hsrob said:
(borrowing from my own post the other day)
Look it's a fair perspective but I can't say that I agree, gameplay is king for me.
Artistic vision and freedom of expression are all well and good but in a game they should be there augment, rather than supplant, the GAMEplay. Games are fundamentally different from most other art forms due to the fact that the observer plays an active, rather than a passive, role in experiencing the medium and are, in fact, an integral part in the realisation of the vision. Anything that hinders that experience and that engagement with the medium such as bad controls, not feeling involved enough in the outcome etc. can be viewed as a failure on the part of the developer, even if aesthetically and narratively the game achieves exactly what it intended.
Now we can have a very broad definition of what qualifies as a game, the same way there is a very broad definition of what qualifies as a movie but ultimately most fall into relatively narrow confines and story tropes that have been around for hundreds of years. You can make a movie with no dialogue and it's still a movie but for many, this change would be too much because you are interfering with something they believe to be fundamental to the movie experience. Some minimalist approaches can work in movie-making but as soon as you start altering the fundamental recipes too much, you are going to disappoint a segment of the audience.
There are games that have successfully changed the balance of the gaming formula and still provide a strong, cohesive experience e.g. Flower and Journey, but from what I've heard it sounds as though The Order hasn't quite gotten it right. It's not simply that it hasn't got enough 'gameplay', it's the fact that what is on show actually gets in the way of the complete experience.
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Baraka is in my top 10 best movies all time. No dialogue. Well received movie.
I also enjoyed Dear Esther, no gameplay. Very divisive game yet not a failure at all.
Why do gamers feel threatened when a game comes out that is not in their interest? Why not simply ignore it like I ignore the next superhero blockbuster. Why go to the trouble of trying to argue it doesn't deserve to be called a game.
Getting immersed in a virtual world is king for me.
Gameplay has many forms anyway. Dear esther plays with your mind, trying to make sense of the story fragments. To the moon keeps you involved with the story, and tbh gameplay did get in the way in a few places (That ridiculous horse chase comes to mind) Journey encourages you to share an experience and find ways to communicate with a total stranger. Never alone gives you a glimpse of a different culture. Papa & Yo a deeply personal story. Thirty flights of loving, only 15 minutes long, very inovative story telling. All linear games with minimal gameplay, all great imo.
Now it doesn't look like The order is going to join that list. But I do enjoy it a lot more than something like Dead space extraction.
