Digital Unrest

The Survival Horror Dilemma

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:48:03 -0700

Why do people get scared? That's a question I've been thinking about. The best, most distilled, answer I can come up with is this: people become scared when they believe they might (or know they're going to) lose something that they'd rather not lose. There is probably a deep, metaphysical discussion to be had regarding the subject, but I'm going to eschew that to talk about save files and survival horror games.

So, suppossing that fear stems from the possibility of loss, how can a game be scary to the player? Clearly, there must be something that can be lost by the player. Since the player is actually sitting on a couch and not literally in the world of the game, the only real thing that can be lost by the player is progress within said game, regardless of what nightmarish tortures the character on the screen is experiencing. That's the crux. Save files are explicitely designed to prevent the loss of progress by the player. As modern games trend towards checkpoints every few seconds, the ability for a survival horror game to induce fear decays towards null. Afterall, why be scared when you know with certainty that anything that happens on-screen can be rewound to a checkpoint that's just a stone's throw in the past?

The inverse is perhaps even worse. Games with no ability to save at all (e.g., many games of the 80's) can be absolutely terrifying as one considers losing 3 consecutive hours of progress to a single mistake while playing. The amount of frustration that comes with this approach is flat out insane and not worth it.

I think the original save system in Resident Evil was a brilliant middle ground. Not only did you have to find specific save locations (typewriters), but you had to have an ink ribbon in your inventory to actually save your game. Ink ribbons were a finite resource that the player had to search for. You couldn't save as much as you want and even when you could save you had to question if you really wanted to use up a ribbon. This system naturally created situations where the player could lose (possibly a lot of) progress in the game. Sometimes these scenarios were unwittingly created by the players themselves by over-conserving ink ribbons. In such situations, the unknown, unexplored areas within the game become something approaching scary.

In my estimation, there is one other possible solution for creating fear and anxiety and it stems from why we can find movies scary. While watching a movie there is no physical danger to the viewer (one hopes) and no danger of losing even progress. Yet, movies can be fear inducing. If a person is emotionally invested in a character then they can be scared for the character and any loss coming their way. However, traditionally, this type of character empathy has been hard for games to achieve - certainly harder than simply cutting back on the checkpoints.

The Future of Gaming

Thu, 07 May 2009 03:02:51 -0700

Rumors abound. Check it out.

On another note, Carnac is magnificent.

Nomenclature

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:50:51 -0700

This is a remake of this strip. People seemed to enjoy it when it originally debuted back in 2006. I myself like it as well and thought it would be fun to update the art and put it out there for viewing again.

High Horse

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:34:07 -0700

Columnist George Will recently described the symptom of a vile disease sweeping the Earth - people wear jeans. He relates this epidemic of stupidity/infantility/classlessness to playing video games, as well. Check it out via GamePolitics. I actually think George Will is an intelligent human being at his core. Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't preclude one from being severely out of touch and outdated.

In the Line of Duty

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:59:54 -0700

Game Developers Conference '09 recently provided us with the official announcement of the next Call of Duty game. Except it's not a Call of Duty game at all. Modern Warefare 2 follows the wildly successful Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare while dropping the franchise name that it's predecessor helped solidify as a golden brand. Call of Duty and Modern Warefare series publisher Activision states that Modern Warefare has "a life of its own", hence the ditching of the Call of Duty umbrella. However, one can't help but wonder if perhaps Modern Warfare and original Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward was simply abolishing the joint-custody they've shared with later-comer Treyarch over the series.

I thought it was pretty cool that DU was included in this list. Also, take note that fellow GPoD sites Dueling Analogs and 2P Start! are on there too.

Invocation

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:50:28 -0700

This comic was late due to a weekend's worth of Resident Evil 5. Great fun, overall. I would be hard-pressed not to name it the most visually appealing console game of this generation so far.

Chris Thomas, former webcomic creator and current entrepeneur, has started up a new site dedicated completed to iPhone gaming called AppGamer. So if you're a fan of Steve Jobs' trojan horse into the portable gaming market you should head over and check it out.

REeducated Pt. 4

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:18:58 -0800

One of the more infamous Barry Burton quotes is also one of the most nonsensical. I can understand saying that Jill was about to be sandwiched between the floor and the ceiling. Sandwich as a verb is fine, but to say that her being crushed to death is metaphorically equivalent to actually being a sandwich just seems bizarre. Barry is known for dialogue that doesn't seem particularly strange upon first hearing it, but if you think about it for more than a second it immediately becomes clear how stupid it is.

REeducated Pt. 2

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:58:39 -0800

Part 2 is here. Brad Vickers was the first to use the last minute rocket launcher save. Sidenote: he was also the one who abandoned the people needing the rocket launcher in the first place so it's questionable if that actually counts as a save. Also, he throws the rocket launcher from a helicopter onto concrete, which I would assume tips the scales of probability towards "rocket launcher breaks and becomes useless". Friggin' Brad Vickers.

REeducated Pt. 1

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:41:26 -0800

Real news post incoming. Be sure to check out part 2 coming this Thursday.

Video Game Medicine

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:38:37 -0800

Late comic, later news post. Sorry about that. If you'd like to hear my excuses for being late with the strip in real time, then, by all means:

Turned On Its Head

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:38:40 -0800

How many throngs of people have clamored for a Zelda movie over the past two decades? They may get their wish...sort of. At least, if some of the interpretations of a recently filed patent by Nintendo are correct. The "digest" mode alluded to in the patent seemingly gives the option to simply watch the game play automatically, presenting you with a menu of gameplay segments that you may or may not indulge in, depending on your appetite for actually, you know, playing a game. For a Zelda film, much like a Klondike bar, the question has been asked: what would you do for one? For most of us, I think it can be said with some confidence that we would not sacrifice a new Zelda game. To be fair, this mode appears to be optional in the whole framework of the patent. Moreover, nobody is saying that Nintendo even has to actually put this system into a game even though they have patented it. It's just easier to poke fun at when you assume they will.

You Decide?

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:09:03 -0800

I'm all for giving parents the tools to control what their children are exposed to. What I don't like is when the government feels the need to dictate what material is appropriate for certain game ratings, as Illinois has recently dabbled in with a jaunty preemptive banning of something we never even knew we were afraid of. The video game industry has done a good job of regulating itself and making parents aware of what content is in video games via the Entertainment Software Rating Board (speaking for the United States, at least). Why mess with that?

Any generous readers out there feel like donating some hero dolls to me in Fable 2? I'll send you a digital sketch or something if you do. Gamertag: DU Chris

Floaters and Drifters

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:16:14 -0800

That crazy Newton.

I picked up a PS3 over the holidays and my friends list is totally empty. If you'd like to help me fix that then add DigitalUnrest. I only have LittleBigPlanet at the moment. If you have any cool levels that you've created, let me know.

Steve over at Dueling Analogs is less than a day away from a life-changing event as of this writing. He's enlisted a menagerie of webcomic creators to help cover his updates for a little while and I'm happy to be one of them. My strip is up right now, so go check it out if you please.

Theatrical Debut

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:32:26 -0800

The latest teaser for God of War III just debuted. It features the debut of hand puppet weaponry. See here:

God of War 3 'Vengence' trailer

It certainly looks pretty but it didn't reboot my mind into a new reality as David Jaffe led me to believe it would.

It's the end of an era - Ross Miller is stepping down as webcomic czar of Joystiq. Ross is a pretty generous guy. A couple years ago he pretty much gave this comic an audience overnight when he decided to toss one of my strips into the Wrapup. I know a lot of other webcomics can say the same of him. Given his exposure to so many gaming strips, it was really an honor to see Ross list DU as one of his favorite webcomics. Thanks, man.

Ball and Stick

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:59:52 -0800

If I had a chemistry model kit that I didn't mind destroying, I might actually try to make a Bomberman molecule. If you had enough chlorine atoms in the kit I guess you could make something resembling Vectorman too.

There's a new site out there called Is It Funny Today? I think it's really cool. It's a user-driven site that ranks webcomics day to day. The best thing about the site is the raw functionality it has. You just go there, see what other people think is good, and take a second to say if you think it's good as well via one click. Hey, what do you know, DU is on there and I've accidentally pressed ctrl+c from my browser and ctrl+v on this script in such a way as to make a hyperlink to it. You might as well go there and vote on the strips, for better or for worse.

Finally, my pal Chris over at Indoor Heroes (formally RPG-TV) interviewed me recently. See it here, if you please.