Commentary: App Game Potential

App games may play a huge role in the future of gaming. Whether or not this medium becomes a widely accepted art form may heavily depend on how app games develop.

In my previous post, I discussed how app games on a whole are not as immersive as games for consoles or computers. But what if app games changed? What could happen if an app game broke away from the norm and tapped in to the full power of this medium? Games might finally break through the judgment of the media and be accepted as a true art form.

The reason would be the accessibility. Right now, video games are expensive to play. You need a console or a powerful PC to play a lot of current games, and most classic games have become almost impossible to find, let alone play.

Source: http://gamingrockson.blogspot.com/2012/09/wii-u-games-priced-at-60.html
We all know that this hobby isn’t cheap. So unless things change in the mainstream game market, the cheapness of apps may be needed to allow this medium to grow.

I’ve talked to people who think games are a waste of time, that there is nothing they can do that a book or movie can’t, and I want so badly to sit them down to play Journey, Mass Effect 2, and The Walking Dead and say, “This is what our medium is capable of.” If only it were that simple. These people don’t have consoles or $1000 computers, and the price of the games themselves isn’t cheap.

But think about how many people have smart phones. If someone made an app game that had the power of those marvelous games, something that made you think differently, that made you live your actions and experience a story, then the accessibility of that game could very well turn all conceptions of games on their heads.

Source: http://guides.gamepressure.com/thewalkingdead/guide.asp?ID=16773
If an app game could make you think about the idea of mercy, what it means to be human, this medium would only benefit.

An easily-accessible game like that could reshape the entire world’s view on gaming.

Mini-series: Moral Choice – Part 2

The following post contains spoilers for Episode One of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead video game.

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead uses moral choice better than any other game I know. Its system encourages fast, critical thinking that does not bind the player’s choices (psychologically of course, not physically) with the labels of “good” or “evil.”

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-walking-dead-game/images/31922820/title/twd-game-wallpaper

Instead, every option appears in white text, and most of the time they are all equally valid, grey choices. There is no clear right or wrong, which gives the player the freedom to choose based solely on their opinion, rather than a game’s pre-defined morality.

Now of course, that isn’t to say that games such as Mass Effect, Catherine, and inFAMOUS have no sense of freedom. Players are always free to make the decisions they feel are right, but the mechanics of these games, the morality meters, discourage players from varying up their choices, albeit unintentionally. These mechanics also tell the player exactly how the game will perceive them, as either one side of the bar or the other.

Source: http://gamedesignreviews.com/scrapbook/choiceincatherine/
The chaos vs order meter in Catherine grants the player immediate consequence for their actions, making it easy for someone to quit the game, reload, and make a new choice.

But in The Walking Dead, which has no morality meter, a player can make all of their decisions based on pure opinion alone. If the player wants to save one character over another during a zombie raid, there is nothing stopping them from making what they deem is the most logical choice, no loss of points, no sudden shift in morality.

Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/the-walking-deads-faces-of-death-part-1/4335/
In a critical moment, the player must decide between two equally valid choices, to save either Carley or Doug.

Players choose not based on which character boosts their morality meter, but which one can help most in a zombie apocalypse. That simple fact grants more meaning and engagement in the player’s decisions.

Now granted, not every decision in The Walking Dead works out the way a player might think. There are plenty of moral choices that end up doing nothing, or series of choices that lead to the same result. But despite those missteps, those clear illusions of choice, The Walking Dead still has the most in-depth, open, engaging moral choice system in gaming.

Mini-series: Moral Choice – Part 1

Have you ever played a game with a moral choice system? Have you ever – while playing such a game – thought to yourself, “I’m going to pick the good option,” or “I’m going to pick the evil option,” or something similar? I know I have.

Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/mass-effect-3/61-29935/user-reviews/?review_id=22327

When I play a moral choice game, I devote myself to the good options (I’m a do-gooder, I know). That seems wrong to me. Shouldn’t we always be thinking, “I’m going to choose what I think is right?”

But when games like inFAMOUS or Mass Effect give a “good” or “evil” rating to their choices, a lot of players make decisions for the sole purpose of being good or evil. In inFAMOUS, you get only get certain powers when you’re pure good or pure evil, so why would you ever want to vary your choices?

Source: http://infamous.wikia.com/wiki/Arc_Lightning
Only when you play evil can Cole get powers such as Arch Lightning

Now don’t get me wrong, I love moral choice systems. They’re a great tool for storytelling and for exploring conflicts in a way no other medium can. But when the “good vs. evil” aspect comes in, it makes those choices less meaningful, more black and white, and less engaging.

When the game presents options with clear indicators of what is right and what is wrong, the player is unwillingly drawn to whichever play style they have already chosen. If they’re committed to being good, they’ll pick good almost every time.

Source: http://alpha-build.net/2010/07/19/the-mass-effect-effect-emergent-storytelling-in-games/

This isn’t true of all players, to be sure, but plenty of people are likely to tune out when they see a highlighted good or evil option, and fail to make a thought-out decision. I won’t lie, I’ve done this many times in Mass Effect, and I’ve watched others do the same.

This is a shame, because a lot of the decisions in Mass Effect – such as how to deal with the Geth in Mass Effect 2 (spoilers) – aren’t black and white. And even though there is no clear color to pick, the game’s system trains players that the top decisions are Paragon, and the bottom decisions are Renegade, so some of the meaningful thought is lost, since players know how they’ll be rewarded for their choices.

But there are games with moral choice where nearly every option is in the gray. In these games, you never know what consequences your decisions might have. So next time, I’ll look at how The Walking Dead handles moral choice.