In my last post I wrote about a few things that draw me to various video games. One was a sense of freedom and stress-less escape, the other was the harnessing of arcane powers in a fictional world. This post is about that second one, as I covered the first one in the other post.
After asking myself what aspects of games interest me I quickly arrived at the shooting of fireballs and slinging of spells. I arrived quickly, but got stuck there. What about that is fun? What part of being magical interests me? Is it power? I don’t think so, because even in a situation where I am constantly surrounded by more powerful characters I still enjoy the spells. Even if I have little influence over the world, the fact that I can do something in this world that is pretty much impossible in real life is still fun. Although, it’s not purely being able to do the impossible, either. I can’t leap over skyscrapers, I’m no superman, but doing it in a game doesn’t sound that interesting. Certainly it’s not a particular elemental nature, because shooting fire, water, ice, etc. all sound equally cool.
The obvious answer is simply, “because magic.” On the surface it seems like the cool thing about being magical is just that, being magical. Even typing this sounds redundant, but I mean it. Just being magical and mystical is very cool. Here comes the problem, though. Using an example such as the Harry Potter series, which is full of magic, I can point out a flaw in the “because magic” argument. I have tried to imagine having a wand, going to Hogwarts, casting spells and learning the words. After all, who hasn’t? Many people would surely do anything to dive head first into this world through more than the pages of a book. I’m not one of them. Did I enjoy the books and movies? Absolutely. Would it be amazing if that world were real? Undoubtedly. There’s just one snag, though. Something about having a wand and having to utter a spell detracts from the magical experience. I’d rather the act of doing magic be as fluid as thought.
The series Avatar: The Last Airbender was a great portrayal of a spell-less magical world. The ability to bend the elements to your will was accomplishable through just thought (though typically through movement as well). It was a merger of person and magic, so much so that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. I would take this world (minus genocidal hot-heads and their meteor) over the Harry Potter universe any day.
When video games give us that fluid magic-to-person ratio that is what appeals to me. I’m not talking about the video games based on the Avatar shows, those are terrible. Those games have an all-too-simple button-meets-spell framework. The magic and spell work needs to be fluid and changing. I’ve never played Dragon’s Dogma, but from what I read and watch it appears to be a good representation of mystifying the fictional abilities, and combining it with the world around you. I would love to see the destruction of Red Faction: Armageddon and the spell framework of Dragon’s Dogma in a single game. Throw in the ability tree of Path of Exile and the difficulty/reward scaling of Diablo 3 while you’re at it. These components, if done correctly together, could turn into a game that I could see myself drowning entire weekends into.
I can dream, but a game that does all these things flawlessly may not be seen for a long time, if ever. In any case, I’ll keep waiting, and maybe I’ll get Dragon’s Dogma sometime soon.
Originally published at kionay.wordpress.com on April 28, 2016.
