Randomly Mine #7

Randomly Mine #7

Will Service for Fans

Bunnyhop’s recent Metal Gear Solid 4 video is glorious and I highly recommend it for fans of the series, but there’s one section that really struck a chord with me.

We’re all familiar with the concept of fan-service, of writers making characters do things that don’t add to the story or even make a whole ton of sense. These range from seeing someone jiggle their boobs to partying on a beach instead of saving the universe.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with fan-service and there’s many different kinds.

Metal Gear Solid 4 however is a great example of how fan-service can have the opposite effect of its goal.

What MGS4 does is make nods to moments in the past, and push conflicts, not because the plot has been building up to them over four games, it’s done in the name of pleasing fans.

And what resulted is one of the most heavily mocked games in the series.

It’s not a coincidence.

Metal Gear built up an insane narrative that was one of the big hooks for players, so the real way to please fans is to enhance and expand that. By doing things like connecting beloved characters to events they wouldn’t partake in, or giving screen time to people in the past without believable reason, you damage the very thing that kept players coming to you in the name of giving them what they want.

I think it's ultimately best to leave fanservice to the fans themselves, they’ll more than make up for it.

Just ask Overwatch.

Real Challenge

The last time I went to PAX, I was lucky enough to try out a racing simulation setup that had not only a mega PC and an expensive wheel configuration, but a fully hydraulic machine that simulated the weight of an actual vehicle.

It’s just as rad as it sounds and tearing down Bathurst in this thing was rad, but it also taught me a lesson to do with simulation. There’s a physical uncanny valley.

You see, gaming wheels have usedforce feedback for ages, so when I turned the wheel and the hydraulics react in sync, it felt great. However, pedals – to my knowledge – have never needed this kind of feedback, because they’re almost always stuck to the floor.

But in this case, I’d slam on the brakes, feel the weight of the machine, but my feet feel nothing.

It created a scenario where it felt like I wasn’t breaking despite being familiar with the game, vehicle, and wheel. The only way to fix this would be to install force feedback into pedals, but who the hell is going to do that? Wheels are already expensive as it is, and only for this setup would they be necessary.

Not to mention, adding this feature might just unlock a new scenario for people to feel disconnected from.

I bring this up because I think this is the sort of challenge that’s going to be prevalent with VR.

Right now, most conversation I’ve seen on the subject is to do with motion sickness, and image quality. These are important, but I’ve got a feeling once we’re past this, dealing with the physical uncanny valley is going to be a big topic.

What’s unfortunate, is for a while now, games have become relatively easy to get into with their current ambitions.

It’s easy enough to get immersed in a game with a controller, mouse and keyboard, on a monitor or TV.

But for the first time in a while, we’re starting to approach games whose bar for entry won’t be obtainable in our current way of playing games, due to economics, and living spaces.

It’ll either result in a push to play games in a whole new way, or for us to not bother, and stick with what works.

The Grid

Speaking of playing games in a whole new way, I finally got to experience VR.

In my trip to Toronto, I visited Level Up Reality and had an hour long session where I tried SUPERHOT, Raw Data, Pavlov, and Sairento.

SUPERHOT VR is where I spent most of my time as I’m very familiar with the original game, it being one of my favorites of 2016. I always theorized that VR would fit with SUPERHOT’s pacing beautifully, as the game’s permanent slow-motion mitigates the chaos and awkwardness of real-time combat in VR.

And I was pleased to see that most of my expectations and theories were in line.

SUPERHOT VR was a blast, and I actually had to force myself off it to try other games.

You're striking poses straight out of an action movie, and not just for show, you do it to survive. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to blind-fire with an Uzi over cover, or lean against an elevator door and peak around to see who's coming.

It ultimately achieves what I think motion controls always aimed for but were never able to execute, and that’s a much greater connection to the game’s environment through motion.

Currently, even in a more realistic game like Rainbow Six Siege, you’re effectively a refrigerator with a gun. But in Superhot VR, your slightest motions can be what saves or kills you.

However, while SUPERHOT VR was a blast for the half-hour I spent with it. Ultimately, it’s only a slice of a pie that’s still being baked.

SUPERHOT’s thrilling use of movement, has to be done in the confined space all VR games restrict you in, and I quickly discovered it actually executed it the best.

Raw Data, Sairento, and Pavlov were all enjoyable, but quickly showed the platform's limitations. Unlike Superhot, these games have levels the player travels around in that are beyond the VR’s space, this leads to two solutions, both of which are deeply flawed.

Raw Data and Sairento allow you to use the left control pad to teleport to any space on the map. It’s intuitive enough, but it leads to a very apparent disconnect between you and the character, as you’re still able to move in the VR space while teleporting.

Imagine if in Halo 5, you could move while dashing.

It’s kind of like that.

Pavlov takes a different approach. It’s based on realism, you move slowly, and guns are something you have to simulate reloading. Teleporting around in a contemporary war shooter would be silly, so instead, you use the trackpad to move around as if it were an analog stick.

Now, I haven’t used a Steam Controller yet, so I can’t confirm this, but jI think trackpads are the worst for movement as they have no physical feedback.

They’re more precise than analog sticks when it comes to aiming, but for moving, it only feels like your character is riding along the world’s worst magic carpet.

And while I didn’t feel motion sickness as others did, Pavlov immediately struck with a wave of dizziness that I didn’t experience in other games.

It’s something about how the brain perceives movement, and with time does get used to it in VR, but it’s certainly not instinctive.

When it comes to VR, things like resolutions and graphics still need work, but that’s to do with technology.

In terms of design, I think the biggest thing holding VR back right now is movement.

SUPERHOT did it best, but with some severe concessions made, and while I had a good time playing Raw Data, Sairento, and Pavlov, I don’t think they’re making the most of what VR can be.

SUPERHOT’s use of movement can give someone a peek of VR’s potential in the next ten or twenty years. When VR experiences are able to be like that but with the grand scale of modern games, it’ll put us one step closer to The Grid.

Pixel Art Lovers

People love Devolver Digital.

Their games, attitude, and promotion seems to resonate with people in ways that most indie or middle market publishers struggle with.

And I don’t mean to diminish their talents, they’re a very smart group of people that intelligently balance a level of snark and sarcasm with genuine passion and care.

But I think Devolver’s status almost made itself.

When you’ve got nearly every big publisher swinging their dicks in customers faces while pleading innocence, all you really need to do to stand out is shake the customers hand.

Devolver stand out by virtue of not being a greedy producer that only spits sequels, and safely made products.

That their satire is on point, is simply the cherry on top.