FoxyLounge

Jeux vidéo : F5/F9

DrNoze — 2012-03-29T22:40:58Z

Le 3 mars 2012, Mathieu Triclot à donné une conférence intitulée Jeux vidéo : F5/F9 au centre Pompidou dans le cadre de JeuX, un cycle de conférences en six parties proposé par Élie During.

Mathieu Triclot est un philosophe spécialisé dans l'épistémologie et l'histoire des sciences et des techniques, et l'auteur de l'excellent livre Philosophie des jeux vidéo, que j'ai tenté de vous présenter ici.

Voir la conférence en vidéo :

Ci-dessous la présentation de la conférence par le Centre Pompidou :

"F5 pour enregistrer une partie, F9 pour revenir au point de sauvegarde. La combinaison F5/F9 dissimule l'un des plaisirs les plus puissants des jeux vidéo : la possibilité de revenir en arrière, de recommencer une séquence jusqu'à la perfection. Un plaisir que l'on aurait bien de la peine à éprouver avec un livre ou avec un film, un plaisir qui tient à la nature informatique du médium. Mais comment approcher les plaisirs du jeu vidéo ? Comment « mettre en théorie » les jeux sans escamoter aussitôt leur dimension ludique, sans les présenter comme étant « toujours plus que de simple jeux » ? Ce tour de passe-passe nous renvoie à la nécessité de considérer le jeu comme un état, une expérience, plutôt que comme une collection d'objets ou un ensemble de règles.

Mathieu Triclot est maître de conférences en philosophie à l'Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard. Ses recherches portent sur la cybernétique et l'histoire du concept d'information. Il est l'auteur de Philosophie des jeux vidéo, Zones, 2010."

Jeux vidéo et culture

DrNoze — 2011-06-28T12:23:07Z

Tel le cinématographe ou la photographie en leurs temps, cette forme d'expression relativement jeune qu'est le le jeu vidéo n'est toujours pas reconnu comme une forme d'art, ni par les institutions ni même par une partie des joueurs (et des game designers), et tente, ces temp-ci, de se faire une place au sein de la respectable culture à papa.

Une tripoté de passionnés postent des mini essais et autres bouts de réflexions plus ou moins pertinantes sur le sujet via les plateformes d'échanges de vidéo. En complément du billet sur le bouquin de Mathieu Triclot, Philosophie des jeux vidéo, je vous colle ci dessous une petite sélection de ces vidéos.

Image : Long March : Restart par Feng Mengbo

Le jeu vidéo est il l'avenir de l'art ? par Usul

Video Games and Storytelling de Daniel Floyd

Videogames are Art de lukeprog

Mathieu Triclot : Philosophie des jeux vidéo

DrNoze — 2011-06-24T10:30:32Z

De nos jours, quand on veut lire sur les jeux vidéo on se retrouve la plupart du temps face à une critique qui n'en est pas vraiment une et qui produit malheureusement des choses plus proches des tests de guide d'achat (comme on pourrait en faire pour des articles d'électroménager) que de véritables articles critiques comme on peut en trouver couramment pour le cinéma ou la littérature.

Malgrès quelques tentatives timides mais salutaires, l'état de la critique, dans le domaine, est toujours relativement pauvre, et ce malgrès le fait que le jeu vidéo prenne de plus en plus de place culturellement.

Force est de constater que la critique vidéo-ludique manque cruellement d'outils théoriques. Le champ est encore très largement à défricher et Philosophie des jeux vidéo est une bien belle entrée en matière dont je vous colle quelques extraits ci-dessous.

Mathieu Triclot, gamer et philosophe, nous propose avec son livre Philosophie des jeux vidéo (Zones) de nous questionner sur l'état vidéo ludique. Quel est donc cet état si particulier et en quoi est-il propre aux jeux vidéo ?

Déçu par ce que proposent les "game studies" anglo-saxonnes, qu'il trouve trop accès sur le jeu et ses systèmes de règles, l'auteur nous propose une nouvelle approche, les "play studies" qui seraient plus centrées sur le "jouer" et le joueur :

À côté des game studies qui s'occupent des paramètres formels des systèmes de jeu, dans une sorte de double en miroir de l'activité professionnelle de game design, il nous faut inventer des play studies, tournées vers la fabrique des expériences, les positions de sujets avec lesquelles jouent les jeux.

Il faut donc essayer de comprendre ce qu'est ce "jouer" propre aux jeux vidéo et pour cela l'auteur va chercher les travaux du psychanalyste Donald Winnicott (Jeu et réalité) :

Où situer donc le lieu du jeu ? Ni tout à fait du côté du joueur ni tout à fait du côté de l'écran, mais dans un entre-deux. Il se trouve que la psychanalyse nous offre, avec le travail de Winnicott, une description absolument remarquable de ce lieu du jeu, comme lieu intermédiaire. Une description qui nous en apprend plus sur les jeux vidéo que toutes les considérations sur les systèmes de règles. Il faut dire que la psychanalyse est une des rares traditions intellectuelles dans lesquelles existe un intérêt pour les jeux en tant que tels, en relation avec l'étude de la petite enfance. L'analyse consiste ici à prendre un phénomène considéré comme insignifiant, le jeu, et à montrer qu'il possède une logique propre que l'on peut déchiffrer, à l'instar du rêve ou du lapsus. L'exemple le plus célèbre est sans doute, chez Freud, l'analyse du jeu de l'enfant qui jette inlassablement un petit objet, une bobine, que l'adulte doit ramasser.

Mais, dans cette tradition et sur la question du jeu, les études de Winnicott occupent une place exceptionnelle. Chez le praticien anglais, il ne s'agit plus de produire la psychanalyse d'un jeu en particulier, ou même d'un ensemble de jeux, mais de proposer une analyse du phénomène du jeu en lui-même. « Ce qui m'importe avant tout, c'est de montrer que jouer c'est une expérience, une forme fondamentale de la vie », écrit Winnicott. Nous avons affaire ici à une psychanalyse du play plutôt que des games, où « ce qui compte n'est pas tant le contenu, mais l'état, proche du retrait, qu'on retrouve dans la concentration ».

Le point de départ de l'analyse consiste à situer le jeu dans un espace intermédiaire, dans la zone des phénomènes dits « transitionnels ». « Si le jeu n'est ni dedans ni dehors, où est-il ? » Le jeu n'est ni un phénomène du moi, du psychisme à l'état pur, ni un phénomène qui relèverait simplement de l'extériorité, du dehors, du non-moi. L'espace du jeu s'instaure dans une forme de relation magique entre le sujet et l'extériorité, avec des objets extérieurs qui sont en quelque sorte habités, envahis par la subjectivité. Le réel du jeu n'est plus le réel de la perception ordinaire, celui de la complaisance soumise à une réalité extérieure à laquelle il faut s'ajuster et s'adapter. Ce n'est pas encore le réel irréel de l'hallucination ou du délire, dans lequel la réalité extérieure disparaît pour devenir phénomène subjectif. L'état du jeu appartient à un espace potentiel dans lequel une fraction de la réalité se trouve soumise à une forme de contrôle magique, qui maintient l'objet dans un état suspendu, ni complètement ma création ni événement simplement extérieur. Le jeu instaure des objets étranges, des « objets subjectifs » pour reprendre l'expression de Winnicott, qui ne sont ni tout à fait du moi ni tout à fait du non-moi, mais relèvent d'un mélange entre l'intériorité et l'extériorité.

Dans sa volonté de tenter une description de l'état vidéo ludique, Mathieu Triclot va également chercher du côté du cinéma avec Christian Metz (Le Signifiant imaginaire) et ses textes sur l'état filmique :

Comment comprendre le fait que l'irréalité du signifiant (un peu de lumière à travers la pellicule) s'accompagne d'un surcroît de réalité pour le spectateur ? C'est que la mécanique de l'immersion dans l'image de cinéma relève d'une forme de laisser-aller, de retrait dans la perception, que favorise la salle obscure. Tout est fait au cinéma pour engendrer une forme de surinvestissement dans le regard. Nous y retrouvons un état qui se caractérise par un mélange de sous-motricité et de toute perception qui n'a sans doute d'équivalent que dans les expériences de la toute petite enfance. L'énergie qui se serait dépensée en actions est en quelque sorte retournée vers l'intérieur, focalisée dans l'acte du regard. Une situation que l'on peut décrire selon Metz comme la production d'une hallucination paradoxale : les conditions du cinéma font que nous pouvons nous laisser aller à y rêver à demi éveillés le rêve d'un autre. « Le spectateur adulte, membre d'un groupe social où l'on assiste aux films assis et silencieux, ne se trouve nullement à l'abri, si le film le touche profondément, s'il est en état de fatigue, de turbulence affective, etc., de ces courts instants de basculement mental dont chacun de nous a l'expérience, et qui lui font faire un pas en direction de l'illusion vraie, le rapprochant d'un type fort de croyance au récit, un peu comme dans ces espèces d'étourdissements instantanés et aussitôt rétablis que connaissent les conducteurs de voiture vers la fin d'une longue étape nocturne (et le film en est une). Dans les deux situations, lorsque prend fin l'état second, le bref tournoiement psychique, le sujet, et non par hasard, a le sentiment de “se réveiller” : c'est qu'il était furtivement engagé dans l'état de sommeil et de rêve. Le spectateur, ainsi, aura rêvé un petit morceau du film : non que ce morceau fît défaut et qu'il l'ait imaginé : il figurait vraiment dans la bande et c'est lui, non un autre, que le sujet a vu ; mais il l'a vu en rêve. Le cinéma produit une hallucination paradoxale : hallucination par la tendance à confondre des niveaux de réalité distincts, par un léger flottement temporaire dans le jeu de l'épreuve de réalité en tant que fonction du Moi, et paradoxale parce qu'il lui manque ce caractère, propre à l'hallucination véritable de production psychique intégralement endogène : le sujet, pour le coup, a halluciné ce qui était vraiment là, ce qu'au même moment il percevait en effet : les images et les sons du film. »

Metz nous offre ici une description formidable de l'état filmique, des conditions dans lesquelles le dispositif du cinéma favorise la production d'une illusion de réalité inconnue des autres formes culturelles. Mais qu'en est-il des jeux vidéo ?

Manifestement, le jeu vidéo produit lui aussi une forme puissante d'immersion dans l'image. La revendication réaliste n'y est pas moins présente qu'au cinéma. Et, pourtant, la position du joueur ne ressemble guère à celle du spectateur. Si le jeu vidéo produit un effet de réel, c'est assurément par de tout autres moyens que le cinéma : non le relâchement assoupi, mais un état d'intense tension qui exige un flux constant d'actions et de réactions. Un état d'affairement qui se constitue dans les allers-retours sans temps mort avec l'écran.

L'hallucination paradoxale que produit le jeu ne repose plus sur l'organisation du laisser-aller et du retrait dans la perception, mais sur une incitation à l'action dans des univers de jeu qui ne laissent pas beaucoup de place à la décontraction. Une forme de surinvestissement dans une perception destinée à l'incessant décodage d'un monde tissé de signes opérables.

En dépit de toutes les proximités du cinéma et du jeu vidéo, ce dernier nous entraîne vers un autre régime d'immersion dans l'image. Et ce régime se noue au point de jonction entre une certaine attitude de joueur, de l'ordre de la concentration totale plutôt que du relâchement, et une certaine qualité de l'image vidéoludique. L'état « jeu vidéo » requiert un tout autre type d'images que l'image filmique. Et c'est là, sans doute, ce qui fait la particularité de cette forme d'expérience subjective.

Mathieu Triclot fera également dans son livre un parcours concis de l'histoire des jeux vidéo depuis sa création dans le milieu de la recherche, aux salles d'arcade, à notre salon et enfin jusqu'au fond de nos poches grâce aux console portables puis nos smartphones. Cette histoire du JV nous pose des questions : Qu'est-ce que ces différent lieux nous disent sur jeu ? Peut-on jouer à la même chose debout face à une borne d'arcade dans une salle bruyante et enfumée où le temps de jeu est minuté et payant ou confortablement affalé dans son canapé, face à sa télé avec des heures devant soi et comment ces différentes façons de consommer des jeux ont dû influencer leurs thématiques et leurs formes ?

Mathieu Triclot nous parlera aussi d'immersion, des liens que le JV entretient avec le cinéma, de cette fameuse vue à la première personne des FPS (le genre de prédilection de l'auteur) et il nous présentera aussi sa vision des serious games et de la gamification.

Pour finir, je vous conseille d'aller au moins lire le prologue du livre qui tente, sous la forme d'un amusant dialogue maïeutique entre Socrate et Mario, de faire une définition des jeux vidéo.

Les éditions Zones ont, en effet, judicieusement mis l'intégralité du livre de Mathieu Triclot en libre accès sur leur site. Vous pouvez aller le feuilleter là bas mais je vous recommande grandement l'achat papier de cet excellent livre. Ceci même si cette édition physique comporte quelques défauts étranges comme un choix de police pas hyper lisible en corps de texte et une couverture particulièrement fragile. Le design de cette couverture, avec une photo promotionnelle de la console VCS d'Atari et un jeu de typo vert fluo, est, pour sa part, un "perfect move".

– Écoutez Mathieu Triclot dans l'émission Place de la toile
– Écoutez Mathieu Triclot chez Erwan Cario pour Silence on joue

Game Design in the Coffee - Swery @ GDC

DrNoze — 2011-03-31T10:40:30Z

Swery, le créateur du jeu Deadly Premonition, a donné une conférence lors de la GDC 2011 où il explique ses méthodes de game design. Il a posté le détail de cette conférence sur le site de Access Games, le voici, recopié, ci-dessous.

DESCRIPTION

While it's been said to have the worst graphics and controls,
the unique, appealing characters and unpredictable
complicated storyline have successfully grasped audiences.
In this session, DEADLY PREMONITION's Game Designer, SWERY,
explains his unique method of architecting games.

How did this awesomely strange so bad it's good game come
to life ? What processes were used to create the meticulously
calculated storyline and characters ? What exactly are
the lovable unnecessary elements that SWERY speaks of ?

This talk touches upon the 7 points to check if your game's
storyline might already be dead with this a frank and candid
session.

So please, relax, and join us in a roundtable-like discussion.
And if possible, please bring an aromatic fresh cup of coffee.

Game Design in the Coffee. 1

Lovable Game Design by SWERY

In GDC2011, Director SWERY of ACCESS GAMES lectured on game design philosophy on Mar 3.

Opening

Good evening everyone. My name is Swery from Access Games.
I am the director and writer for Deadly Premonition.

I am honored to be able to speak with you today.
And I'd like to express my gratitude to those who made today possible.
Thank you !

And to those who took part in the video, thank you guys too !

Now, today, I'd like to talk a little about what I've learned through the process of making games, specifically about some tips regarding storyline creation and game design.

Today's 7 Points'

– Point 01 ： Make gamers think about your game when they aren't playing it
– Point 02 ： Make gamers "want" to play through your meticulously scripted story
– Point 03 ： Create a storyline for a free roaming open world game
– Point 04 ： Prevent players from quitting the game at the result screen
– Point 05 ： Make appealing characters
– Point 06 ： Direct voice recording sessions
– Point 07 ： Use what's most important ? Your...

Point 01 : Make gamers think about your game when they aren't playing it

Games you don't remember when you aren't playing them are already dead.

1.Main character's desire to smoke is contagious to the player in front of the TV

Gamers who smoke have said this alot. When York lights up a cigarette, it makes them want to light up a cigarette too. So there's a cause and effect going on.

Having as many of these scenes in the game that causes an effect to the player, is a good thing.

2.Main character's desire to eat, sleep, and shave (stay clean) also affect the player

In the same fashion, Deadly Premonition has sleeping, hunger, shaving and showering.
Though these seem totally unnecessary at first glance, help with the cause and effect, because they act as reminders to the player.
It's not about "seeing the character go to sleep and so I should do the same", it's more about, having what goes on in the TV screen acting as a REMINDER to the player, like "oh, I better some sleep" or"Oh, I better eat something". These REMINDERs in life, are interesting because they go into a special part of your brain, a place that remembers them, so the next time you shave or go to bed, it's linked in some way to Deadly Premonition.

3.Memorable and Relatable："Fortune Telling Coffee" and "Conversations About Old Movies"

Swery likes to put daily human needs, physiological, deep desires into the game because they help causing an effect to the player who is sitting outside of the TV screen. And for Deadly Premonition, we took another step forward and put in some playful elements.

Fortune Telling Coffee and Conversations about old movies.

People have come to us and say that they've taken deep looks into their mugs of coffee for signs of heavenly messages. Or, that they've rented one of the movies that York talks about in the car.

These fun elements helped us make players, remember the game. Regardless of whether it occured days or months after they finished the game, simply having a cup of coffee or seeing an old movie, would trigger memories linked to Deadly Premonition.

Point 02：Make gamers "want" to play through your meticulously scripted story

1.The 3rd Method for Creating a Sense of Freedom in a Story with Deadly Premonition

Here are 2 commonly known methods that would help, multiple endings and side quests.
In Deadly Premonition, we chose a third method.
It was experimental, and we called it the freedom of timing.
Freedom of timing, basically means allowing for a change of heart.

2.Standard quest flow and DP's quest flow

While moving forward in a quest, there are times when you want to change your mind and not follow that quest. Doing so though equals failure.

That's the standard game flow.

But for DP, we thought that should be allowed as a player's decision.
And so we spent some time to make an extra branch so that the player can have that as an option.
This allowed players to feel better about taking a break from the game, and this allowance of a "change of heart" if you will, makes the player feel more comfortable, and cooperative with the story.

3.By supporting and allowing for the player's "Change of Heart" we strengthen the sense of "freedom" and mitigate the sense of "being forced to do something against our will"

In the flow in the last slide, if the player fails to move forward, he fails, and so he is given a hint and is scolded at the same time. It was like that in Spy Fiction another game that Swery made a while back. "What are you doing ! Mission failed !"

But in DP, we wanted York to go along with the player when the player changes his mind.

"That's exactly what I was thinking !"

And when the player hears that kind of friendly response, it causes the player to feel more comfortable, more in control and hence a refreshing sense of freedom.

In Deadly Premonition, we even made one of the important characters say that you have no need to rush.
Modifiying the story to confirm that it is ok to change your mind, allows for the player's desires to be fulfulled.

4.Earn the Player's "Cooperation with the Story" and "Suspension of Disbelief"

So to recap.

And once that's done, The gamer will "cooperate" with the story, if you will, and proceed along the path that you create.

POINT 03：Create a storyline for a free roaming open world game

1.Single Path Storyline and DP's Storyline

Normally you'd do what's on the left. Synopsis, plot creation, character list generation, storyline creation. It's not uncommon that you'd start making the map and figure out all of the details of your character's backgrounds, after all of this has been done.

But for DP we did what's on the right. Synopsis, Map and Character Details, then figured out details of the map and what the characters would be doing on a 24 hour timetable, then create the plot and the storyline.

Because...

The characters and universe are just as important as the storyline.

When we started DP there weren't many games that we could refer to that had open field/freeroaming game play. So we had to figure out a way to do this on our own. The player is going to be placed in this world for a long period of time, and so the "stage" the town of Greenvale is very important.
Then I thought we could figure out who would live there.
That way, we can have a really rich, dense or deep universe.

And in hindsight, since the detailed story was written after the setting and the characters were made, one might say that it was created more like a TV series or a weekly manga magazine than a movie.

Point 04：Prevent players from quitting the game at the result screen

1.Each sequence in the progression path causes a desire to quit

2.Intentionally divulge bits of the next challenge before the result screen and generate the desire to find out what happens next

Point 05：Make appealing characters

1.Resume

　You need spend quite a bit of time to make deep characters. It helps to make
a resume for each.

　Swery used mind mapping to get at least a fuzzy image of the character,
then wrote down some notes to then generate a resume (A CV - I think for Europeans)
for that character.

　It doesn't have to be final, you can change things while writing the story,
but getting just the core elements locked down will be important.

2.Habits and Signature Phrases

　It's also important that your character can be mimicked.

　So having some signature poses, or signature phrases that the character would
use will help. This partially goes back to the first point where I talked
about having something inside the game affect the player outside and away
from the game.
Swery thinks it's important that your fans can copy the poses and use the phrases,
and basically be able to impersonate the characters used in the game.
Swery would even go so far as to say that it would be better if your fans can easily
draw your characters because that way, your fans can have so much more fun
with your game.

3.We take the good. We take the bad. And...

　So they say every rose has its thorn.
Just like every old cowboy has watched the TV show Facts of Life.

　The three characters here, dapper yet otaku, beautiful looks but filled
with personal problems and is a bad cook, and a nice guy that has a hard time
keeping his pants on.

　In life when we are in love with someone we are actually in love with both the good
and the bad sides of that person. We're in love with that unique blend.
So don't be afraid to design your the bad side of your characters.

Point 06：Direct voice recording sessions

1.Agent York's manner of speech is inspired by "Liverpool Sound" and "British Invasion"

　Yes, it makes no sense visually. And Swery cannot speak english, very well.

　But I had to give directions to actors and ask for other takes and give OKs in the studio.
And so instead of focusing on the actual content of what was being said,
he focused on how the lines were being spoken, does it fit the character's situation,
does it sound like the vocal range fits the character, and the rythm
and the updowns in tone, do they work with the scene ?
And so, York spoke with a good rythm, exact and light, kind of like the liverpool sound
and british invasion.

2.Other Characters

　So how does this work with other characters, George is tough and gruff,
destructive and wild, but old, kind of like the hard rock of the 80s.

　Emily was somewhat but not really country style, but she needed to be nostaligic
but still fresh, and offer a sense of motherly relief to the player's ears.

　Of course, Swery didn't use this on every character but he was able feel the emotion
in what people are saying and its the emotion that is important.
What I'm trying to say here is, make sure you have your own set of rules
for voice recordings.

Point 07：Use what‘s most important ? Your...

Use all of your ideas while you can use them !

To create wonderful scenario and attractive characters, the most important one：
After all, it is your "ideas".

Use all of your ideas while you can use them !
Unnoticed Ideas Explode When They Do Get Noticed !

Review Today's 7 Points

– Point 01 ：Make what happens in the game resonate with the player outside of the game !
– Point 02 ："Freedom" in gameplay is the freedom of timing !
– Point 03 ：The story is important, but the universe and characters are just as important !
– Point 04 ：Incorrect：Intro, Development, Turn and Conclusion, then Result Screen - Correct：Development, Turn, Conclusion, Intro then Result Screen
– Point 05 ：1.Resume - 2.Habits and Signature Phrases - 3.We take the good. We take the bad. And...
– Point 06 ：Agent York's manner of speech is inspired by "Liverpool Sound" and "British Invasion"
Point 07 ：Use all of your ideas while you can use them !

Ending

Access games will continue to make games that challenge the boundaries of
video game designs.

If given the chance, Swery would like to use the experience he has to make games
that take larger leaps than seen before, for the world wide audience.
For example a game where every character can become the main character,
and emotionally engaging games that you can dive into every season,
kind of like those tv dramas that last for seasons and seasons.

So, that's it all of the time we have today.

I'd like to thank everyone who showed up, and also those that helped with this session.
Thank you for the GDC staff and everyone in this room !!

Voir en ligne : http://www.accessgames.co.jp/news/n...

SWERY 65 @ GDC 2011

DrNoze — 2011-03-04T11:17:10Z

Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro, le créateur de Deadly Premonition, est passé à la GDC pour y faire une conférence qui a eu lieu le jeudi 3 mars 2011.

Il y a développé 7 points qui lui semblent importants dans la conception de jeux vidéo :

– Point 1 : Faire en sorte que le joueur repense au jeu quand il n'y joue pas.
– Point 2 : Donner envie au joueur de jouer au sein d'une histoire complexe.
– Point 3 : Créer une narration adaptée à un monde ouvert et libre.
– Point 4 : Empêcher les joueurs de quitter la partie sur l'écran des résultats.
– Point 5 : Créer des personnages attirants.
– Point 6 : Les personnages devraient avoir des dialogues mémorables.
– Point 7 : Utilisez toutes vos idées dès que vous pouvez le faire.

Pour en savoir plus, lisez le résumé par ici.

– [EDIT] Swery a posté le détail de sa présentation (avec ses slides) sur le site d'Access Games : Game Design in the Coffee.

"If you can't remember any of the characters' names, then that game is garbage," swery

Si je trouve une vidéo de cette conférence je la posterai ici. En attendant Swery en a profité pour faire des interviews par ci par là.

l'interview de GiantBomb

L'interview de Destructoid

Watch live video from squarekitegaming on Justin.tv

No Clip : Fallout : New Vegas - AwesomeExMachina

DrNoze — 2011-02-11T15:59:46Z

Ce sacré AwsomeExMachina (what a nickname !) tente dans son blog des experimentations in game en revisitant des jeux tout en s'imposants de nouvelles règles ou du role play pour essayer de repousser certaines limites.

Après avoir joué un Niko Belick chic type et honnête qui lui a permis de redécouvrir Liberty City sous un nouvel angle, le voilà qui part à l'assaut de New Vegas en mode sur-hardcore. Il s'impose une série de règles strictes, et notamment de n'avoir aucun affichage à l'écran (carte/radar/boussole etc...) ce qui change son expérience du tout au tout et renforce grandement l'immersion.

À lire tout de suite ! (in english, daddy...)

[No Clip is a community blog series where AwesomeExMachina applies a series of critical restrictions to a popular video game to see how it changes the gameplay experience. For this installment, he tries out his own, more difficult version of Hardcore Mode in Fallout : New Vegas, and tells us how it transforms New Vegas into a completely different game. — JRo]

When Bethesda shared their new Hardcore mode being added to Fallout : New Vegas, insane gamers around the globe cheered in unison. I was one of them. The idea of finding my character feverishly scrounging through a melted townhome for a bottle of irradiated water was exciting. It's not for everyone, but for the first time in my video game history, I might find myself dying of something other than getting shot, stabbed, blown up, or misstep off a ledge. Instead, I'd find my character starving to death in the middle of a nuclear wasteland desert and the reality of it was an unmitigated thrill.

But when I finally got my hands on hardcore mode, I found myself forgetting it had ever even been switched on. I had expected dire circumstances and rationing supplies. Instead, I found a small can of uncooked beans could apparently fulfill my character's hunger for a week.

Hardcore mode was a bit of a disappointment as it lacked one critical element : being hardcore. The message prompt at the start of your characters game might as well have just read : Would you like to be slightly inconvenienced from time to time ? Y/N ? So, I pondered a challenge. Could I turn New Vegas' new mode into something infinitely more ruthless ?

There was little hope of completing the game with what I had planned, so instead I organized an elaborate adventure course. I set up a mapped route that would take me through New Vegas' more iconic areas, brush the very top of the map, and then careen back down the other side to where I began. With this ludicrous set of “realistic” principles in my game, could I survive more than a few feet ? More importantly, would it even be remotely fun ?

Ignoring these nagging concerns to my sanity, I tossed together a new character, named him, selected a properly grizzled beard, and then sent him off to the most remote corner of the game, at the scenic Mojave Outpost. I dropped all my equipment save for a vault jumpsuit, a simple pistol with a single clip, and one bottle of clean drinking water. Then, finally, I set myself up with the following insane list of “hardcore” changes :

– Difficulty increased to its maximum

– Food consumption increased

– Water consumption increased

– HUD display turned completely off

– No VATS mode whatsoever

– Perma-death rules

If anyone ever doubted the quantity of my nerd cred, I would tell them about the ridiculous charts I made for myself which, along with a little stopwatch, kept me on a regular schedule of food and water consumption. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say it made me use up a much more realistic amount of supplies for the energy I was expending trudging through a terrible wasteland.

As the journey commenced, the terror of each encounter near rivaled any intentionally-built horror game I've previously played. Fully aware of the danger each enemy represented combined with an inability to actively see my current health left me feeling outrageously helpless. When bullets started flying, I clung to cover like I was playing Gears of War. Perpetually low on ammo and simultaneously unable to see a concise number telling me what was left in my clip, I silently counted shots. Without a compass, I was unable to see oncoming enemies or even easily discern if I was walking in the right direction. Panicked runs from Cazadors frequently left me off-track, desolate, and lost.

There was no doubt, even within the first ten minutes, that this new hardcore mode was way over-the-top. I could scarcely fend for myself. Surprisingly, however, despite my expectations, my increased food and water consumption was the easiest to overcome. Food and water in the Fallout universe are just simply too plentiful. You'll find fresh apples laying in prime condition in musty lockers in dark corners of basements. Every merchant is just dying to get rid of his or her Potato Crisps and Dandy Cakes. Not to mention factoring sheer luck into the equation. I stumbled quite accidentally into Nipton and was welcomed by the Legion to casually loot an entire well-stocked town with bounties of food literally still on their plates in each home.

Water was even easier. I had forgotten that this commodity was, quite literally, everywhere. Finding water, sometimes even fresh supplies, was a pitiful challenge. The city engineers of Las Vegas seemingly built a water pipe system that would not only survive the end of modern civilization, but continue to work for 300 years. I wonder how much making the water pipes for the toilets of the entire state out of Admantium must of cost ?

After about an hour of play, I could care less about paying attention to my food and water schedule. It was a repetitive bore and did nothing to heighten the frantic scrounging I had anticipated. Instead, beyond foolhardy attempts to exaggerate scavenging, I found one decision in particular had become a maddening thing to adhere to. I hadn't even considered its impact and, in fact, it was nothing but a last-minute suggestion from my roommate. But what became increasing clear was that playing Fallout without the use of a HUD does more than make the game hardcore, it rewrites the entire genre.

As it stands, Fallout's HUD is pretty reduced and it may seem difficult to see how its removal would make such an impact. But it's easy to forget that Fallout labels quite nearly everything. Enemies, friends, even the beasts within your proximity earnestly considering your destruction. Labels are important to the game and without everything being so easily branded for me, I could no longer make casual decisions. Other characters were no longer shown in simplistic green and red - a lone figure in the distance could be anyone. Was it a friend ? Enemy ? Stripping what seemed quite extraneous, gameplay with no HUD turned the Fallout experience into a constant, white-knuckled, heart-stopper.

Everything had to be analyzed first. Even in the safety of towns and cities, I still had to work just as hard. I could no longer differentiate a generic bouncer from a named gambler I was sent to find. I carried on conversations with NPCs I had never even seen before. I realized how easy it was to get blinders on when sent from objective to objective. Without labels, every character had become of equal importance, which made any small odd-jobs rather difficult. I had to survey rooms, ask hotel clerks for information, and actually unsheathe my critical thinking and discern the world around me.

Stealing, too, changed and drifted into an uninformed, amoral realm. Without items carefully color-coded to represent what was lootable and what wasn't, I had to assess. Is this someone's ? Is someone around to see me take it ? This departure from notifications also seemed to make stealing easier. When Fallout wasn't scolding me from the top right-hand corner, immoral acts somehow lost their potency. I suppose, that was all it took for me to find stealing accessible. Or was it just my perpetual state of desperation that made it acceptable ? Had it really just been a karma score that adhered me to morality this whole time ?

I found myself spending most of the game camped out on cliff ledges, staring for huge chunks of game time, trying to assess the threat level of characters through my binoculars. Which was hard to do, since even wandering doctors are armed. I had to remember uniforms, look for NCR helmets or jackets, monitor behavior, and sometimes just avoid people entirely. With every element of the game now reduced to my own discretion, I had to give the game my full attention. In my living room, I took notes. Scribbled down common identifiers of each faction. (For the Legion, for instance, I wrote "No pants") I could no longer travel roads and I didn't dare travel at night. Without the light of day, creatures and raiders got the jump on me. My sight was my life.

Even more still, the lack of labels led to tragic mistakes. For instance, early on, I foolishly rounded a hilltop without caution and spotted what seemed like a lone wasteland savage, standing stoically in leather, spiked armor and touting an assault rifle. I took my advantage and opened fire on the target from the safety of my hilltop. He went down quick and I strolled up to search his cargo for some much needed supplies. It was only then I discovered the kindly wasteland merchant he was guarding cowered behind the burnt husk of an old car, previously obscured by a fallen billboard. I quite literally cried out in alarm at the tragedy as the panicked merchant drew his pistol on me in presumable self-defense. I did the only thing I could and shot him down before he could kill me.

My face crumpled in half-alarm and terror, I stood over the two bodies, the now lone pack-Brahmin groaning feebly beside me. I had become overly confident and made a terrible mistake. I could not reload my save and fix it. I had murdered a cowering man because I made brash decisions and careless assumptions. After this, I stopped traveling on open roads for fear of accidentally attacking another innocent traveler. Instead, I stuck to the unforgiving wastes, banishing myself to forging a single path unaided.

The journey progressed that way, somewhat tedious but unfalteringly terrifying. I had previously complained that New Vegas felt remarkably vacant compared to it's predecessor, but I certainly felt differently about that claim after playing through "ultra-hardcore" mode. After my short journey, the Wasteland felt like it was teeming with life, most if it bent on my destruction. When firefights occurred, they were fast and visceral. When enemies attacked, it was sudden and unrelenting. When food got low, things became desperate. Previous notions of playing a morally upstanding character faded a bit and the ethical lines of the game turned a little bit gray.

In the end, while the attempts to increase scavenging and make enemies tougher made things harder, removing the HUD did something different. It made the game wholly dissimilar to the Fallout : New Vegas I had once casually beaten. I was infinitely fearful of every living thing, terrified of the going out at night, and even further petrified of enclosed, indoor spaces. It had somehow drifted New Vegas into the realm of survival horror games. It engaged my critical thinking so unwaveringly, that I could only get to playing this character in small bits because the restrictions were so taxing. But, without a doubt, it was one of the most engaging, severe, and player-inclusive gaming experience I've ever encountered.

Voir en ligne : http://www.destructoid.com/no-clip-...

No Clip : Grand Theft Auto IV - AwesomeExMachina

DrNoze — 2010-12-09T10:39:47Z

Et si Niko Bellic était un bon gars ? AwesomeExMachina, sur son blog, essaie de répondre à la question en reprenant Grand Theft Auto IV depuis le début tout en essayant de la jouer "honnête homme"... (en anglais)

No Clip is a new blog series. An experiment in player interaction, I dig out old games and play them with a set of critical restrictions to rethink what we thought we knew. A repost of my first edition, lost in the New Destructoid revert, with a second edition to follow in the upcoming week.

To most gamers, Niko Bellic is a typhoon of destruction. The name is synonymous with exaggerated violence, brazen criminal acts, and a gruff Eastern European accent all wrapped up in a smoldering tale of vengeance. The protagonist for the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto IV, Niko is the lightning rod for Rockstar's tale of embellished crime and desperation in their loving recreation of a real life New York City.

Following the series typical arch for their characters, Niko begins as a small time nobody and climbs his way over dead gang bosses to an inevitable spot at the top. This is the way of the Grand Theft Auto series. But I recall feeling something different about this fourth installation during my original playthrough. Niko didn't seem like the usual crime-infatuated character. Rockstar painted him with some depth and a bit more character than previous incarnations, filling his background with vague worn-torn tragedies and consuming his present day decisions with a struggle to preserve himself from these same past mistakes.

This slight moral compass made Niko a tragic character to me. I felt rather plagued with guilt as I guided him away from his convictions and back into the life of a petty thief and mobster. I felt responsible for Niko falling off the wagon and I wondered how things could have played out differently. What if Niko Bellic refused to kill ? What if he really did try and keep his head above water and his hands clean ? Could Niko really have any other life but one of a criminal ?

I knew going into this idea that the only way to keep Niko completely law-abiding was to never turn the game on the first place. The narrative leads down a rather inevitable path. The only mission in the story arch that doesn't involve some sort of criminal act is driving your drunk cousin back to his apartment after disembarking the cargo ship at the very start. Heck, even that's only true if you respect traffic lights and restrain yourself from slamming into every car you see. With Roman soon in debt to loan sharks, I knew Niko's ethics would have to be a little flexible. But I held true to one principle : In my game, Niko would never take a life.

That first car ride home was a major test of patience. Holding true to even simple traffic laws was inexplicably painful at first. Waiting for stoplights was pulling teeth. But I respected traffic laws to the best of my ability. After countless hours in single player and free roam with the accelerator to the floor at all times, driving slow was like trying to tell myself not to chew my own nails. I kept catching myself falling back into old habits. Red lights, stop signs, speed limits, the fact that I can't ramp over cars if they happen to be in my way.

It was hard to think this way. But forcing myself into this compulsory reality brought something with it. A slow realization that Rockstar's game wasn't just a set of buildings in which to have your explosions, but a living, breathing city. Walking the streets, I heard near hours of conversation, insults, and quips from the civilians walking the streets that I'd never heard. Things I certainly would have missed careening down streets and top speed and shooting back at cops in pursuit behind me. I saw billboards I never knew existed, buildings I had no idea I could enter. I watched a man on a bench flip through the fully rendered pages of an actual book, a store owner meticulously clean a sidwalk, and watched a police officer place someone in the back of his cruiser after an elaborate foot pursuit.

It didn't take long before the simple act of parking my car like a normal human being or calling a cab rather than stealing some poor guy's beat-up sedan stopped being a nuisance. It started becoming a normal, even enjoyable, routine. After a few in-game hours in Liberty City, I started to take pleasure in the slow-paced walks to my cousin's cab depot. Even more so, rewriting the pace of the game like this made every deviation so much more interesting. When you spend your time waiting impatiently behind a bus to take a right on red, a car chase through the city became a riveting switch-up. Rather than par-for-the-course, every infraction, no matter how slight, becomes a thrilling crescendo moment.

This made the missions themselves nerve-wracking experiences. I knew I had to carefully tread through the early missions of the campaign because my cousin needed my help. Nice or not, it wasn't in Niko's design to just leave Roman hanging. But I didn't really know when it was one of the nefarious characters I began working for were going to ask me to take a gun and fall back on old habits.

At first, it was small things. Though I took no pleasure in smashing the window of a china shop, it didn't require me to hurt the owner. So I did so to help my cousin. When some ‘debt-collectors' jumped him in a basketball court, I beat the ever-loving piss out of them. Niko could handle himself. But as I justified each mission, I kept allowing myself to step further and further from my design. If I let myself smash a car window for protection money, how long before I'm smashing teeth ?

This ethical conflict came to a head when I took off in pursuit of Roman's debt-collector at the tail end of the mission, leading a white-knuckled chase through Bohan's industrial district. Caught up in the usual adrenaline-fueled sequences, I let myself forget what I was doing for a moment. I blew through lights and took corners sharply, nearly running down a few pedestrians. Eventually, I found myself spamming the A button in a dead sprint, intent on catching up to this sleazy loan shark as I chased him into the second story of an abandoned warehouse.

It was easy to disarm him. I'd become quite impeccable at the hand-to-hand combat as I'd previously worked towards the Finish Him achievement. But I didn't even see what I was doing as I caught him in a combo maneuver. I was too focused on the timing of the disarm. The kinetic force of the mission's pace had put me right back into the mindset of victory, regardless of the conditions. I nearly didn't catch myself as I pulled the knife from The Albanian's hands and readied it for a finishing move. I stood for a moment, paused as the clumsy gangster struggled back to his feet. I frantically unequipped the knife as he stood and instead knocked the son of a bitch out with nothing more than a solid kick to the gut.

Stepping out onto the scaffolding, The Albanian lay bloodied behind me, but he was still breathing. The mission was over, the loan shark thoroughly defeated. But I was amazed at how efficiently Rockstar had pulled me from my original intentions. I had made a multitude of compromises just to make it only a few missions into the story. I hadn't killed anyone yet, but with nothing more than a flimsy car chase premise and an object marker on my radar, I'd nearly taken a life without thinking twice. It didn't' feel far off from the realizations in Shadow of the Colossus, a game which drove your character to brutally destroy gorgeous lumbering creatures as you followed obediently to nothing more than a glint of light on your sword.

I attempted a mission or two beyond that, but I didn't get far. After the game had taught me how to fight, it was only a matter of time before it passed me a pistol and asked me to take out a few gangsters. After the incident in the warehouse, I was done with the game's attempts to breach my ethical code. Vlad was satisfied enough with the work I'd done so far and I'd dealt with the majority of Roman's debt-collectors. So, with a level of restraint the game didn't seem to want me to have, I turned my phone to silent and refused all subsequent missions. Instead, I did the only thing I could do ; worked my day job and kept my head down.

Niko became an average Joe, running a life that became not unlike playing a stripped down version of The Sims. I woke up in the morning and went to work taking cab fares around the city for my cousin. I outfitted the gruff, intense, brooding ex-mobster in the most unassuming outfit possible, complete with a pair of scholarly glasses. I went on dates with Michelle, which became progressively more hilarious since I was no longer worthy of her under-cover investigation. The most interesting thing to report on my Mr. Bellic was how deft of a bowler he'd become.

After numerous hours plodding around the city in my cousin's taxi, occasionally going out for drinks with Roman, watching television, or nailing the high score in CUB3D, I unceremoniously ended my game. Without a storyline cut scene to cap it, I was forced to apply my own victory conditions. I'd made a fair sum of money from working a successful job and not bleeding cash in hospital bills and gun stores. Had the game left in some of the previous games' intricacy of buying property, I could've bought Niko a decent apartment, or maybe invested in crummy night club to turn a profit.

But, sans any real assets, my version of Niko was otherwise victorious. He was a part of Liberty City. Bulgarin would never find him. He was able to manage a day job. The police never became acquainted with his ruthless prowess with a handgun and he scarcely put a dent in his cousin's taxi. The citizens of Liberty City were sparred a vicious spree of crime and destruction. No one detonated buses in the center of Times Square and no helicopters were shot out of the air over busy downtown Alderney.

Grand Theft Auto IV had no achievement to award me for this victory, no gamerscore came from being an unassuming citizen. But in my story, Niko stuck to his moral compass and managed to flee his criminal past. His cousin kept his cab depot and no one shot his friends. It wasn't in the design to progress this way and it constantly tried to buck me from my new goal. But, despite everything, it is nonetheless unreservedly possible for Niko Bellic to just be a nice guy.

AwesomeExMachina

Voir en ligne : http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Aw...

Deadly Premonition au MIT

DrNoze — 2010-11-24T15:45:09Z

Matt "Sajon" Weise est lead game designer au MIT pour le GAMBIT Game Lab. Il s'agit d'un projet entre le MIT et le gouvernement de Singapour qui a pour but de promouvoir l'expérimentation et l'innovation en game design. On doit au Gambit Game Lab, notamment, "elude", un jeu particulier qui prend le parti de parler de manière métaphorique de la dépression nerveuse (on peut y jouer ici, c'est beau, court et gratos).

Matt Weise à donné, le 17 septembre 2010 au MIT, une petite conférence/présentation sur Deadly Premonition, ce jeu original qui fait du tapage en ce moment. Il décortique le game design du jeu pour en faire ressortir ce qui lui semble être intéressant ou désuet.

Ci-dessous la vidéo de la présentation de Matt Weise.

MIT Tech TV

Twin Peaks VS Shenmue

Deadly Premonition (développé par Hidetaka "Swery 65" Suehiro), ce serait une sorte de mélange entre Twin Peaks pour l'univers, Grand Theft Auto et Shenmue pour le monde ouvert immersif et bacasablesque et Silent Hill pour le côté survival sick, le tout avec un budget très réduit.

Même si certaines mécaniques de jeu sont particulièrement désuètes, elles semblent assumées et peuvent, ici, ajouter un plus à l'ambiance générale, comme certains aspects très "soap" de Twin Peaks peuvent donner du charme à la série. Également, les insuffisances techniques, dût au manque de moyen (les textures sont à la ramasse et le jeu est comparé techniquement à un jeu PS2, voir Dreamcast), paraissent presque voulues et semblent être détournées à l'avantage du titre en donnant au tout une unité kitch, fofolle et surannée.

Autant encensé pour son originalité, son humour, sa folie et son immersion que décrié pour une technique et des défauts d'un autre temps, Deadly Premonition ne fait pas l'unanimité dans les pays anglo-saxon (les notes vont de 2 à 10) et est passé complètement inaperçu en France (aucun test à ce jour).

Si vous ne l'avez pas déjà fait, je vous conseille de lire les impressions de Merlan Frit sur le jeu.

– Vous trouverez un résumé du contenu de la vidéo (40mn) ici :
http://planetredwood.webs.com/dpatmit.htm

– Si vous vous intéressez à l'étude des jeux vidéo, vous devriez lire l'excellent blog de Matt Weise :
http://outsideyourheaven.blogspot.com

– Il faut absolument lire cette très interessante interview de Hidetaka "Swery 65" Suehiro, développeur de Deadly Premonition :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8090073/Deadly-Premonition-developer-interview.html

– Une autre interview de Swery 65 sur Face Off Games :
http://www.faceoffgames.com/section/1056389

– Et encore une ici (où l'on apprend notamment que les phases de donjons auraient été rajouté à la fin et imposé par l'éditeur pour séduire le public occidental) : http://www.gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/interview-with-swery-65-hidetaka-suehiro-director-of-deadly-premonition

Un extrait de Deadly Premonition

Pour se faire une idée de son ambiance très particulière...

L'intelligence artificielle et les jeux vidéo

DrNoze — 2010-10-28T18:07:43Z

Axel Buendia à donné, le 13 avril 2010 au CNAM, une conférence passionnante sur l'intelligence artificielle, et en particulier son utilisation dans les jeux vidéo.

Les jeux vidéo font largement appel à l'intelligence artificielle pour gérer l'interaction entre le jeu et le joueur. Son rôle est essentiel pour faire vivre une histoire différente à chaque joueur dans un univers riche.

– Voir la vidéo (106 minutes)

MANUEL GARIN, Buster Keaton VS Mario

DrNoze — 2010-07-22T09:55:42Z

Manuel Garin, chercheur en communication audiovisuelle à Barcelonne, avec ses montages vidéos composés sous formes de clins d'oeil, nous questionne sur les concordances entre les slapsticks d'antan et les jeux vidéo de l'ére 8/16bit. En juxtaposant sur un même écran des extraits de films muets du début du XXeme siècle et des captures de jeux vidéo (principalement 2D) des années 80, il met en évidence, non sans humour, les parallèles entre les jeunesses respectives de ces deux moyens d'expressions.

On y retrouve beaucoup de points communs : Utilisation massive de plans larges, frontales et fixes, scrollings/travellings lattéraux, un langage très physique et corporel (sauts, chocs, courses, combats ...) ainsi que des thématiques issues de genres très codés et manichéens (aventure, western, pirates, bandits, fantastiques...).

Keaton Mario Scroll

Un montage comparant la séquence de fin de Seven Chances (1925) de Buster Keaton et divers extraits de la saga Super Mario Bros (1985- ?), le célèbre jeu de plateforme moustachu.

Cette pièce est exposée à MuseoGames (jusqu'au 7 novembre 2010).

Fairbanks Action Arcade

Un montage comparant les films d'action-aventure de Douglas Fairbanks The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924) et plusieurs jeux d'action, de plateforme et d'arcade comme Pitfall, Prince of Persia, Metroid, Megaman, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Double Dragon...

Early Street Fighter

Un montage comparant Le théâtre de Bob (1906) de Segundo de Chomón pour Pathé Frères et des scènes de combat de Street Fighter II (1991).

– Plus de vidéos ici : gameplaygag.com
– Pour aller un peu plus loin sur le sujet, je vous conseille la lecture de l'article "The Pickford Paradox" : Between Silent Film and New Media de Henri Jenkins et Manuel Garin.

Voir en ligne : http://www.gameplaygag.com/