Skyrim and the horizon

On Saturday Dylan at Digital Orc wrote that he hasn't been playing video games much lately, and compared movies, roleplaying and novels as media, while Stuart Lloyd wrote about an old ST game called Mystic Well, a simple example of a digital dungeon crawl.

Coincidentally, on the same day I also watched some videos of a player running through stretches of Skyrim with a good knowledge of the earlier Elder Scrolls games. He had a thoughtful approach to the morality of the sides in what's still a very modern insurrection, and took the time to edit and polish the series in line with the general tone of the game.

Skyrim seems to encourage this kind of thinking. In Mystic Well historical terms, it feels like a Lure of the Temptress meets a Frontier: Elite 2 for depth and scope, with few easy answers. Although Jim joins the Empire out of pragmatism - and an odd lack of dialogue options - he's not entirely happy, and hopes there could one day be a return of religious tolerance, but presumably doesn't expect so subtle an approach will be accommodated.

But when he's there as the leader of the uprising is executed, an incautious comment by another character suggests there is hope, as if the designers did think it all through. The game seems happy for a player to take no side, and an armistice can be negotiated too.

This and the overall complexity, from politics through terrain, weather and encounters to picking flowers and even tasting bees, makes me think any options missing in the game might be not so much limits of thought or technology, just space for a future instalment.

Where am I going with this? As in Skyrim, it may be near incidental, but there is a point.

Back-to-back reality, or Ouroboral gaming

Cygnus of Servitor Ludi reminded me of this at the dis-Atlantean post. It's a sequence from an old episode of Red Dwarf, a sci-fi sitcom about a group of humanoid misfits lost in space three million years in our future. Just before the clip begins they're blown up...

After watching it again I really want to set up a marathon session with a mix of settings and systems, with each game flowing on into the next and the players running through scenes based on this one, or using the kinds of framing at the Conan le Barbare post.

It could be another approach for S. P.'s guerilla gaming concept, and there might even be a universal supplement in it, just inspiration and possible methods for transformation.

Maybe it could be integrated into the Pluristem campaign when it gets up and running?

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Lure of pixel skies

Troll and Flame has a link for a deal on D&D-themed video games, and Lasgunpacker mentioned the site has some free games too. It does, including Lure of the Temptress from '92 and Beneath a Steel Sky from '94, two classic adventures with a great mood.

Remembering the impression particular games made graphically, I started thinking how useful screenshots could be in roleplaying, and the variety there is. The trick would be getting to the screens, unless there's a way to technically and legally unpack them.

With enough screens you could even use a tabletop system to play the video game, or explore alternative paths through it, or the wider game world, and bring in extra screens from other games too. It might better reach those inner spaces out among the pixels.

For a sense of the potential then, and the inspiration, and the pleasure of the journey, here are playthroughs for those two, Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky.

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If you read nothing else today...

Three posts up in the past few hours seem to me to deserve a good cup of tea or coffee and a long reflection - maybe a cup each - and they weave one into the other very well.

The first post is this, which could feel offensive, at Astrogator's Logs, on simplicity and danger in understanding of sci-fi. The second is this at The Secret Sun on Jack Kirby, synchronicity and war, which might seem rather silly. The third is this, a review of the year at From the Sorcerer's Skull, which links to what could look like gaming material.

I'd suggest delaying the reaction long enough to be inspired and to be sure you're sure...

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The Grisly Grotto

For last week's post at HoP Von recorded a video on what roleplaying is, and it's worth a look. When I clicked through I found it linked to a vid on Quake, a seminal first-person shooter from back in 1996, and watching more reminded me how good the design was.

This is a walkthrough of the fourth map, the Grisly Grotto, built around a flooded cavern, one of my favourites for the character of the spaces and the clever setups. Quake never seemed especially complex in how it populated levels or reacted to events, but the bad guys and locations were arranged well to draw players on and keep them off balance.

This is the PC version and as far as I can tell it's not using the DarkPlaces mod or any texture packs. Watch out if you don't know Quake - it's pretty gory, and could be scary.

If you're wondering why all that infrastructure might be there, Callin at Big Ball of No Fun has a lot of options, and for more cavern inspiration check out the links at this post.

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Half-elf, half-orc and the USS Enterprise

It struck me today, more forcefully than ever, just how radical by our standards Star Trek was when first shown. A mixed-race crew with representatives of former and current opponents in hot and cold armed conflict. They may have had a white North American male ordering them about, but by contrast the alien half-elf was arch conservativism.

The Next Generation always seemed to me a step forwards, but I suspect now it could have been a step back. An elder captain meant a more subtle paternalism, and as a Frenchman played by a Brit a reference to early influences on modern North American culture. For all the extra women on show - one to three in the main cast - and a man with a disability - overcome in part - there was less reflection of our diversity.

That diversity seemed to have been moved into other forms of life - an android and a Klingon - and with regard to opponents, the assumption seemed to have been made that mass conflict would eventually be overcome too. The Prime Directive reinforced this, suggesting each group had to make its own way up. But, as the android suggested with his growth arc, up appeared to mean human, or at least the ideals of the Federation.

It became fashionable to bash the good guys over the course of TNG, certainly in DS9, perhaps even to denigrate the idea of good. But there was a bright light in a character we might easily first equate with a half-orc - a trope I'd say is still fresh - Worf. The development of the Klingons through him made so much possible, not least DS9. 

His being there highlighted the value of an alternative perspective on things, the wonders of a reference to multiple sources, the deep fulfilment in a constant struggle to know the best approach. This struggle is likely a very general thing, something fundamental to a universe in which it appears just one of potentially many possibilities is experienced. If the Federation was this, Worf's essence as a character, it might have been a worthwhile venture, and on that level, through Worf, TNG may have kept that early radicalism alive.

Of course, that radicalism was largely conservative, belief in a wholesome past used to shape a better future. It seems to reject the Enlightenment while actually being at root the same process, an opening up of the mind to a lost, forgotten or revealed body of knowledge, the demonstration of its value and its use to synthesise new solutions.

But then from 1987 to 1994, the consensus outside Trek was for consensus itself, and a globalisation was moving visibly and fast. In this sense TNG may have been advocating the other view still, albeit this time a comfortable, cosy, closed tradition, as far as the franchise would tolerate. After all, an update of a successful series isn't especially bold.

As for the ideas of the original series, I won't argue the times weren't already moving ahead of Star Trek in the '60s, that the series was just matching a trend. But what does that say about us now? Who heads our fantasies today? A state-sponsored torturer in 24, an exclusive prostitute in Secret Diary of a Call Girl and a serial killer in Dexter.
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Light in the dark

Another video, with a connection of sorts to the last. This time the Star Wars prequels, which I also have little to say about in general. Another of those complex subjects.

Recently though I had a chance to watch certain scenes again, and rediscovered an effective sequence, part of the 'duel' between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.

It starts at 1:48 and runs through to 4:08. In my view what goes on in that 140 seconds falls down only for the not-quite-perfect acting - luckily just one word is used - as well as a lack of identification with the characters, and maybe one or two odd movements.

On the upside, we get some good characterisation, well chosen shots, spaces that play a role, and references to the wider narrative I'm willing to believe were thought through.

At any rate, however well or badly the individual elements work in the context of the film, prequel trilogy and entire series, I do think the sequence as a whole deserves praise. To my mind too its overall minimalism is a good route in to a critique of the larger project.

It's 12 years today. It was a moment in many of our lives. What do you think?

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