If - as seems so increasingly likely - videogaming moves more and more towards being an exclusively multiplayer medium, I'll most likely ditch it as a current pursuit. God, I think that whole 'hand the story back to the player' thing is one of the most poisonous, disingenuous, nonsensical cultural memes I've ever come across. Here's a tip; your personal experiences with The Sims are not unique; they are exactly the same as those of five million other people; they are not special because they happened to you; they are not interesting beyond half an hour of bored office chatter the next day, and unlike Shadow of the Colossus I won't remember them fondly in ten years' time. I love multiplayer as much as the next guy, when I find a game that clicks with me. Wipeout HD online is close to absolute perfection when I'm in the zone, regardless of how well I'm doing. But the idea of actually touting this as some paragon of individual experience and living proof of the death of the author just makes me want to crease up laughing.
And don't say 'but that's not co-operative'; the same rules apply. My evenings spent on team arena in Uncharted 2 are good for a few laughs in retrospect and that's it, despite how much fun the game itself remains. Left for Dead is just better because it's more skilfully engineered and provides more tactical depth and variety, not because it's the true story of how you and you alone survived the zombie apocalypse. Jesus Christ.
Do not go gently into that good night? Damn straight. There is no excuse why videogames can't give me every bit of thematic complexity, depth and thought-provoking narratives any other medium can, and few things make me angrier than the idea it's a pointless dead end simply because ninety-five percent of the industry or more are too stupid to do it properly. You keep your 'I'll read a book, thanks' or 'but that doesn't make me feel special' - I'll be counting off the days until Ueda finally decides The Last Guardian's ready.
And don't say 'but that's not co-operative'; the same rules apply. My evenings spent on team arena in Uncharted 2 are good for a few laughs in retrospect and that's it, despite how much fun the game itself remains. Left for Dead is just better because it's more skilfully engineered and provides more tactical depth and variety, not because it's the true story of how you and you alone survived the zombie apocalypse. Jesus Christ.
Do not go gently into that good night? Damn straight. There is no excuse why videogames can't give me every bit of thematic complexity, depth and thought-provoking narratives any other medium can, and few things make me angrier than the idea it's a pointless dead end simply because ninety-five percent of the industry or more are too stupid to do it properly. You keep your 'I'll read a book, thanks' or 'but that doesn't make me feel special' - I'll be counting off the days until Ueda finally decides The Last Guardian's ready.
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