Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
In my latest piece for Paste 's Games section, I wanted to dissect the love/hate relationship that players of Dragon Age: Inquisition have with several of the game's maps, particularly The Hissing Wastes. A location that many players consider big and boring became my favorite in the game, and I think that has a lot to do both with what we expect game areas to be and what we expect them to do.
Although my take on this hasn't exactly earned universal agreement from fellow gaming enthusiasts, I'm willing to bet that most Second Life users take this position for granted...
But what does “nothing” really mean? There is something everywhere in a game. There has to be, because someone somewhere spent hours building the form and rules to sustain five seconds of “nothing”. In reality, the Hissing Wastes are full of things to stumble upon, but there is no flag to plant by a statue half-lost to the creeping sands. There’s no quest marker for watching the silhouette of a fox cresting a ridge in front of the imposing milk-white disk of the moon. When you do finally arrive at a “something” on the map, it’s made that much sweeter by how isolated and elusive it is. You’re knee-deep in the snow, searching for warm embers again. These places, these moments, these experiences are evidently “nothing” because they’re unmarked.
And that’s the heart of what we often expect “something” to mean in our games. If it doesn’t flicker or blink or ping desperately for your attention, it doesn’t count.
So why do I mention SL now? Well, the fact is that most of the blinking and pinging in Second Life comes from your IM window. Only a handful of the spaces and landscapes that residents have put together have any kind of predefined objectives. The vast majority simply exist, oversized tableaus with a few Easter eggs for anyone interested in finding them. That's what almost makes this argument that happens in gaming strange to me, the idea that for something to matter it needs to be marked and rewarded. This is the argument people make against Proteus, against Eidolon, against Gone Home. This is the root of derision for 'Walking Simulators'.
Be sure to read my full piece, "The Open Space and Hissing Wastes of Dragon Age: Inquisition," over on Paste, and as always share your own thoughts in the comments.
Tweet
Comments