I was playing Saints Row earlier today, buying clothes, having my character remodelled (again) and snazzed up my car. Some mission sent me after some hookers supposedly having been kidnapped by the yellow clad Vice Kings.
As I was shooting my way into their HQ I found myself walking instead of running like a nutball, even though I'd obviously shot everybody. It threw my thoughts down a familiar lane. I was walking because it looks cool. I'm basically holding back on playing the game because I want to immerse myself in it.
Sure, you could argue that a game like this is meant to be role played to some extent, evident by the heavy customization options, but what if those are a product of misdirected effort too?
A friend of mine once said something that has become part of my internal terminology. It's not so much a word as it is a phrase. We were playing Brute Force and he said "I wish you could crawl in the grass". Now there's nothing in BF's gameplay mechanics that suggest that there'd be any kind of point to crawling in the grass. Even crouching simply works as a way to steady your aim and regain stamina faster. My friend simply thought it would look cool if you could.
But the thing is; there's nothing there. There's nothing at the end of the pretend role play in these games. It doesn't matter that you walk instead of run in an attempt to not look like a lunatic. It doesn't matter if you drive properly or drive backwards on the sidewalk, and If you find yourself caring about these things, you'll eventually realise that the game doesn't, and that you've been spending ages on distractions instead of progressing at the intended pace.
When we watch a film we expect it to use that time to tell us a story. We wouldn't accept a film that simply stops doing that, becoming incoherent and pointless. A game is supposed to offer gameplay - progression through gameplay, so why do I feel like I should walk - not run - down the streets in a game when there's no progression there? Should this be considered a design flaw?
I think in order to figure out if it is, we need to look at how people play games today. I recently discussed difficult games with the good folks over at the Xboxyde forums, and I tried to remember what was the motivation for playing those games when I was a kid.
Turtles 1 repeatedly used my brain as a squash ball, but I kept at it. Not because there was a story or a cutscene at the end of it, but simply because I wanted to beat it. I wanted to BEAT IT. I uh, never did, but that's beside the point.
Few people today play games to beat them. The challenge isn't even particularly sought after, but rather a nuisance overcome by quick-save-a-thons, cheats and pathetic difficulty settings. If a game is difficult it's just frustrating and flawed, and the definition of difficult seems to have become "I don't almost not make it, I actually don't make it! :O". Challenge isn't welcome.
Instead people complain about how games are shorter these days, when they really aren't. It's just that back then you played the same game over and over until you sodding knew what you had to do to complete the next bit, whereas today, every design choice in terms of progression is made so you don't lose interest before you're spoon fed the next cutscene. Difficulty is the phonecall in the middle of the movie.
Why bring this up? Well, it directly relates to why people sit down and play a game today. They want to be immersed. They don't care about whether or not they kill the boss, they just want to look cool doing it. The philosophy has drastically changed regarding a lot of game design catering to the masses, because the masses barely make a distinction between playing a game and getting to interact with a movie that steadily, without effort, progresses towards the end.
Walking in Saints Row is the crawling in the grass actually implemented. I'm just a dinosaur who has difficulty grasping the concept of encouraging something through theme and content that doesn't actually matter. To me it's the plot device in a crappy movie that doesn't lead anywhere.
"But what about the inmate's crazy sister's boyfriend?" says someone.
"He's just... crawling in the grass."