Control Freak

A friend and I were recently talking about video games and the idea of control within them. Specifically, the ways in which users might lose control from time to time, and how this could be more interesting than having unlimited control.

Little things that are unrealistic but keep game play moving steadily forward slip under this control radar. For example, you can endlessly run at full speed in first person shooters like Halo. If my Halo character ran like me, I’d get tired after about 100 paces, slow down, catch my breath, run again, my shins would start to hurt, I’d complain about my shoes, and then keep going for a while. Though this would make the game hard to play, and maybe too slow, I would be interested in controlling the Halo character much like I control my own body (or how it controls me).

Games like Shenmue tried to address this issue of control by allowing you to pick up or interact with nearly any object present in this detail-rich game. Also, another dose of reality comes in the form of time. You have to kill time if your character, Ryo, has nothing to do until later in the day. However, Ryo says whatever he wants to say, and so throws out the notion of total control. One reviewer notes that “Rather than giving a sense that the player is in complete control, the game feels a lot like taking possession of Ryo’s body while leaving him in control of his mind.”

In an interesting gaming control experiment, Jim Munroe takes his character for a walk in the game Grand Theft Auto, exploring the desolate landscape. Using this character for what would be a normal human activity, ignoring the goals of the game, is an interesting (and amusing) way of taking some control back. We’re still left unable to let the character’s mind wander, but games with large and intricate maps allow us to let the character’s feet wander.

So what kinds of games do I want to play? Perhaps one that reflects more human frailty, lets me run like a girl, and where my very human flaws and charms can either propel or stall gameplay.