Well thought-out point, whitebrice. That is certainly a factor, and we'll see it come into play as that demographic ages and becomes distracted from casual gaming.

Ah, that word. Casual. Can something as mega-popular and as violent as Modern Warfare be casual? That's the way I think of it... It is played mindlessly, and without meaning to generalise too harshly (I'm speaking very lightly), the Call of Duty mass is largely played by relatively mindless people. Those seeking a deep or engaging experience, tactical teamwork, vehicular integration, realism and varied terrain will go to Battlefield, to Arma, to Red Orchestra and to darker, deeper places - the Swamps of Simulation. Just floating off on a tangent - it struck me as strange to realise I consider Modern Warfare, Team Fortress 2 and the like to be as casual as Plants Versus Zombies. Same light-hearted, grind-your-face-intio-the-screen repetitive action, with distinct boundaries and simplified mechanics.

I have to admit, it's not just the forced movement, the invisible walls and camera manipulation that bothers me. I don't even want carefully designed silhoettes. I don't want friendly fire mitigation. I WANT to get lost and have to search for my route, or choose my own. I WANT confusion, I WANT to be forced to think. How can any marketting goon keep a straight face as he bills Call of Duty as an authentic warfare experience while the developers sit desperately fighting to remove all the chaos and ambiguity of battle action, and the morality of war.

Don't assume from my attitude that I dislike Call of Duty. I am disgusted by it, upon my principles as a designer and my passion for deeper gameplay experiences, but I enjoy running around having a simple adventure and shooting baddies in the face as much as anyone, when I'm in that kind of mood... But sometimes it still goes too far, and even in the midst of good fun, they can really spoil my day.

I think the worst moment was during Call of Duty: World at War's singleplayer campaign, as the Russians. Later in the game, when the brave boys in brown are pushing Zee Germanz out of the city, fighting through subways and across streets, you come upon a scripted sequence during which you have free movement and the ability to fire - a gang of Russian troops have corned some surrendering German troops in a locked subway staircase. I spent 20 minutes there, reloading, trying to stop the war crime unfolding.

Think what you want of me. This wasn't roleplay, this wasn't my imagination running riot as it often does - this was a cold and uncomfortable realisation that even though it was a game, I could not be myself and not react to what I was seeing.

You're hinted at with a choice here that will influence the conclusion of the game in a small way. It's a morality toy, a gimmick here mildly and subtly employed that in other games forms the very backbone of the experience (Fable, Mass Effect). You can kill the German soldiers yourself or you can let the Russian troops burn them alive using Molotov cocktails.

Rather than let them do that to men who had peacefully surrendered I tried a number of things. Being a Russian POW is no picnic but surely any chance of life is better than immediate death. So I tried protesting by standing infront of the prisoners.

Nope. The Russian troops won't acknowledge your presence, and will fire regardless, right through you - without harming you.

... So I tried killing the ringleaders of the gang of vengeful sadists. Nope, my bullets are magical too!

Really, I don't care if I get shot by the Commisar for my actions. Is it so hard to simply impart basic friendly fire mechanics with AI who shoot back if you shoot their friends? Can't I die for a cause here, like they're insisting I do with every charge into enemy fire? Personally, I find these moments a lot more interesting than the general run and gun combat of Call of Duty. No. They put more effort into locking you down than it would take to give you freedom.

The obsession with controlling the player is growing out of control itself - it is becoming habitual, traditional. As whitebrice put it, it's becoming shorthand, an exclusive language and method used by developers that they unconsciously perpetuate over generations of games. Meanwhile, basic capitalism, the survival of the successful and the monopolisation of the field by those who succeed ensures that few new ideas are getting in. I remember when almost every major game had something unique, something all of its own. An idea of merit, a passionate goal. And now I'm just grumping about greed. Dash it all.

Ah, Steerpike!

You bring up the most pervasive quality of the article; the ability of Francis to make anyone of any kind of moral fibre despise him to his very bones. It's difficult to hold on to whatever point he's making through the uncomfortable anxiety, the fear that he might actually be serious. He could actually be that awful. In which case what we think of his point is less relevant than whether or not there is any way we can get away with having this man lobotomised.

Nonetheless, by being a loud and obnoxious kind of writer (or possibly just one who doesn't know when to drop his act, I dare hope), he attracts more attention to a subject that deserves it - and attracts dev attention from a studio we're all rather fond of, lately 🙂

I'm listening to Tubular Bells as I write. It's making this feel a lot more epic than it is.

Mmm. I can see he has hit a particular sore spot with you. You describe his motivations and perceive his intentions in much the same way I see that bastard Ben Croshaw. Zero Punctuation was a work of excellent comedy for the first five episodes, before he simply kept up the tirade of abuse for the sake of... Well, I do hope he was being paid. Else there's just no excuse for the way he kept going, and going.

I do appreciate loud/obnoxious attitudes in writing - it's a style I share at times. The blasphemously irreverent, the abrasively blunt and the sharply sarcastic are condiments I love to garnish a dish with... Perhaps this one just went too far over too small a thing. Wilfully ignoring the fact that many games -do- promote freedom (mostly outside the mainstream), and failing to acknowledge that Bulletstorm dives wholeheartedly and self-aware into crude simplicity... He comes across as more of a whining child than a games journalist.

...

Regarding the PCF response to his article though, it only makes it clear what we all already know. To be blunt;

Bad games (by our standards) are made because most people are fuckwits and cannot appreciate or survive complex and challenging simulated experiences.

Established studios with offices and wages need a decent income, and appealing to the 'elite' minority who want something deep and thought-provoking just isn't good business sense.

But let's look on the bright side - film-makers did eventually find ways around this. Films like Terminator and The Matrix, animes like Ghost in the Shell manage to weave complex and intelligently considered storylines alongside exciting action. We -can- coexist with the fuckwit. We can enjoy the same thing for different reasons, IF developers can meet the challenge. If, only if more developers will realise, as Valve has, that you can hire people with good ideas, writers capable of invoking humour and emotion, and make a 'fun' game that nonetheless has something more to it.

Eventually, this comes to what I believe about the future of gaming - collaboration between studios will become mandatory as the most successful games continue to be hybrids. Total War works by having competent strategy AND entertaining action. Grand Theft Auto succeeds by mixing shooting AND vehicles (and in San Andreas, fairly varied character RPG mechanics). Most of the best regarded games ever made are hyrid FPS/RPGs, such as Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Morrowind, Vampire: Bloodlines and STALKER.

I'm hoping as games like Deus Ex 3 blend compelling RPG mechanics with increasingly fluid and exciting combat as well as high quality graphics, we'll see the industry lumber slowly away from the shallow, mindless but somewhat entertaining shit into a vague compromise between depth and 'LOL SHINY' grunt appeal.

*hurls himself away from the keyboard in a dramatic slow motion dive, to make pancakes and TYPE NO MORE!*