Electron Dance Highlights
The Don of Cutscenes
I'm just going to come out and say it: Mafia is not a great game.
If I'd run through it in 2002, I probably would've had fun. But this is 2012. Mafia is another title that shows how fast games are ageing - or rather, how fast game design and audience expectations are surging ahead, throwing a harsh spotlight on the crude, medieval designs of our gaming past. In 2022, will the next generation of kids claim Minecraft is a bit rubbish?
But It’s The Truth
I cited Mafia in last year’s essay Those Honeymoon Hours, describing how an early mission in Mafia was exciting because I was oblivious of the game's constraints and hadn’t yet learnt how to master – or perhaps game – its mechanics.
Pretty soon, though, the frustrations break through and its wonderful façade crumples like a mobster taking a baseball bat to the head. I'm not going to whine about the Mafia "sandbox" not being interesting enough as I recognise it is neither a sandbox nor an open world - it is merely an enormous set upon which a gangster-themed third-person shooter plays out.
Ahead… The Stars
Last week I made the bold move of announcing a “game of the year” which was Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life. It probably surprised everyone because I'd never mentioned it before although an observant follower might have seen this tweet on 3 Dec 2011:
Man, I think I love this game.
Yes, well, that was Cart Life.
Cart Life was teeming with showstopping bugs on release last May which is likely the reason it barely registered across the indie game-o-sphere. But what has been said of Cart Life following its mention on Electron Dance last week?
David Kanaga, the musical maestro of Proteus and Dyad, said the game "had me tingling for its first 15 minutes." I dare not ask about what happened the minute after that.
Pippin Barr, author of The Artist Is Present amongst other games, said it was craaaaazy and wished he'd made it as it was so interesting.
Nicolau Chaud, the mind behind Marvel Brothel and Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, wrote the following on his blog:
I have to say, one of the things that motivated me and inspired me the most to work on Polymorphous Perversity again was playing an awesome indie game. And the game I'm talking about is Richard Hofmeier's Cart Life. This game is just so unique and brilliant that I have to be careful not to be overhumbled and give up on whatever I'm working at.
Yes, too many replays will eventually ruin its magic. Yes, too many bugs will keep this game off an IGF list. Yes, some of the broken design is accidental and not intentional. So it's time I explained why a game which made me panic about a cat's well-being is deserving of so much attention.
Read no further if you still intend to play, because I am about to discuss the lives of Melanie Emberley and Andrus Poder in some depth.
Electron Dance 2011 Review
Apologies! This should have been posted in 2011 but there just wasn't any room in the schedule. Better late than after I'm the late HM, though. If you're wondering what Electron Dance goodness you might have missed in 2011, then this post is your compass to great destinations of word.
And dear sweet babies of Jesus, I realise how much I've written last year for no pennies.
Game of the Year
Melanie Emberley tells the judge about the new coffee business she's starting up. He asks how it’s going and she confesses she’s still getting through the paperwork. The judge listens. He understands, he really does. He announces what he considers to be a fair decision for the interim. It's not what she expected. It's certainly not what I expected.
Wow.
I feel guilty. It's my fault, you see. And I actually feel guilty. How did that happen? I'm sitting at my PC, cringing. I just don't want to watch this play out.
But Melanie doesn't have any choice so neither do I. I press the SPACE bar and we move on, together.
This is Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life and it is awesome – although probably not for everyone.
Neptune’s Pride Private Match Available
In the comments on Survivorship Bias, Electron Dance reader Todd has advertised a private Neptune's Pride game for any readers willing to join in. Players will start with Level 2 speed and scanning research is expensive.
The game URL is http://neptunespride.appspot.com/detail?game=32236516 and the secret word is ‘aspire’.
I can absolutely 100% cast-iron guarantee that I will not be taking part. As if that was in any doubt...
Update 09 Jan: Five out of nine slots taken!
Update 11 Jan: All slots filled and the game begins!
RoboCaptain, LiberalEurope, Captain Wells, CitiesInDust, Sargent Hatred, Leo2k5, Sirron, Grand Space Lord Al and Blueshift2k5... good hunting.
Update 14 Jan: There's a galactic peace treaty! With signatures!
The Xmaspiration: Survivorship Bias
"I’m also exhausted, really exhausted. It’s so stressful, I think because of the amount of time Neptune plays out over it feels like a total investment into the game. I remember I was out all day at a meeting and I was fretting because I just entered my war with Poseidon. I was on a motorway and worrying about Neptune's Pride."
Craig Lager, Neptune's Pride - The GD War - Part 4 (Gaming Daily)
Last year, Neptune’s Pride developer Jay Kyburz asked me: “Do you think because the game has basically no story, no flavor and no graphics it allows players to pour themselves into it more?”
Although the minimalism of Neptune’s Pride plays a large part in bringing the crowds through the door, I doubt that’s why players get so invested in the game. It’s probably more to do with the action of cultivating an empire of coloured dots over days or weeks and having to defend that digital sandcastle on a beach full of bullies.
The long-term investment of time and energy engenders a strong emotional attachment to the player's empire and losing an equivalent short-form game wouldn’t sting as much.
But there’s another implicit assumption in the question that bothers me. And this is the point where I should talk about mutual funds.
The Xmaspiration: Laura’s Story
-201TCA88-LM- Virtue is Bond. I/We have discovered the ex-dictator of the late Facewizard empire fled to Earth and is masquerading as Earthen flesh Laura Michet. She is one-half of Second Person Shooter and also a copywriter for Tencent America.
The Spiritual Domain of The Aspiration and Facewizard were neighbours. Today, Laura describes her experience of running an empire.
Why I Did Not Enjoy Neptune’s Pride
Games of Neptune’s Pride eventually come to an end, apparently.
After about two days of playing the game, I was more interested in seeing that end than in winning, or even continuing to play. The game takes place at a glacially slow pace; ships crawl across the map. Apparently, this is necessary for players to form strategies. As a veteran of the mid-ninties fast-paced-RTS craze, weaned on Age of Empires, I can affirm that strategy is just as much fun in a fast-paced game as it can be in a slow-paced one, if not more fun, and usually far more stimulating. Heck, Galcon and its Steam counterpart, Galcon Fusion, shave matches down to approximately two minutes! Anyone who has ever played a game of hot-seat-multiplayer in Civ 4 will realize the kind of frustration associated with incredibly slow-paced multiplayer strategy games. Against a computer, the frustration is less, since you can always simply stop playing. Against humans, it’s harder to admit to that frustration and boredom: you’re afraid you’ll seem like a bad sport, like the kid who throws the chess board across the room and stomps out.
The Xmaspiration: In Paranoia We Trust
If you're not familiar with The Aspiration, check out the supershort summary of this most epic of Neptune's Pride diaries - The Aspiration Retold In Nine Pictures.
-6BAA6CODE6- Virtue is Bond. HM will continue to speak for Me/Us. Today he exposes the only law that the galactic empires agreed on: In Paranoia We Trust.
For the public record, I confirm the real villain of our Neptune’s Pride game was Kent Sutherland.
As the game’s sponsor, he had a bright gold star beside his empire’s name, Starspackle, like he’d won a prize for being the nicest person in the galaxy. We all knew Kent was Starspackle and Starspackle was Kent. Although we applied a respectful level of distrust – this was Neptune’s Pride after all – we tended to be fairly accepting of his “facts” because Kent is a nice guy. Yes, not just facts but “facts”. If Kent said my cat was worshipping Satan, I’d have expected there to be some truth to the tale of the Satanic tail. Even though I didn’t have a cat.
So the grand Machiavellian strategy that Kent employed was “being Kent”. His rare advantage, then, was to be given a pass on player paranoia. This allowed him to employ the paranoia of noob players as his tools of war.
He told The Aspiration many things.
The Xmaspiration: Fourteen
If you're not familiar with The Aspiration, check out the supershort summary of this most epic of Neptune's Pride diaries - The Aspiration Retold In Nine Pictures.
-14141414- Virtue is Bond. I/We were unfair to HM previously referring to this Earthen flesh as a “puppet” but have discovered the more appropriate syntax is “robot”.
Today, on My/Our behalf, HM revisits what happened on the fourteenth day of the Great Galactic Pacification. The day the Spiritual Domain of The Aspiration collapsed.
As my experience of Neptune's Pride recedes into the past, I find I can be more honest about its impact. I can put aside the airbrushed narrative of The Aspiration series and, instead, take a good look at the emotional dysfunction in the mirror. No one likes to admit that a video game can have negative consequences, particularly one of the medium's strongest supporters.
On the fourteenth day, hundreds of enemy ships invaded my space – and I gave up. I'd been dying for days although there had been no official diagnosis of my condition. When I was a child, I liked to pluck the legs from a trapped daddy long-legs and watch the ever-diminishing body twitch. In Neptune's Pride, I had become the daddy long-legs.
The Xmaspiration: Scrapbook
If you're not familiar with The Aspiration, check out the supershort summary of this most epic of Neptune's Pride diaries - The Aspiration Retold In Nine Pictures.
-85HH1HX7HC4MC- Virtue is Bond. On this most operationally lethargic of days, I/We present a selection of snapshots from The Aspiration's campaign for galactic pacification in 2010. Click each screenshot for the full size. Be merrysome this Christmas Day. Together we Aspire.
The Aspiration were virgin warriors. These opening diplomatic communications were fearful in themselves. Are these lies? Are these deceptions? Where is truth?