Tag Archives: story

Why Continuum May Be the Most Subversive Television Show Ever to Air

Politics, Television, , , , , , , , , ,

The story is pretty interesting. It’s about a female police officer from the future of about 60 years who travels back in time to today, following a group of fugitives who are hell bent on causing terror. My friend Teramis wrote about the great writing of Continuum a few weeks ago, but I wanted to go in a different direction, mainly talking about the political implications of the show.

What makes the show so interesting is that the group that comes back in time, while being a terrorist organization, is also doing what they’re doing for the betterment of society. Which, when you think about it, is somewhat subversive on its own. The group, filled with really bad people, uses its evil tactics it used in the future to do its evil to the civilization of the past (today’s time). Their purpose is to change the past in hopes of providing for a better future.

The future is pretty interesting in this show, in that what has happened is that corporations have taken over everything, and people are now minions of the overseers, not the other way around. Freedoms are gone. People live their lives in futuristic splendor, but it’s pretty obvious that to get to that future, a lot of rights were trampled on, and a lot of people were made to live some pretty crappy lives at the expense of those who benefited.

What makes it really interesting is that when the main character returns to today’s time, her purpose is still to stop some very evil people from doing bad deeds in today’s time. But her eyes start to open up to the evil that exists in today’s time. This evil is the sort of thing that leads to the oppressive society that will one day emerge, and she is very much a cog in that wheel that uses the tools of technology to act as an enforcer of some very draconian rules.

What is interesting about the show is that there’s a real grey area here where I’m not sure she’s ever going to recognize that she’s actually the problem that came back in time. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, but as she’s doing it, the police agency she’s working with (in today’s time) is slowly becoming very much more oppressive.

I’m reminded of the whole very recent incident where the British government decided to haul in the domestic partner of a reporter it was targeting over the whole Snowden case. Without a warrant, or even a reason, the government hauled him in and imprisoned him for 9 hours (the maximum amount of time it was allowed before being forced to make a charge). What’s interesting is that no one seems to even recognize that a man’s rights were completely ignored for some kind of governmental vengeance. And no one will ever be held accountable.

That is exactly what Continuum is all about. The good guys in this show are the usual cops and white hat wearing people who always save the day. Yet, they are required to do some really horrible things in order to “get the bad guys”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such grey area in a show before. There are times when I’m watching it when I start to lose focus on who I should be rooting for, even though the show maintains its narrative in a way that keeps you thinking the oppressors are still the good guys.

It’s an interesting premise, and it’s definitely an interesting experiment. If they play it out as the are already doing it, and SyFy doesn’t cancel it, this could turn out to be one of the most important shows to be on television.

Visiting a New World All Over Again–A Review of Skyrim

Computer Games, , , , ,

As most people know (who know me), I’m a big fan of good computer games, especially ones that are deeply absorbed in roleplaying. I loved Fallout 3 (even with all of its flaws), and I’ve probably played most of the major online MMORPGs, although I’ve missed out on a few recent ones. Shortly before Skyrim, I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was a nice break from the whole World of Warcraft thing. I vowed I was done with WoW, and this time I’m pretty sure I am. However, a month or so into TOR, and I really didn’t feel like firing up the game again. I also knew there was a new game that was just released, and I was aching to give it a spin.

Years back, I played the greatest RPG of all time, in my opinion, and that was Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. That was the first real game that let you totally lose yourself in their world and have a great time with it. Their sequel Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was also ground-breaking, but to be honest, it just never did it for me. However, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has reclaimed its throne as the king of computer rpgs.

I’ve been playing it for the last week or so (bought it last weekend), and after a few bad starts, I now find myself completely immersed in that world. What makes it so much fun is that there’s not a lot you can’t do in that world. You can buy property, get married, go on a murderous rampage, become a god amongst men, or just spend your time cooking food. Aside from fishing (which for some bizarre reason seems absent in this game), there’s not a lot you can’t do.

Last night, I bought special equipment for my new house and then took my trusty companion Uthgerd (or whatever her name is) with me to clean out a vampire’s lair. We got through to the very end, and then in an epic battle with the leader of the vampires, Uthgerd died. Unfortunately, you can’t resurrect a character in this game, so she was dead for good this time. I could have gone back to an earlier saved game, but it was such a battle to get to that last vampire that I decided her sacrifice would have to be worth it. I went back to the local town, hooked up with this warrior dude npc that was looking for adventure, and Uthgerd was “replaced” with somone new. I felt kind of bad about it, as she’d been with me since I was literally level one (I was level 11 now). That’s how immersive a game like that can be. I actually felt bad that I left her dead in that lair somewhere across the map. Not a lot of games can really leave you feeling that sense of loss.

And that’s what makes a game great. Or one of the things. It’s not just hacking and slashing that makes a great rpg. It’s losing yourself in that world. It’s when you have a conversation with an npc and then you remember that npc next time you run into him, and you actually have a feeling about that person when you remember the previous encounter (“weren’t you the guy that was a dick to me when I came here last time?“). Those are the sorts of things that evoke a sense of enjoyment when you play a game like this.

Over the years, very few games have ever reached that level of immersion with me. Every Fallout game I’ve ever played has succeeded at this. One of the earliest computer games, Phantasie I and then Wizard’s Crown (both by SSI), did this. Starflight 1 did this for me, where I actually cared about my crewmates on my ship. Each member of my team had a personality, even if the game didn’t advertise that they did (I kind of filled in their personalities just by the amount of time I was playing with them as part of my team). The Ultima series did this as well, to a point. And then games really started to develop complete storylines with characters, like with Neverwinter Nights.

And then things kind of went the wrong direction, where the games started filling in the interaction stories for you. One of the reasons I really didn’t like Dragon Age (by Bioware) was because they went through way too much work to fill in the interaction stories so that I wasn’t experiencing it…I was just watching it. The Witcher felt that way to me as well, almost to the point where I felt I was just clicking random buttons while the game was actually playing through the story.

Which is why a game like this is so welcome to a creative game player. They put in some of the story for you, but in the end, your imagination fills in the rest. And that’s what I consider to be really good storytelling. Sometimes they can do too much, but other times, like Skyrim, they seem to just get it right.

The Evolution of Writing in Online Computer Games

Computer Games, Writing, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recently, I started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, often shortened to TOR. Up until this time, I was a huge fan of World of Warcraft, as was practically every other computer geek on the planet. However, having always been a fan of Star Wars, I figured that when it came out, I would have to try it out. But part of me intended to pass on it until I found out my friend Jason was going to be trying it out, so I decided on a whim, so was I. After buying the Collector’s Edition for somewhere around a million dollars, I installed it, updated the patches and then listened as the infamous John Williams music started up, announcing to the world (you should hear my sound system on my computer) that I was now playing a Star Wars game, as I really like this type of games and other games I play online such as  Casino games which are easy to find in the olympic kingsway casinos online.

And I did. And still am.

What I did want to say about the game is that because it is made by Bioware, a company well known for some of the best games in the past, but also known for games with great storytelling, it should not be surprising that this MMORPG was one that focuses specifically on the story. Now, having said that, I should make a disclaimer. Not all the stories in this game are alike, meaning that some are better than others. I’ll get into that in a sec.

The game takes place thousands of years before the known Star Wars universe, which means that whiny Luke Skywalker won’t be born for many years to come, and the brooding Anakin Skywalker, badly acted by the lousy actor who played him, also won’t be along as well. This means that they have somewhat of a fresh universe to play around in, just keeping in mind that they can’t really become too inventive because it a) is part of the Star Wars universe and George Lucas would have a cow if you veered too far off from his IP, and b) it is based off a series of games created by Bioware called Knights of the Old Republic, which means that some of the elements in the game are based on events that have taken place in that IP. But having said that, they do a good job tying all of that together.

As a new player, you get to choose which side you want to be on, either the Republic or the Empire, which if you are familiar with the Star Wars movies, isn’t really all that different from the latter day period of the movies. Instead of the Empire of the movies, the Empire is one of the old Sith and the Republic is, well, the Republic. Except that in this Republic there are jedis. LOTS of jedis. Not just Luke, the old guy with the lightsaber and the Muppet guy.

So you get to choose your class then. Now, if you’re like every other Star Wars fan, you’ll choose a jedi, which is what I did. And a few days into it, I realized it was a mistake. The reson it’s a mistake is not because a jedi is not fun to play, because they are a great deal of fun. It’s a mistake because the story is exactly what you expect. You’re a jedi, you’re learning the Force, and you’re doing good for the Republic. Not much of a stretch. I can see how some people thought the story was kind of stilted. Because it is. It’s still better than 90 percent of the stories in other games, but it was still stilted.

So I then rerolled as a trooper, which is a fighter for the Republic, someone without jedi powers. And immediately, the story became Bioware’s and not George Lucas’s same old story. And it has turned out to be really decent, full of intrigue and betrayal, the kind of thing Bioware does extremely well. Let’s just say that I’m not looking forward to the rest of the story lines that don’t involve me being a jedi.

What I did want to talk about, however, is the whole concept of storytelling in games. Sadly enough, games don’t do these very well. Especially MMORPGs. World of Warcraft is a great game, and it has a huge backstory to it, but to be honest, every time I hear a bit of the story, I feel like I’m listening to something written by a ten year old who is trying to keep your attention while you’re driving and you’d rather listen to the radio. Every game I’ve ever played with Bioware has been one with a great story, even if the game wasn’t that great, although even that hasn’t been the case. Their games have generally been very good.

The problem is that it’s very hard to keep a gaming community based on storytelling alone. One reason WOW does so well has nothing to do with story but because it does gaming well. It’s a lot of fun, and it keeps people wanting to come back to the experience. With a game that is based on story alone, there’s only so long you can keep the player interested, especially if the story doesn’t change multiple times into the game. If you hit 50th level, and you have no new content to play through, the chances are pretty good you’re going to become very bored with the game, which means they either have to become like Blizzard and create a great gaming experience, or they’re going to have to keep reintroducing new story elements into the universe to keep up with their players. And keeping in mind that some of these players play 24/7, that’s a big order to fill.

I have great hopes for this game, mainly because I love the IP, and I love their storytelling elements. But if they can’t sustain it, then it will be one of those great footprints in the history of games, and that will be truly sad. So, here’s hoping they can keep it up, because if they do, they’ll always have me as a customer.