is involved. There is no gameplay.”

^^^
 

Riposte

Member
Reading the whole thing, he just comes off as someone who has a very poor working theory of what videogames are and likes the navel-gaze about it. Saying "gameplay" over and over, then poorly defining it, sort of gives you an earlier indication of that.

as long as i can control an avatar and press X, X, X and talk to npcs and climb ledges, we good. just sell me that game and i'll buy it over and over no matter what it is called...wait a sec...

Do you have a point somewhere in this?
 
jerry-seinfeld-george-costanza.jpg


So you have an idea for a game about nothing. They say, what's your game about. You say nothing.

Everyone's doing something. We'll do nothing.
 

Orayn

Member
Ding ding ding. Keep it all as context for what you're doing, but not the driving motivation to play. Sometimes you don't even need that much.

Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a place for games that tend more toward the interactive fiction side of things. The runaway success of Telltale in recent years is proof of that.

What bothers me is how "epic story" now seems to be considered an integral component of a good game. Far too often, a big story's demands in writing, voice acting, etc. are draining resources that could be put to use improving the underlying game.
 

Dr.Hadji

Member
"If we understand gameplay as something that a challenge is a crucial part of"

but we don't. gameplay can be anything.

Well actually, no it can't. There are a lot of popular interactions in games that aren't gameplay.


No, that's stupid. It is impossible to not "play" an interactive story. Most interactive story games are simply role-playing games without combat systems.

Yes but I don't think play and gameplay are synonymous. You can interact in various different ways with a videogame and not have one bit of it be gameplay.
 

BlackJace

Member
I think the problem is how he is explaining his philosophy.

And "kill gameplay" is probably the worst and most hyperbolic thing he could said.
 

AlexBasch

Member
We need to kill story.
This is one of the main reasons I enjoyed Borderlands.

What story? There's only dialogue about you rampaging the shit out of Pandora. That's it. A bit of context on what you're doing like the intro of the DLC's and bam, you're playing.

I got a chuckle of people who complained about the "poor writing" and "dumb story". Not every videogame needs a story.
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
FUCK YEAH! is the best emotion, that's why video games exist.

Yes, but that's not an Emotional game. When people say stuff like that they normally mean a rollercoaster of feelings and stuff and overly strong attachment to the characters. Funnily enough the only games I got any feeling like that was the mgs series and some japanese visual novels which I wouldnt really count as a game for the most part. :lol
 

Infinite

Member
Read the whole article. It is fairly interesting and he does have a point that some of our greatest memories of certain games don't usually involve the core mechanics of the game.
 
Most triple A games are practically $60 movies at this point. It won't be long before every video game is nothing but cut scenes with a few QTE's thrown it.
 

Orayn

Member
Read the whole article. It is fairly interesting and he does have a point that some of our greatest memories of certain games don't usually involve the core mechanics of the game.

So? I'd rather have memorable experiences that arise from a mechanically sound game than play something that was engineered to make me feel a certain way.

The latter is just... Cheap. It's the kind of thing Red Letter Media points out in the Plinkett review of Avatar.
 

Oreoleo

Member
Bad thread title causing lots of people to knee-jerk react in here.

He can screw himself and I'll go play Platinum's next game.

Platinum games actually prove his point entirely if you read the quotes in the OP. Bayo and Vanquish are fun as HELL and they have top-tier gameplay, but there is exactly zero emotional resonance in those games.

In comparison to his cited example of The Walking Dead game with stunted gameplay yet extremely high emotional peaks it makes complete sense to me. They are two different ends of a spectrum but not mutually exclusive.
 

Tenki

Member
So what's the point in killing gameplay in video games? I can stand games with very bad or even no plot if they're fun, but not otherwise.
 

Riposte

Member
Yes, but that's not an Emotional game. When people say stuff like that they normally mean a rollercoaster of feelings and stuff and overly strong attachment to the characters. Funnily enough the only games I got any feeling like that was the mgs series and some japanese visual novels which I wouldnt really count as a game for the most part. :lol

If you were critical of what you wrote, you would have reconsidered this entire paragraph after thinking about writing the first sentence.


Also there is more to "fuck yeah"! (which itself could be several layers of different emotions) in these games.
 

Orayn

Member
Platinum games actually prove his point entirely if you read the quotes in the OP. Bayo and Vanquish are fun as HELL and they have top-tier gameplay, but there is exactly zero emotional resonance in those games.

But why is "emotional resonance" something that games need to strive for? He implies that anything else is just "passing time," and I couldn't agree with him less.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
So what's the point in killing gameplay in video games? I can stand games with very bad or even no plot if they're fun, but not otherwise.

The problem is you are getting hung up on the game part too much. Clearly people get by with restricted or poor traditional gameplay given the vast amount of people that enjoy games like Planescape or Walking Dead.
 
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