Role Inversion

Ok, it’s high time I published the results from the Inversion Survey. A disappointing response on this blog and on XBL I have to admit, but at least I got a good response from my facebook page

 

Skill Level	Inverted FPS	Inverted 3PS	Inverted 3PA
Remy77077 PAD	2	y	y	y
Remy77077 MOUSE	2	n
Navan Daughn PAD	1	n	n	n
Navan Daughn MOUSE	4	n	n	n
GA	1	n	n	n
Dydus	5	y	y	y
RB	1	y	n	n
SH	1	y	y	n
Grymbok	2	y	y	y
adammk	2	n	n	n
Hachimaki	4	y	y	y
McMond	2	n	n	n
Lom2112	4	y

 

My hypotheses before this survey were the following:

1. What comes most ‘naturally’ to you is what you initially learnt from. Someone who played lots of flight sims, or arcade flying games would be affected by each initial learning sticking with them. Also someone who played lots of “crosshairs” games, such as Operation Wolf, before they played an FPS could be affected by learning that.

2. People who invert visualise their game differently. They visualise themselves as the character more, and changing the view is akin to moving their whole head about. It’s like moving ‘a joystick on your head’. People who don’t invert simply see themselves as the crosshair – more like they are visualising themselves as just the eyes of the character, or even the gun-sight.

3. There would be a performance related correlation that the non-inverters had a ‘faster’ kind of visualisation that would be helpful in making them better players (& more likely to become skilled and experienced at FPS type of games).

4. People would generally stick with one control method throughout all kinds of games – and if they changed it, it could well be to do with a change in how they visualised in that style of game.

 

Now clearly this isn’t nearly enough data, nor even enough questions, to make any kind of analysis other than anecdotal, but a few things stood out.

There wasn’t a clear correlation between highly skilled & experienced FPS players and not-inverting as myself and Navan suspected. This gives me a lot of hope that I should continue to play ‘my own style’ without feeling I am being unduely hampered by my choice of controls.

Secondly, I feel if I was to do this survey again and do it more widely, I think I certainly need to break down the difference between playing on a gamepad and playing on a mouse. When I initiated this I did so on the assumption that most people would play the same on either type of control, however I suspect the majority of answers to this were from a gamepad perspective, and also during the period between when I made this survey and this response to it, I had installed and played Half Life 1 on my PC, so was playing an FPS on a mouse for the first time in years. And bizarrely I discovered that without even realising it for many hours of play, I was playing without invert on. As yet I have no idea what has changed for me, as I am certain I used to play on invert on a mouse as well as on a pad.

Some of the most interesting responses I got were actually commentary as opposed to full survey answers, notably almost all of them correlated exactly with the hypotheses I started with -

• “I always play stick/mouse moves the way my characters head goes ie. I push forward I look down, backwards I look up. Same goes for flight based stuff”
• “For whatever reason, un-inverted controls make no sense to me at all. My best guess is that on some odd level I’m viewing the mouse/joystick as an analogue for my “head” in the game. Push the top of your head forward, and you look down, etc.”
• “..it might be interesting to see if there is a correlation with motion sickness for the inverters”
• “Remy77077’s head/crosshair theory fits here. I’m basically using whatever controls I have at my disposal to move a pointer around the screen, rather than trying to push my characters head around. “
• I have a simple explanation as to why I invert the mouse, I learned how to fly before I ever played any computer games with a mouse

Unfortunately I don’t feel I am going anywhere further with this right now. As I joked on facebook “..when I get my research budget”. This is definitely a really interesting area of games analysis for me, but I feel its a really complex area too, and there doesn’t seem to be any simple answers. A really detailed and wide-reaching survey would have to be done, that’s far beyond my scope and the scope of this little blog to entertain. If only I could quit my day-job eh?

Got any Gears man?

The fact I have described anything even remotely close to an FPS as ‘brilliant’ and even voted it as my ‘game of the year’ for 2008, at least when forced into a small selection picklist on a few websites, is really remarkable. Obviously given a free choice of game of the year, there would be quite a few titles I’d pick over this, a large number of those talked about on this blog for example. But yes, Gears of War 2 is, a brilliant game. There, I said it.

It really picks up everything that Gears 1 did so well, and builds on it further. Sadly though, it still really lacks in a few important areas.

The main one you notice at first is the storyline. And I’d better warn you here that there will be a few SPOILERS in this post. Whilst it started to get me really intrigued for a while, I began to expect long before the end of the game that I was in for nothing more than a huge letdown.. and in that regard it didn’t dissapoint. The attempt at a more serious and detailed plot than Gears 1 really falls extremely flat. It seems to have been written in an incredibly lazy fashion, not really making any sense when analysed and simply setting up numerous ‘hooks’ that they can oh-so-cleverly link to in any fashion in later games, when really its abundantly clear they are making it up as they go along.

It lurches along so randomly and nonsensically that you get the distinct impression that it’s all just a vague excuse to move you onto the next marvellous section of gameplay, which of course, it is. And I have to say, as an agoner, I’m completely fine with that. But don’t expect the plot to offer any more than a thin veneer of relevance to spread on your gameplay slice when you play Gears 2. I think the self-made comparison to a “blockbuster action movie” for the game is a fairly accurate one. The plot’s about as atrocious as your average stock action film, although the fact it is supposed to be a linked series of games does heighten the disappointment in some ways. As ups55 said to me “I really hope they stop at a third game”. The trouble is, the actual explanation of their story seems to be crawling at such a pace that it felt at the end of the game, you feel like you’ll be waiting for Gears of War 5 before you get any answers at all. This leaves you feeling very empty.  As J. Michael Straczynski has said, you can only dangle the “mystery carrot” in a plotline for so long before an audience becomes weary of it, yet Gears of War seems determined to stretch the ‘revelation payoff’ far, far into the future (in a galaxy far far away?). Most likely because they haven’t even decided what the ‘revelation’ will even be yet. For example, maybe Kerrigan.. sorry, I mean the Locust Queen, is getting it on with Adam Fenix in an attempt to breed the perfect hybrid Xel’Naga? Who knows… and after Gears 2, I’d be tempted to ask ‘who cares?’ anyway. Recent comments show I am probably correct though and they are determined to ‘leave us dangling’ for a long time, as Epic intend Gears to go on for another 10 years, well, maybe.

To be positive though, the best part for me, was not the much hyped Dom & Maria sections, but actually, Tai’s death. This was the one part of the game that actually shocked and even moved me slightly. The whole Maria segment was foreshadowed so much that it was practically ruined. And why weren’t Marcus and Dom even interested in trying to rescue anyone else? I remember myself and Navan laughing about this at the time, commentating the game with “oh well, sod you then!” as we ignored yet another bunch of Zerg.. sorry, I mean Locust, hostages, in the search for the all-important Ave-Maria. Also, whilst it worked on some level as a tragedy, it wasn’t anywhere near as moving as anything in Lost Odyssey which showed me just how good game writing can get. Picking on this section isn’t even really fair though, if you analyse any segment of the game’s plot it really breaks down quickly. For example I’ve recently been playing through again, on Insane difficulty, the Black Mesa Facility section, sorry, I mean the New Hope Facility section. What does this entire section add to the story? – actually very little. There’s another ‘oooh look there’s some kind of conspiracy going on here’ point delivered in a particularly obvious slap-like manner to the players face, just in case there was anyone dumb enough not to have noticed already, and it also gets them en-route to Mount Doom, sorry I mean, Mount Kadar. But what it really adds to the game are some nice tense gameplay moments with the calmness of the facility and the later Sire attacks. Although it has to be said the Sires are so laughably easy for two competent chainsaw wielders this is one place where the disconnect between the gameplay and the mood ruins the attempted atmosphere – a common problem I have with many games that are supposedly ‘atmospheric’ incidentally. In fact if anything could make me sick of the wonderful chainsaw effects in Gears of War, it would be this segment.

Picking plot holes in the game is so laughably ‘Too Easy’ as Geese Howard would say, but I do want to mention perhaps the worst one of all – the sudden ‘turning’ of the Lambent Flood, turning the fight into a three way battle. Sorry, I meant the Lambent Locusts of course. But go back and play Gears of War 1, and notice those Lambent wretches clearly fighting alongside General RAAM & the flying Locusts in the last few levels… Hmmm, they really seem to be in some bitter civil war there don’t they. Or perhaps they just thought of adding this ‘amazing twist’ in at a later point? Naaah.. couldn’t be.

But when you get down to it, the important part is how good and varied the gameplay is throughout the campaign. I’ve played through most levels of it  3 or 4 times now and it still hasn’t gotten boring and I’m still keen to play more. That really is excellent for a game of this ilk, as I virtually never play even twice through any kind of on-rails level to level game like this. Perhaps it’s just the lure of those Achievements, but I really don’t think so – I just can ‘t deny the sheer unadulterated fun of it all.

What’s also nice is that whilst it has clear difficulty spikes, they generally feel reasonably fair, and are spread out throughout the game, rather than being a pure ‘ramp up’. In fact its noticeable that the game really doesn’t get harder from Act to Act, which is actually best in my opinion if you want to encourage repeated play. I’ve heard some moaning about the difficulty in Gears 2, in particular the amount of ‘instant deaths’ that can occur, and some whines about the checkpointing. Now I can really understand these issues, as my own frustration barrier is generally reasonably low in a game like this, and certain sections on Gears 2 have really pushed it to the extreme, it’s always been pitched at close to the right level for me. Hard enough to frustrate, but also always doable so that I feel like progress is being made. Although I have noticed on a number of sections my emotion upon completing them has switched to actual relief rather than one of fiero. A sign that shows they are right on the borderline for me, almost inducing a fear of failure – but this is on “Insane” difficulty. But what also makes it work so well for me is the addition of a co-op partner to get me through these kind of frustrating segments in the gameplay. A problem shared is a problem halved really seems to work for me. I feel I would have gotten overly frustrated and bored a number of times in Gears 2 if I hadn’t been playing it with a co-op partner, even where the addition of that partner is actually making the section harder to complete.

In fact it’s the excellent integration of co-op that really makes Gears shine for me. Playing through the same level as a different character adds a huge amount to the gameplay as well. For example, having played as the ‘gunner’ in the co-op driving sections, it gave me an amazing perspective on what not to do, when I was assigned the drivers role. Also the co-operation sometimes needed to heal a ‘bleeding out’ downed teammate is really fun in the heat of battle.

It’s also good to note that the game was entirely bug free…

And I certainly didn’t notice any hilarious problems myself…

Why are those guns floating in the air mommy?

I wish Navan Daughn wouldn't insist on wearing his Ikea furniture skirt during battles

For The Swarm

The Horde mode is also a brilliantly fun addition to Gears 2. Whilst I feel its one that’s relatively short lived and I don’t think I’ll go back to it once I’ve achieved certain goals on it I want to do with the right group of friends, I am incredibly glad it’s there as it offers so much for co-op online play with more than 2 people. The level of co-operation needed is it’s double-edged sword though. I find playing with a random pick-up group utterly impossible and boring in the extreme, as people refuse to work together, leave enemies alive to collect ammo, “score rush” and other stupid and pointless antics.

Multiplayer Versus seems to be another matter entirely. I cannot seem to get into this at all. The staggering improvements made to the gameplay simply by putting the game in a third-person perspective rather than the irrovacably flawed first-person view actually seem to collapse in upon themselves when playing at the blistering pace of versus battles. The weapons, health system, dashing and rolling, taking cover.. nothing seems to be balanced well for multiplayer. In fact I think Gears 2 online multiplayer is a great example of Rob Pardo of Blozzard’s point that games need to be designed from the ground up as multiplayer ‘versus’ games if they are really to work for this kind of competition. That said, I am aware Epic are still working on yet more patches to get this part of the game up to par, so hopefully they can be successful with this too. It certainly has a lot of potential.

Now at this point I’m noticing I haven’t really worked in a reference to anything really obscure, like some German industrial band or something, as is common for my blog posts. But the really cool thing about Gears of War 2, is that it’s already done it for me, with the incredible Chairman Painbastard :O

Inversion Survey

This is something that’s been intriguing me and I’ve been working on a blog post on for some time, but I realised it would be far more intesting to try and get some data from my friends and any readers of this blog who’d like to get involved too, before actually discussing it further. So please put your answers in the comments, or message to me in any manner is fine (XBL, myspace, email etc.).

Thank you very much in advance to everyone that participates

1. Rank on a scale of 1-5 how skilled & experienced do you consider your play at First Person Shooter (FPS) games, 5 being the highest. (If you have an XBL account it would be helpful if you told me it as well to compare Achievements)

2. When you play an FPS game, do you play with look inversion (Y-axis inversion) on?

3. When you play a third person action game with shooting elements (such as Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden aim mode, Gun Valkyrie, World of Warcraft etc), do you play with look inversion (Y-axis inversion) on?

4. When you play a third person more movement-based adventure style game (such as Tomb Raider, Uncharted, Ninja Gaiden etc), do you play with look inversion (Y-axis inversion) on?

Any more comments associated with your thoughts on this, especially if you change your look invert settings from game to game I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts on why you prefer that. Ninja Gaiden is especially potentially interesting as of course you can have different look invert settings when in “aim mode” compared to the normal game view.

Personally, I’d rank myself a 2 for FPS game skill & experience. I’ve played an awful lot of games but I certainly don’t play as many as a lot of folks do, and I’ve never gotten especially good at any of them. On single player I usually only play through them once. And online multiplayer I don’t tend to “know” any of the maps very well when I play FPS games, or even have an average ranking on games like Halo 3. However I am far from a ‘noob’ and can generally hold my own on any game once I’ve played it a little bit. I play every single style of game with look inversion on - so pressing “up” always looks down for me.

-=Lordnaff=-
Here’s my answer to your survey

1. XBOX FPS rank: 1
PC FPS rank: 4
2. Not inverted
3. Not inverted
4. Not inverted

The reason that I don’t invert the y-axis is because when I have accidentally done it in the past, I got instant RSI, eye-strain, back cramps, irritable bowel syndrome, epilepsy and Aids.

Visceral Thrills

I didn’t blink, I’m not sure I even thought.

It felt like pure instinct. I slammed the biting saw-blades downwards at my assailant. There was a sickening crunch as the whirling mass impacted with his skull, only just audible over the roaring sound of the weapon, and it was only an instant before the bone gave way to the speed of hard steel. A moment later, the blood. It sprayed out in all directions, covering both of us in dark red gore. Chunks of flesh broke apart and fell away from the blade as his body collapsed to the ground. I grinned with a lunatic leer as the blood splattered all over my.. screen.

So I hadn’t lost it entirely. I was just playing Gears of War again (on a borrowed 360!).

Gears isn’t likely to make my all-time top games list ever, as it’s just not really my kind of thing, however I do enjoy it a lot, certainly a lot more than most FPS games too, even though it shares a lot of mechanics with them. One of the major things about it that appeals to me, which was also a real surprise to me, was just how much I liked the ‘feel’ of certain things in this game. Especially, as described above, the close-quarters gore-filled kills when using the chainsaw bayonet; although the shotgun at point-blank range proves to be a lot of fun also! I must admit I was also a tad concerned by my attraction to this, but on the other hand it’s not especially realistic, and it’s really hammed up. Perhaps the best thing about it is the way the blood splatters ‘onto’ your monitor screen as if you are watching it through a camera lense. It’s just so… tastey! (Itchy Tastey?)

Rrrrrrrrrrrr

This is an almost indefinible quality in games for me, and I find it exceedingly rarely. I don’t really think I’m caught up in the Mimicry of it, as I certainly haven’t ever harboured any secret desires to chainsaw anyone’s face off, you maybe dissappointed to know. I don’t even like guns! But it’s something about the sheer experience of it that stands out to me. I also have to note it’s something in a game where the graphics & sound really do matter too, so I suspect getting this kind of feeling may increase as graphics improve even further. I’ve also noticed I tend to enjoy this kind of thing even more when other people are playing with me – ie: an audience. Which I think is related.

I think the trouble with it is that it tends to wear off pretty quickly with time and repeated play, especially for me. This could be because I am far from an adrenalin junkie; many things that seem to excite other people adrenalin-wise don’t tend to do the same for me, especially when repeated often. It maybe why this occurs so rarely for me in video games also. I think I also ’suffer’ from the fact that I am so familiar with so many video games having played them all my life, that I just don’t get the ‘initial thrill’ in the same way a new player might.

I think in Gears’ case there is definitely an element of agon to the proceedings too. As on some occasions it is an added challenge to go for the spectacular close range kill – something I have noted definitely attracts me.

I tried to think of some other games that have had a similar type of effect on me, and there really aren’t many, but here’s what I came up with for now:

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox versions). These games really do pile on the gore in a similar fashion and at first you do get this real experience of slicing people up with a sword. I do think it wears off pretty quickly for me as the tactical elements of the combat start to become more important. Which is what has really killed NG2 for me for now, as I discovered the fighting mechanics are actually less interesting, mainly due to the

NiGHTS into Dreams – something completely different. It’s more of a ‘rushgame‘ but I still certainly played this game repeated just for the ‘feeling’ it gave me of flying & floating about, as much as it was trying to race through the levels.

Gun Valkyrie – another XBox third-person action game. This does certainly seem to be the easiest current game environment to provide this ‘experience’ feeling in for me. Again in this game is about the feeling of flight and total control over your jetpack.. once you really master it! I tried to re-play this game again recently, and whilst I can remember a few things, I found my control skills had dimished to the level where I have to re-learn to be good at it again. Unfortunately it’s unlikely I’ll ever really enjoy it in the same way again.

Space Channel 5 – a possible candidate. Again.. once mastered, many of the parts of the game become so easy, you’re just ‘enjoying the ride’ – the music and tapping along to the beat. This is the only ‘dancing’ game that’s ever made me actually want to dance along with it. Light years ahead of all other “rhythm action” games in my opinion.

Numerous fighting games – Of course I certainly get a bit of the “beat” in my beat-em-ups from time to time. I think the earlier Street Fighter 2’s did the best job of this really, as they had the nicest sound effects and ‘feel’ to the contact. But generally Capcom games do ok in this department as they feel noticably better than the others. But this feeling does wear off especially quickly with me with beat-em-ups so I can’t think of anything else notable, especially in 3d fighting games I can’t think of any example that did it to me.