How does he play game?
PapaBoo, a non-gamer playing through the seminal first-person shooter Half-Life, soldiers on. Now his exploits are being documented at the dedicated web domain howdoiplaygame.com, which anyone who is familiar with hardcore games should be sure to read right away. He is now supplementing his descriptions of in-game progress with screenshots.
If you are unfamiliar with PapaBoo’s Black Mesa journey, start from the beginning. What is most fascinating is how he is beginning to think in the context of what the game demands, having started his play session with absolutely no existent framework for FPS games. Coincidentally, just today I was thinking about when I first played Half-Life way back in 1998. It was a borderline revelatory experience, unlike any shooter I had played. Many of its demands were uncommon for the genre. Still, though, I had a familiarity with shooters in general, and my experience with adventure games and other types of video games gave me a baseline for video game logic, which is somewhat tangential to real world logic.
PapaBoo, of course, does not have that foundation. His experiences are priceless, because they are so uncommon–I doubt many non-gamers take their first voyage into the world of full 3D interactive worlds by way of something like Half-Life. Every gamer knows Half-Life is so impressive, but that is to an extent because they knew what shooters were like before Half-Life; PapaBoo’s blog is the closest I will ever get to experiencing Half-Life without an already established frame of gaming reference.
I have to imagine it’s like somebody seeing Citizen Kane when it was released, without ever having been exposed to other films. Whether or not you think Citizen Kane deserves its historical accolades (I do, for what it’s worth), it undeniably made great strides in cinematography and the narrative of film, and while one might recognize it as a good work, it would be difficult to see how exactly it is as good as it is without being exposed to its forbears.
But still, games are somewhat different. A game is an active experience, not a passive one, and they are much longer than films. There is the element of pure appreciation from a design standpoint, and I have no idea how much of that PapaBoo is getting, but there is also the element of comprehension and adaptability to the gameplay. PapaBoo doesn’t talk much about whether he enjoys or appreciates the game, he writes about his ability to actually progress through it.
This is something that puts games in stark contrast to film or literature or music. You might have trouble comprehending a movie or novel or album, but you rarely have to worry about simply getting from the beginning to the end, unless you get bored. Games are not like that. Designers would do well to follow PapaBoo’s travels. Most “hardcore” games are designed for people who have played other hardcore games, but to me it is clear that the audience for hardcore games–and when I say hardcore games, I mean character- and story-driven games with full explorable worlds and relatively representative gameplay–is potentially much bigger than the group of people who have played hardcore games.
So how do we make games that have enough depth for that group that already exists, but do not demand so much from the uninitiated that all of their effort must be spent on simple comprehension, not appreciation?
It’s a secret to everybody. Also, I’m a little drunk at the moment, and I haven’t proofread this post.
Tags: accessibility, half-life, papaboo, valve
February 10th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Accessibilty is a key to successful games. Look at games like Tetris, Diablo or even WoW(or really any Blizz/Nintendo game). Easy to learn, hard to master is usually the philosophy.
Most 1st person games barely manage to teach you more than “wasd” + jump though. But having started with games like Wolf3d and Doom that was all it took, and with each iteration we got more used to what designers expected from us gamers to expect from their games.
Although after what Duke3D/Half Life/Jedi Knight had accomplished there hasn’t been much progress gameplaywise anymore anyway.
PS: The more people know about his blog, the better. Hopefully everyone encourages him to endure the pain of the “guess what you gotta do” game this, like many other titles, sends you through at times.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Regarding being a little drunk at the moment, are you celebrating or drowning your sorrows?
February 10th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
i’ve been following along with his blog, it’s pretty good. i don’t enjoy it as much as some perhaps because i’ve always thought the half-life games were pretty shitty (you call the original HL awesome, like so many others — yet Deus Ex was about a million times as innovative and much more fun to play, if 2 years and a crappier engine later), but it is still fascinating to see the perspective of a non-gamer.
anyway please post about the whole shacknews fiasco. thanks.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I had a semi blog on the same comment site back in 2005. I had never played half-life, although I was very familiar with fps single player (q2, rtcw, etc). The posts pretty much read the same way, especially now that he has a basic concept of the mechanics. I only wish I would have journaled it in such a fashion.
I am proud of him.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I would say that while more innovative (although I’m not sure it was - it came after System Shock 2 which had a lot of similar gameplay ideas - NOTHING before Half Life did what Half Life did), Deus Ex was also about a million times less accessible than Half Life. I couldn’t imagine trying to play it having never played a FPS before.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Remo - Thanks for the thoughtful explanation of my exploits. The reason that I probably don’t put more in my posts about whether or not I’m enjoying the game is that it’s so hard for me to remember all the details of what I’ve done that I type the posts right after I finish playing. I know I should take a little more time to put some more thought into my posts, but based on response it seems like I’m getting out enough for people to enjoy it.
I am enjoying Half-Life. I can’t say that it’s the greatest adventure that I’ve ever experienced because I don’t really have any basis for comparison. It is a challenge and perhaps “just getting through it” is what I need to focus on with my first game. I’m sure as I move on I’ll worry less about the mechanics and more about the bigger picture. Thanks again for your post.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I wonder if something like Gears of War would be easier. I think a lot of console FPS games add more guidance and simplify mechanics for players unfamiliar with the genre. The most trouble I had was the stop-and-pop mechanics because I’ve been running and gunning since Wolfenstein 3D.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Someone mentioned WoW, but I think it’s worth revisiting briefly.
I’ve encountered ragtag casuals that made me laugh out loud. Missing pieces of gear, unaware of “core” abilities, and yet wholly enthusiastic about their experience with every intention of continuing forward.
I find the full gamut of clueless to hardcore WoW players amazing. Given the breadth of gameplay available in MMOs, I guess it makes sense we’d see it so easily in them. You could argue WoW is a bunch of games molded together.