A Eulogy for P.T.
§
Why is Mario's Theme Music So Catchy?? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
§
The Minecraft Industrial Revolution
§
Would You Believe There Have Been Only 14 Playable Black Women in Gaming?
§
Game Theory: Why Video Game Movies SUCK!
§
How Can Videogames Make You a Kinder Person? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
§
Every single game I can think of where I’d really like to skip an individual boss fight or mini-boss fight has a button available to skip lines of dialogue or entire conversations entirely. Players can willingly skip the parts of games I’m there to see, so why can’t I skip the parts of games that they’re there to see?
Showing posts with label mario. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mario. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
24/6
§FEMALE/MALE REPRESENTATION
This, we are made to understand, is how you become a heroine, a tomb raider. Our lead characters have to be hard, and while we accept a male hero with a five o'clock shadow and a bad attitude generally unquestioned, a woman seems to need a reason to be hard. Something had to have been done to her.
/.../
When you want to make a woman into a hero, you hurt her first. When you want to make a man into a hero, you hurt… also a woman first.
/.../
"Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong." Further, we seem to have problematic ideas of how women become Strong -- men break them, we assume.
/.../
Abstracted ideas about post-traumatic stress disorder or the catch-all "mental health issues" are common in games -- apparently the logic is if we're trying to advance narratives in action games, we need to find nuanced rationales for why we're killing so many people with aplomb.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/219074/What_did_they_do_to_you_Our_women_heroes_problem.php
§
you’ve got a situation where female characters do get scrutinized more than male characters do, and in some ways can be seen as holding a banner up for female characters. A lot gets heaped on their shoulders. Lara Croft gets a lot more scrutiny than Nathan Drake does, as a female.
/.../
male characters aren’t shown as being scared or vulnerable, why should female characters? Well, just because it hasn’t been done with male characters doesn’t make it wrong! It’s probably more of a problem of the way we depict male characters.
/.../
It’s very difficult to keep that good affable character when they’re having to slaughter loads of people. But what we tried to do with Lara was at least have the first death count. As you say, she’s uncomfortable with having to do what she needs to do. Those feelings start to bubble to the surface, and she does sort of push them away because she knows she can’t think about what she’s doing. It will incapacitate her if does.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/interviews/tomb-raider-writer-rhianna-pratchett-why-every-kill-cant-be-first-and-why-she-wanted-make-lara-croft-gay/
§
... female players who sent out friend requests have a greater chance of being accepted than male players do. Furthermore, the chances of acceptance differs based on how the player spoke in the game, and congruence with gender stereotypes. Male players who spoke negatively or trash talk in the game and female players who were silent or meek have the greatest chances in getting their friend request accepted
http://vgresearcher.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/reactions-to-a-womans-friend-request-in-an-fps-game-holz-ivory-et-al-2014/
§
Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZPSrwedvsg
§
Dynaheir, a proud, strong woman, is killed so her associated man can have motivation. Khalid is killed so that Jaheira, a proud, strong woman, can become the player’s girlfriend. The two fridgings differ in many ways, but are similar in that they both treat women as plot devices, and as prizes to be won or lost.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/you-must-stuff-your-fridge-before-venturing-forth/
§
Ubisoft went the extra mile and claimed that the reason there were going to be no playable female assassins in their upcoming Assassin’s Creed title is because it would double the development cost and it was “a reality of game development”.
http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/friday-freebie-the-ubisoft-is-full-of-shit-edition/
§MISC VIDEOS
Will the End of Net Neutrality Be Bad for Gamers? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEHG1s1uv5o
§
Is the FPS Dying or Evolving? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9PNz5WUXdo
§
Why Shouldn’t Air Control be Sellable?
http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/?p=644
§
Air Control - A Steam Abuse Story
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9281-Air-Control-A-Steam-Abuse-Story
§
Extra Credits - How Minecraft Changes the Future of Games - Minecraft Generation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8G6BFg1Wk
§MISC ARTICLES
Post-apocalyptic games, from Fallout to The Last of Us or Metro 2033, play to expectations. When one hears “post-apocalyptic,” the word conjures up images of half-destroyed tower blocks, highways filled with empty, rusting cars, basically the remains of the now dead civilization. But those images are more apocalyptic, really. The post-apocalypse what happens after the reset button has been pressed. Unfortunately, a great number of games that use the setting give the uniform answer of “not much at all.”
http://www.awesomeoutof10.com/no-fresh-starts-what-the-post-apocalypse-can-offer-but-doesnt/
§
Yes, the presentation is, at times, unfortunately ugly – but below the skin, Remember Me has a series of fantastic touches and a sense of care about its thematic coherency that ultimately mark the game as truly memorable.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/remember-me-and-artistic-ambition/
§
The Spiny Shell is the most profoundly existentialist element of the Mario canon. It disrupts the entire logic of this familiar fantasy universe. We were told we could jump on things to destroy them! We were told we could flip them asunder! But no - all promises are tentative, even in the Mushroom Kingdom. Spiny Shells are chaos, unfairness, injustice. For those of us who were kids when Super Mario Bros. arrived, the Spiny Shell taught a lesson, and the lesson was: you are alone in the universe. Enough with your childish expectations. This is the real world, and just when you think you've mastered it, it'll pull the rug out from under you. You have to find your own way.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218696/The_Blue_Shell_and_its_Discontents.php
§
When you understand everything about a fully scripted world, it can only seem so much smaller in looking back on it.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/182687-the-size-and-wisdom-of-myst/
This, we are made to understand, is how you become a heroine, a tomb raider. Our lead characters have to be hard, and while we accept a male hero with a five o'clock shadow and a bad attitude generally unquestioned, a woman seems to need a reason to be hard. Something had to have been done to her.
/.../
When you want to make a woman into a hero, you hurt her first. When you want to make a man into a hero, you hurt… also a woman first.
/.../
"Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong." Further, we seem to have problematic ideas of how women become Strong -- men break them, we assume.
/.../
Abstracted ideas about post-traumatic stress disorder or the catch-all "mental health issues" are common in games -- apparently the logic is if we're trying to advance narratives in action games, we need to find nuanced rationales for why we're killing so many people with aplomb.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/219074/What_did_they_do_to_you_Our_women_heroes_problem.php
§
you’ve got a situation where female characters do get scrutinized more than male characters do, and in some ways can be seen as holding a banner up for female characters. A lot gets heaped on their shoulders. Lara Croft gets a lot more scrutiny than Nathan Drake does, as a female.
/.../
male characters aren’t shown as being scared or vulnerable, why should female characters? Well, just because it hasn’t been done with male characters doesn’t make it wrong! It’s probably more of a problem of the way we depict male characters.
/.../
It’s very difficult to keep that good affable character when they’re having to slaughter loads of people. But what we tried to do with Lara was at least have the first death count. As you say, she’s uncomfortable with having to do what she needs to do. Those feelings start to bubble to the surface, and she does sort of push them away because she knows she can’t think about what she’s doing. It will incapacitate her if does.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/interviews/tomb-raider-writer-rhianna-pratchett-why-every-kill-cant-be-first-and-why-she-wanted-make-lara-croft-gay/
§
... female players who sent out friend requests have a greater chance of being accepted than male players do. Furthermore, the chances of acceptance differs based on how the player spoke in the game, and congruence with gender stereotypes. Male players who spoke negatively or trash talk in the game and female players who were silent or meek have the greatest chances in getting their friend request accepted
http://vgresearcher.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/reactions-to-a-womans-friend-request-in-an-fps-game-holz-ivory-et-al-2014/
§
Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZPSrwedvsg
§
Dynaheir, a proud, strong woman, is killed so her associated man can have motivation. Khalid is killed so that Jaheira, a proud, strong woman, can become the player’s girlfriend. The two fridgings differ in many ways, but are similar in that they both treat women as plot devices, and as prizes to be won or lost.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/you-must-stuff-your-fridge-before-venturing-forth/
§
Ubisoft went the extra mile and claimed that the reason there were going to be no playable female assassins in their upcoming Assassin’s Creed title is because it would double the development cost and it was “a reality of game development”.
http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/friday-freebie-the-ubisoft-is-full-of-shit-edition/
§MISC VIDEOS
Will the End of Net Neutrality Be Bad for Gamers? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEHG1s1uv5o
§
Is the FPS Dying or Evolving? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9PNz5WUXdo
§
Why Shouldn’t Air Control be Sellable?
http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/?p=644
§
Air Control - A Steam Abuse Story
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9281-Air-Control-A-Steam-Abuse-Story
§
Extra Credits - How Minecraft Changes the Future of Games - Minecraft Generation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8G6BFg1Wk
§MISC ARTICLES
Post-apocalyptic games, from Fallout to The Last of Us or Metro 2033, play to expectations. When one hears “post-apocalyptic,” the word conjures up images of half-destroyed tower blocks, highways filled with empty, rusting cars, basically the remains of the now dead civilization. But those images are more apocalyptic, really. The post-apocalypse what happens after the reset button has been pressed. Unfortunately, a great number of games that use the setting give the uniform answer of “not much at all.”
http://www.awesomeoutof10.com/no-fresh-starts-what-the-post-apocalypse-can-offer-but-doesnt/
§
Yes, the presentation is, at times, unfortunately ugly – but below the skin, Remember Me has a series of fantastic touches and a sense of care about its thematic coherency that ultimately mark the game as truly memorable.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/remember-me-and-artistic-ambition/
§
The Spiny Shell is the most profoundly existentialist element of the Mario canon. It disrupts the entire logic of this familiar fantasy universe. We were told we could jump on things to destroy them! We were told we could flip them asunder! But no - all promises are tentative, even in the Mushroom Kingdom. Spiny Shells are chaos, unfairness, injustice. For those of us who were kids when Super Mario Bros. arrived, the Spiny Shell taught a lesson, and the lesson was: you are alone in the universe. Enough with your childish expectations. This is the real world, and just when you think you've mastered it, it'll pull the rug out from under you. You have to find your own way.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218696/The_Blue_Shell_and_its_Discontents.php
§
When you understand everything about a fully scripted world, it can only seem so much smaller in looking back on it.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/182687-the-size-and-wisdom-of-myst/
Thursday, November 21, 2013
21st November Link Collection
§GAME DESIGN
I am now convinced that the virtues of clarity and craft, to which I had subscribed absolutely as a matter of course, impose significant limitations on our expressive potential that can be difficult to see until you play something like this.
/.../
A product, which is a special kind of designed work, has at least two intrinsic features. One is to perform the task for which it was made; the other is to convince you to buy it. (The next time you hear the phrase ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ ask yourself whether the dissonance you’re discussing might actually stand between ‘what marketing decided would generate money’ and ‘what the designers defiantly attempted to produce’.)
/.../
Punishing us for touching the Cross Guys even though that is exactly what we must do to proceed reeks of poor affordances; it seems to place the design at cross purposes, obfuscating the rules of the system and causing us to form an inaccurate cognitive model of how the game works
/.../
In their role as the protagonist’s jailers they must usually be avoided; in their role as the wielders of power, however, it is occasionally necessary to exploit them even when this does us harm. (The mechanics deceive, in other words, because they model deceptive power structures.) That the world forces some among us to use the ugliest of personal traits to their advantage would, in any other context, be considered a thoughtful bit of hard-won wisdom that speaks to the human condition. In videogames we are, for many discomforting reasons, unaccustomed to receiving such wisdom.
http://blog.brendanvance.com/2013/11/02/problem-attic/
§
It explains how in original chess draws are more and more of a problem and that high level play is becoming less and less interesting.http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2013/11/11/high-level-chess.html
Game 1 Viswanthan Anand vs Magnus Carlsen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_5Ko7QCi8
§
What if we take games, but re-frame them in other terms with other values? http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2013/11/games-without-gamers-imagining-indie.html
§ACCESSIBILITY
I think it’s the defensive fanbase, not passionate advocates for change in the games space, who are ‘too sensitive’ and obsessed with what they believe is ‘correct’.
http://www.edge-online.com/features/why-defensive-videogame-fanbases-display-the-exact-same-sensitivity-they-claim-to-abhor/
§
... the culture around video games is strangling the wider conversation of play and games as a medium.
/.../
This is a technophilic narrative of play and games, where we ‘evolve’ from Chess and Go to Mario and Halo. It’s a misnomer; design hasn’t advanced in a way that makes video games particularly special outside of being new. I find many of the questions and problems thinkers face is because we look to video games and the mainstream discourse on them as the totality of what can come of games.
http://www.mattiebrice.com/end-the-video-supremacy-of-games/§
Now it’s okay if your game is about setting up all these gunfights, but then don’t pretend it’s part of some great story. Everything has to be “real”! This happened with Mass Effect, when everyone got upset about skipping the combat, because then that means you didn’t earn the cutscene. “Earn every single story bit, you lazy bastard! Oh no, am I discussing my experience of Mass Effect with someone who didn’t earn it?” Same with Dark Souls; people told me I had to earn it but I didn’t have the time and I wasn’t interested in the difficulty, I was interested more in all the player messages and unpredictability. Games are this artform where this is so important, and I think it’s holding it back.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/08/level-with-me-thomas-grip/§
The whole purpose of introducing the distinction between abstract and concrete thinking (which is better understood as a continuum than a strict dichotomy) was to highlight the role of imagination as a limiting factor for participation in play of certain kinds.
http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/interview-chris-bateman-partii/§
From the inaccessibility of the Game Developer Conference to the toxic overtones of the Penny Arcade Expo, there hasn’t been enough space to accommodate the growing diversity of people interested in playing, creating, and thinking about games.
http://www.mattiebrice.com/and-queerness-for-all/
§NARRATIVE
... writers have no shortage of definitions for environmental narrative. I grabbed a handful at an IGDA panel on environmental narrative in 2010: Tom Jubert, writer for Penumbra: Overture (Frictional Games, 2007) and The Swapper (Facepalm Games, 2013), suggested it was the parts of the story told without dialogue; Rhianna Pratchett, writer for Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory, 2007) and Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics, 2013) said it was nonlinear, nonverbal storytelling; James Swallow, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal, 2011), said it was about discovery of the story – about the players finding out for themselves, rather than delivery of story through dialogue or text.
http://www.electrondance.com/the-beautiful-dead/
§WORK
While there are a great many “bad” people in the tech sector, I do think that alliances with workers on the “factory floor” of AAA production is productive and helpful for small games creators. They’re natural allies in that they are alienated from their labor which is extracted from them through long hours of crunch situated in incredibly abusive cycles of storm and stress that shave years off of their lives and provides incredibly poor (but decently compensated) lifestyles.
http://thiscageisworms.com/2013/11/05/indie-and-aaa-and-a-complex-relationship/
§SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD
If the true measure of new hardware’s worth is how stark the difference is between it and what came before, then this is the most next-gen game that 2013 has yet produced.
http://www.edge-online.com/review/super-mario-3d-world-review/
§FINAL FANTASY
“What is Final Fantasy?”
/.../
... the most accurate response to Karmali’s question might end up being: Final Fantasy is dead.
/.../
... if the storytelling that formed the core of the Final Fantasy experience is no longer in favor, at a time when Square Enix needs the brand itself to be bigger than ever, and the franchise to appeal to as many players as possible, is it even still possible to keep Final Fantasy relevant? Or is it more likely the case that whatever is carried over in the series, and preserved from its ashes, is something that, good or bad, just simply isn’t Final Fantasy anymore?
http://gamingvulture.com/2013/11/04/what-is-final-fantasy/
§ANTICHAMBER
As with a religious text, discussions could be had over issues of interpretation. Whether we find them in our world or a virtual one like Antichamber, we’re better off struggling with these words of guidance, even when perplexing, than we are ignoring them.
http://gamechurch.com/antichamber/
§WALKING DEAD
I’m interested in Season Two because I loved Season One, but I’m also interested in seeing how we talk about a young female protagonist in a terrible world. I’m interested in seeing what happens to her, how she’s treated when she meets others, and how we engage with those issues both in and out of the game.
http://www.samanthablackmon.net/notyourmamasgamer/?p=3942
§BROTHERS
The levels are designed not for their organic nature as a believable world. In fact, the fable-like nature of the story hides the fact that little about the geography makes sense. Instead the game is designed to allow the camera to work on its own, mostly independent of the player’s control while still meeting the needs of the player. Camera movement and framing are the other main methods—besides cutting—that convey information and meaning in film. These are the techniques that Brothers borrow and adapt for the video game medium’s own uses. The rest of the game had to be designed to accommodate this.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/176232-the-cinema-in-brothers-a-tale-of-two-sons/
I am now convinced that the virtues of clarity and craft, to which I had subscribed absolutely as a matter of course, impose significant limitations on our expressive potential that can be difficult to see until you play something like this.
/.../
A product, which is a special kind of designed work, has at least two intrinsic features. One is to perform the task for which it was made; the other is to convince you to buy it. (The next time you hear the phrase ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ ask yourself whether the dissonance you’re discussing might actually stand between ‘what marketing decided would generate money’ and ‘what the designers defiantly attempted to produce’.)
/.../
Punishing us for touching the Cross Guys even though that is exactly what we must do to proceed reeks of poor affordances; it seems to place the design at cross purposes, obfuscating the rules of the system and causing us to form an inaccurate cognitive model of how the game works
/.../
In their role as the protagonist’s jailers they must usually be avoided; in their role as the wielders of power, however, it is occasionally necessary to exploit them even when this does us harm. (The mechanics deceive, in other words, because they model deceptive power structures.) That the world forces some among us to use the ugliest of personal traits to their advantage would, in any other context, be considered a thoughtful bit of hard-won wisdom that speaks to the human condition. In videogames we are, for many discomforting reasons, unaccustomed to receiving such wisdom.
http://blog.brendanvance.com/2013/11/02/problem-attic/
§
It explains how in original chess draws are more and more of a problem and that high level play is becoming less and less interesting.http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2013/11/11/high-level-chess.html
Game 1 Viswanthan Anand vs Magnus Carlsen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_5Ko7QCi8
§
What if we take games, but re-frame them in other terms with other values? http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2013/11/games-without-gamers-imagining-indie.html
§ACCESSIBILITY
I think it’s the defensive fanbase, not passionate advocates for change in the games space, who are ‘too sensitive’ and obsessed with what they believe is ‘correct’.
http://www.edge-online.com/features/why-defensive-videogame-fanbases-display-the-exact-same-sensitivity-they-claim-to-abhor/
§
... the culture around video games is strangling the wider conversation of play and games as a medium.
/.../
This is a technophilic narrative of play and games, where we ‘evolve’ from Chess and Go to Mario and Halo. It’s a misnomer; design hasn’t advanced in a way that makes video games particularly special outside of being new. I find many of the questions and problems thinkers face is because we look to video games and the mainstream discourse on them as the totality of what can come of games.
http://www.mattiebrice.com/end-the-video-supremacy-of-games/§
Now it’s okay if your game is about setting up all these gunfights, but then don’t pretend it’s part of some great story. Everything has to be “real”! This happened with Mass Effect, when everyone got upset about skipping the combat, because then that means you didn’t earn the cutscene. “Earn every single story bit, you lazy bastard! Oh no, am I discussing my experience of Mass Effect with someone who didn’t earn it?” Same with Dark Souls; people told me I had to earn it but I didn’t have the time and I wasn’t interested in the difficulty, I was interested more in all the player messages and unpredictability. Games are this artform where this is so important, and I think it’s holding it back.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/08/level-with-me-thomas-grip/§
The whole purpose of introducing the distinction between abstract and concrete thinking (which is better understood as a continuum than a strict dichotomy) was to highlight the role of imagination as a limiting factor for participation in play of certain kinds.
http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/interview-chris-bateman-partii/§
From the inaccessibility of the Game Developer Conference to the toxic overtones of the Penny Arcade Expo, there hasn’t been enough space to accommodate the growing diversity of people interested in playing, creating, and thinking about games.
http://www.mattiebrice.com/and-queerness-for-all/
§NARRATIVE
... writers have no shortage of definitions for environmental narrative. I grabbed a handful at an IGDA panel on environmental narrative in 2010: Tom Jubert, writer for Penumbra: Overture (Frictional Games, 2007) and The Swapper (Facepalm Games, 2013), suggested it was the parts of the story told without dialogue; Rhianna Pratchett, writer for Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory, 2007) and Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics, 2013) said it was nonlinear, nonverbal storytelling; James Swallow, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal, 2011), said it was about discovery of the story – about the players finding out for themselves, rather than delivery of story through dialogue or text.
http://www.electrondance.com/the-beautiful-dead/
§WORK
While there are a great many “bad” people in the tech sector, I do think that alliances with workers on the “factory floor” of AAA production is productive and helpful for small games creators. They’re natural allies in that they are alienated from their labor which is extracted from them through long hours of crunch situated in incredibly abusive cycles of storm and stress that shave years off of their lives and provides incredibly poor (but decently compensated) lifestyles.
http://thiscageisworms.com/2013/11/05/indie-and-aaa-and-a-complex-relationship/
§SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD
If the true measure of new hardware’s worth is how stark the difference is between it and what came before, then this is the most next-gen game that 2013 has yet produced.
http://www.edge-online.com/review/super-mario-3d-world-review/
§FINAL FANTASY
“What is Final Fantasy?”
/.../
... the most accurate response to Karmali’s question might end up being: Final Fantasy is dead.
/.../
... if the storytelling that formed the core of the Final Fantasy experience is no longer in favor, at a time when Square Enix needs the brand itself to be bigger than ever, and the franchise to appeal to as many players as possible, is it even still possible to keep Final Fantasy relevant? Or is it more likely the case that whatever is carried over in the series, and preserved from its ashes, is something that, good or bad, just simply isn’t Final Fantasy anymore?
http://gamingvulture.com/2013/11/04/what-is-final-fantasy/
§ANTICHAMBER
As with a religious text, discussions could be had over issues of interpretation. Whether we find them in our world or a virtual one like Antichamber, we’re better off struggling with these words of guidance, even when perplexing, than we are ignoring them.
http://gamechurch.com/antichamber/
§WALKING DEAD
I’m interested in Season Two because I loved Season One, but I’m also interested in seeing how we talk about a young female protagonist in a terrible world. I’m interested in seeing what happens to her, how she’s treated when she meets others, and how we engage with those issues both in and out of the game.
http://www.samanthablackmon.net/notyourmamasgamer/?p=3942
§BROTHERS
The levels are designed not for their organic nature as a believable world. In fact, the fable-like nature of the story hides the fact that little about the geography makes sense. Instead the game is designed to allow the camera to work on its own, mostly independent of the player’s control while still meeting the needs of the player. Camera movement and framing are the other main methods—besides cutting—that convey information and meaning in film. These are the techniques that Brothers borrow and adapt for the video game medium’s own uses. The rest of the game had to be designed to accommodate this.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/176232-the-cinema-in-brothers-a-tale-of-two-sons/
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