Many Video Games set out to achieve something, be that to tell a story, show a different perspective OR, in this particular case, change a person’s views on a particular topic. This week, I am talking about an article by Gina Roussos on Psychology Today from back in 2015 (found here). It talks about how a piece of media can actually end up doing changing a person’s mind to think the exact OPPOSITE of what was intended.
The focus of the article is an online game intended to change a person’s thoughts on people in poverty. The game is called ‘Spent’ and tries to put the player into the shoes of a person below the poverty line, it intends to show the player the difficult decisions one in such a situation faces on a day to day basis. It does this while challenging the player to make it through a month (30 Days), starting off with only $1000. If you’re interested you can find it online here: http://playspent.org/
The Job Selection Screen, 3 selections, each just as bad as the others.
The article on Psychology Today goes through a study that was undertaken by the article’s author, Gina Roussos, to find if the game would have it’s desired effect. After a test involving 54 American Undergraduates and a Control Game called ‘Garbage Dreams‘, Roussos eventually found that the game actually had a negative impact on people’s views on the subject.
Roussos suggests that this is due to the fact that by putting a person into the driver’s seat of these situations it shows them that theses are decision that THEY have control over and any short-comings that then occur are due to their own bad decisions. This feeling of control over one’s outcomes is called “Personal Agency”. It is this feeling that draws people to believe that poverty is personally controllable, and again, is only the result of a person’s decisions.
The example Roussos gives is as follows: “When I’m playing a game, I feel like I have complete control over my outcomes. I click on Door A instead of Door B, and I find a treasure chest full of jewels. I found that treasure because I choose Door A.” The above showcases the choice that YOU, the player, picked Door A. Door A happened to contain a treasure chest. But had you picked Door B then you would never have found said treasure.
The End Screen for ‘Spent’, showing how much you made it through the month with but also makes sure you know that Rent is due tomorrow.
This then provides the inherent problem with the game itself. It pushes the player to make the decisions on the spot without any prior knowledge of the event in question. Then you instantly see the ramifications of your decision, pushing the idea being in poverty is a result of a person’s bad decisions. Henceforth proving that the Game’s intentions are very much different to it’s actual effect.
Roussos then goes on to do another study with 227 U.S. Adults to verify these results. Although apparently when people watched a recording of someone playing the game they reacted in more of a way that the Developers intended. The people viewing the game being played second hand showed a more empathetic view towards people in Poverty than the people actually playing it.
After playing the Game myself for 10-15 minutes I find the game itself to be kind of unreasonable to it’s events and does indeed instil a feeling the opposite of what was intended. I felt like the game was punishing me simply because of the decisions I made NOT because of the situation I was in as a character.
But as for the article it was a very good insight into the intentions of the Game and it’s actual effect on people. It’s also a good insight into the repercussions of not testing out your Game’s effect when it’s effect is the desired outcome.
But that’s it for this week, thanks for reading everyone! I’ll be back next week with a review of ‘Dwarf Fortress’ by Bay12.
This week I have been looking into the development cycle of video games, auteurs and production in general. In that vein I have found a neat series on YouTube titled “Devs Play” by DoubleFineProd. Double Fine Productions is a Video Game developer based in San Francisco and owned by Xbox Game Studios as of 2019.
The series itself involves the CEO of DoubleFineProd, Tim Schafer, sitting down and playing Video Games with fellow Game Developers, my episode of choice for this article is titled “Devs Play S2E08 · “Jak and Daxter” with Jason Rubin and Tim Schafer”. This involves Tim Schafer chatting with Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin about his Playstation 2 Classic, ‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’.
Devs Play S2E08 by DoubleFineProd
The ‘Jak and Daxter’ series is one of my all time favourites. ‘Jak II: Renegade’ was the first game I owned on my Playstation 2 back in 2005 and has definitely helped shape me into the person and gamer I am today. I would soon enough go on to try the sequel ‘Jak 3’ and the prior instalment, and the featured game for this post, ‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’. I adore the series and have played all the games (yes including ‘Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier’). But enough about me.
Firstly, a bit of a run down of Naughty Dog’s repertoire prior to the development of ‘Jak and Daxter’. Avid programmers, Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, having played around with C++ and Lisp and founded JAM Software (which stood for “Jason and Andy’s Magic Software”) in 1984. After several releases through Publisher such as Baudville and Electronic Arts Jason and Andy renamed the studio to ‘Naughty Dog’ in 1989. Between then and 2001 when ‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’ was released, Naughty Dog developed the following titles while under Universal Interactive Studios;
‘Way of the Warrior’ for the 3DO
‘Crash Bandicoot’ for the Playstation
‘Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back’ for the Playstation
‘Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped’ also for the Playstation
‘Way of the Warrior’ Cover Art for the 3DO Console
Between the release of ‘Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped’ and ‘Jak and Daxter’, Naughty Dog also released ‘Crash Team Racing’ for the Playstation, which was published by Sony Entertainment. During the game’s 8 month and 6 day development cycle, Naughty Dog spoke to Sony and managed get them to not only get the rights to the Crash Bandicoot IP from Universal (who owned the rights due to the prior deal with Naughty Dog) but also straight out bought Naughty Dog as a whole later in 2001.
Then came the fateful day ‘Jak and Daxter’ released to the public. December 3rd 2001.
The game was being developed over a 3 year period, the engine for which began development back during the development of ‘Crash Team Racing’. With co-founder Andy Gavin and fellow programmers, Steven White and Mark Cerny taking the helm on the project.
Naughty Dog had the vision to create a Character Driven, Open World, Action Adventure Game. After Sony saw the game they told Naughty Dog that they didn’t want it to be like ‘Crash Bandicoot’. They wanted something that they didn’t have to license for any number of titles, they wanted something that wouldn’t eventually show up on a competitor’s platform. Most importantly, they wanted something that would remain a permanent member of the Sony Universe.
The Naughty Dog team itself had grown from an 8 man Team during the development of Crash Bandicoot to a Team of roughly 40 that developed ‘Jak and Daxter’. Another part of growth of Naughty Dog between these two games is that ‘Jak and Daxter’ used actual animators, while the animations for Crash himself in the original title were done by co-founder Jason Rubin. On that note, ‘Crash Bandicoot’ featured a unique animation for almost every single death that could happen to the player, and Crash. Likewise, ‘Jak and Daxter’ featured a vast array of quips by the side-kick of the series, Daxter.
Since Naughty Dog had hired a group of actual animators for the development of ‘Jak and Daxter’, Jason was relegated from animator to developing Particle Systems with half of his time, and managerial tasks with the other half.
The Protagonist of the Series: Jak
As for the design of the main character, Jak, Naughty Dog took a more committee based approach. While developing ‘Crash Bandicoot’ Naughty Dog had cartoonists Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson develop the character, creating a firm vision of who the character Crash is. Whereas when creating Jak’s character Naughty Dog took advantage of Focus Groups to get ideas and references from different regions. This meant that Jak’s design went through 4 different groups. Naughty Dog themselves, Sony America, Sony Japan and Sony Europe. This caused a lot of confusion and while Jason does go on to say that Jak is a solid character (and I love the character myself) but he definitely could have benefited from a clearer vision.
Two aspect’s of Jak’s design that came from the committee are his face and ears as a whole. They were made to look more ‘cartoonish’ to be more ‘Japanese friendly’.
The Side-kick of the Series: Daxter
Daxter on the other hand was developed with a single vision, Jason states that he thinks that Daxter is a stronger character because of that fact. Daxter himself was included in the game as a sort of comic relief and also someone that can do whatever he wishes. This separates Jak and Daxter as Jak himself is a mute in the first game. Jason mentions “…having the main character talk would distance you from the main character. ‘I’m not that character, he cracked a bad joke or said something I wouldn’t have necessarily said in that position’.”. So the player is meant to find themselves linked to Jak in a different kind of way to most Video Game Protagonists, especially at the time. This also allows for the Main Character to be likeable as he can’t do or say anything that the player wouldn’t do otherwise. Having your Main Character be likeable is a big step in the right direction.
The dynamic between Jak and Daxter was more intense during development, the game originally allowed the player to kick Daxter to “shut him up”, but this was removed before release. The two would grow to be more equal on the talking and character front in future releases as Jak would begin talking at the beginning of the sequel; ‘Jak II: Renegade’.
Naughty Dog itself has a bit of a reputation for…odd, naming philosophies. Crash Bandicoot 1-3 go by the following names:
‘Crash Bandicoot’
‘Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back’
‘Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped’
Crash Bandicoot PS1 Cover Art
Crash Bandicoot 2 PS1 Cover Art
Crash Bandicoot 3 PS1 Cover Art
As shown in the Box Art and names listed above, Naughty Dog like mixing it up with naming their games. This is no different for the ‘Jak and Daxter’ Series, of which there is the following:
‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’
‘Jak II: Renegade’
‘Jak 3’
‘Jak X: Combat Racing’
‘Jak 2: Renegade’ PS2 Cover Art
‘Jak 3’ PS2 Cover Art
‘Jak X: Combat Racing’ PS2 Cover Art
‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’ PS2 Cover Art
As shown, once more, by the Box Art and names listed, there is even more variation in naming philosophies. ‘Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy’ and ‘Jak II: Renegade’ both utilise a subtitle (1 – ‘The Precursor Legacy’ and 2 – ‘ Renegade’), while ‘Jak 3’ drops the subtitle and even uses a number “3” in the title while ditching the roman numerals used in ‘Jak II: Renegade’. While they change their minds again in ‘Jak X: Combat Racing’ or just ‘Jak X’ in Eurpoe and Australia.
That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. I’ll be posting again soon! If you want to watch the featured video then feel free to check out the video below!
I’m sure we all look to Game reviews or criticisms when we’re thinking about picking up a new game, be that through official avenues such as Kotaku or IGN, or places like Steam User Reviews. Heck even asking someone at your local Games store. We all do it from time to time. I personally see these articles as Subjective rather than Objective, as a review/criticism is something that is suppose to tell others about an experience with a game itself as a whole. Criticism, on the other hand, is usually VERY Objective. This is because criticism is largely thought to not take into account a person’s experience with a game and only what the game has to offer should matter.
I disagree with that and I will tell you why.
The Player Character (Right) fighting the Game’s first boss, Cleric Beast with an NPC Summon Eileen The Crow (Left)
Firstly we must talk about the most important thing that comes to gaming, or any media in general really, the player’s experience. The experiences that the player both brings to the game and those that the player has while inside the game.
Each person’s experience will wildly differ therefore each person’s experience will be different. This leads to reviews/criticism being severely individualized, which in my point of view is a good thing. Subjective reviews/criticism allow for players to understand a person’s mindset and their own comprehension of a game. Although this does mean that a certain article mightn’t conform to any given person, but this allows that the sheer abundance of reviews/criticisms that exist in this day and age will surely cater to someone’s viewpoint.
Going into more what subjectivity is, people have different life experiences and mindsets that affect their play experience and style. Any given person can fit into one or more of the following psychological categories:
Killers
Achievers
Explorers
Socializers
Killers are people who play games that look to cause mayhem and havoc among a given game. They’ll go through a server destroying their opponents through either legitimate or illegitimate means.
Achievers are the people that look to do everything and everything in a game. This goes from completing the achievements for the game, finishing all the side-quests or even just completing self-imposed challenges. They seek a challenge of any sort.
Explorers will go far and wide to see everything a game has to offer. See every nook and cranny of a game world, see every line of dialogue an NPC has to say, even understanding the finer details of the game’s mechanics themselves.
Socializers are the extroverts of gaming so to speak. They go into a game and look to communicate and make relationships with other players in the game more so than playing the game itself. This can be through in-game methods (e.g. Guilds or Friend lists) or fan communities (e.g. Subreddits or Facebook groups).
Image from the 2019 Overwatch League Finals between the San Francisco Shock and the Vancouver Titans. These players are an example of both Killers and Achievers.
The type of player alone will contribute to a given review/criticism if subjectivity is involved. A review/criticism from a player who is more of a killer while playing a game, is not necessarily going to engage a player that is more of an explorer.
But this is exactly why Subjectivity is needed in games. A person’s experience with a game is directly influenced by their play-style. This is important to a review/criticism as a person can really get a feel for what a game is.
With Objective reviews/criticism, the game is broken down to simply narrative, gameplay and visuals for the most part. This gives the reader a sense for what the game looks like and plays like to an extent. But NOT to the extent a Subjective review/criticism would do.
Take Rainbow Six: Siege for example, I have played an immense amount since early 2017, just before the release of it’s Velvet Shell expansion. I currently have around 850 hours played on Steam and love it to death, sure I have my gripes with it but it is truly a fantastic game.
However, if I were to give a review on it Objectively I couldn’t truly show what the game feels like to play. I would mention that the gun play and mechanics are spectacular, the feel of almost every gun is great and the ability to out skill an opponent (or out luck an opponent) and kill them with a ‘one-shot headshot’ is super satisfying each and every time. The breaching and rappelling mechanics were new to me and definitely took some getting used to but I love the uniqueness of it and the amount of versatility added to the game utilizing these mechanics.
If I were to give a Subjective review though, I would mention that dominating people is the single most satisfying bit in the game. Somehow clutching a 1-5 is a moment of pure hype and excitement among the whole team (be these people you know or not). But the game’s players can lean into the Killer category a lot. You see, R6: Siege has a friendly-fire mechanic, this means that teammates can damage each other. This leads to a lot of toxicity if a person gets annoyed with another. Over the time I’ve played I couldn’t count the amount of times I’ve been team-killed for seemingly no reason on both my hands and feet. It certainly ruins the experience sometimes.
A Team killing scenario with a box asking if it was intentional. If the player reports it as intentional the killer receives a penalty.
That is the difference between the two types of reviews/criticism. albeit to a smaller extent. Someone could read my Subjective review and be enticed to play the game more so than they otherwise would be, the possibility to just murder teammates that are annoying definitely talks to some people. In that same vein, it might very well turn some people off the game entirely.
This is why Subjective reviews/criticism are needed. They give a reader a more comprehensive feel for what the game is like to play and therefore can make a more informed decision .
Another reason we need Subjectivity in game’s reviews/criticism is because it gives a voice to the people that need it. In an Objective look at a game it doesn’t matter who you are, you are just a piece of meat tapping keys and talking about a game. Whereas a Subjective look brings your personality into account and really brings forward who YOU are. To relate to another post of mine (Diversity of LGBTQIA+ Characters in Video Games), I for one would love to point out the sexual orientation of the characters I encountered on my journey throughout a game. This mightn’t matter to some people but it does to me and a lot of other people.
All in all, I believe we need Subjectivity because it shows the game for what it truly is. An experience for the player. The player plays the game for the experience, be that as a Killer, Achiever, Explorer, Socializer or a mixture of the lot.
The player’s experience is moulded by their entire being, who they are, what they find important and how they play. Subjective criticism and reviews show this in a brighter light than an Objective view could ever.
Hello again! For this week’s first post I will be taking a look at a fellow blogger and colleague Mahalah or MoshiBoi (here’s a link to their Blog) and their response to an article titled “Revisiting Animal Crossing: New Leaf was a Mistake” by Kotaku writer ‘Narelle Ho Sang‘ , the original article can be found here.
I myself have never played an Animal Crossing game (a sin I know) but I have played a similar title in Stardew Valley and I am certainly looking forward to Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ release in the coming weeks. I mention this as I need to state that I am not familiar with the game itself an it’s intricacies.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf Cover Art
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Cover Art
During my read of the MoshiBoi’s blog post, the title of the original article was quoted being about why Animal Crossing: New Leaf was a mistake. So my opinion on reading the blog was shaped by this misunderstanding and so I myself felt the article was a waste of time. I felt like the article more heavily talked about the problems with why returning to the game was a hard time due to NPC interactions heavily berating the player for leaving their beloved town.
After reading the original article for myself however, I now see that it is a talk about the problems with revisiting the game itself after putting it down for a long period of time. As Narelle stated “The hours and calendar days pass in real-time. The seasons change…”, the whole time they weren’t playing the Town continued to grow and NPCs grew tired of missing the player, who is the Mayor in this game.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf NPC – Purrl stating how long the player has put the game down
Going back to Moshiboi’s post, they go on to mention that the writer was immersed and clearly had fun while playing the game originally. While some of their planning and decorative decisions might be hard to look at, they at the time still enjoyed the game and did what they wanted to.
Both Blog and Article mention NPCs putting the player down for not playing the game for a while, Narelle stating “Each (NPC) laying on the guilt with emotional surgical preciseness—cutting me deep.” This goes to show the player’s attachment to these characters and the town they had made. This is the reason the NPCs talk in this way, to make the player feel bad and to get them to come back for a bit longer. Moshiboi, however, paints this as a severe and inappropriate “Guilt Trip” stating “I think getting guilt tripped by an NPC for not playing the game in a while is a bit much”. This is a fair statement as honestly these NPCs don’t know about the player’s attachment to the game or do they know about real-life events that might prevent play.
Moshiboi goes to say that since the game is mostly targeted at Children that a child hearing these statements from NPCs would make them want to come back even more so. This is because of the blurred line between Reality and Fiction that children are unable to discern.
Screenshot of gameplay of Animal Crossing: New Horizons from the E3 2019 Nintendo Treehouse
My take away from both the Article and Blog is that you can look back at your past self’s decisions and either love it or hate it, but you can’t neglect the fact that people change. As both authors stated, they have spent hours upon hours making their town into their own vision. Placing things where they want and doing what they want at any given time, this lends itself to the notion that while immersed in such a free game they enter the ‘Magic Circle’. This term refers to the zone a player can fall into when deeply immersed in a game’s world. It seems both of these players did at one point or another. Simply put, originally, the players loved what they were doing.
Another thing is that people’s style and tastes change over time. What was appealing to you 5 years ago might not necessarily appeal to you now. As someone who played soccer for 16 years of his life I can tell you that now having not played for 2 years now I have little to no interest in the sport. People Change.
People change but they had fun originally!
That’s it for this post, again you can find the original article and Moshiboi’s response here:
In today’s post I will be taking a look at the story of my favourite game of all time, Dark Souls. This game is often highlighted for it’s phenomenal gameplay mechanics, but what often goes unnoticed is it’s also phenomenal story. But first, I will touch on these gameplay mechanics:
An Illustration of Dark Souls characters by Nolan on Etsy
The Original Dark Souls Cover Art
What does the Player do?
During the duration of Dark Souls the player ventures through a dark and dense Medieval landscape known as Lordran, collecting treasures and slaying both humanoid and monstrous enemies. They do this using a variety of tactics, from one-handed and two-handed weapons (such as Straight Swords and Great Hammers), to powerful magic (such as Sorcery and Pyromancy) that either do direct damage to an enemy or buffs (or sometimes hurts) the player, and even utilising shields to block damage altogether.
Of course, while fighting these ferocious enemies the player must do so while taking minimal damage. If an attack is unblockable or not worth blocking with a shield another mechanic is usable. This introduces us to the roll mechanic. By pressing the appropriate button the player will cause their character to roll, this can be used to avoid attacks due to the animation of the roll having what is called “i-frames” or invincibility frames. This allows the player to avoid damage and move into more advantageous positions, either for getting a critical backstab for massive damage or moving into more advantageous position.
While dodging damage might seem easy after that description, it really isn’t takes damage and must restore it by either using an Estus Flask, which is an item collected by the player at the very start of the game BUT has finite uses, or by resting at any of the far and few between Bonfires. Using an Estus Flask will put the player at risk of being hurt further if not timed correctly. Bonfires however allow the player to heal and level up, as well as store any excess items they’re holding and even repair weapons and armour. It does come with a massive downside though, it brings back any enemy the player may have killed already. This does have a limit though, it will NOT bring back Unique or Boss enemies. Players will also respawn at their last used Bonfire before death.
The Safety of Firelink Shrine, Dark Soul’s main hub
One of the more horrific bosses in Dark Souls, Gaping Dragon
Can these Actions be presented as a Story?
The actions of the player can certainly be presented as a story, any boss the player may encounter has a reason to it, the player is driven to press on and finds it necessary to defeat any given enemy. The tale of their fight is almost always a legendary one, from finally defeating the tough boss through trial and error to somehow defeating a boss most find “hard” on their first try. Everyone has a story to tell of their first time in Dark Souls.
A Timeline of Dark Soul’s Events
The game itself does have a very loose narrative, not told by conventional means. I will here list a timeline of events and since a lot of the game can be taken in any order I will list my personal experience.
The Player Character is shown locked away in an Undead Asylum, left to Hollow and Rot. Until a key to their cell is dropped in by an NPC known as Oscar of Astora.
The Player is then tasked with escaping the Asylum and after finding their first Bonfire and receiving the Estus Flask from Oscar, who is now on Death’s Door. find themselves standing in front of the first boss. The Asylum Demon.
After defeating the Asylum Demon they are whisked away by a large Black Crow and taken to the game’s hub, Firelink Shrine
By interacting with an NPC in the area known as “Crestfallen Warrior”, the player finds that there is something called “The Chosen Undead” and this Undead must ring the “Bell of Awakening” located above Firelink Shrine to eventually Link the First Flame and gain the prevail of the Gods.
The Player then heads upwards, away from the safety of Firelink Shrine towards the Undead Burg, a town and heads towards the first bell.
After defeating the Bell’s Guardians, The Bell Gargoyles, the player interacts with the Bell and rings their first bell. Interestingly enough players in other game can hear the bell ringing when another player does so.
Upon heading back to Firelink Shrine the player will find a large snake-like creature jutting out of the ground. This is a new NPC known as “Kingseeker Frampt”. Frampt goes on to tell you that there is not 1, but 2 “Bell of Awakening” and that he will assist you in any way he can.
The player is then tasked with going deep below the Undead Burg and even Firelink to a place called Blighttown. They reach this by beating 2 bosses, these being The Capra Demon and The Gaping Dragon.
In Blighttown they find the Second Bell, protecting by a half Spider, half Woman monstrosity called “Queelag”. After her defeat the Player safely rings the second “Bell of Awakening”
While speaking with Frampt the player finds that they must ascend to the city of the Gods called “Anor Londo” where they will meet Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight.
After ascending “Sen’s Fortress”, a death trap of moving obstacles and Giants, and defeating the boss defending the path to “Anor Londo” called “The Iron Giant”, the player is lifted up into the sunlight filled city of “Anor Londo”
Upon arriving, the player meets a new character called the “Darkmoon Knightess” who describes the horrendous pair defending Gwynevere, “Ornstein and Smough”.
After traversing over precarious walkways and castle architecture, the player finally confronts “Ornstein and Smough”.
A tough victory is awarded to the player and they meet Gwynevere, who tells them that they must find the 4 Lord Souls to appease the First Flame. These Lord Souls take form of part of the Sun God Gwyn’s Soul that he bestowed upon people of importance during his reign. The player is also gifted the Lordvessel, an item to hold the Lord Souls and open the way to link the fire. This must be placed at Firelink Altar, deep below Firelink Shrine to open the way to the Lord Soul(s).
The Player Character, talking with The Princess of Sunlight, Gwynevere.
The player then forges ahead into the Grand Archives to defeat “Seath the Scaleless” and collect the first Lord Soul, after they promptly die to an invincible “Seath” in their first encounter, and push on into the Crystal Caves to face “Seath” properly.
After the player then takes on “Gravelord Nito” to collect their second Lord Soul, after descending even further than Blighttown below Firelink Shrine to the Catacombs to defeat “Pinwheel” and then onto Tomb of Giants where they will find “Nito”
Thirdly, the player must take on the “Bed of Chaos” deep within the ruins of Izalith, hidden even further down than the Tomb of Giants. After defeating “Firesage Demon” and “Demon Centipede” they are finally able to face the dreaded “Bed of Chaos”
Fourth, and finally, the player must face the “Four Kings”, to do this they must venture into the sunken city of New Londo. After draining it they find a path deep into a place called The Abyss, where the player cannot survive. They must find a ring that allows them to walk in the Abyss. They find this ring guarded by a large sword wielding boss called “Sif”, after this fact they can defeat the “Four Kings” and collect their final piece of the Lord Soul
Finally the player will venture down to Firelink Altar to place the Lord Souls in the Lordvessel and head into the Kiln of the First Flame.
The player finds the game’s final boss, “Gwyn, Lord of Cinder” deep inside the kiln and proceeds to fight him.
After his defeat the player can interact with the central Bonfire to Link the First Flame and finish Dark Souls.
The Player Character, choosing to Link the First Flame.
Which are the most significant events in the story?
Now, I will specify that these dot points were from my first play-through of Dark Souls and is specifically vague as that is how the game shows it. The significant events through this story are certainly the ringing of the “Bells of Awakening”, ascending to “Anor Londo”, defeating and collecting the four Lord Souls, and finally defeating Gwyn and linking the first flame (or letting it fade for that matter). For each of these significant events I will now list what the player does to cause them, whether the player does it themselves or is it presented non-interactively.
To ring the “Bells of Awakening” the player must traverse through the game’s worlds and reach the physical locations themselves and then defeat the Boss guarding it. The player themselves does indeed ring the bell themselves by walking up to the bell and interacting with it. If the game had just rung it automatically for defeating the boss it would not be quite as impactful as it takes the player out of the immersion of having just beaten such a powerful enemy to reach this feat.
To ascend to “Anor Londo”, once again the player must traverse through an area, a very dangerous one at that, and eventually defeat a boss to be pulled up to the city. The player themselves doesn’t really do this themselves as they interact with a literal ring on the ground which causes a cutscene to play. In this cutscene the player character is shown being pulled up and over a large wall by flying demons. This doesn’t deny the brilliance of ascending the the City of the God’s for the first time though, it truly is a glorious sight.
Collecting the Lord Souls is very much like the last two points, but on a much more grand scale. Beating bosses and harvesting their souls to advance is very much a non-interactive event, each Lord Soul is presented directly to the player as a reward for defeating the 4 Bosses possessing the Lord Souls.
Finally, defeating Gwyn, Lord of Cinder and linking the first flame is much like the past 3 events. After defeating Gwyn the player can interact with the First Flame OR walk out of the arena. Interacting with the First Flame will show a cutscene of the player doing so. This is very much an interactive experience as the player can decide the outcome of the game itself.
Anor Londo, City of the Gods, as the player sees it upon their first arrival.
The Player looking up at the landscape of the Demon Ruins from the Lava filled base.
What is the Player’s Role in the Story?
Our timeline shows that the story of Dark Souls itself is quite literally centred around the player character, “The Chosen Undead”. Each event, major or minor, in the game’s story is influenced by the character. The game itself sees these events as nothing but hurdles, a means to an end, challenges that the player must overcome to see the end. The story itself is very vague and most of the exposition takes place through world building and back-stories shown through item descriptions. The game itself gives the player next to no rhyme or reason to any of this.
The player takes direct control of these events, regardless of if they know why they are there or not. Regardless of that they will ALWAYS have a story to tell after the fact. Meaning that the story itself is mostly about the player’s experience with the game Each decision, or lack there of, influences the story that a player will tell. Different story endings require different things to be completed during the game and so each play-through will have different endings, major points and experiences via the player alone.
A screenshot of one of the endings of Dark Souls.
Is this a STORY-DRIVEN game, or a game that HAS A STORY?
Dark Souls tells the story of a dark and bleak world, where all looks lost to humanity. The world is sinking into chaos, in some parts literally, and nobody knows what to do.
Throughout the game the player will tackle these areas, bosses and characters without not really knowing why. The draw of Dark Souls is that it is deep in terms of character Builds and challenging in combat.
That being said, Dark Souls is most certainly a game that has a story. The focus is the gameplay elements, and while the story and lore is phenomenal, it is NOT the focal point of the experience.
The game is top tier without knowing the details of any given event. Knowing these details however gives the player a deeper appreciation for the characters and areas they encounter. I could give a multitude of examples but I won’t. I’ll leave them for you to find if you’re interested.
On that note, the Youtube Channel VaatiVidya, is a fantastic source of lore and story explanations for Dark Souls (as well as other FromSoftware titles e.g. Bloodborne and Sekiro). Below is a video from his ‘Prepare to Cry’ series, which focuses on the tragic back-stories of the game’s beloved bosses and NPCs. This one in particular is about the infamous, Artorias the Abysswalker.
That’s it for this post, there will be another this week, tackling the topic of Ludonarrative Dissonance (the concept of story and gameplay matching) in Video Games.
I am Nathan Hibbert, a 22 year old Game Design student at JMC Academy. I’ve been an avid consumer of Video Games since a very young age, often using it as an escape from my day to day life. I mostly play RPGs, Tactical FPS’ and Story driven Games.
As young as 3 I was playing Video Games, I would often play the Fighting Game Tekken on my old Playstation 1. This eventually led to me being gifted a Playstation 2 at age 9 and being immersed in the worlds of the Action Platformers in the Jak and Daxter Series, the Ratchet and Clank Series, the Tekken Series and even the Racing Games of the Need for Speed Series.
I would eventually go out to own a Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch and playing extensively on PC.
Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal Aus Cover Art
Jak 2 Renegade Cover Art
What in Game Design Interests Me?
As young as the age of 8 or 9 I would always take time to write out my own stories and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed creating worlds with their own lore and characters with their own backstories and creating an attachment to them. This interest stemmed from the Video Games I played, such as the Jak and Daxter series, as well as the Films, such as Star Wars, and Books, such as Skulduggery Pleasant, that I exposed myself to.
I would write stories involving many different genres and many different characters. I dabbled in Fantasy, Horror and even Romance stories, always taking inspiration from some form of media that I was currently invested in.
I would love to create my own worlds and characters so that many other people can get the same enjoyment I do in getting lost in a world and story. To me, there is almost nothing more satisfying.
What do I Care for in a Game?
When I’m looking to purchase a game I look for both an interesting Game Play Loop (GPL) as well as a story I can get well invested in. Depending on what I’m craving at the time I can even be looking for something that lets me play with other people, I have always loved playing multiplayer games with both people I know and people I don’t. In the last few years games that have ticked all, or some of, the aforementioned boxes include:
– The Dark Souls Series – Rainbow Six: Siege – Overwatch – Stardew Valley – God of War PS4 – Pokemon – The Borderlands Series
Another thing I look for in a game, specifically in Competitive Multiplayer games, is an eSports scene. After picking up Overwatch in 2016 I became invested in it’s Professional scene, even more so after the launch of the Overwatch League (OWL) in 2018. I currently follow the Los Angeles Valiant, Dallas Fuel and the Toronto Defiant in OWL. Another game I am somewhat invested in eSports wise is Rainbow Six: Siege.
OWL 2018 Opening Match Dallas Fuel vs Seoul Dynasty (left) Rainbow Six: Siege Season 10 Finals (Right)
What is my Favourite Game?
Asking someone what their favourite game is is like asking someone what their favourite food or drink is, there are just so many amazing options that it’s sometimes hard to pin down an answer. Despite that I do have a clear winner as my Favourite Game. That being, Dark Souls.
Dark Souls
Dark Souls is a Dark Fantasy RPG game from Japanese developer, FromSoftware. It tells the story of a replaceable character somehow defeating dangerous creatures and areas, and attaining amazing feats. Dark Souls has a Game Play Loop that is reminiscent of old Playstation 1 games, minimal save points, tough enemies and rewarding progression. As the player you have immense choice in how you attack any given problem, an outstanding amount of weaponry and equipment to choose from and plenty of mechanics that allow, or disallow, certain play styles.
The Story of Dark Souls is very…Convoluted. You play as a human that has been stricken by the Curse of the Undead. This curse forces a person to come back to life at a Bonfire upon death, this will occur infinitely until said person goes insane and will attack anyone and everything it sees. As the player you must go around and defeat monstrous enemies and bosses to change the world for better, or worse, your choice. The story itself is not told through conventional methods, such as cut-scenes and dialogue dumps. It is instead told through small amounts of these things and mostly told through Item Descriptions on weapons and equipment. These descriptions develop the world in a way usual methods would not, it shows the world’s history and characters in less obvious way. You could play and finish the entire game without knowing what you did or why you did it. This is why I LOVE Dark Souls, what is explicitly told is very vague and allows for the player to come to their own conclusions on events and reasoning’s, this allows each player to possibly have their own interpretation and experience with the game.
Dark Souls also has an extensive multiplayer factor as well. The player can summon other players to help them with tough areas or drop helpful items, this, once again, gives each player a unique experience and gives struggling players the help they need to defeat strong bosses. On the other hand it also has an invasion system, where a player can invade another player’s world and hunt them down for their own spoils. This can be frustrating at times, but also very rewarding and fun at others.
If that isn’t enough to get you interested here is two reviews that may help you better understand Dark Souls and even might get you to play one of the most rewarding games I have ever played:
Dark Souls was released October 4th 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360 and was released for PC August 23rd 2012 A remaster named Dark Souls: Remastered was released May 24th 2018 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. It was also released for Nintendo Switch on October 19th 2018.
That’s it Folks!
Thanks for reading my first blog post and I hope you know more about me and my relationship with Video Games. I will be updating this at least weekly with plenty of other Gaming related content.
Thanks again!
– Nathan “Naff” Hibbert
Nathan Hibbert (Left) and a friend at the Overwatch World Cup 2017 in Sydney, Aus.
Naff's Gaming Blog 