Most Interesting-Yet-Little-Known Games

At the end of every year, writers flood the Internet with lists of the "best" games, these lists often featuring the most popular blockbusters or whatever indie games happen to catch the imagination of the industry. 2015 was no exception. With half of the lists featuring Bloodborne, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, and Metal Gear V: The Phantom Pain and the other half sharing Life is Strange, Her Story, and Undertale, what should be a moment of discovery for readers becomes instead a time of eye-rolling, as they say sighing "not another list with games I already know."  

This is not to say that these games are bad. My favorite games this year are, indeed, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, and Undertale, and I have much enjoyed Rocket League, Splatoon, Mario Maker, and Xenoblade Chronicles X. However, these are games that everyone knows about. Instead of praising these already well known (and fun) games, I'll list what I found to be nine of the more interesting and lesser known titles of 2015. Or, at least, nine titles that I think didn't get the coverage they should have.

Predictions Fail: 2015 - 16 Edition

Every January, I make predictions about the video game industry for the following year. Of course, these types of posts are no fun unless they are revisited a year after. For today, I would like to revisit lastyear's predictions for 2015 and see if they came true. Honestly... they were hit-or-miss. Mostly miss...

Will Oklahoma Shift from Traditional School Week to a 4 Day School Week?

Recently, it was reported that several school districts in Oklahoma were to attend a summit to discuss shifting from the traditional fivedays a week schedule to a four days a week schedule.Needless to say that the comments on the move have been split and the discourse has been rather heated. Some praised the move suggesting that their kids would no longer have to miss school days for appointments, while others critiqued the idea, saying that it would make Oklahoma's already low ranking in education even worse. It seems to me, however, that in order to understand if this is a smart move, we need to think about this from all perspectives and understand the practical application of the teaching and learning strategies used by teachers and students.

Confronting Nostalgia in Metal Gear Solid 4

Memory can be a curious thing.

When I first played Metal Gear Solid back in 1998 on the PSOne, there was only one word that came to mind to describe the game - cinematic. Back then, using the word cinematic to describe a game actually meant something. Unlike today, when the term is used to limit the number of a game's frames per second (cinematic aesthetics), sell a game that's lacking in content (cinematic length), and forego complex play in favor of long cut scenes with a few quick time events (cinematic play), back when Metal Gear Solid was released, a cinematic game was one that featured complex narratives with multilayered characters, compelling visuals with interesting use of camera angles, symphonic musical scores performed by orchestras. Certainly, there were hardware limitations - however, a game was not considered cinematic based on hardware specs or visual resolution as much as for the elements outlined above.

Metal Gear Solid was, back then, a cinematic game. It featured a story about a military guerilla in possession of a nuke and a lone super soldier sent on a suicide mission. It featured characters with interesting back stories and personalities, memorable moments, and compelling play. I enjoyed every moment of it, and when I was finished, I put it on the shelf and never went back to it again.

When Metal Gear Solid 2 was released, I was excited. The opening scene in the boat was exciting, and I was looking forward to the game. Then, Kojima made a bait and switch and stuck me with Raiden, whom I didn't like. I placed my memories of the tanker mission in my "fond memories" section of the brain and stopped playing. By the time Metal Geat Solid 3 came out, I had lost interest in the Metal Geat franchise. 

I bought Metal Gear Solid 4 at around 2010, but I left it on the shelf until a few weeks ago. I found it incredibly enjoyable. The first mission in the desert felt odd in the sense that it felt closer to Call of Duty than Metal Gear, but I pressed on. I noticed the references and clever Kojima jokes here and there, and ultimately my memories of Shadow Moses came back. This is where memory comes into play.

In my mind, the cinematic Metal Gear Solid had incredibly detailed visuals just a step down from Metal Gear Solid 4. Consciously, I knew that my memories were wrong. I knew the PSOne couldn't output visuals anywhere near that of the PS 3, but I ignored my consciousness. Then, at one point in Metal Gear Solid 4, the game forced me to play through the opening moments of the PSOne. It was pretty shocking. I didn't remember that the game looked that pixelated. Shortly afterwards, the game had me go through Shadow Moses in PS 3 graphics for Snake's main storyline, and in my memories, that's how the PSOne graphics looked. 

That's all I wanted to share. In my memories, the old game looked as good as the new one. The progress of technology updated my memories and made it better than it actually was. 

I guess nostalgia can be quite a thing.

Ludology, Narrativity, and Ludonarrative Dissonance [video responses to Errant Signal]

Not too long ago, Errant Signal put out a video where he echoed Gonzalo Frasca's comments regarding the ludology vs narrativity debate. Quoting Frasca, Errant Signal suggests that said debate, whose opening skirmishes are chronicled in Game Studies, "did not happen" because there was no "debate" as to whether games "should be narrative or ludic". And that's true. At no point was there a formal moderated debate where game devs argued whether games should be about stories or about play. But there was, and there still is, a very real conversation regarding whether video games are best understood as stories or as games. You can find my full rebuttal below:




In his same video, Errant Signal agreed with Jim Sterling and suggested that the term Ludonarrative Dissonance is useless and should be discarded because it predisposes the critic to make negative assessments about the game. Again, I disagree. Ludonarrative dissonance is a useful term, as long as it is considered as existing within a framework. My full argument below: