Click Nothing

Republishing

So for those who subscribe to the print version of EDGE Magazine, this is old news, and for those who do so in the UK, I think it's even older, but for the last few months I have been writing a column for them.

Now that the first issue has streeted world wide, and now that the first in the series of columns has gone up online, there is no longer any embargo in place, so I am allowed to repost it here. Obviously, getting access to this delightful and free content either at EDGE Online or here should not dissuade you from ordering a paid subscription to EDGE. It is paid subscriptions that allow them to pay me to write this stuff, and given how high rent is in San Francisco, frankly, I can use the money.

Expect to see me putting up each new column in the series here on or around the first of each month following the month the paper mag streets in the US. Also, expect to see minor differences between what EDGE runs and what I post. I will be posting my pre-editor version, the version I submitted to them.

My version will probably have more swearing.

Click Nothing Tour 2009 - Part I

So for those who missed it in the microsecond that it flew past on Twitter, I will be keynoting the GameX Industry Summit conference taking place in Philadelphia on Oct 24-25. Here are the working title and summary of the talk I plan to give:

The Territory is not the Map: Hyper Realism and the New Immersion Paradigm

The games of today unsurprisingly strive to mimic the linear, authored structures of previous generations of media largely because gamers and game developers have grown up in a world where those media are culturally dominant. That is changing. As our media become more richly interactive and as our experience of the world becomes increasingly fragmented and parallelized, a new media culture is disintegrating the old. Games of the future will reflect this cultural shift by themselves becoming more fragmentary, more parallelized, and less focused on rich simulation and traditional notions of immersion.

This talk examines the potential long-term future of gaming by looking at the accelerating convergence between rising technologies and competing media from the internet, games, music and narrative media to augmented reality and the prominence of portable wireless devices.

Sorry that the summary sounds so brainy and cerebral - I promise it will be a talk about games and that it will be as chaotically poetic and filled with increasingly obsolete jokes about the first 8 seasons of The Simpsons as the rest of my recent talks.

But more than just announcing that I'm speaking at GIS, I wanted to announce that I am expanding the trip to do the talk in several other cities. I don't want to announce any places or dates yet, because I'm still putting it together, so I'll let those interested speculate away. I will admit that a part of planning this as a 'tour' was because I am a couple of trips 'in debt' following cancellations resulting from my injury - so if you had been hoping to see me talk a few months ago and were disappointed by a cancellation, odds are good you'll be getting a second chance.

For the subject of the talk - it spawns out of a lot of the thinking I have been doing recently. Needless to say once you come off a project and get some rest, your narrow, single-minded focus on closing and delivery opens up and you get to look at the big picture again... so that psychological shifting of gears definitely has inspired the core of the talk. Also, recent conversations online - particularly the discussion that evolved out of my debate with Manveer, and even yesterday's discussion on the nature and future of the expressive potential of games between David Jaffe and Anthony Burch (and others) (extended) are all topics that have been close to my heart lately and will be elementary to the talk. I'm hoping to be able to synthesize some of these ideas with my own recent talks about Immersion and Generational Shift. If you really want to get the most of the upcoming 'CN Tour 09' talk, you might want to refresh yourself on those two previous talks...but...

As an added bonus (and you get all this for free!) - I am also looking toward launching a few other special projects to 'celebrate' the tour that will hopefully increase the utility of Click Nothing as a whole and make the idea of reviewing those old talks a little easier.

So - to use the most ironic metaphor I can muster - stay tuned - if I can keep a modicum of focus, it's going to be an exciting post-midsummer.

Full and Bright

Two smart posts over at Steve Gaynor's blog, Fullbright.

The first is his thoughts on 'storymaking'. I think it's a pretty good overview of the different levels at which the player is making his own story. I have a long comment (not approved as of this posting) that breaks down some of my own thoughts on it. If I have time, I'll write that comment up as a post here in much more detail to try and get at the heart of what I'm saying. In any case, if you're interested in the modes of player-authored story, get over there.

The second is a solid overview of FPS encounter design - in particular as relates to FEAR and FEAR 2. I have not played either of those games, but he generalizes his thoughts on FPS encounter design and offers some clearly stated rules of thumb that I think any FPS level designer should be familiar with. I don't mean to be condescending when I say that the post title is approporiate - it is the 'basics' of FPS encounter design and I don't think experienced designers will learn much, but it's short and clear and concise - so a useful reference even for the old pros, because so many people have now written books hundreds of pages long that can barely get to the points Steve makes in 4 paragraphs.

The Fast and the Curious

/corporate hat on

Fast Company just named Ubisoft as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies (with a shout out to the Anvil engine and to the PoP team on the click-thru). I'm fucking proud of it, so despite that fact that some of you will call me a corporate shill, I'm going to blog about it anyway.

Yves Guillemot has always said that innovation and creativity were important pillars for us, and I must admit I have had the good fortune to be able to benefit from this stance in my creative life. Trying to innovate is something I've always pushed hard for in everything I've done. I know a lot of other people have too. We've invested a lot in innovation over the years and consequently have had to learn to embrace the risks that come with that (and we've also taken our share of the bumps that accompany them) so it feels good to finally get a shout-out for it.

It's especially encouraging given the current economic situation to have a nod like this even as Yves reasserts the importance of creativity and innovation instead of backpedalling to a 'safer' stance as (in my opinion) other more 'reactionary' CEO's might do. It means the light flickering through the smoke over the trenches is actually the sunlight of victory and not more incoming tracer-fire.

Even though such a list is a little arbitrary, it's also cool to see who they've ranked us ahead of and who they've ranked us behind.

So bye-bye Lego and watch out Microsoft and Wal-Mart.

/corporate hat off

'...and let slip the blogs of war!'

So I didn't really want to muddy up the stats we were collecting and tracking for this during the actual development of it, but for those who never found it, we were maintaining a fictional blog for the character of the journalist Reuben Oluwagembi who you meet in Far Cry 2.

The blog was loosely conceived by myself, LP (the producer), Pat Redding, and the writer Kevin Shortt. Once we got the concept nailed down, Kevin mostly handled it by himself and did an excellent job keeping it real, managing the voice of the character, and building a rising tension that would lead into the start of the game such that the world described in the blog on the launch date of the game would be the world the player finds himself in when he started to play. It also develops some interesting backstory for the warlords Mbantuwe and Tambossa and sets the stage for the collection of the "Jackal Tapes" scattered around the game world (all of which are available to listen to on the blog if you didn;t find them all in-game).

In support of the writing, Kevin also worked with Stefan Koziol, one of our artists to do some photoshopping and image compositing on photos the guys took while they were in Kenya. This ties back to some of the reference material we used for actual buildings in the game and gives the whole blog a kind of hyperreal quality that I love.

There were a quite a few regulars showing up, leaving comments and - for the most part - participating in the fiction we were creating. A few of them (judging both from posted comments and from some emails sent to 'Reuben') even seemed to mistake it for a real blog from a real war correspondant on the ground in our fictional African country.

Anyway, I must admit that I would have loved to get this richness of backstory into the actual game itself, but the longer pipeline of game asset development and integration made that impossible. Even though we're definitely not the first to try such a thing, I think you learn the most by doing, and there are definitely some lessons we can take away from this that will help us in the future.

The Nine of Spades

If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man.
You win some, lose some, it's all the same to me.
The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say,
I don't share your greed, the only card I need is,
The nine of spades!
The nine of spades!

Okay, so it doesn't have quite the same punch as the Motorhead version, and there's no question I'm no Rob Pardo, but in the November 2008 issue of Game Developer Magazine (the one with Age of Booty on the cover) I was listed as the (villainous?) Nine of Spades in the 'Top Deck'... which makes me the game development equivalent of this dude.

(Note that in the photo he is either winking at the photographer (probably hitting on her) or he is missing an eye... either of which indicates probable promotion to 10 or even Jack of Spades in the near future, I'd say. Watch out Tim Sweeney!)

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that they listed me among the 'Trailblazers' - and even more interesting that they did so with reference to the fire propagation system in Far Cry 2 (which while awesome, was not really the system we were most trying to innovate with). Technically, I suppose I kind of designed it (or worked with the team that designed it), but honestly I'm not even sure if it was my idea, and in any case, the one who really blazed the trail, virtually and now metaphorically, was JF Levesque. For the record, the anecdote they relate in the magazine is fictitious (as far as I know), and although there are several real anecdotes (one of them is from JF in the linked article) relating to out of control wildfires none of them ever killed the Jackal by accident.

More curious though, was why they didn't list me among the 'Progressives'. That's more or less how I perceive myself... I'm not the big idea guy here, I'm just doing what folks who made great games before me said I should do. In any case, this is the not first time I have seen the term 'Progressive' pop-up in the classification of developers. The first time I saw it was a couple years ago when Steve Gaynor over at Fullbright wrote this really interesting article about what he called the 'progressive school of game design'. If you're interested in this stuff, you should read it.

Choice and Consequence

Randy is so frikkin' smart.

His latest column on Next-Gen dot biz is right on. In particular, I really appreciate this concise statement of one of the big challenges we face today as game designers:

Modern games, by contrast, teach us things like it doesn’t really matter which way you choose to go. That someone will always watch over you and check you’re OK. That there is an omniscient judge of your behavior who is generous with this information. That you should do what you’re told and get really good at it.

Anyway, the article is short, so you should read it. I won't try to rehash it here either... no point in cluttering up what Randy gives us so eloquently and concisely. I think Randy raises most of the important questions, and I sure as hell don't have answers. I do think, though, that if the people who are interested in tackling (and maybe one day even solving) these problems were to just try and take on one of them in their next game, we would have all of them solved in the next 3 years. So get to it.

I sent the article around to my design team and after reading it one of the guys on my team turned to me as said 'sounds like he wants to play Far Cry 2'. Well, I'd like to think we're trying to tackle some of these problems... but as I said, it's going to take a bunch of us attacking from different directions to gain any ground.

A Teacher's Primer

Middle of last week, The Globe and Mail published an interesting and well-written article about the Canadian Teacher's Federation (ironically abbreviated 'CTF') calling for a ban on the X360 and Wii release of Rockstar's Bully: Scholarship Edition.

Before getting into it I want to praise the unbiased and seemingly well-informed writing of the article itself by Jill Mahoney and Unnati Gandhi. It is a rare treat indeed to read an article about topics like violence in games, or the banning of games and not be left with the dreadful feeling that the reporter, editor and publisher of the article are in fact terribly biased in favor of the complainant and against games and the game industry. While I don't typically read The Globe and Mail, this article reminds me that I should get off my CNN junkfood diet and start giving a shit about what news media I consume. So there you go; G&M, you've gained a reader.

Now - to the point.

I have not yet played Bully. I never had an opportunity to play the PS2 version and was eagerly anticipating the X360 version. Unfortunately, circumstances have conspired to delay my attempt to play the game, but this will not last forever. Therefore, this is not going to be a defense of Bully by saying 'the game is great, you should play it' - simply because I don't know if that's the case.

This is also not going to be a defense of Bully on principle. I am not going to attempt to champion the freedom of expression of game creators. I'm not going to stand up and say 'you can't ban me - I have rights'. I'm not going to get sucked into the debate on your terms. The simple fact is, I don't need to. Reactionary cries to ban a critically acclaimed game like Bully are doomed to failure and involving myself in the debate on these terms contributes to nothing but a minor validation of the fears of the fearful. I think that with a little bit of effort, I can come up with a better contribution than that.

So, what is it that I or the CTF could contribute? Since I haven't even played Bully - and probably neither has Ms. Noble, President of the CTF, (nor probably have her counterparts in the coalition of teacher's unions in Canada, the United States, Britain, South Korea, Australia and the Caribbean who are mentioned in the article) I wonder if we even can contribute anything? Ought we enter into debate about public access to media that we have not even engaged ourselves? That seems unethical to me - especially given our roles. It is doubly unethical if Bully might in fact actively contribute to broader and deeper societal understanding of the very serious and real issues of bullying. While our teachers are certainly on the frontlines of the battle against bullying - they are not the owners of the issue and they are not the only ones entitled to examine or discuss it. Those who create art or other media such as films, novels or games that engage the issue are also part of society's attempt to deal with the problem.

So, no, I'm not going to defend Bully at all. Instead, I am going to invite Ms Noble and her counterparts to examine it with me, and to enter into a critical discussion of its merits and the difficulties it may or may not pose to students and to teachers who clearly and irrefutably have to deal with the daily reality of bullying in our society. If the concerns of these individuals - our de facto authorities on bullying - are not explored in a game like Bully, then perhaps Bully is nothing but sensationalist junk. On the contrary - if Bully does illuminate the social realities of Bullying within the reasonably defined scope and capability of the medium, then not only is it more than sensationalist junk - it is arguably an important work. Perhaps even a work that students should be playing in school as a part of their education in order to safely explore notions of bullying while having to neither engage in, nor be subjected to it.

So, to Ms Noble - and to her counterparts in the coalition of teacher's unions - I extend an open invitation to play Bully with me, and once we have all finished we can collectively engage in an informed dialogue about the merits or failings of the game. Think of it like a book-club, but instead of reading Jane Austen we'll play a game - and then we'll talk about it. We'll talk about what it says and how it says it. We'll talk about what it means. We'll talk about its contribution - or lack thereof - to our body of knowledge and to our emotional experiences as human beings - as relates to bullying.

As a primer - since you are probably not terribly literate in games - you might want to start doing some homework. You taught me how to read - so now is my chance to return the favor.

Start with Eric Zimmerman's and Katie Salen's book Rules of Play. This is probably the most complete work to date on the subject of games and what they mean. It's being used to teach Game Design in universities, you know. Probably you will even be adding it to your own ciriculum in the coming decade.

For more insight into the growing field of game design as theory, I suggest a couple of small articles that are becoming increasingly central to the development of the profession, art and craft of designing games. These are Doug Church's Formal Abstract Design Tools, and Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek's presentation of the MDA framework. While certainly not applicable to 'reading' and appreciating games, they may help you bootstrap your understanding of this emerging medium and get us to the stage where we can all play Bully together a little bit sooner. If you only have time to read two short articles about the foundations of design theory - these are the two.

For formal discussion of numerous principles underlying game design and to brush up on the critical vocabulary you will need when we enter into discussion, I humbly recommend several of my own past GDC presentations, in particular, one on Intentional play, one on Exploration, one on Immersion, and one on Simulation Boundaries. More important probably than the presentations themselves, is the fact that each of them has numerous suggestions for further and deeper reading should you care to continue. Terminology and concepts introduced throughout these presentations will lead you all over the internet and into the heart of a whirlwind of knowledge about games from some of the smartest people in the world - people made smart by the previous efforts of you and your peers and colleagues to educate a generation of children who invented an entire medium.

I would also recommend you read my own discussion of the state of game criticism - in response to Ian Bogost's critique of (you guessed it) Bully, and - while I have not yet read Mr. Bogost's recent book, well, you might want to tackle that as well. I will certainly read it before we get around to our discussions.

Finally there is probably one remaining hurdle to this endeavour. I am guessing that you are not comfortable playing a game as complex as Bully. One of the unfortunate weaknesses of our medium is the barrier to entry created by the need to actively input meaningful expression into the dynamic system of a game (ie: it's hard to start playing games because you have to actually play them). Fortunately, the game industry has been working hard to lower this barrier to entry and open the doors to new audiences of people who have been up to now intimidated by this barrier.

If you, Ms Noble, are interested in playing Bully with me, say so. If you do not already own one, I will buy you an XBox 360 or a Wii and a copy of the Bully: Scholarship Edition. Once you have your new console, you can can use it to download a host of games either from XBox Live Arcade, or the Wii Virtual Console, and you can brush up on your gaming skills. Both platforms offer a fantastic wealth of titles dating back to the days of Donkey Kong and Pac Man. You can certainly choose a dozen or more different award winning titles of varying complexity and challenge level to gain comfort with the controller and prepare yourself to play Bully.

So there you have it. Since I am interested in the debate, but I'm not interested in the trite and dull perspective that the uniformed are bringing to the table, it's time to turn the tables. I welcome - even actively encourage - any informed debate on the value of games, or even of a particular game. If you want to talk about these issues as informed professionals with potentially conflicting perspectives in need of thoughtful resolution - I'm game. If you want to enter into ideological debate about whether or not Bully should be banned, I've got better things to do - and frankly, I would like to think you do as well.

In closing, I wanted to say I hope you don't think I'm being a smart-ass by throwing out an offer I know you won't accept. I sincerely do not mean it to come across that way. I'm simply trying to challenge what appears to me to be systemic bias and injustice arising from ignorance of what thousands of people working in my industry are trying to accomplish for the betterment of our society. It's easy to shake a fist in outrage, and I have done my share of that. It's harder to invite rational discourse and to work with those with whom you have conflicting opinions in order to do what you know is right - especially when it is unpopular.

I think I learned that from Atticus Finch when I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in my eighth grade English class with Mrs Uchiyama at Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver. Despite numerous attempts made to ban the book over the decades - I am more than proud to say that the debate surrounding it, and the content within it has been formative of my world view. Despite the cited 48 instances of the use of the word 'nigger' in its text - the book taught me not to be racist, but instead to tackle difficult and sometimes unpopular challenges head-on and with courage. So regardless of where the CTF stands on the controversial and challenging issues surrounding Miss Lee's book today, it seems clear that the debate itself makes a difference and contributes to the shaping of who we are.

I hope you do not see this new medium that your children have created as being beneath debate and ban-worthy simply because you don't understand it. Especially not in face of an offer to examine it openly. Perhaps together we'll find out if The Child is father of the Man after all. (Mr Henderson's Lit12 class).

Our Man in Havana Returns

It's been a long time since I posted - but I have a real excuse, with links to prove it. Aside from Christmas, and an extra week of vacation in Havana I managed to squeeze in as a result of the game being delayed, I've been busy as hell meeting with the press and promoting the game.

Our first official teaser trailer has been released. Cheeky commentary from Kotaku and from Joystiq on that.

I presented the game to Gamespot's Andrew Park in San Francisco who wrote a great preview here, that follows up an equally awesome preview from last fall.

Far Cry 2 became Ubisoft's first game to take the cover of Edge Magazine, with another great article that is available online here.

Stephen Totilo ran three seperate segments on the MTV Multiplayer blog - one about our innovative integration of explosive barrels (no kidding), one about the PC game market and a third one about the challenges we've been facing building real meaningful investment in characters who are mechanically and procedurally developed in the narrative design.

And speaking of the PC market UGO called Far Cry 2 the 4th most anticipated PC title for 2008... following StarCraft 2, Fallout 3, and Spore. Damn you Will... edged out again.

There is lots of other new coverage out there if you're interested.

On the GDC front - coming soon - I'll be giving a talk about Immersion, I'll be participating the Game Developers Rant, and for the first time I've been invited to be on the Faculty of the Game Design Workshop. Attending the GDW was probably the most valuable time I ever spent at GDC, and I think everyone in the industry should attend it at least once. Hopefully I'll see some of you there.

Canadian Game Industry Tax Credits - Gamespot

Emma Boyes, out of Gamespot UK, brings us a well researched and interesting piece on Canada's game development tax incentives.

It looks at the way the Canadian Government has incentivised the game industry, and the way many other countries have failed to, and why. In particular, she looks at the (increasingly tragic) case of UK game development.

She outlines the different kinds of tax incentives available to Canadian developers - from basic R&D credits that have been in place for decades, to incentives for employing digital animators to incentives for sound recording.

Anyway - kinda business focused compared to what I usually put up here, but I think it is a really interesting article and definitely worth a read.