Links to the past...

The first of two chapters which I will be covering from Christy Marx’s book Writing for Animations, Comics, and Games is chapter 8, History/Evolution of Videogames. Marx takes a very PC-centric view of the progressive history of the medium. Actually, her lack of discussion concerning the console systems is rather peculiar to me seeing as how Nintendo was making vast evolutionary leaps with games like Ninja Gaiden, which contained some of the first in-game cut sequences (thus having cinematic script and should be note-worthy for this chapter).

In Marx’s introduction to the chapter, she discusses that all forms of “computer entertainment” have two things in common: their existence is made possible because of the advancement in technology and they are all forms of “interactive...computerized entertainment.”

The next section of the chapter gives a short description of the concept of “game” which Marx follows up by comparing NFL video gaming with that of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role playing games. Marx then delves into her own ideas in “The Evolution of the Videogame”, where she divulges a brief history “from [her] perspective as a writer, rather than detailing the march of technological development.” This section is interesting in that Marx here makes a clear distinction concerning the industry: the job as “writer” is becoming more and more a separate position unto itself within the production world of videogames, rather than being meshed together with “designer/programmer”. As such, the central part of her discussion is focused on her own perspectives as a writer, and more so, a storyteller, within the videogame industry.

Marx first discusses Zork, one of the earliest text based games.  She describes the job of the writer as someone who had to be multifaceted with the storyline capable of predicting a player’s actions/choices (much of which sounds like narrative theory concerning an implied author and reader).The next evolutionary step for story-based videogames according to Marx is graphics, for which she brings up Mystery House, a 1980 text based adventure game with simple pictorial graphics. Then Marx delves into the use of the “mouse” as controller and the “user [on-screen] interface” which again necessitated writer/designers to think of new and more interactive ways in which a player could be immersed in the narrative.

Point-and-click interfaces evolve into minimal or no interface at all for Marx.  Her main examples are Myst and The 7^th Guest, which force players to interact in a seemingly “organic” way with the narrative, by locating “hot-spots” on screen with the mouse pointer. At this point, Marx makes a clear distinction between the designer and writer roles of the industry, stating that the narrative of a game like Myst would be limited to the “design document”, given to the writer, which contains the puzzles and other gamic actions performed by the player.

At this point in the chapter, Marx takes a few detours in her linear timeline and discusses particular game genres (she later classifies as “categories”) which bypass the story elements to concentrate on gameplay/ludological elements. SimCity is the first of her references in which there truly is no win/loss scenario, thus the writer’s position is non-existent. I did find this point unsettling because, despite SimCity not having a particular narrative, the scenarios themselves could be seen as episodes of literary/social critique (i.e. one scenario references the bombing of Hamburg, Germany in WWII).

Marx also discusses the FPS and, in turn, Doom, which she claims has a virtually “non-existent” storyline.  She claims this, despite containing elements of narrative included not only in the backstory within the instruction manual, but also between levels and through gameplay instructions. Marx then concludes her FPS discussion by acknowledging the significant amount of work presently in the industry is for FPS writers.

The last part of this deviation from the topic at hand revolves around console games and the concept of the cinematic being a major narrative crutch for heavily controller-based console systems.

Next, Marx touches upon MMOs and the plethora of writing job opportunities associated with them, because of the expanding universes of these games. Marx concludes this section informing the reader that the industry is taking a clear turn towards professional writers becoming more and more a necessity, rather than an afterthought.

In the next section of this chapter Marx outlines videogame categories according to their platform, which “dictates how extensive or complex the gameplay can be.”

Major Platform Categories:

1) Console

-i.e PlayStation, Xbox

2) Handhelds

-i.e Game Boy, PSP

3) Mobile

-i.e cellphones, PDA

4) PC

-i.e Windows, MAC, Linux

5) Web-Based

-i.e games that use the internet, accessible through any computer

From here Marx jumps directly into a list of “major videogame categories” which I have summarized as follows:

     -action adventure (Prince of Persia)

     -arcade (arcade machines)

     -casual (Bejewelled)

     -educational (Zoo Tycoon)

     -FPS (Halo)

     -MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game, World of Warcraft)

     -RPG (Role Playing Game, Final Fantasy VII)

     -RTS (Real Time Strategy, Starcraft)

     -Sandbox (open world to explore, Grand Theft Auto)

     -sims (simulators, Railroad Tycoon)

     -Sports (Fifa 2012)

The final section of this chapter discusses “Alternative Markets” which could be seen as another one of Marx’s “major videogame categories.” ARG or alternate-reality games are a very “niche” corner of the market. Marx describes the position of the writer in this context as being more akin to traditional writing rooms within the television industry, where the product becomes a process of collaboration. Some forms of this work exist within marketing campaigns for feature films (giving away added portions of story not found in the film, which can be associated with other merchandise, i.e. shirts, toys, etc). Marx then lightly touches upon what she dubs “Serious Games” like America’s Army (previously mentioned in Galloway’s book) and Food Force which are used as tools to teach or recruit.

Finally, Marx shortly mentions “Virtual-Reality Worlds”, gaming which she claims has nothing to do with the videogame writer, but is interesting to note nonetheless as it is becoming a vastly growing market (think the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster Gamer).

In this chapter, Marx presents an interesting perspective from her own experiences as a writer within the game industry. For the most part, her evolution/history of games from her personal writing perspective seems well informed. However, I found that when she moved away from her linear argument on the development of writing, I was slightly confused. Her “non-narrative” examples take away from her progressing concept of the role of “writer” within the gaming industry. I would have been more satisfied if she had maintained her own perspective on narrative storytelling and its development, rather than delving into game “categorization” through her discussion of Doom and SimCity.

Speaking of Marx’s “categories” for “platform” and “videogames”, I suppose these are industry-based (or possibly standard?), although I am not quite sure on either. I would argue that Marx has these categories wrong, however, as I am unsure of what criteria she uses for these classifications. In general, this chapter makes claims that are not supported by anything other than what Marx gives us. I don’t have a problem with this, but I find that I need better reasoning for particular classifications or I could have difficulty categorizing certain games, i.e God of War: Ghost of Sparta which appears as both a download from the PlayStation Network for PS3 and for PSP.