Interscription

I was sitting home last night, playing BioShock the second time through, when I started thinking about things I would like to see in a Video game. The Gaming industry has become serious business, and I think with all of the competition out there it is going to take more than some snazzy HD graphics to catch my attention.

When I was a kid, I loved the “choose your own adventure” books; you would be given the basic plot of the story and as you read you were prompted to make a choice and to turn to the according page. This would allow the reader the ability to create a story from numerous options, and thusly numerous outcomes. Most video games (with the exception of MMORPGs) are very 1 dimensional plot-wise. BioShock is a very good example of this.

(If you haven’t played it and do not wish to be spoiled by anything.. please.. move down to the next paragraph)

I liked BioShock in a lot of regards. I loved the mix of simple puzzle solving (i.e when hacking) and action and game play. I am a huge fan of Film Noir, and the genetic experiments that were going on during that era always intrigued me, so that made it enough for me to want to play. Heck, I played it twice. However, I was disappointed with the ending choices. If you harvest even 1 little sister you are labeled with the bad person ending. I think that ending should have only been applicable if you harvested more than 5 or some reasonable level.

This led me to thinking about the books I read as a child. While I am all about the occasional hack and slash these games provide, I would like more options. They provide a very straight forward, plot you need to go to point A to get to point B. I would like to see more of a “choose your own adventure” game where how you choose to proceed is how your character (and story) develops. They may already be out there, but I have yet to come across it, or one that has piqued my interest. I want a game I can play again and again with multiple outcomes. It doesn’t have to be infinite and open ended, more like a preprogrammed set of stories you can complete with various options.  I am by heart a story teller and a puzzle solver, and am not always one for gaining kill points.

On the matter of points in general:  I would also like to see more completely random and obscurely odd achievements for Xbox. For example: getting 10 points in BioShock for flushing all of the toilets. Maybe I am missing something but I never saw the need for the ability to make the toilets and sinks workable if they don’t want you to touch them. It seems to be a standard for most FPS that are in an urban setting. I flushed every toilet in Darkness, and nothing happened! I want more hard core toilet flushing action!

That, and I would like to see celebrity voiceovers like Christopher Walken and Samuel L. Jackson. HOORAY FOR GHOSTBUSTERS 3!!!!!

SO if there are any gaming developers out there who are reading this.. maybe you should give it a think..:)