Look at me, look at you

Look at me, look at you

To preface this article, I’d like to refer to the latest issue of GamePro (#258); specifically, a section of an interview with Mafia II’s director of creative production, Jack Scalici. The article is worth reading, as is the rest of the magazine; buy it and support print journalism! Anyway, here’s the section of the interview that I want to talk about:

“GamePro: “Does the concept of Omertà , essentially the Mafia’s “Ten Commandments” affect the gameplay? If Vito looks at the wives of his friends, one of the no-nos of mob life, does he risk punishment from his mafia family?”

Jack Scalici: “We had something like that in the original design, but in our quest for authenticity, we ended up replacing the wives with floozies and prostitutes. Everybody wins. In all seriousness, we decided to focus more on what most gamers would find most gratifying. Could hitting on the wives of your criminal associates be fun? Maybe. Is awesome shooting-and-driving gameplay fun? Hell, yes.””

Now, I’m not bringing this up to bash Mafia II. In fact, I’m sure the game will be very good. I bring this up because GamePro asks about a really interesting idea and it’s been dismissed for something awesome. Although the “awesome” approach may be more gratifying, it seems like Mafia II’s team chose to not do something that could have been really dynamic because it was easier. The fact that it was in discussion early on in the game’s development cements this.

It’s also easier to program violence into a game. The attacker vs. defender idea is an easy concept to build a game around. It takes much more time to develop something else. Although violence is often paramount in gaming, the ideas about the Mafia expand beyond shooting prostitutes. There aren’t that many shootouts in The Godfather (the film, not the game). Most of the gun play in that movie is fairly one-sided and probably wouldn’t be fun to play. I didn’t play the Godfather games, so I very well could be completely wrong about that.

Because combat is an easy mechanic to base a game around, I am often excited when I see something different done. This may be why I’m excited for Heavy Rain. Even David Cage’s pretentiousness wont keep me away from a game about being a single father. Sure, there’s a murderer and stuff in the game, but I’d like to think it’s a step in the right direction.

Konami realized that games don’t always need combat. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the very thesis of a game with an interesting concept around it. The way that game plays with the player is, in all honestly, fucking crazy. If that game had the player fight those faceless things that chase you, would the game have been as fun?

Imagine how dynamic a game would be if the player could agitate an NPC because he spent too much time looking at th NPC’s wife. Not only would it make the former NPC seem more dynamic because he’s a jealous and wants to be the only man looking at his wife, but the level of immersion this would give the in a game is exponential; especially in a character-driven game like Mass Effect or Fable.

I’m not saying every game should abandon violence altogether, I simply think that some games would be more interesting if developers tried to make game characters more holistic and less focused on aggression. Kratos doesn’t need to look at Hera for a minute to piss off Zeus. That would be silly.

Really, I just want Pokemon Snap where Pokemon get angry if you don’t take pictures of them.