Video gaming motifs

[crimsonsmoke]

Long ago, when I was younger, I used to get frustrated and irate when the illusion of immersion was broken by an obvious fault in a video game. Be it a visual glitch, a bizarre plot device, or a gameplay issue.

Back on the PSX, graphical artifacts, poor frame rates, and unresponsive controls were common place; things have got better, but there are still many imperfections that will never go away since nothing can be truly perfect.

On Tomb Raider, you'd come up against the dreaded invisible wall, stopping progress and hindering the tenuously believable experience. In GTA:3, you'd clip through a solid brick wall and end up on the other side of the map. In Killzone, sold as the PS2s graphical apex, you'll stutter through frames like a stammering half-wit and enjoy a plethora of unloaded textures. Even in modern games, like Just Cause 2, you'll encounter voice acting so bad it sounds like half the cast were deaf.

And yet, now, I feel a slight sense of pride in these inadequacies. I now feel that it is these very motifs of video gaming - invisible walls, bad voice acting, strange plot devices, graphical glitches, blurry textures, to name a few - that we should embrace. These imperfections make you aware that you're playing a video game and, therefore, have become symbols of video gaming as a whole.

What are your thoughts on this? Do these things still bother you, or are you, like me, humbled by their existence?

[ScaryGary]

well I mean, sometimes. yeah. it just all depends, I guess.

whatever MGS is current always sort of sets the bar in modern gaming for me. not to say they're absolutely perfect, but they're very well polished.

The Resident Evils ALWAYS have something laughably bad about them.

[crimsonsmoke]

Originally Posted by ScaryGary

The Resident Evils ALWAYS have something laughably bad about them.

And yet it's one of the most successful series out there.

[Ghoul]

Originally Posted by crimsonsmoke

And yet it's one of the most successful series out there.

Resident evil is a very rare series, it can be listed as a comedy and a horror. The only other popular media I've seen do that and succeed would be shaun of the dead.

[Captain Falcon]

Stockholm Syndrome of shittiness

[crimsonsmoke]

How about disappearing bodies, spazing out rag dolls, static sky boxes, illusory bump maps, clipping, graphical artifacts, 2d sprites, Captain Falcon is a fag?

[crimsonsmoke]

By the way, almost everything in video gaming is optical trickery (wizardry, in some lofty cases).

When the illusion is broken, immersion is lost. However, I now take some small pleasure in these moments, as I'm reminded that I am playing a video game. Video gaming is still the most innovative and creative form of entertainment, with an almost infinite scope. I am glad to be part of this medium, surely still in its infancy.

[iMagiNation]

8 bit music

/thread

[Greyusurper]

Legacy of Kane. Besides the fact that the game was clearly rushed and included a lot more bugs then its predecessor Soul Reaver, their is a hilarious situation that could happen given near any puddle or body of water. To put it in game text, as my friend so likes to do:
Town's guardman 1: Did you hear? Kane is back.
Town's guardman 2: Oh crap! We better get as far away from here as possible!
Town's guardman 1: ...No, no, don't worry. He fell into a puddle of water and dissolved.

Case in point, all the characters that simply can't swim in games either. Though Kane's was a true weakness to water that other characters didn't share. But that hasn't stopped many a GTA game from ending in drowning!

As far as a game that doesn't break immersion, try Shining Force 2 on the Sega Genesis.

[Dark Lord]

The concrete bushes on the side of racetracks.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Greyusurper

Legacy of Kane. Besides the fact that the game was clearly rushed and included a lot more bugs then its predecessor Soul Reaver

Derp?

[L33tz]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Arena glitch - YouTube

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Arena glitch - YouTube
Video: click to display