Seria Ludo

Tim and Joel begin with a discussion of ludonarrative dissonance -- when the act of playing a game is in conflict with the story or theme it is trying to portray. We look at specific examples of dissonance like the achievement system in Red Dead Redemption 2 and the crafting system in The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. We also look at simple narrative imbalance in Death Stranding. And finally, we look at games that foreground story but don't do enough with gameplay, such as the token interactivity of some of David Cage's creations, or the various Telltale game series.

We then look at the peculiar case of Cyberpunk 2077, and analyze some of its failures. Whereas CD Projekt Red's previous game The Witcher 3 was a high point in video game storytelling, Cyberpunk attempted to do far more with narrative, but to much lesser effect. We discuss the litany of ways in which it failed to deliver on its promise, despite its excellent writing and compelling aesthetic.

Games Discussed:

• Far Cry 2
• Watch Dogs Legion
• Tomb Raider
• Outer Wilds
• Papers Please
• Wolfenstein The New Colossus
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
• Night in the Woods
• Fahrenheit
• Heavy Rain
• The Last of Us 2
• Death Stranding
• Disco Elysium
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Tacoma
• GTA 4
• GTA 5
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Witcher 3
• Shadowrun Returns
• Deus Ex

This is the first look at aspects of narrative for Season Two, building on our examination of narrative in episodes 4-7 of Season One. Joel and Tim begin with a brief discussion of the inherent tensions between seriousness and play, with reference to The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding. We talk about playing pretend, and the ways in which a game experience is co-authored by the player - we are actor as well as audience. Whereas early games tended to use story as merely premise, we look at two modern examples of games that that tell stories in ways only video games can: What Remains of Edith Finch and Disco Elysium.

Games Mentioned:

• The Last of Us 2
• Death Stranding
• Arkham City
• Fe
• European Truck Simulator 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Disco Elysium
• Baldur's Gate
• Beat Saber
• GTA
• Mafia 3
• Firewatch
• Cyberpunk 2077

In this first episode, Joel and Tim discuss the games they played over the break, on Xbox, PC and the newly released Oculus Quest 2. They talk about the revelations of VR, and the initial strangeness of adjusting from regular gaming, and potential the directions for the medium in gaming and beyond. Tim breaks down the procedural generation technology in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and discusses what it might mean for the future of gaming.

Games mentioned:

VR:

• Vader Immortal
• Population One
• The Walking Dead
• Myst

Regular:

• The Surge 2
• UFC 3
• Myst (Original)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Disco Elysium

In this short intro, Tim and Joel give a preview of what's coming over the course of Seria Ludo, Season 2.

In this episode, Tim and Joel conclude their list of most impactful games played in 2020. Again, these aren't all games made this year, but they are all games that impacted us deeply over the course of the last twelve months.

Awards List, Part 2:

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution got “best immersive sim” from Joel.
• Objects in Space got “most intense space game” from Tim.
• Mark of the Ninja got “best stealth game” from Joel.
• Where the Water Tastes Like Wine got “most unique gameplay experience” from Tim
• Call of Duty: Warzone got “most splodey” from both Tim and Joel; or at least, the version of it wherein we run exploding crossbows and rocket launchers in Plunder mode does.
• Katana Zero and Ghostrunner got “best pick up and play” from Joel.
• Return of the Obra Dinn got “most intricate / best document UI” from Tim.
• Both Elite: Dangerous and Hardspace: Shipbreaker got special mentions this year as games we spent an enormous amount of time in and enjoyed greatly (and have discussed a great deal in our space game and UI episodes).
• To no one’s surprise at all, our Game of the Year for 2020 is Hunt: Showdown. Not only is it a great game from a purely critical standpoint, but in an age of quarantine and lockdown, it is the one game that has been great for both our friendship and our sanity through round after round (and squad wipe after squad wipe).

In this episode, Joel and Tim talk about the games that left the biggest impact on them over the course of 2020 (even though many of these games were made in earlier years). The list is continued in part 2.

Award List, Part 1:

• Technomancer gets "best combat system" and "best bang-for-the-buck game world experience" from Joel.
• Pikuniku gets "best-hearted" and "most hilariously partnership-testing" from Tim.
• Inside gets "most pure gaming experience" from Joel and "most unsettlingly emotional" from Tim.
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate gets "best non-committal timesuck" (with some serious caveats that this is more addictive than it is good) from Joel.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 gets "most immersive" from Tim.
• Dying Light gets "best open world movement" from Joel.
• American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2 get "most therapeutic" from Tim.
• Farcry 5 gets "most annoying / most spineless" from both Tim and Joel. Sagebrush also gets a mention here, as a great indie title that actually engages with cult mentality, unlike the lukewarm mess that is Farcry 5's sad excuse for a setting.

In this episode, Tim and Joel discuss how UI that limits the information and actions of the player can be dramatically useful, as seen in the tense radio interactions of Radio Commander, the manual navigation system in Miasmata, and the text-message-like interface of Lifeline. We also talk about how, beyond the pragmatic information/action axis of UI, a good interface can also provide players with a sense of ritual.

Games Discussed

• Miasmata
• Radio Commander
• Lifeline
• Duskers
• Technomancer
• One Hour, One Life
• Silent Hunter
• Crusader Kings 3
• Star Traders
• Civilization 6
• Black and White

In this episode, we talk about UI's ability to embody the player into the character they are playing. We talk about what that means for classic adventure games, action games, and immersive sims, and talk a bit about the potential for both embodiment in VR, and in the real world.

Games discussed:

• Technomancer
• Hunt: Showdown
• Hardspace: Shipbreaker
• Elite Dangerous
• American and European Truck Simulator 2
• Dead by Daylight
• Void Bastards
• Objects in Space

In this episode, Tim and Joel begin a conversation on UI in games. We talk about the purpose of UI generally, in games specifically, and start breaking down the ways UI can make or break a player's immersion in a character. Games discussed: Dead Space, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Miasmata, Farcry 2, Observer, Aragami, Fable 3, Elite: Dangerous, Call of Duty, Hunt Showdown.

In this episode, Joel and Tim focus in on the problem of designing space games as if you were designing amusement park rides -- by bolting a lot of experiences together based on player expectations, rather than allowing an idea to grow organically. We use Elite: Dangerous as an example to talk about why so many game designers fall into the trap of trying to emulate existing universes rather than creating their own, and end up creating a somewhat bland and forgettable world as a result.

In this special episode, Tim and Joel discuss next week's historic election. We discuss where we are now, the choices that lie before us, and why -- even though Biden is a centrist at best -- we're going to vote for Biden in order to stay the tide of Trump's corrosive actions, and then keep on pushing until we can finally see some actual progressives in the highest offices of the United States.

In this episode, Joel and Tim continue our discussion on space games. We deep dive into dramatic play and immersion, and discuss how the marketing points of many space games (things like universe scale, roles you can fill, etc.) are in direct conflict with the actual immersive experience of playing the game.

We compare Elite: Dangerous and its host of imitators with games like Silent Hunter, Eurotruck Simulator, and Objects in Space, and discuss how those games successfully convince the player that they are inhabiting the space they are in. And, we talk about how the next generation of space games might be able to learn something from that.

In this episode, Joel and Tim begin discussing space games -- the kind of game where you are in command of a spaceship ranging the void, the open world that was invented by Elite in 1984 and that has been iterated upon ever since.

In part 1, we discuss the ways UI has in some sense been pared down from / reduced from the initial titles in the series (Descent: Freespace, Wing Commander Privateer, the original Elite), to make for a more focused, but also more limited, slate of modern open world space games -- Elite: Dangerous, EVE Online, Rebel Galaxy Outlaws, No Man's Sky, and X3/4. 

We also begin discussing a few of the entries that break the mold directly, like Objects in Space and FTL, as well as the edge cases of Kerbal Space Program and Space Engineers.

We also talk about our history with the space games of the nineties, including X-Wing and TIE Fighter, Wing Commander, and Star Fox.

In this episode, Tim and Joel continue our conversation on low-fi art styles, and dig more into the specific reasons (good and bad) that developers might choose a low-fi art style.

In this episode, Tim and Joel discuss low-fi art: pixel art, limited color depth, low-polygon modeling, and sprite billboarding. We talk nostalgia, economy, and other reasons developers use to choose these tools. And we compare the difference between toxic or pandering nostalgia and the kind of nostalgia that is used to lampoon (Broforce) or examine (Undertale) the past.

We also discuss how low-fi art can simply be an aesthetic that supports the narrative or setting in question, such as how the low-poly low-res style of Objects in Space matches the "modempunk" aesthetic, and how the colorful pixellated style of Katana Zero matches the VHS cyberpunk aesthetic of that game.

In this episode, Joel and Tim talk about cooperative multiplayer games -- shooters like Halo, puzzlers like Portal 2, creative collaborative games like Minecraft, and the co-op aspects of team games like Hunt: Showdown. We talk about what's fun about these games, and some of the places we hope they'll go in the future.

In this episode, Tim and Joel discuss massively multiplayer games. We've both been a bit disappointed with the games we've tried in this vein, and we talk about why that is, what appeals to people about these kinds of games, and where we hope the genre will go in the future.

In this episode, Joel and Tim discuss environmental multiplayer -- the form of multiplayer that happens when a game isn't directly about interactions with other players, but where other players are still present in the experience.

We talk shared world states with Dark Souls' messaging system, and Elite: Dangerous and No Man's Sky's discovery system. We talk shared road paradigms in The Trail, Journey, and the TruckerMP mod for American Truck Simulator and Eurotruck Simulator 2.

Finally, we talk neighbor mechanics and emergent market systems in Animal Crossing, and how Sim City's bourgeois utopic multiplayer mechanics resulted in an unintended bourgeois hell.

In this episode, Joel and Tim discuss competitive multiplayer games, including e-sports titles like Smite and Starcraft, more open sandbox matches like show favorite Hunt: Showdown, and asymmetrical matches like Dead by Daylight. We also discuss some of the technical elements of building a competitive multiplayer game, including addressing the mind-bending problem of ping.

In this episode, Joel and Tim discuss competitive multiplayer games, including e-sports titles like Smite and Starcraft, more open sandbox matches like show favorite Hunt: Showdown, and asymmetrical matches like Dead by Daylight. We also discuss some of the technical elements of building a competitive multiplayer game, including addressing the mind-bending problem of ping.