Video Games and Music

It wasn't too long ago that video games were all made using 8-bit technology and the main character's sprites were vaguely humanoid blocks of colour that were distinguished mostly by the fact that they moved in response to you pressing a button. Growing up with a Super Nintendo, some of my earliest memories of gaming involve a strangely orange and cuboid plumber stomping on the heads of things that looked like angry brown mushrooms.

Also strangely phallic.

If you have any experience with these antique games, you also likely remember the incredibly catchy songs played in different worlds in Super Mario or games like it. A lot of these songs are still used today, although technology has allowed for an orchestra to perform them and be recorded onto the game rather than the very...limited audio capabilities the 8-bit gaming systems offered. Although they were, like I said, quite stuck-in-head-for-days worthy even back then, not a lot of people were clamouring for the CD release of the game's soundtrack. Actually, music CDs didn't even exist back when the first Mario games came out.

It's hard to imagine anyone excited to obtain one of these when at present it would be extremely difficult to pay someone to take one.

These days, however, video game music has evolved to occupy an entirely different niche than it did before. Games will release OSTs (Original Sound Tracks) for purchase or free download not just because it's a marketing gimmick or an attempt to make a little more money; gamers actually want these CDs or virtual albums to listen to away from the game itself. For a guy who grew up listening to the same four chimes while my 2D protagonist struggled to mimic anything resembling human movement, this is mind-boggling. I'm guilty of having a fondness for OSTs myself, though, as I've gone through many a late night essay-writing experience accompanied by the soundtrack from Square Enix's Final Fantasy IX. These kinds of soundtracks were major breakthroughs, but they were still songs produced solely for the purpose of the video game. Would popular music ever become a staple in video games?

In short: yes.

From almost as annoying as that ringtone Frog to small market niche to pop music guest stars in less than twenty years? That's quite the progression for video games. I think the most evident thing from this evolution is that the respect for video games as a genre of art has grown significantly (if you want to read a bit more on that, check out my last blog post). Video game music is no longer looked down upon as entirely insignificant or just a strange fetish for audiophilic gamers. Now, popular music is being used in various trailers for virtually every game. It's not a relationship in which video games are solely leeching off of the bigger draw from their musical contributors, either; more and more musicians see video game launch trailers, cinematic videos and background music as a legitimate means for gaining more mainstream exposure and popularity. Even bands like the Rolling Stones have featured on some gaming franchise teaser trailers, in this instance Call of Duty's excellent trailer featuring "Gimme Shelter". The bond and relationship between music and video games has never been more fruitful, and it's an exciting prospect to wonder about just how long it will be until we see a video game (outside of the Rock Band-style genre) that features solely tracks from career musicians looking to gain exposure through them.

Or just to prove they're still, inexplicably, quite alive.

Memories of the Last-Gen Consoles: A Reflection

With the launch of the Xbox One imminent and the PS4 already out (albeit without any games to play), it seems as good a time as any to hold one last candlelight vigil in memory of the systems that came before these two new kids on the block. Nintendo's consoles have long since strayed off the typical beaten path that Sony and Microsoft are still rather fond of, and as such they've also fallen very quickly out of the race in the so-called "Console Wars". For those of you unfamiliar, the console wars were at their most prominent during the release of the PS2 and Xbox, where fans of both systems were so fervently devoted to their console of choice they would engage in long, drawn-out flame wars over internet forums that lasted longer than a university English class discussion about Shakespeare's strengths and weaknesses (for those inexperienced with the English thing, imagine a war being fought with only really flimsy sticks and neither side being quite sure what they're fighting for).

The battle lines, at least, were quite clearly drawn.

 

The next generation of consoles after the heated war were the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and all the young teenagers willing to spend hours typing angrily at each other had grown up into older teenagers that were really beginning to question whether their intense passion for games was going to translate into an appealing personality trait for whoever they had a crush on. There was very little time among all that soul-searching to decide that another human being was inherently flawed based on their console choice, and so the war had become more of a schoolyard rivalry between two kids that were pretty evenly matched.

Despite the dwindling in intensity, it was still clearly a race between these two companies for best system. Looking back on it now, it's very difficult to tell which one won "overall", but there were usually clear winners each year based on sales and different game launches. Instead of trying to decide which console was the clear favourite in the last generation, I've decided to focus on some of my favourite memories of the past generation in terms of games and historic moments. So here's my brief list:

1. Somewhere Along The Way, Video Games Became Art

 

I can't pinpoint exactly when this happened, mind you, but at some point in the last generation of games developers and reviewers alike both accepted the fact that video games could, in fact, be works of art. Studios went out of their way to create beautiful character design and art direction:

From the game "Journey" on PS3.

 

But more than that, reviewers and fans were more willing to think of video game qualities in terms more familiar with the worlds of painting or literature. Story, aesthetics, atmosphere; these all became buzzwords at one point or another and some games that would have scored 4s or 5s out of 10 only five years ago were suddenly being praised as pseudo-cinematic masterpieces, movies that encouraged viewer interaction throughout. If I remember nothing else about this generation, I will remember that it forever changed the seriousness and depth with which people were willing to view video games.

 

2. "The Last Of Us" Captures Everything Great About The Generation In One Game

 

Naughty Dog was already well-reputed as a studio that was able to combine a stellar narrative with solid gameplay and good graphics before they even considered making The Last Of Us. In fact, a lot of people criticized them for choosing to make this game during development, as it meant postponing a fourth installment in their popular "Uncharted" series. By the time the game was released, however, nobody was blaming Naughty Dog for anything but the amount of time the studio caused everyone to allot themselves to play "The Last Of Us" as quickly as possible. The narrative was incredible, following the questionable but likeable relationship between a man and a girl around the same age as the daughter he lost in the zombie apocalypse. It even completely revamped the tired zombie rhetoric by making it a kind of fungal disease that largely kept the rest of the world intact and allowed for some breath-taking imagery of cities over-run with plant and animal life. The graphics pushed the processing power of the PS3 to the limit, and looked as real as any game has ever managed to achieve. And the gameplay...the game contained some puzzles, some gunfights, and a lot of stealth, combining nuanced and fun controls with a realistic approach to the characters skill-sets. Joel, the protagonist, must improve his weapons control over the course of the game, beginning with only a civillian's understanding of guns. Ellie, the other protagonist and Joel's child ward, can't swim, and Joel has to come up with various ways to get her across bodies of water that would otherwise be no problem. If you haven't played this game yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. This is gaming at its finest, and although it's not without its flaws, "The Last Of Us" is one of the greatest games ever made in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation.

 

The apocalypse has never looked this pretty.

 

3. Final Fantasy Finally Hits The Next-Gen

 

File this one under the hype being better than the actual product. As a dedicated fan to Final Fantasy, I was as excited as everyone else who loved the series when it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII was going to be hitting next-gen consoles in late 2011. I had it on my Christmas Wishlist and my parents, grateful that twenty year old me was much more considerate about their finances, had no problem delivering on Christmas Day. I had read reviews that had renounced the game as a failed entry into the storied and highly-respected franchise, but I didn't believe it until I played it for myself. I gave the game the benefit of the doubt for ten hours of gameplay before I finally decided it just wasn't meant to be. Despite the disappointment of the actual product in terms of gameplay, I still remember the excitement building over the entire month of December and the many hours spent scouring the internet for more pictures or videos of gameplay footage. Despite being an immensely flawed game, Final Fantasy XIII and the child-like excitement it gave me will still be a fond memory looking back. Maybe I'll even finish the game eventually, although that might be a test of my patience.

 

How can anything that looks this good be so bad...

 

That's my brief list of console memories for the Xbox 360 and PS3. I could've gone more in-depth, but these are the first three that immediately stuck out to me, and I wanted to capture those first. Do you have any memories about the PS3 or Xbox 360 that you'll never forget? Share them! Don't hesitate to comment below.  

 

 

Murder in Video Games: It's Gotta Mean Something, You Know, Man?

With the release of the kill-happy fourth standalone installment in the Assassin's Creed series, I thought it was a good time to bring up another debate in the video game world. This debate, however, is one that is not exactly all over the news; rather, it is an argument between fans of video games and their games' developers, between the hardcore video gamers who dissect every bit of a game's narrative and the writing team that worked countless hours crafting an interesting and, most importantly, marketable story.

When in doubt, throw some pirates or zombies into it.

The debate is rather simple at first glance: how much should killing be a factor in games? We've seen how successful the Grand Theft Auto franchise has been and it has quite a heavy emphasis on murder. However, that game has received an intense amount of backlash and criticism for its perceived "meaningless" killing. One game series that has somehow evaded a large amount of this kind of negative feedback is the Assassin's Creed games. Curiously, I would argue that Assassin's Creed has as much, if not more, wanton murder. The argument against that, however, is that the game offers you "alternatives" in which you do not need to murder hapless guards on your way to assassinating the main antagonists of the game, whom the narrative goes way out of its way to explain as horrible, heartless monsters who simply must be killed.

Yeah, that's a guy about to murder the pope. It's not so much a subtle criticism of religion as it is someone beating you over the head with a crucifix screaming at you about how institutionalized faith has become.

The thing that's problematic about this is how much more difficult the gameplay is if you actively try to avoid killing anyone you don't feel deserves it. I understand that it's probably at least a partial conscious choice of the developer; after all, it would be more difficult to infiltrate heavily guarded castles to get to an assassination target without murdering any of the various guards and such populating the castle. However, the discrepancy in difficulty is absurd. In my experience with the series, each assassination mission takes roughly four to five times the amount of time to complete when you choose the pacifist approach as opposed to the rampaging murder god one, ignoring any replays you might have to do due to the increase in difficulty. As much as the developer promotes the ability to choose how you want to play the game, it remains obvious how they really want you to play it.

You'd think after the first twenty or so guards died horribly the rest of them might re-consider their stance on attacking the strange hooded guy with swords.

So how do we reconcile this perceived imbalance in gameplay choices? I suggest we start putting an emphasis on meaningful kills. Murder as a narrative choice can have interesting and emotionally impactful consequences, even if it is a repeated concept. However, I think each kill should have some kind of meaning to it; it should impact both the player-character and the player themselves, and a game should actively try and place a player in scenarios that make them actively question the actions they are taking. Are they justified? Does this make me a bad person? The inner struggles of the character should be, in an expertly-written narrative and gameplay that is nuanced and controlled, shared with the player themselves.

Beta Testing and Gamer Hierarchy

There once was a time in the gaming industry wherein it was virtually impossible to play a game before it had been fully developed and released into the world by its parent company. Obviously, the games had testers - otherwise we'd have all been playing games with more bugs than an ant farm - but outside of them and those select few reporters that got early access interviews/reviews, nobody from the public had an inkling of what the game played like. Gamers really didn't care, either. It's not like they had any reason to complain about not getting a game early; few wanted to drudge through the mess of glitches that an early alpha or beta game would have.

Nobody needs to see this.

The introduction of MMORPGs as a more mainstream means of revenue in the video gaming industry changed this slightly. Creating a game that had to account for the interactions between thousands of players all competing with or against each other on the same server meant that the testing period would be excruciatingly prolonged. Mercifully, game developers took pity upon their poor, small team of testers and began to test beta versions of these MMOs by inviting a certain number of gamers. These choices were usually made after a bunch of people signed up to have the chance to beta test, along with sending out invites to prominent members of the gaming community, hoping that they'd enjoy the beta versions and give the game good publicity before it was even ready to go.

Beta for vanilla WoW. You can almost make out her weird armor thong.

After World of Warcraft's beta became the standard for pre-releases, the world of beta testing changed. Previously, the games had been still very much in their infancy. When WoW was beta tested, the game was pretty close to done (by this, I'd mean I guess it was about 85% of the way finished, much further than most beta tests). Furthermore, WoW was beta tested by a significantly larger amount of players than was the norm in 2003/2004. This did two things: it created an expectation for betas to have an enormously larger amount of polish than they used to, and it also created a hierarchy of gamers among the dedicated community.

It works kind of like this, only with more fourteen year olds screaming at you and making vague, offensive references about your various family members.

The beta hierarchy kind of works like this: there is a new game that has a lot of hype behind it. The community as a whole is generally quite excited by it. Then, game developers announce that they are going to release it to the world for beta testing, and they will do this in waves as they test server strength. Then comes the frantic rush to sign up for a chance at an invitation, the calm before the storm while everyone waits with bated breath, and then...the first invites are sent out.

Suddenly, there are gamers in the community who are simply more privileged than others. "Oh, you haven't gotten into the beta yet? You're really missing out. I was going to share this story with you but you wouldn't understand...I'll have to wait to talk to my other friends in beta."

If it sounds like a really bad high school movie that deals predominately with cliques and how that system is Very Wrong, then you're not missing the similarities; unfortunately, though, there's no Breakfast Club in the community to unite all the differing hierarchical members. 

Beta testing used to be a thing that the entire community loved, as excited members rushed back to forum boards to post their findings and share as much as possible with their friends. Now, it's become over-commercialized, as more finished games come packaged with a special deal that allows players who pre-order it to play a different game that's currently in beta. Companies have found another way to exploit over-eager video game fans, and once again we are simply letting it happen.