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[AltogetherAndrews]

Posted by Lachamania on the IGN PS3GB

"Most video games only use very basic emotions, like fear, anger, power, and frustration," he notes, "but not the social emotions that appeared later during evolution like empathy, sadness, joy, pity, love, et cetera. These emotions are more complex to generate, but all other art forms managed to do it. I can see no reason why games should limit themselves to the same old basic ones."

All art forms are, he believes, "emotional roller-coasters". "The pleasure we feel watching a movie or reading a book comes from the different emotions we go through," he elaborates. "There is no doubt in my mind that games will follow the same direction and offer more interesting, emotionally involving experiences, with more meaning and depth. Fahrenheit, our last game, was our first try at exploring new solutions. We will go much further with Heavy Rain."

Link

Between this and the upcoming HAZE from Free Radical (whose screenwriter, Rob Yescombe, was on the record saying something very similar to what David Cage is saying about the need for added emotional depth in games), it sounds like at least some developers are prepared to attempt to take the next step here. Hopefully it works out in execution.

 

[Newzboyz99]

oh give me a break. :lol

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

oh give me a break. :lol

Now what's wrong?

 

[Campster]

I don't disagree in the least that games need to have a wider emotional appeal than "scaring the bejeezus out of you through scripted events" and "Ha ha ha, that pile up on the freeway in GTA:SA was hilarious."

That said, I have absolutely no faith in David Cage whatsoever.

 

[Newzboyz99]

"Most video games only use very basic emotions, like fear, anger, power, and frustration," he notes, "but not the social emotions that appeared later during evolution like empathy, sadness, joy, pity, love, et cetera. These emotions are more complex to generate, but all other art forms managed to do it. I can see no reason why games should limit themselves to the same old basic ones."

 

[Tieno]

ICO showed the way in 2001 people!

 

[theBishop]

oh give me a break. :lol

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_topics.php?board_id=314159282

 

[Kabouter]

Looking forward to this, one of my most, if not my most anticipated game currently. I absolutely loved Fahrenheit, and The Nomad Soul: Omikron before that.

 

[RamzaIsCool]

I am a fan of David Cage, his games are all quite flawed but I just apreciate the thoughts behind it. But seriously after the Nomad Soul and Fahrenheir he better start making games that shows his full vision. I always have the feeling somehow he starts with all these ideas and somehow it never really comes together, making his games a mixture of genious and total failure.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I don't disagree in the least that games need to have a wider emotional appeal than "scaring the bejeezus out of you through scripted events" and "Ha ha ha, that pile up on the freeway in GTA:SA was hilarious."

That said, I have absolutely no faith in David Cage whatsoever.

I'm not familiar with David Cage. I do have faith in Free Radical though, for some reason. In any event, this is something that needs to happen.

 

[Draft]

Game writing is going to stay in the ghetto until game writers realize good storytelling isn't about emotional roller coasters or taking the reader (player) through every strata of feeling. Good storytelling is about characters. Do you think Tim Schaefer was worried about emotional roller coasters when he wrote Grim Fandango? Or when Chris Avellone wrote Planescape: Torment? Doubtful. Because great literature doesn't spring up from an author trying to manipulate the audience into feeling something. Great literature comes from characters, characters you believe in and empathize with. Great literature comes from the Manny Calavera's and Nameless One's, not emotional ****ing roller coasters.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Game writing is going to stay in the ghetto until game writers realize good storytelling isn't about emotional roller coasters or taking the reader (player) through every strata of feeling.

And what do you suppose defines a character? I'm not saying this needs to be present in all games, but I for one am well ready to experience something beyond a flat emotional landscape. I don't need all emotions, and perhaps rollercoaster is the wrong term here, but I do want to more often experience what's in between the extremes that we are currently typically treated to. That's not to say that it's entirely absent in games, only that it's certainly not well represented in "realistic" games.

 

[Lord Error]

Game writing is going to stay in the ghetto until game writers realize good storytelling isn't about emotional roller coasters or taking the reader (player) through every strata of feeling. Good storytelling is about characters. Do you think Tim Schaefer was worried about emotional roller coasters when he wrote Grim Fandango? Or when Chris Avellone wrote Planescape: Torment? Doubtful. Because great literature doesn't spring up from an author trying to manipulate the audience into feeling something. Great literature comes from characters, characters you believe in and empathize with. Great literature comes from the Manny Calavera's and Nameless One's, not emotional ****ing roller coasters.

A lot of this is true, and that it why Ico and SotC succeeded where many others have failed, even while using a lot less words and near-mute characters. I think David Cage knows this though. A lot of Fahrenheit's characters were well defined enough that player could feel for them, in some of the moments of greatness the game offered. Actually, pitfalls of Fahrenheit had almost nothing do with character qualities and likability, and everything to do with crappy plot development later on in the game.

 

[mollipen]

Honestly, I'm not sure that there is any games I'm looking forward to more than Heavy Rain. Maybe not even Silent Hill 5. The "Audition" video completely blew me away, and I'm so glad that somebody out there is making a game that has a big budget feel but isn't about space aliens, swords and dragons, or whatnot. Right now, way too much of gaming falls into the "summer Hollywood blockbuster" category, so we need far more stuff like this.

That said, I'd love it if somehow Heavy Rain could be fused with Silent Hill 5. Keep the core ideas of Silent Hill, but then instead of having most of the game be action, have it be a "drama" game about the characters, their experience with the town, and dealing with what they've found themselves in.

 

[EphemeralDream]

A longer article (featuring this interview) about his goals with Heavy Rain can be read here:
http://omikrongame.blogspot.com/2007/01/quantic-dreams-heavy-rain-emotional.html

I liked Fahrenheit quite a bit and enjoyed its experimental control scheme for interaction. However the action sequences (the Simon stuff and L+R mashing) often had little to do with what was going on in the actual scene so it distanced the player more in some cases. I think it did make leaps in the adventure genre however in that it was fast-paced and featured short sequences rather than moving around an environment and checking everything that you could.

I look forward to Heavy Rain and hope it is an adventureish game rather than action, but it almost seems like he's reverting to the old days of FMV games. While creating tons of footage from mocaps may do justice in most cases, I'd still rather see a game create some sort of motion generator where the actions are not based on canned footage. This IMO would take better advantage of the gaming medium.

 

[Zynx]

I'm not against this idea in principle - actually, I support it wholeheartedly...
But I'm not holding my breath that either of these teams will be the ones to pull it off.
I won't mind being pleasantly surprised, though.

 

[painey]

David Cage makes excellent games. I cannot wait for the Nomad Soul 2. I remember back before I had the internet I used to sneak into the computer rooms at school during the lunch hours and use the net connection to find the walkthrough for the first one when I got stuck, and you got to have sex with some guys wife :lol

 

[Aaron]

And what do you suppose defines a character?

A sense of self. Everything else should flow from that, not characters acting like robots in service of the plot or whatever the writer's overall goals are. They should have developed from their experiences, and act according to their own purposes and whims, which is something very hard to pull off in an interactive experience.

 

[Avalon]

What's this platform is this game on?

Fahrenheit was a damn fine adventure game... for 3/4 of the game, then it all went to hell.

 

[Acosta]

David Cage is the type of person we really need in the industry. His games has flaws, no doubt about it, but I will take an Omikron or a Fahrenheit over Generic Clone AB#01, Quantic Dreams has a great capacity to develop really interesting games.

He is is one of those persosns that always think forward, just the type of people that can bring new things or make other people try.

 

[Campster]

David Cage is the type of person we really need in the industry. His games has flaws, no doubt about it, but I will take an Omikron or a Fahrenheit over Generic Clone AB#01, Quantic Dreams has a great capacity to develop really interesting games.

He is is one of those persosns that always think forward, just the type of people that can bring new things or make other people try.

There's a difference between knowing what direction games need to take and how to take them there.

Don't get me wrong, if Heavy Rain is some amazing ludic experience then more power to Cage. But he's continually shown in his works a rubber-band approach to narrative story telling, which is better than false choices but still making choices irrelevant by having them result in the same narrative situation.

 

[Acosta]

There's a difference between knowing what direction games need to take and how to take them there.

Don't get me wrong, if Heavy Rain is some amazing ludic experience then more power to Cage. But he's continually shown in his works a rubber-band approach to narrative story telling, which is better than false choices but still making choices irrelevant by having them result in the same narrative situation.

Show me just one actual, commercial game that tries to do what Fahrenheit does, only one. For me, trying is the important thing here

The formula needs polish, as any new way of doing things needs, but you can find what he says in his games, maybe not as you can imagine it can be, but at least there is a try and is noticeable. The formula just need work, given QD seems to have money now and a more powerful system to work with. I expect a huge step ahead for Heavy Rain.

 

[Dante]

Holy S*** I just watched the trailer for the first time with audio.......Pretty amazing. At E3 I couldn't hear the audio.

 

[theBishop]

is this PS3 exclusive?

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

Holy S*** I just watched the trailer for the first time with audio.......Pretty amazing. At E3 I couldn't hear the audio.

I just watched the whole video. At E3 I just saw the acting. I was amazed back then, and it wasn't because of the graphics. That damned women was freaky as hell. I say go for it, if it is anything like this.

Oh, and I trust free radical to produce something stellar.

 

[Dante]

I just watched the whole video. At E3 I just saw the acting. I was amazed back then, and it wasn't because of the graphics. That damned women was freaky as hell. I say go for it, if it is anything like this.

Oh, and I trust free radical to produce something stellar.

:lol I've literally watched this thing like 5 times in a row. Funny this game just shot WAY up my most wanted list.

 

[Campster]

Show me just one actual, commercial game that tries to do what Fahrenheit does, only one. For me, trying is the important thing here

The formula needs polish, as any new way of doing things needs, but you can find what he says in his games, maybe not as you can imagine it can be, but at least there is a try and is noticeable. The formula just need work, given QD seems to have money now and a more powerful system to work with. I expect a huge step ahead for Heavy Rain.

Well, if you're talking about rubber band storytelling... a lot of Choose Your Own Adventure books manage to do it pretty well.

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

:lol I've literally watched this thing like 5 times in a row. Funny this game just shot WAY up my most wanted list.

Same here. lol.

 

[Kevin]

I don't disagree in the least that games need to have a wider emotional appeal than "scaring the bejeezus out of you through scripted events" and "Ha ha ha, that pile up on the freeway in GTA:SA was hilarious."

That said, I have absolutely no faith in David Cage whatsoever.

It's a shame that you think that. I personally felt that Indigo Prophecy was one of the best story driven games ever.

 

[Acosta]

Well, if you're talking about rubber band storytelling... a lot of Choose Your Own Adventure books manage to do it pretty well.

They are not even comparable. The important question is, what game trys to tell story given a solid illusion that you are the one driving it and that doen´t content itself with creating a dialogue treen and be done it? few ones. Without experimentation, without commercial games as Fahrenheit, we will be stuck in a poor way of displaying an interactive story.

David Cage is important because he is willing to do this type of things in the commercial field. In the "underground" we have amazing experiments as Facade and lot of amazing works in IF, but there is a need of of this type persons that brings this type of thinking.

Maybe the proper question would be, what do you want of videogames storytelling?

 

[Lord Error]

In the "underground" we have amazing experiments as Facade and lot of amazing works in IF, but there is a need of of this type persons that brings this type of thinking.

I'll take this chance to again recommend the interactive fiction game called "Photopia". Anyone with even a remote interest in adventure games or interactive storytelling should play that game to completion. Anyone who doubts interactive storytelling as a worthy medium, should also play it too.