Game 'Kinetics' (more high-concept malarkey)

[The_Ancient]

Chizzles, I was vaguely paranoid about that same issue with digital TV’s for a while, it’s the reason I settled on getting a relatively low end tube model for my XBOX originally. Having replayed a number of games on 360 (back compatible) and a 720p DLP set, I occasionally think they feel a little ‘off’ but for the most part I have to admit it hasn’t bothered me. I can’t be sure if it’s purely rustiness or not, but loading up Guilty Gear Reload it seemed much too hard, and a 2D fighter is one genre I could believe even 1/60th of a second delay (not sure if many TV’s are any worse than that?) could indeed be a big deal sometimes.

Attempting to further qualify this concept… to be clear I actually really liked the kinetic feedback of Gunvalkyre in general, so it makes a perfect example of an issue with controls in the purest sense. Jet Set Radio being an example of how a game can yet fail me for simply controlling wrong, even though there’s no clear issue with the mechanics themselves…

Again, I know this for myself, that the movement of what’s on the screen is the defining characteristic of videogames in general. I even have a few fond memories of pure Text Adventures, and so can enjoy games that are not defined by movement… but in terms of the priorities for engagement with the experience, it’s in what the graphics ultimately do rather than simply what they are each frame - that a game always tells me what it’s truly made of.

But if anything the percentage of rhetoric given to graphics has been going up compared to the issues of feel and response. But I’ve always been able to notice a lot of examples of games getting a lot less love, which I can subjectively ascribe to a sense of bad kinetic feedback… even though reviews mostly rationalize their negativity in other terms. Which is why I’ve been getting the sense it’s the most important invisible issue anymore?

So another question… what terms directly convey a sense of what I’m on about here:* Kinetics; Responsiveness; Feedback; or even simply… FEEL?*

In truth this isn’t a purely idle conversation at the moment either, sometime back I’d caught myself lamenting the conceits and shortcomings of all the mainstream channels of rhetoric for this pastime… and in particular the vague schizophrenia and just floundering quality of review standards. Consider this, can anyone think of ANY other popular entertainment medium where both a hard-core consumer contingent and the journalism itself obsess about issues of objective quality - or to put it another way fair opinions? When looking to find out how good a film is, wouldn’t you expect to see a lot of varying reviews from different sources? Doesn’t it seem ridiculous that we can’t expect to see the same kind of honest subjectivity applied to games?

In truth videogames will never be regarded as an art form until it’s primary proponents fucking grow up and start treating it as such… art is almost by definition subjective.

Umm, at any rate one time I caught myself thinking about a number of things I wished to see in reviews, and at the moment I’m trying to convince myself to simply start representing them somehow. I was honestly unsure if “feel” in kinetic terms is something most people will even reflexively comprehend anymore, but I would personally wish it to be reintroduced to the standard dialog.

[Chizzles]

I do a course called “Computer Arts” at University, and I remember once during a lecturer, the lecturer said:

“As long as you can justify your opinion regarding a piece of art, you can neither be right nor wrong. However computer games are an entirely different matter”

I am still not sure what he meant, or if he himself indeed knew what he meant.

[The_Ancient]

Hmm… if being uncharitable I’d say he has unthinkingly bought into the conceit of which I’m speaking, that a videogame’s worth is objectively commensurate with the combined worth of it’s individual parts. Which is especially funny, as in absurd, since individually some of those parts would otherwise be commonly regarded as a piece of art, no?

On the other hand, it could reflect another equally concerning aspect of the medium, the tendency to focus on the technicalities of production which are most objectively measurable as the principal defining values. But to reference the handy dandy parallel to film again… why is ours the only entertainment medium where relative deficiencies in budget and production expertise are obsessively regarded as a mandatory barrier to recommendation? Going to see a movie costs roughly the same regardless of how much it cost to make, no one expects to pay less to watch a quirky independent film than for the latest 200 million dollar blockbuster? It’s either worth your two hours and 7-10 bucks or it’s not.

Or, to be charitable… he was simply alluding to the fact games are very complex and as a commodity a little closer to the investment of say a vehicle or another electronic tool, and at the very least issues of ergonomics come into play, which can be generally quantified. Yet still, since they cater to a leisure objective that remains an unjustifiable conceit. Car nuts may yet argue why one sports car is more fun than another, despite any other objective merits.

Visual arts and music have always had standards for technique and skill, there are many discrete jobs and crafts involved in cinema which are highly technical and may be criticized as unskilled and amateurish individually. But those technicalities do not automatically oppress the artistic merit of an endeavor, they do not represent this sort of preliminary test that, if failed, precludes all further consideration?

Anyway, this is getting a little off track, but indeed it’s in my abstract musings on the realities of the videogame scene, and the reasons it clearly must end up breaking the confines of established precedents, that I also end up toying with ideas for solutions to those issues.

[Ehndow]

[quote=“Heretic Agnostic”]Gehn, I have an odd recommendation for you, speaking of obscure games… it’s one of the main whipping posts from the early XBOX days, and it’s hard to entirely defend it since the game is indeed an object lesson in shortcomings. I initially tried it out with the attitude of “OK, let’s find out just how bad this is”, but having played it I can say it would have been a personal tragedy if I’d missed out.

Azurik… alright yeah, the story is the very definition of generic, but fortunately it’s not pretentious and rarely shows it’s face anyway; the character looks like he belongs in some Off-Broadway avant-garde musical rather than a videogame; the level of production barely treads the line between sub-par and outright amateurish: but there’s a lot of subtle genius to be seen if you can meet the game where it lives. The most condemning thing that can fairly be said, is that it definitely overreaches what it delivers. And since the genre it attempts to represent is defined by the likes of Zelda or Soul Reaver or even ICO, and so synonymous with A-list (mostly Japanese) production extravaganzas… it was all but doomed from the get go.

Still, it suggests possibilities of atmosphere and immersiveness I have yet to see fully consummated since. And there’s this one massive spacial awareness puzzle that was for me hands down the most engaging, imaginative and rewarding example of the beast in any action game. Made all the more immersive because you get to see and wonder about your vague awareness of the thing in the background for a long time before you reach it. So basically it’s the type of game that indeed mostly only succeeds by it’s content, yet even there only in the realm of it’s abstract content. Plus the style of the environment in the Air Realm (yes, it’s that derivative) is very Panzer Dragoonish to me. In one sense I can’t recommend it enough, as one of those owe it to yourself to know kind of things, although truth be told after playing through nonstop I quit in the final area… I might still finish it someday. lol[/quote]

It’s funny you mention Azurik, because it’s one of those games that seemed to have a certain “je ne sais quoi” to it; I thought of picking it up before. Maybe I will this time

So another question… what terms directly convey a sense of what I’m on about here: Kinetics; Responsiveness; Feedback; or even simply… FEEL?

I think the simplest of them all would be responsiveness. It’s more specific I’d say. If I was talking about videogames with anyone, it’s a word I would expect to be understood quite easily without even actually mentioning “controls”. In the end, it’s still a bit subjective though.