2 posts tagged “bumpy trot”
Justin and I were discussing
Bumpy Trot earlier today, and I told him the game was somewhat
open-ended. His response; "Open-ended is the new Linear."
The moment passed with much LOLing, but the concept was more true
than perhaps he intended. Open-ended IS the new Linear, or rather the
new definition of the same thing.
As video games have gotten "bigger, " (more worlds and bigger,
larger levels, third dimension, in addition to the expanding scope of
stories and morality) a trend in plotlines has opened up; the questions
of right and wrong, good and evil or; "What should my character do
here?" While games from the early days were riggedly stuck in their rut
of "do this, then this, then this," explorations of creating true story
and character arcs have expanded from "Choose which character to play"
to "choose what this character will do." Look to KOTOR's Light
Side/Dark Side or Fable's Good and Evil Deeds for a more rigid example
of this gameplay style.
Bumpy Trot is a good example of the new version of Open-Ended
gameplay. Players are no longer forced down one set path in the game,
but can idle away the hours doing meaningless tasks which define the
character to the player. When taking part in the actual linear
storyline, players can choose how their character reacts to the other
characters in the game, given many options ranging from nonsensical to
caring to flirtatious to downright mean. By doing so, the main
character evolves into either the Hero OR the Villain of the game, and
the plot assumes this role. The main weakness of a lot of these games
is exactly that linear plotline, which in turn must loosely explain why
Bad Guy ended up on X-Planet to do Y-Thing, while Good Guy ended up in
the same exact scenario for completely different reasons.
My character in Bumpy Trot is named Vanilla. At the onset of the
game I was asked questions about my character, such as "If you found
$20 in the street, what would you do with it?" Though I have since
found proof that the character is just named Vanilla no matter how you
answer the questions, my girlfriend Mia swears that I was named Vanilla
because my answers were so boring (I, incidentally, would take the
money to a lost and found). As the game goes on, I find myself making
the simple or Good Guy choices in all matters. I used to think that I
did this for fear of someone else watching, or seeing my character
profile. In fact, the opposite holds true; when Mia is in the room
while I play, I choose "Pinch her butt" over "tell her she's a good
person" just so Mia will think I'm not such a wuss. Meanwhile, the
other characters must be entirely confused by my schizophrenic behavior
...
In the end, I choose those options which most reflect not only what
I would choose in real life, but what kind of character I want mine to
be. I want him to win the nice girl, Connie, and to win her by being
nice himself, and caring, and helpful, and lavishing her with
thoughtful gifts. Not by lying, or cheating, and all the while
double-timing her with Savory, the town slut. I want Vanilla to be an
all around good guy in this world, so I play him as such.
But I think the bigger issue that we often lose sight of is not
about how we play our character in any given world. In Bumpy Trot
(Steambot Chronicles), we're given a set amount of choices in a world
fully created. The designers certainly let us choose how we act to some
degree, but the setting is completely controlled. Characters do not
react or judge Vanilla for walking into their house during dinner, or
picking up their favorite tree and throwing it into traffic, or
standing in the middle of the busiest intersection all day just to stop
everyone from moving. The plot points, though numerous, are still set
inside of limits as to which actions will be judged. Exanded further,
the world of Bumpy Trot is defined by who developed it, and to what end
they wanted to present their world.
Were Vanilla a bad guy, he would still only be the type of bad guy
who steals bubble gum machines from fat school children, not the kind
who wages a genocidal war against members of an ethnic group or
religion. When Vanilla destroys another character's Trotmobile, that
character is very deliberately and cartoonishly shown being exploded
into the air and then landing and running away, as if to say "no
anonymous bad guys were actually hurt in the making of this game.
people don't die in the world of Bumpy Trot!" What message would be
sent if characters in fact were blown apart by exploding Trots, or
stomped to death by vindictive or otherwise sadistic Trot drivers?
Look at a game like Steambot Chronicles and compare it to Oblivion,
or Deus Ex, or Fable. Oblivion, for example, presents a very cold world
full of treasons and deceipts, murderers and worse. Even the most moral
character available in Oblivion still must wade through the mires of
cruelty and the ethics of murdering other people for their missions, or
in one case a Unicorn for a God. Fable, on the other hand, presents an
almost cartoonish view on its world, where characters are
2-dimensional, wanting only sex, or food, or playful revenge, and
everyone besides the main charcter is a faceless clone. Compared to the
ultra-realism of Oblivion's character designs and backstories, Fable
creates a sense of only the main character being important to the
well-being or even existence of the world, and promotes the character
acting in such a way (while conversely punishing the character who
wishes to treat the people of the world as friends; instead, we are
left with a God Complex character who cannot truly relate to the masses)
The true illusion of open-ended gaming is to
think for a moment that any single-player game can present a true Free
Will. Much like a movie or a book, games present more than just a
simple storyline or mechanics. They present an imagined world, full of
depth and color. They lay out the ground rules to such a degree that
even a theoreticl situation could be explained away. They can be
mimicked and replicated because they are so deep and explained. The
best ones play this illusion through to the most finite details, like
the consequences of feeding a cat, or stealing some yarn, or killing a
farmer. These defined rules are unspoken, yet every bit as important
for setting the mood and tone of the game.
True open-ended gameplay does not yet exist in a single-player
world. The fact of a video game is that we are immersed, and we adopt
the ruleset of that world when we play. Our choices are limited by
morality, and in gaming, that morality actually belongs to the
creators, not the player.
... a little bit, yeah. Especially when dealing with my financial aid AND moving all day (and of course work).
Steambot Chronicles is on the way to my house as we speak, as are Metal Saga and Suikoden V. Free games are the best games.
Coming soon will be my takes on Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
and fan-favorite Kid Icarus. Let me know if there's any other game you
might want to hear my take on.
True Love doesn't count ...