Friday, February 19, 2010

The quest!



Can thou remember the times, when thou wished to play this or that game in full 3D; or how great it would be, if thou just could enter that building…
…are those things really missing features?
…what if I tell thee it is the programmer, the program, God, Lord British, who enchanted thee into his game, through his portal, by these non-features.
He tells thee „come closer“, he entraps thee into his mysterious caravan, and if thou choose to take his hand, his cards, he greets thee warmly into his castle, telling thee nothing more than, that thou are now nothing but a visitor, who has to play by the rules of this world.
BUT Britannia also needs thee, for that it gives thee possibilities and abilities, and most of all it gives thee walls, of a new world which thou have to map and feel, before thou can feel save and home in this world.
It is thy phantasy which has taken over by now, because of these missing features, because thou are surrounded by walls, because these walls enchant, and give thee wings, give thee dreams!
Not because thou have entered a new world, BUT because thou have been thrown into a world with new walls, and at the same time gave thee abilities and possibilities, thou never could have dreamed of before.
So thou enter willingly this world of limitations, where thou cannot do, enter and have everything, because the watchful eye of god, the program, Lord British, the limitations, the game, the life in this world is always watching over thee like a judge.

It is the magic, by which thou does not know how thou got into this, because thou were forced into it, but still thou are also enchanted by this force, this magic, and with this spell cast on thee, thou are able to live through this world, master it and get richer by it, not because thou have beaten it, everything and everyone, but rather because thou have learned to live with, and within it, how to live with the quest, thus becoming a true avatar, and not a hero, not suffering the fate of the Conan, not a programmer, not a god thyself!

Not needing to write the stories by thyself, not needing to construct these worlds, these walls, these cards by thyself!


Instead left to be inspired and left to play, to play with that walls, that world, game and fable, so that thou maybe in time will choose to create such stories, worlds, dreams and especially walls thyself.
So that thou then will choose and be able to lock thyself into its walls, like Lord British did, in his Britannia, because thou feel home here, and need nothing more, maybe only inviting, inspiring, enchanting, locking, entrapping new avatars to thy h(e)aven(s)!
 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nsae,

Thanks for the very creative post. I am too, very touched by Ultima IV. I do not believe the problem of how a game is a "fantasy" that feels real to the player has been sufficiently resolved in terms of its psychology. When I play Ultima IV, I feel "responsible" for Britannia... I take its quest seriously, yet I know that I'm there to have fun. Sometimes I desire to fulfill my wish to dominate (the Will to Power) yet at other times I desire to fulfill my wish of helping others (the Will to Meaning). The game (Lord British, the programmer, God, etc) does a brilliant job of showing me that I must constrain my "will to power" with my "will to meaning"... I am thinking of Viktor Frankl here specifically.

I think you put it just right: "...but rather because thou have learned to live with, and within it, how to live with the quest.."

The quest cannot be satisfied by simply overpowering other creatures or people, or gaining a high number of character levels.. the quest can only be satisfied by becoming a true fulfillment of virtue by doing virtuous acts. There are no extrinsic "rewards" for doing the right thing in Ultima IV - and in fact sometimes doing the "right" thing involves taking a penalty or losing health.

It amazes me that so few games today realize the importance of making a player feel responsible for a fantasy world... instead modern games try to fulfill every player's wish without any consequences.

Because of that, I think most modern games are what Freud would consider to be a form of "neurotic wish-fulfillment"... they cannot satisfy the desire for sexual domination/self-destruction... yet they try to satisfy those desires. Most players today are just as guilty of playing games as wish-fulfillment mechanisms, instead of "living in the game" and developing a new relation to the self.

I think we need a psychology of gamers and their games, otherwise we will continue to make the same mistakes.

Thanks for the great post!
- Chris