This comes out on the 13th of this month. So excited. It's from the same developer, thatgamecompany, that created Flower back in 2009 - the game that a lot of people still cite as the one that proves video games can be art.
What's really interesting about Journey is that it's an online multiplayer game, but not in the traditional sense at all. There are no lobbies or voice/text chat capabilities. There are no gamertags.
Though Demon's Souls apparently did something similar to this, the way thatgamecompany's Creative Director Jenova Chen explained in an interview (that's worth reading) their reasoning behind it is quite interesting:
One thing about playing games online, the big problem I see today, is you run into a kid and he's saying dirty words. And you can't really stop that. [...]Usually you're forced to stay with the kids throughout the whole game. That's just not very fun.Watch this video. A gorgeous original track performed by the Macedonian Radio Symphony is accompanied by gameplay footage. It's really incredible.
[...] A true game stays with its design. So when we think about a player communicating, well [the characters] don't speak, why should we have voice chat. They don't have hands, why should they have gestures? Why should they want to type text? We just want to stay true to the design itself. So it doesn't feel like a bunch of things duct taped onto each other.
[...]We wanted to get rid of the baggage and stay true to what it is. It's about two strangers who meet online. They don't know who they are or how old they are. All they know is that is another human being.
So it's not about how cool I am, or you have a different hat; it's about how everyone's on their way towards somewhere. You might run into them and really enjoy their company. And then you might break up with them. And maybe later you will rejoin again. Just like our life paths, we run into people. [...]
You can use design to make people behave differently. That's why I believe forced companionship doesn't generate true connection. So when we strip away forced connection, we say you can leave at anytime, then the fact you stay next to someone is more meaningful.
Oh, should probs mention it's a PS3 exclusive. Sorry I'm not sorry.
i mean it looks beautiful from the video, but im still a little confused, if you cannot talk to someone how are you able to interact with them and "enjoy" their company? maybe im off, but it seems to me that defeats the purpose of it being online multiplayer. why not just a single player game where you explore beautiful landscape.
ReplyDeleteWell, there is an ability to "speak" by emitting a chime which both serves as communication and a way to activate elements in the game. And whether you interact with the other person is up to you. Co-op isn't forced. So, you can in essence, play it as singleplayer. This is from a review on Joystiq:
Delete"Neither experience, be it alone or with a companion, was intrinsically better than the other. Both were surprisingly emotional epics that affected me in ways I didn't know a video game could, and I sincerely hope that everyone is able to play through both psychological sides of the game.
My second journey was spent with a companion. The isolation I had felt previously was replaced by a legitimate sense of camaraderie and affection for the duplicate of myself I had found in the desert. The game stopped being about me and started being about us; focusing the experience on the relationship between my companion and me, the literally unspoken bond we shared, our quest to reach the mountain and, above everything else, our desperate need to stay together. For those two hours, we were all each other had in the whole of existence.
In hindsight, a lot of the emotional attachment I felt for my friend was induced by the game's lack of verbal and written communication between players, apart than the vocal ping used to activate cloth. Similar to how this lack of dialogue shaped my interpretation of the overall story, the fact that my friend's little noises never translated to anything meant that they could mean everything.
I would bleep twice to ask "Ready?" and receiving two bleeps in return clearly indicated an emphatic "Ready!" in reply. Communicating wasn't something I had to actually think about; I had no question as to my friend's motivations or the character of their personality. They were a blank slate, projected upon by my own needs and preconceptions and, as a result, became whatever I needed them to be at the time."
though im probably just prejudice since its not on the best console (if you have to ask then your not worthy of the box). i also wanted to ask if the are different/customizable avatar? or if everyone is the same?
ReplyDeleteNo, the characters look the same, which I think is the point - there isn't that sense of "otherness" that accompanies customized and unique avatars. You've found someone out in that lonely desert and in a world that's hinted at having experienced some terrible apocalypse wiping out everyone else. It's a unifying experience that explores our basic desire for human connection by eliminating all the superficial biases we encounter in the real world. I mean, you could have two people co-oping who might hate each other in real life just because of how they identify or what they look like. But in the game's world, they are inseparable.
DeleteOf course, having identical avatars is probably only effective since it's only you and another player rather than a mass of other players.
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ReplyDeleteDemon/Dark souls had an online that seems very similar to this, but very different. Despite probably being the hardest game I have ever beat, demon soul online was pretty awesome. But the thing about it's online is that you are NEVER allowed to talk to each other. Have a mic? Want to yell curses at kids? Make new friends? Demon/Dark Souls is not for you. Pretty much the game would allow you to see other people playing the game as a ghost. The 'ghost' just appear in your level and you couldn't really interact with them, and it never really affected your gameplay, other than the fact that you knew someone else was in the world in the same place you were. Probably about to die. When someone dies (and trust me you die, like every 5 minutes) it leaves a blood stain, in everyone's game, that you could choose to activate and see another person's death in your game. It became very helpful to see what was ahead, or just how they let their guard down for one second and died. Another thing demon/dark souls did was allow you to leave messages in the world that would appear to everyone on the server. I know what you are thinking. You said you can't talk to people! Well you have to choose from a list of predetermined phareses, such as Danger Ahead, Treasure Ahead, Look Out Behind You, Use Magic Ahead. When you put these messages down, you never talk to one person. You just leave it there for someone to find. They may choose to read it or not.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoyed leaving lies for people. Jump here for treasure. death.
And then you get invaded...
The games allowed you to force your way into someone elses world and pretty much dual them. I always hated when the 'invaded' screen appears. I mean come on game, the weakest enemy in the games destroys me, i am almost to the boss, and now i have a real world person trying to kill me?!
the game does also allow you to team up and go through a level though. But it is random, kind of. You leave a stone on the ground, it goes to the server and appears in other peoples game. if they pick it up, you go to their world. And kick ass. until you are invaded. or fall off a ledge, because some asshole left a message saying there was treasure.
Also, the ps3 is a great console (demon soul being an exclusive), as is the 360.