Suspension of disbelief and "worlding" in video games

[AppleQueso]

Twilight Princess had a DESERT overlooking a LUSH LAKE.

That bugged me so much.

[vic oakland]

I'm all for zany, when zany is the order of the day, don't get me wrong.

Pandemonioum is zany and consistently so. Comix Zone is zany genius.

But both those games are completely created worlds unto themselves.

And games that use standard video game level vocabulary can still be great, like the best levels in the first Maximo, where you never knew exactly what was hidden where, or what could suddenly spring to life, and hence the "cemeteries" and the "lava" didn't really feel boring and inevitable because you were focused on exploring these complex, living, breathing levels where everything hung together and was well designed.

On the other hand, just picked up Musashi: Samurai Legend...and couldn't help but be disappointed that the first time I can control the character, there's not that much to explore, it's really bare, and I start to feel like the path is more like a boundary limiting me.

That's annoying. Hope the gameplay kicks in...

[sheath]

Nice topic. Verisimilitude is practically what our society is based on today. Political and "News" shows are actually just for general amusement, but carry the auspices of being serious and informative. Novels from their inception have taken characters from the mundane real world through a fantastic event, epic or crisis that would likely never happen in real life. Movies, of course, have never been realistic in their settings, story lines, characters or anything else. So video games using the same premise should come as no surprise, people in commercialized societies have become accustomed to "suspending disbelief" and expect to whenever being amused.

With that said, I have the hardest time suspending disbelief in 3D games, especially games that try to be moody, scary or surreal. The graphics and gameplay are just way too limited for me to not see that I am playing a creation of some programmer/studio from the very start. I find the story lines of most RPGs to be pretentious and overly saturated with non-plot related dialog. Most discussions might as well be a break to discuss the architectural history of the surroundings, that is how much consequence to the game, characters and plot they have. The opening scenes of any mood heavy game take far too long when all I want to do is see if I will enjoy the gameplay. Exploring a flat world with invisible or visible barriers to find something the developer wanted me to pick up, hear, or unlock does not amuse me.

I find it easiest to suspend disbelief in games that focus on their gameplay, especially beat-em ups. Oddly, First Person Shooters fall into the RPG category for me, mostly because they share many of the same distracting attributes. Something like Golden Axe Beast Rider, Arkham Asylum/City, Otogi 1+2, Virtual On, After Burner and other action oriented games rarely have me thinking about what the developer wanted me to do. Instead I tend to feel like I'm in a series of fights or puzzles that only I can win or solve and I have the tools and abilities to do so. 2D games are similar for me, the lack of the third dimension simply doesn't stand out in something limiting my experience in something like Shinobi, Castlevania or Metroid.

This is absolutely bias on my own part, but I found a similar problem with novels after minoring in English literature in college. Too often I can predict the formula from the first few pages and all of the details and dialog seems like a collection of filler that I can skip over while predicting the next formulaic element. When I was younger and still very arrogant I felt that this meant I could write a better story myself, but that is actually very challenging. I am unable to suspend my disbelief that I am supposed to be amused by the same things for the rest of my natural life.

[Haoie]

Beyond Good and Evil: The planet really isn't like our world at all, but somehow it all just comes together to make it sincere and real.

Yeah, I'm a big fan!

[NintendoLegend]

StarTropics.