This Is Living?

By Liam O'Connor

Or is it? Are we tapping into gaming's full potential?

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the next level, the third place. I encourage you to jump in, because this is living.

Or is it? It seems with every new generation we hear the same old promises that this generation will blow our minds and provide us with gaming experiences we have never had before. And it always falls short. We are still waiting; we are still playing fancy versions of Doom.

Why is it that for all the fancy technology, we haven't yet reached the next stage in the evolution of video games? Is it because of ridiculous save points, loading screens, and cutscenes you can't skip? No, these are merely small design flaws that cause annoyance more than anything. No, the real reason we haven't reached the next level is because for everything that is under the hood of the latest and greatest, developers and publishers do not have the imagination to branch out and explore.

I was playing Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction the other day. It's a simply gorgeous game, pure eye candy. But as good as it looks, it's still a PlayStation 2 game with a new coat of paint. That's not to say it isn't fun, but it sure isn't an evolution in gaming. There is nothing new here and no new ground has been broken.

It's at this point where people might start bringing up the Wii. However, the Wii doesn't offer new gaming experiences, but simply new ways to interact with these experiences. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is still a Metroid game, the same as we played on the GameCube. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a GameCube game, just with added waggle. Even Wii Sports is just a collection of console sports games with a new form of control. These aren't the droids we're looking for.

What we should be looking for is some kind of evolution in the gaming experience. Something that is more than just a combination of the industry's greatest with some tweaks and a graphical overhaul. Instead, we're rewarding experiences that are recycled.

Take everyone's pet favourite, Bioshock. Here is a game that people are falling over themselves to praise, but for what? A pretty looking world and narrative that goes slightly beyond the suspense of the princess being in another castle? The gameplay is still the same, tired old stuff we've been experiencing since Doom. The door is locked and you need to find a key plasmid to progress. Run and gun all that gets in your way (or whack it with the wrench if you realise how fundamentally broken the combat is), retracing your steps at any unlikely momentary inconvenience that occurs on unpunished death, and perhaps make some very black or white decisions about whether or not you should eat a baby. And would you kindly remember that even the Atlas Shrugged Part Two narrative only serves for a socialist cover for how linear and forced the experience is?

There is a clear problem here. Video games are about choice. That's why we play them rather than watching a movie. But our choices have always been limited and clear. People rarely choose to fail, and so all choices merely revolve around how to succeed. That missile or this one? This path or that one? Even in games, such as the aforementioned Bioshock, that pretend to offer some kind of simulation of choice always end up making it inconsequential in the name of conforming to the same old tired rules of gaming: there is an end goal, and you must achieve it.

In Mass Effect you are meant to make decisions that will have a "mass effect" on the galaxy, but instead all your decisions end up pointing to the same ultimate climax. Commit genocide or don't, it doesn't matter; you'll still get scolded either way and the decision never affects the overall narrative. The choices never really carry any kind of weight, and that is ultimately what breaks the gaming experience.

Now, nobody is suggesting that the player should be able to say: "You know what? Sod the galaxy, I'm going to stay home and play Scrabble." That wouldn't make for a very good game -- you might as well go play Scrabble instead. And obviously it doesn't really work for simulations of real-life activities such as driving or snowboarding, games that can only strive for perfect simulation. But perhaps in virtual worlds prime for adventure some real choices and variety could be introduced. Maybe, for once, we could choose not to be the honourable hero or the odious villain?

Take Scooby Doo and Shaggy. They are the protagonists, but they are not heroes. They solve every problem by running away and hiding, and any success they have is usually based on luck. But they are loveable because they are real. Wouldn't you be frightened and flee if you saw a ghost? Why not have a video game character that decided perhaps the best option was to make haste from a conflict that you couldn't rationally win?

The problem here is that this is still a neutered choice. It revolves around a conflict and an equation that calculates the chance of success versus failure. It is at its core fundamentally no different to choosing whether or not you should take the left path or the right path. If you start throwing in major consequences, like retreating will sacrifice a town, you run the risk of painting the decision with opinion. Suddenly it comes down to a black and white choice.

What the gaming industry needs to do is to start factoring in some grey-area choices, the ones we face every day. The choices that are not necessarily right or wrong; the choices that are usually the hardest to make. In Assassin's Creed, you often see people being beaten by guards. As super-ninja-awesome-dude Altiar, you can swoop in, wipe out all of them and a legion of guards that follows, and then fade away into anonymity with the blessing of the person you rescued and a little band of followers as a good deed bonus. Allowing him or her to continue to get beaten will result in nothing. These people will never die, never be made off with; there are no consequences for ignoring them. It's pretty clear what the right choice is here.

However, what would happen if Altiar wasn't a super-ninja-awesome-dude? What would happen if there was a consequence for not aiding them. What if you could help the person being attacked, but would likely get beaten or even killed to save their life? And what about if you didn't help and you saw them killed before your very eyes? Would it weigh on your conscience?

What about a more simple, subdued event: being given too much change in the supermarket, for example. It's obviously the cashier's mistake, and you could use the money, but the cashier will likely get in trouble, perhaps even fired for it. Do you keep the money, or do you return it? If you are thinking this choice is obvious, it's a reflection of your own morals -- and that's exactly the type of untapped power video games have.

Video games have the potential to allow players to explore their own morals and feelings on life. To explore those hypothetical decisions that we may never encounter. To take thought experiments and to make them opaque and lucid. To wrap up the very fabric of our existence and include it in an experience that matures us. At the moment, some might dismiss these choices on the virtue of being able to distinguish between a virtual character and a real one. But what happens when computers reach a stage where it might not be possible to tell the difference? What if AI begins showing signs of sentience and life? Would the choice be so easy then?

Video games have the potential to be the most powerful medium on earth, yet at the moment they remain just games. Escapism and hero worship, Cops and Robbers without the childlike imagination. It's no wonder that many people view video games as a child's toy and the people who play them as being in a stage of arrested development.

Until developers and publishers start taking chances and branching out, using the power of the consoles to start presenting real choices rather than using the power to render pores on skin, video games will remain stagnant and there will be no evolution, no next generation. Only when we can look past our childish hobby and see its true potential and only when we can get past the almighty dollar and look at games as art rather than a commodity will we finally reach the next stage in gaming history. Then we can jump in to the wide ocean. For now, however, we are merely splashing in a paddling pool with water-wings on our arms.

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