Australia and Computer Games

Australia has a major problem at the moment when it comes to gaming.  It's called the OFLC - Office of Film and Literature Classification. To speak more accurately, it's actually the Australian Classification Board. The OFLC was actually dissolved in 2006, yet it's still referred to be that name by many people.  Regardless, the point is that this Government run body determines what media is allowed to be shown in Australia based on the Australian classification system.  For gamers, this has proven to be in illogical and inequitable farce for many years. Incoming rant warning...

For those not in the know, Australia has no R18+ classification for computer games. The classification exists for other media such as film, books, magazines and CDs, but not for computer games. This in the past was due to a South Australian Attorney General named Michael Atkinson who staunchly opposed the creation of this classification, and because its creation required a unanimous decision from the ruling committee, his vote meant that it would never happen. When he finally stepped down this year, gamers across Australia celebrated. However, the classification still doesn't exist. As such we end up with ridiculous situations where we sometimes get the same game with a reduced classification. This is a photograph of my Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening DVD...

It's a Choose Your Own Classification Adventure!

A public request for comment was put out by the Attorney General's Department (who own the Classification Board), asking for opinions on an R18+ classification for games. Needless to say, a campaign from gamers meant an overwhelmingly positive response, despite the fact that the questionnaire had been worded with blatant bias against it. However, even that response has proven useless, as it has been deemed that the response was skewed by interest groups and an independent review would have to be undertaken.  Why? If people did not care enough about the issue, or were not well-enough informed to make a decision on the issue, why should they be consulted and have this casting vote on it?

Why does this annoy me (and countless other gamers)? For starters, we end up with games that are crippled in function and/or atmosphere: the Australian version of Left 4 Dead 2 has features removed from the game, and the zombies magically disappear upon being killed. This isn't a Twilight game with sparkling vampires for crying out loud!  The other option is that we ban the game completely...

Take at a glance at what is on the horizon...

Let's look at the RPG Risen by Piranha Bytes, who also released the Gothic series. I've never played any of them, and apparently Gothic 3 was a bit of a disaster so I'm not sure that I will. But when I heard about Risen, I thought it sounded somewhat interesting. However, it was banned in Australia, so unless I choose to import and play it illegally, I won't get to do so. However, with the help of an overseas friend and the Internet, I'm able to demonstrate what it is that got the game banned.  Now, according to the classification board, the rationale for the ban was due to "sexual activity and drug use related to incentives or rewards".

So I asked my overseas friend (an Australian ex-pat) to take some screenshots of anything that might fit this description. Unsurprisingly, (to me at least) the evidence was very thin on the ground. Let's deal with the drug usage first. So apparently there is a plant called "Brugleweed", which is suggested to be a drug of some sort, though the actual nature is never elaborated on. It is possible to collect these plants, abbreviated to "Weed" and also to smoke a "Weed Reefer". Smoking one of these "Weed Reefers" provides a very small experience gain... about double what you get for killing a defenseless chicken. Yes, a domestic chicken. Perhaps the game is also encouraging people to act like Ozzy Osbourne and murder animals in live concert performances?

Apparently, this will teach kids to smoke marijuana...

The second point relates to sexual activity.  I think it's first necessary to point out the obvious hypocrisy for banning any game for "benefits due to sexual activity" when we have games like Grand Theft Auto IV are freely available. Let's not forget the female characters in that game who you gain benefits from (a lawyer who can reduce you wanted level with law enforcement being the most useful), simply because you had sex with them.  Or how about the fact that there's specific XBox achievements to be earned for having sex with characters in games... like Grand Theft Auto IV... or *GASP* Dragon Age: Origins.  And let's not forget about family friendly Mario and how Princess Peach keeps offering him some... "cake".  Okay, so having set the standard with games that are allowed classification... what terrible crime does Risen commit?

Your character has the option to pay a prostitute for sex, and then there's a fade-to-black encounter with her. Now, we've had "explicit" sex scenes in a video game plenty of times before, so that's not the issue. No, the issue is that after you sleep with this prostitute, she claims to be a psychic who foresees that you will have a hard road ahead of you and may need help. Now if they were banning terribly cliched and ridiculous dialogue, then I wouldn't complain... oh wait, I would, because that would cover most computer games. :-P But I digress...

Anyway, the prostitute gives you a scroll that with cause anyone you have offended to forget about the wrong you have to them.  Basically, it's a "get-out-of-jail-free-card" if you happen to pick a fight with someone you shouldn't.  I was also informed that the impression she gives is that she's doing it out of genuine concern rather than a "services rendered" situation.

Ahh, such is the moral decay of society...

Of course, I've been told to note that both of these things are entirely optional within the game, and there's nothing forcing you to smoke a "Weed Reefer" or any suggestion that there will be any benefit from sleeping with the prostitute.

So can I back up the claims of how ridiculous this game being banned is? No. I have no reasonable legal recourse to complain about the decision. True, the review board does have a complaint/review system, but without having the source material, any complaint I make is hardly credible. If I've never played it or seen it, which I can't legally do, I can't provide any evidence to prove the decision is ridiculous apart from simple hearsay. So please, overseas readers and gamers, spare a thought for those of us in Australia and the ways that games here are currently crippled or banned entirely.

Antagonists: Knights of the Old Republic

Knights of the Old Republic still marks a high point in computer games within the Star Wars franchise. It was my first foray back into the universe on a computer since the days of X-Wing, and I wasn't disappointed.  I'll confess I'm not a Star Wars fanatic, but I was still keen to give the game a shot when it finally came out for the PC rather than the XBox. Spoilers ahoy...

The player starts off as a lowly officer onboard a ship which is attacked. They barely manage to make it off the ship alive along with Carth Onasi, a pilot. The pair land on Taris, a Sith controlled planet, and must find Bastila Shan, a powerful Jedi with the "Battle Meditation" ability.  After rescuing her, the player is ordered by the Jedi council to counter the plans of the dangerous Sith Darth Malak, who betrayed his former master Darth Revan to assume control of Sith forces.  He is hunting for something called The Star Forge, which can only be located by finding a number of Star Maps scattered about the galaxy.

Bastila Shan proudly wears designer Jedi clothing.

With Bastila and other allies who you gather upon the way, you retrieve several Star Maps and fight some of Malak's forces, eventually killing his apprentice Darth Bandon.  However, you are then captured by Darth Malak along with all your allies. You, Bastila and Carth are then tortured, and Darth Malak reveals that you have been duped by Bastila and the other Jedi. You are in fact Revan, stripped of your memories through the powers of the force and sent to fight the apprentice who betrayed you. You escape, but Bastila is captured during the attempt.

You track Darth Malak to the Star Forge, which is a giant structure capable of creating thousands of starships. There you find that Bastila has been turned to the Dark Side due to Malak's torturing. After dealing with her, you finally make you way to Malak and dispose of him, either choosing to reclaim your role as a Sith lord or saving the Republic by destroying the Star Forge.

Just wondering, Malak... have you heard of breath mints?

Malak starts off as the classic bad guy, particularly in the Star Wars universe. He turned on his master in attempt to kill him along with a group of Jedi, and wants to rule everything. He sends a bounty hunter to kill you, though a very talented one, then his favoured apprentice.  In this he falls slightly into the classic arch-villain threaten of underestimating his opponent, especially seeing as when he sends his apprentice after you, he should know your real identity. Then Malak reveals your identity personally, and then steals your ally/friend/love interest in the form of Bastila, and turns them against you giving you another reason to want to destroy him. So he gives every for you to hate him, yet for me, he never quite achieved greatness. Why?

Lightsabers, lightsabers... everybody's got lightsabers...

Perhaps it's because of that twist sequence in the game, in which you first meet Malak face to face. Having been chasing your own tail (quite literally) to catch up to him, you're suddenly captured and placed under his control.  When the reveal of your identity comes, directly from Malak himself, it both weakens and strengthens him as an antagonist. On one hand, you've got even more reason to want to defeat him, because he's already betrayed you and attempted to kill you once before.  But on the other, the twist of the plot makes the whole encounter feel more about you as a character/player than it does about him as a villain.

This is even further pushed by the fact that when you escape from his ship, Bastila stays behind to prevent him from defeating you. You saved her at the start of the game, but now she considers you to be the key to defeating Malak. You were his master once before, and you will prove to be his better once again.

At this point, Malak strangely ignores you and treats Bastila as the tool of his victory through her battle meditation. The problem seems to be that Malak is not the vanguard of destruction, but merely uses others to do his bidding. He rose to power in your shadow before seizing control, doesn't kill you when he has the chance, then treats Bastila as his new toy. There's plenty of reasons to dislike or hate Malak, but there's never any real reason to fear him besides the admonition of NPCs that "he is a powerful Sith".

He looks deadly... why not show that side of him?

The problem is that his actions don't match his reputation as a fearsome warrior until you finally face him in battle, and even then, he's only powerful because of his tools in the form of captured Jedi he uses to fuel his power. He's constantly made out as the ultimate warrior, but in reality, he doesn't live up to the hype.

In defeat, he possesses some remorse, questioning what would have happened if your positions had been reversed. This comes across as a slight attempt for redemption that is a particularly nice touch for the light side player. So ultimately, Malak comes off as a somewhat complex character, from the scheming villain masterminding his rise to power and willing to do anything for victory, to regretting his failure in defeat and disgrace. He comes off as an interesting and worthy adversary, but never truly achieves the lofty heights of a grand villain that you love to hate.

There's some really nice elements to KotOR, and I've heard many people declare it their favourite game/RPG. It has the flaw of requiring a lot of backtracking during play, and is also a little hamstrung by the Star Wars moral dichotomy of "Light Side saviour of everything and everyone" vs "Dark Side puppy-murderer", but it's still a great game. Maybe Darth Malak isn't the greatest video game villain of all time, but when the story ends up revolving around you as the player to such a great degree... does he really need to be?

Dragon Age 2: The Coming of Trolls

BioWare's announcement of Dragon Age 2 has caused no small amount of controversy and conversation.  From rehashing old arguments about the Awakenings dialogue system, to not being able to pick your protagonist, to having a fully voiced PC, to a hundred other complaints that are being made with virtually no information about the game whatsoever.

My initial thought was "it's possibly a little soon". After all, we've still got bugs with the original game, Awakening and the toolset that have been known and not resolved for quite some time. I realise that QA takes time and that different developers are working on Dragon Age QA as opposed to working on DA2, but it still feel like we're moving on a little too early. However, one thing that was brought to my attention by a friend was that the time between BG1 and BG2 is roughly the same as between slated to be between the two Dragon Age games. So keep that in mind before declaring it a "rush job" or "EA influence" or the usual banal rhetoric.

So dealing with the three most common issues:
1) The Awakenings system provided more content per line of party member dialogue than Origins. If you can't see that, then I'm sorry, but you're a fool. No, it's not a perfect system, but it was a step in the right direction. Providing contextual conversation rather than a laundry list of questions in repeated camp conversations is a significant improvement. That's what it was designed to do, and succeeded to a degree.
2) Being able to "pick" our protagonist was something unique to Dragon Age: Origins. That was where the "Origins" moniker came from. Are we suddenly demanding a repeat of something that hadn't been done (well) before?
3) Voiced PC... well, this one I could take or leave. I understand the arguments both ways, and can find ridiculousness is both the supporters and nay-sayers. A voiced PC will change the tone of the game somewhat, will likely reduce the variety of PC responses (because it now impacts the budget more), but will make the game more cinematic.


The question I'm more concerned about is "what will happen to the modding community?" I don't want players to abandon DA:O in favour of DA2 before some of the larger DA:O projects are finished. But that's not up to BioWare.

I find the amount of backlash, vitriol, complaints and wild accusations more than a little ridiculous given the game has only just been announced and virtually no information about it has been provided. Before decrying it as "the death of Dragon Age" or "BioWare selling out" or the myriad of other doom and gloom predictions... how about you wait until you actually know something about the game? Heaven forbid that people on the Internet let facts get in the way of a good rant.

Support Your Local Modder

I'd like to issue a little call-to-arms for players to support modders. Specifically, I'd like players to support the modders who are trying to produce "content" based mods rather than "customisations". By "content", I mean mods that provide "real" additions to the game, (wow, that got your attention, didn't it?) new quests, adventures, areas, fully developed party members, etc. Customisation mods are improved textures, improved appearance of faces, a new item, sex mods (which covers anything and everything from sex cutscenes, the ability to sleep with more NPCs, naked bodies, etc), changing mechanics and so on.  Yes, I'm coming at this from a biased perspective, given I have a vested interest in it as I create "content" mods, but there are plenty of other modders who I want to see supported as well. But vote number 1 for me. Yes, it is all about me. Really. So why my rallying cry to bring the gaming masses in force to blow the proverbial trumpets of war? (And if you blow a vuvuzela, I'm kicking you out of the army and feeding you to the darkspawn)

For starters, none of the top ten projects on BioWare's site are quest mods. This is despite that the "Featured Projects" section on the social site has for several past months had four modules with additional playable content; actual quests and adventures for players to experience. The information that BioWare provided on the toolset and the wiki in general was also heavily biased towards the production of quest/adventure modules, suggesting this is what they expected the community to invest their time in. However, at this point in time, I'd have to argue that all the modules that actually offer that type of content are being neglected by both the social site (for not promoting them) and its patrons (for not popularising them).

Now, some might argue it's possible that some of these issues could be fixed or mitigated on the BioWare social site. But it's not entirely the website's fault.  If you check out Dragon Age Nexus, the story is the same. The first mod that's not a cosmetic mod is Ser Gilmore, sitting down at 37. Fragments of Ferelden (61), Castle Cousland (84), Temple of Vulak (85) and King Calenhad's Tomb (96) appear to be the only other mods with actual quests in them in the top 100. Note that I hadn't even heard of the last three before I scrolled through the list today to look at them. The majority of the mods in the top 100 either involve sex/naked bodies or new (and generally horrendously overpowered) items.

DA:O, the breast RPG game since... wait, that's not right...

I'm not trying to dismiss the work of other mod authors, but I don't need or want another Morrigan appearance mod, or bigger breast mod, romance mod or more cosmetic changes to my PC or NPCs. Now, I'm no prude, but having softcore pornography in a computer game is neither titillating nor mature. I don't want a wand of "sleep-with-me-magic" to cast on a whole bunch of NPCs in the game. If that's what you're looking for, have you searched the Internet lately? I suppose Avenue Q did tell us "The Internet is for Porn". (If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it and watch the youtube video of your choice)

I'd also say that the quest mods out there are in general viewed with much harsher eyes than cosmetic mods. I've seen complaints posted about Alley of Murders and other people's quest mods complaining (in some cases with a fair amount of vitriol) about the quality of the mod, "plot holes", fights/enemy selection, a lack of voice acting, bad voice acting, too many homosexual romances, loot being "not phat enuf", too much blood spatter, lighting too purple, "hey, where are my ride-able horses?". Let's not forget there are mods dedicated to providing (usually overpowered) loot, homosexual romances, tougher combat, romanceable crates, etc, and they have varying quality too. For example, let's take one of the highly popular hairstyle mods. There are styles of varying quality, with some good ones, others suffering graphical issues from transparency to model clipping, and there are some which are just... well, a little "Heavenly Sword."

She's angry because someone stole her last bottle of hair dye.

My point is that if players download a customisation mod, they don't judge the models or content by the same yardstick as those produced by the developer themselves. This has been true of every modding community I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I know how hard making good 3D models is, or rewriting a combat system. In some cases, certain talented individuals are able to produce work of near-professional quality, and they are rightfully lauded praise. Unfortunately, when you're dealing with mods with playable content, the same leeway isn't given. As soon as the quality falls short of that provided by the game's developer, players are quick to criticise. Let's not forget that the content of the game itself is provided through years of work by a team of individuals who do this for a living. Modders don't have that time, and many have jobs that occupy a significant portion of their day.

Don't get me wrong, I support and popularise customisation mods which I've download and believe are well done, and there have been quite a few of them. I'm all for supporting mod authors in general, be they producing customisation or content.  However, I'm somewhat disillusioned that the player community still seems to be primarily supporting mods that are effectively cosmetic in nature. To draw a parallel, I never experimented too much with mods in Oblivion because when I looked, all I could find were mods of overpowered items, different textures, levelling systems or game mechanics. I left it and never went back. Apparently I might be a horrible person who should be punished for doing that, but I guess those are the breaks.

I don't want that to happen with Dragon Age.  It has the potential for some amazing story-telling with the ridiculously powerful toolset. However, doing that presents some significant issues that quest modders have to deal with other modders don't. Trust me on this one. The nightmare quotient from the occasionally recalcitrant toolset can be quite high at times. Even the "simple" process of creating a custom world map has only recently been "solved" (for varying values of "solved").

Modder: 0 vs Toolset/Lighting: 2

However, the story telling capability is not currently being recognised or supported by the player community at large. I know there are a number of projects in the pipeline from a number of mod authors and groups which I am certain will be quite impressive. I just hope the community is willing to support them when they come out. (Heck, if you're particularly awesome, support them now!) Unfortunately, based on the current situation, I'm not terribly optimistic that they will receive the recognition they deserve.  Please, players, modders, countrymen/women lend us your votes! Tell your friends, enemies, neighbours, random people on the street to download, vote for, popularise and comment on quest mods. Mod authors might even give out free hugs or cookies to kindly players.

Level Creation: Interior Design

So I recently began work on my first interior.  I'll confess that for this one, I'm actually being somewhat lazy and taking one of BioWare's pre-existing level layouts and culling and modifying it in order to make my own. For some interiors, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, and it's possible to simple take elements of existing areas to create them. However, I don't want people to feel completely like they've seen the area before, so I'm trying to make a few changes here and there so it fits in a bit better with the overall theme and background of the building.

One thing that is critical when creating interior areas is filling the space.  There's nothing worse than wandering around inside a building in a game only to find it consists of little more than a series of bare rooms and corridors. The real trick is that you need to fill that space intelligently. To help you do so, take note of real life.

When you're inside a building, there's typically a purpose for individual space. Have a look as you walk around your house or your work or any other location. Each area has a specific use for its space, and there are objects located within that space matching that purpose. This is what makes can make level design in game interiors so frustrating, in that you have to fill the space with objects that suit the purpose of the room.  However, individual objects that would normally fit in a room may not necessarily look right given the context of other objects.  What do I mean?

Scrolls, books, parchment... goblet and flowers?

In my placement of objects here in this room, I've matched the room itself, but not the individual items. The right hand side of the table is fine and fits a theme, but the left hand side of the table doesn't match that theme, and doesn't even match itself.  What are the flowers doing on the edge of the table? Why are there flowers on a table where someone is doing a lot of reading/writing? What's the goblet for? Actually, why are all the papers arranged as though they're being viewed from the long edge of the table as opposed to the short edge where the chair is located?

Perhaps more importantly, it is possible to use these objects and rearrange so that they don't look out of place. If I turn the papers to face the chair at the end, place the vase in the middle of the table (as it would be if it were there for decoration) and then keep the goblet and the other end, maybe adding a plate and some food... The table suddenly looks a whole lot more like a "real" table as opposed to something with an assortment of props placed on it for decoration. Let's have a look at take two...

Business on the right, pleasure on the left

Of course, some of you might now be calling me silly and saying that players will never notice those decorations. And you might be right. But if the player sees those objects, then subconsciously they're probably going to notice it. The human eye and brain have a remarkable ability to pick up when something isn't "quite right", even it we can't figure out exactly why. The majority of what makes computer generated graphics look "wrong" to us is the fact that the shadows and lighting aren't quite "right". We can't pick exactly what it is that is fake, but we know that it is. The second table, if noticed, is going to give the impression that the area is well used and lived in, as there's both the trappings for working and eating.

That said, I'm not alone in my less than perfect choice of props for interior design. In a bedroom unmodified from BioWare's original design, I came across the following...

I've heard of sleeping with a gun under your pillow, but this is ridiculous...

What does one person (or two if this room is home to a couple) possibly need with that many weapons in their bedroom? Even if someone is a military commander, it seems somewhat excessive to have a small armory of three swords and four bows right beside their bed. And the empty armour stand? Maybe they have one armour for the weekdays and another for their Sunday best?

So there's a great need to fill the space of a level, but in interiors you have to be very careful that you fill the space "properly" and don't make it appear incongruous. You also need to make sure there's sufficient room for the player to move around freely, and also engage in combat if that is going to occur within the area.  Exterior levels can get away with open areas a little more freely, as it is possible to decorate with good texturing and vegetation. Exterior areas are also expected to be more organic and have "empty" space; you have to give the player the feeling they're exploring the great outdoors. Of course, balancing empty space and effective level usage is very important and is a general level design consideration, but it might be a topic for another day...

P.S. Yes, I will be continuing the "antagonist" series of posts... I've got a few partially completed but I'm still not quite happy with my descriptions and assessments yet.

Shattered War: Character and Dialogue Creation

I haven't given a Shattered War update in a while, so I thought I'd detail some of what I've been doing.  Part of my work has involved dialogue and cutscenes in some of the early parts of the game. Good camera work is essential, but not coming from a directing/art/cinematic background, it can sometimes take me a while to work out exactly how a shot should be taken for it to be most effective.

Time has also been spent on the characters within the campaign, both good and bad, working on their backstory, motivations and so forth. This information is the kind that may not ever make it into the game (or the kind that the player might not discover even if it does), but it's essential as a writer to know exactly what makes your characters tick. To a degree, this information also helps inform the process of creating their appearance. I'm not accomplished when it comes to creating good head-morphs, but I feel I have been improving.  I feel it's important that the NPCs within Shattered War have their own unique appearance - I don't want people to have an NPC being a doppleganger for a beloved character from the original game!

A meeting of importance

I am curious as to how much attention place on the various characters in the game. Is someone going to notice if I reuse "generic Denerim guard 13" as a minor character? Of course, characters of any significance I'm going to redo myself, but I must confess I'm tempted to use some of BioWare's head morphs for the ambient population that you never talk to properly.

I've also been devoting time to one of the party members by writing her dialogue interactions with the player, and I've increased her dialogue by around 1,000 words today. This is on top of the dialogue I've done for some other prominent characters within the story, whom you'll met on more than a few occasions. Of course, you can expect to have a choice of how you treat them... and how they subsequently react to use as a result of that

A pair of mages. Will you help or hinder them?

When creating character dialogue, particularly party companions, it's very important to try and squeeze the most out of every line. The number of lines that I'll be asking of whichever voice actors I get to provide the voice for the main companions will be quite high. As a result, I want to make sure that I'm making the best use of every single line, trying to impart as much information about the character as I can.

This also needs to be balanced against the need to give players choice, deciding whether they wish to treat the companion nicely or not, or whether they wish to pursue a romance with the character. Many players have professed their love for character romances (and the individual virtual characters of their affection), so I'm going to try and cater for something that seems to be very popular. Character romances are difficult to do well, and I've seen too many mods where a romance occurs and is consummated after a few brief exchanges.  You shouldn't expect that from The Shattered War - it's going to take time to get to know the characters, and you're going to have to prove your loyalty and dedication to them in order to become friends.

My current problem is that getting that degree of development is difficult in a tight timeframe. People complained about the lack of romances in Awakening, but given it was quite short, it would have been very difficult to do.  Yet The Shattered War will probably be shorter than Awakening, and I'm going to try and put them in.

I'm also trying to work out what players want to hear about in these development updates. Are people keen to see screenshots, hear about issues I've been facing, or see more "character interviews" like I did with Keldrin? I'm willing to try to cater to people's tastes... at least occasionally. :-)

Formula: A Double Edged-Sword

I now interrupt your recently scheduled blogpost series on antagonists to bring a discussion of predictability in RPG design...

When I'm playing a BioWare RPG, I'm aware that there are certain design considerations and rules that they tend to stick to. I know at the start I'm going to be forced down a linear path, before I get the opportunity to pursue one of several quest lines and have the freedom to explore them or anywhere else in the game world. Upon completing those quest lines, and/or doing something else afterwards, I'm going to be forced down another linear path which will bring the game to a close. Typically, as part of each of those major quest lines, I'm going to have to make a "significant" decision which will affect the game some way in the future.

I love BioWare games, and I'm not saying that all their games are the same, despite this (Spoiler warning for this link) tongue in cheek BioWare formula chart, but... there is a certain degree of mystique that's lost on me while I'm playing them now. I know their modus operandi, and while I believe it's a very effective format for giving the player control over the progression of the story and their character, I can't help but feel that they are a little hamstrung by it when it comes to their veteran fans. For new fans, or those not familiar with their format, I imagine Dragon Age is a fairly jaw-dropping proposition. I love it, but even on my initial playthrough, there was something lacking that I couldn't quite put my finger on at the time. What was missing? Risk.

No, not that type of Risk.

What do I mean by "risk"? I always felt "safe" playing the game. Whenever I was about to make a major decision, it felt as though it was telegraphed to me in a notable fashion... almost like I had someone from BioWare standing over my shoulder saying: "look, we're getting you to make another important decision. Think carefully, because it's going to affect things later on." The issue isn't the gravity of the decisions and their consequences, because they are great, but just the fact that as a player, I typically knew which decisions matter and which didn't because I was familiar with BioWare's style.

(Dragon Age spoiler warning) In my first playthrough of Dragon Age, I went straight to Redcliffe and fought my way to the castle. Here I was confronted with a decision to use Blood Magic (which would result in his mother dying) or go to the Circle of Mages in order to save a boy from demonic possession. So I saved the game and decided to head to the Circle, despite the warnings that something bad may happen in my absence. The problem is, as a player, I know I will have time. I know BioWare won't screw me over by having the boy die or something else happen to him while I'm gone. I know that isn't a decision that will actually matter, because I know BioWare's style. (For those who are curious, no, I'm not trying to be Dak'kon here.)

There wasn't a time limit? Actually, no, I'm not surprised.

Even though it would have been annoying for my character's noble intentions to have the boy die, and also for me because I love being able to create the "Hollywood happy ending", I would have loved it even more if I'd been wrong. If he had died or something terrible had happened while I was away because I took too long, even despite some small annoyance and not being able to make everything perfect, the impact of that failure would have been fantastic. (End spoiler) I love being a goody-two-shoes, but at the same time, I really do appreciate when a game makes it really difficult, or even impossible for me to do that. I do like tragedy in games, as long as it makes sense - again, that was the massive failure of Fallout 3.

On that note, Bethesda has a problem with formula too, but I find its main problem is your insignificance in the game world. Throughout Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3, you do all sorts of incredible deeds, be they good or evil. Some of them are extremely public, but due to the scale of the games, nothing really matters that much. It's not possible to cater for choice and for to have a real effect, so you're left with a drops in the pond approach, where you gain points of fame or infamy which can potentially have small effects when you reach a certain level or either. Thus you get a generic reaction to your behaviour, but without a specific reason. The points/rankings that are glaringly displayed on your character's information screen, make it feel like an arbitrary measure applied to you rather than as a genuine reaction from characters based on rumours and your reputation.

 Jesus loves me, this I know... cos my Pip-Boy tells me so...

So formulas are great in that they help players know what to expect from a game, and provide a valuable means to provide an interesting and enjoyable gaming experience. However, the danger is that they can lose that magic appeal. Games should place players in unexpected situations from time to time. Players should be forced out of a comfort zone and given something that is a great shock to the system and out of the ordinary. Alpha Protocol does this brilliantly with its dialogue system, forcing the player to react immediately, but in some circumstances it ups the ante even further, because it springs a snap decision on you in completely unexpected circumstances, or forces you to re-analyse a course of action immediately after presenting you with new evidence.

So what I am asking for? I'm asking for the designers to give us something different each time. I'm asking them that instead of tinkering around the edges of their design, smash some of our preconceived notions of their style and produce a curve-ball every now and then. I'm looking for big decisions sprung on you unexpectedly, or seemingly minor decisions coming back to haunt me later on in the game, or otherwise have something break the mould of their usual style as presented to players. Yes, I know, I'm being an unreasonable and demanding gamer, but I want to feel that sense of insecurity that stops me from unconsciously bringing my knowledge as a player to my gaming. Please take gamers out of their comfort zone... it is a lot more fun for them that way, even if they hate you for it initially.