Time for Something Completely Different

I can't tell you why people play videogames, merely offer suggestions.  Maybe it has something to do with escapism, the need to have something out of the ordinary -- a distraction -- in our routine lives.  Maybe it's a way to find a few hours of entertainment not found in other forms such as reading a book, watching a movie or even playing a board game.  To some, perhaps they are nothing more than a way to kill time.  The reason I take the time out of most of my days to sit and play a game is that I want a unique experience.  I want something that makes me look back fondly on my time with that game.  There are not many games that achieve this.  I don't mean to say there are only a few good games in the world, but rather to offer the question: how many games have you played that made you feel good about yourself?  I imagine not too many.

I aim, more directly, to question the feelings inspired through videogames.  There are games that can shock and others that can impress, but what games are there that make you feel at peace?  Serenity is not a common goal of game developers.  People usually want action and excitement, coupled with blood and gore, to make them feel more than human.  Things presented in videogames are almost never things found in reality.  Is that true also for what the videogames inspire in us?  Surely you can be proud of your life's achievements just as easily as you can of your gaming achievements.  I also have no doubt that a game can create feelings of love within the player or feelings of hate.  Are these feelings different because they're triggered by a world of fantasy?  What is your own perception of life if not a fantasy?  Videogames can imbue us with feelings that are perhaps more real to some than their actual lives.  But back to the feeling in which I am most interested: peace.  I don't know of many games that can be considered peaceful or even calming.  Flower comes to mind, but only the first half, and also an old Flash game called Boomshine, which involves some strategy and possibly frustration.  I obviously don't know of every game, but I would indeed be shocked if there was such a game that could bring about acceptance and peacefulness.

Videogames are inherently active.  You can't have a game where the point is to be at peace.  There is no game that doesn't require some amount of action, even if that action is balancing on a small piece of plastic, as in the "meditation" minigame of Wii Fit Plus.  Even if such a game existed, I'm not sure if it would then fit the definition of a "videogame."  There are games that simulate life.  Games like Second Life, EVE Online (for a futuristic lifestyle), or even games like The Sims can open up worlds with no set objectives or stories that drive the player to some end-goal.  These games are marvelous steps for gaming in a direction not usually treaded by other developers.  Players seem to care about their characters or online jobs more than they care about other people in the real world.  But then again, who defines what's real?

The act, if one can call it such, of being at peace is not possible in videogames and, commonly, not an option for people in their lives.  Serenity is possibly not an option for people who do anything other than attempt to gain a grand sense of acceptance and tranquility.  It may be unfair for me to hope for that feeling to come from videogames.  I think I feel the most calm or peaceful when I'm sitting comfortably, reading for personal enjoyment and accompanied only by silence.  It's a wonderful feeling to have nothing to do other than taking the time to enjoy yourself.  I have heard happiness defined as "the state of wanting nothing," but I'm not sure whether I agree.  There are times when I want to do nothing, times when I want nothing. Those are not times when I feel happy, but lethargic and bored.  Videogames are able to influence a person's life; I would argue much in the same way a novel or film could also influence someone.  Can these mediums cause a person to be happy?  Is there a game that allows people to want nothing?  I'm not sure that can ever be the case.  One must find certain things in life and nowhere else.  I would suggest "peace" as one of those things.

Non-Violent Does Not Mean Non-Good

For those of you who don't know, which I'm sure is not many of you, the Supreme Court -- like really, the Supreme Court -- has been hearing arguments on violent video games.  Strangely, this case started in California, one of the most liberal, free-thinking states out there.  Think about it.  Where do you go if you want to escape being persecuted for your crazy-ass lifestyle?  California.  More specifically, maybe San Francisco.  That's the reputation we have at least.  Anyway, I am more than confident this case will come out with gaming on top.  The courts have always sided with free speech, so if they started censorship with videogames, it wouldn't make much (any) sense.  With that being said, I am not here to talk about violence in videogames.  That's been done.  I am here to talk about games that don't have violence at all.  Games that have a protagonist, in some form to be sure since someone must be controlling something, but do not seem to have any antagonist.

Now, truthfully, an argument can be made for a protagonist and antagonist in every game.  Tetris: the player vs. whoever sends you down blocks; Flower: nature vs. pollution/industrialization; Sim City: the city vs. the world.  There are games that are more directly concerned with the hero defeating the villain, but, as you can see, there are also games that feature conceptual enemies.  Games where you may even hesitate to call them enemies.  Would it be a bad idea to have more games like these?  These games are more than one person defeating several armies worth of minions; they force you to attempt to understand something more complex than "bullet goes into head, I win."  Ok, maybe not Tetris.  That one is in a whole other genre with games that are more puzzles than anything else, like Peggle or Monopoly.  I would venture to say that these are all great games.  You may balk at Monopoly, but how many times have you played it?  How many years has it been around?  The answer to both of those question is "a sh*tload."

This is so exciting! I LOVE games without any action!

I would like to see more of these games.  Games like World of Goo, Braid, or flOw should fill the stores, both real and online.  I've gotten tired of games where I can mindlessly defeat mindless hordes of poor-operating AI.  Sure they can still be fun, but less often intriguing and rarely original.  Maybe that's because I am not an FPS gamer.  I prefer games like Mario or Zelda to Halo or Call of Duty.  "Adventure" just has a much nicer ring to it than "First Person Shooter."  I own a Wii, but I do not own The Conduit and I will not own Conduit 2.  There is no appeal for me in these games.  Surely, those shooters are the only kinds of games that would be under scrutiny if videogames lose the aforementioned case.  I guess my gaming tastes would still be satisfied if this happens, despite my moral outrage.  Good-ish news for me then.

Everyone else who has different views than me, however, will still be at a loss, right?  Not necessarily.  Perhaps this would give them the perfect chance to broaden their gaming experiences.  I know two people who live together and both have Xbox360s; between them, there is not one non-FPS title.  This disgusts me.  I cannot go to their house and watch them play anything because it's all the same, whether they're shooting aliens or terrorists.  If you absolutely refuse to acknowledge that these games are too similar, think about the controller set-up.  Is the right trigger always shoot?  Is A always action and B always melee attack?  It's the standard control scheme now in place for most shooters.  One could seamlessly switch between several games and not lose a step.  But to go from Flower to Sim City or from Peggle to Minecraft?  Who will see any connection between those games?  As a side note, Minecraft can be switched to "peaceful" if you just want to build without any annoying enemies sneaking up on you in the dark.  Maybe it's not possible anymore to have such variation in FPS games.

Oh Man! This game is WAY better than that other, generic shooter we just beat!

The point here, if you haven't picked up on it already, is that you don't need violence to make a game good.  You don't even need to have a strong antagonist.  If the title has innovative gameplay, addicting mechanics, and/or a fascinating experience, that's more than enough to make an enjoyable game.  People who can't get enough of gunning down endless enemies should be aware that there are other games, most of which are rare gems in the gaming universe.  It's not often one will find something like Flower or Minecraft, but it seems games like Halo have become a dime a dozen.  Whether that's something that needs to change in game developers or something in the gaming community, I cannot say.

Flower

There are few things in this world that are worse than going to bed frustrated over a video game, such as cancerAIDS. I’m sure many of you know what I am talking about. That one impossibly difficult boss who smites you one second after you spawn. That door that requires a key you searched everywhere for but still cannot find it for the life of you. Or maybe just getting humiliatingly reamed without mercy in a versus match of Left 4 Dead, Brawl, Counterstrike, Mario Kart, or what have you.

YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, BLUE SHELL!

You begin to obsess over these obstacles and how much of your precious time you have dedicated to everything that it just seems to be a complete waste. You’re a failure. You suck at life. You suck at taking care of your dog that just starved to death because you forgot to feed it. Well, hopefully not that last one. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, you’re just too damn proud to admit it. Jerk.

These trials and tribulations are also what make a majority of video games so enjoyable. It can provide that feeling of relief like after finishing a ridiculously hard final exam; once it’s done you never have to deal with it ever again.

Knowing this, imagine a game developer talking to a big gaming executive as he tries to pitch a game that has little to no migraine inducing hardships, and which is not specifically geared towards kids. And it’s centered around botany:

Exec: “Lemme get this straight. You’re a flower petal…”

Guy: “Yes.”

Exec: “Okay. And your goal is to float around collecting other flower petals…”

Guy: “Right.”

Exec: “Is there a time limit or anything?”

Guy: “No, you go at your own pace.”

Exec: “Any characters? Story arcs? Boss fights?”

Guy: “Not really, kinda, and no. You just kind of float around collecting petals.”

Exec: “Float around collecting petals…”

Guy: “Yes.”

*Stony silence. Exec stares straight through guy.*

Guy: “You’re a flower petal.”

Exec: “No, I get it. Would you like some coffee?”

*Executive stands up and grabs coffee pot.*

Guy: “I’m actually not much of a coffee—“

*Exec unloads pot of boiling hot coffee on guy’s head. Guy’s face starts melting off.”

Guy: “OH MY GOD WHYYYYYYYY?????”

*Exec takes out cigar from his jacket’s inside pocket and starts smoking.*

Exec: “You people make me sick.”

That might be a somewhat exaggerated account of what happened, but the premise of the game discussed actually exists. It’s on PS3 from the indie game developers at thatgamecompany and it is named Flower and it deals with flowers! None of the traditional structure from typical challenge based games is to be found here. Exposition through dialogue or text is also nowhere to be seen. Instead, the game relies completely on telling its simple nature appreciation story through its serene images and soothing music. The result is one of the most relaxing, stress relieving, and simplest games ever made.

The game starts in the room of a decrepit city apartment where a wilted flower sits on a windowsill.

Once the flower is selected, it takes you to a valley that is riddled with various dead spots of grass. The goal is for the player to control the wind (all by tilting the controller) to blow the single flower petal through the environment to collect as many petals as possible. When the special flowers are collected, the dead patches in the valley come to life. This is the goal in every level, the main feature that changes being the environments explored. The levels lead the player eventually into a bleak, colorless industrial city overgrown with broken power lines and jagged metal clusters. After the six levels are complete, your apartment is now in filled with glorious color with a view of industry and nature living in perfect harmony. Yay!

The real world is a stressful place, so I found myself playing Flower for a good period of time, just letting it wash over me as I would decompress from another fruitless day of applying for jobs, even when my parents would glare at the television confused and worried about what I was doing (their expression pretty much asked “When are you going to kill something?”). The graphics look amazing, especially on a high definition television when every color on the spectrum is splashed on the screen. The soundtrack, which is synchronized with the pace the player plays the level, is also impressive and just full of that positive energy. In many ways this game is just like throwing in a tape of nature sounds, or better yet, being thrown into a roomful of puppies (or kittens, your choice)! I even felt compelled to complete all the PS3 trophy challenges, shamelessly giving myself another excuse to play the game.

If you are looking for a game that will not cause you any grief (because we are all such fragile beings *sniff*) and would like a wholly original gameplay experience then I could not recommend Flower more. If you want to blow $#%* up, decapitate zombies, or beat someone into a pulp, this game might offend you.

4/5 A Beautiful, Relaxing Game. Pretty Dope!