02.17.08
Mysterious spaces
Playing Thief 3 last night, it slowly dawned on me that my primary attraction to the virtual worlds of video games is the exploration of mysterious spaces. That probably takes some explaining, so get comfortable because this will be a long one. It has pictures though!
Remember back in the days of Jazz Jackrabbit and Wolfenstein 3D when all games had Secrets™? Secrets could vary from doors that looked like part of the wall and invisible holes in the ground where you could fall through if you stood still to props that served as triggers for bookcases sliding aside to reveal hidden rooms. My experience with action and platform games back then, though, is that the former type of secret was much more common: Hidden areas completely unmotivated in the fiction of the game. Why have a section of wall that slides away when you nudge it?
Deus Ex was one of the first games to consistently motivate its secrets in the fiction. Liberty Island, the first level in the game, has a couple of secret stashes: Two crates floating in the water under the dock, a sunken barge with equipment in its storage compartment, two containers full of medical bots. These are secrets that make sense - the crates were in a cage ostensibly meant for cargo storage, the barge was the ship that brought the ambrosia to the island before the NSF sunk it and made away with the cargo, and the medical bots are in storage containers, ostensibly about to be shipped into the UNATCO HQ or off of the island.
When you find a secret in Deus Ex, it doesn’t feel like a secret the developers placed there for you to discover, it feels like somebody in the game placed it there, out of the way, and you just found it by virtue of your inquisitiveness. Rather than being external to the fictional world of the game, these secrets are part of it. They aren’t really secrets, they’re just out of the way - they’re not expressly hidden from you, but you have to look around to find them. And since Deus Ex gives you skillpoints for exploration, there’s always an extra little nod from the developers when you find these areas.
Mysterious spaces is something the developers of the Hitman series are very good at as well. Hidden areas fit the Hitman games so well: The first part of a mission is often spent casing the locations, finding out how the level is laid out and looking for good places from which to snipe, ambush, or cause an “accident” to your target. The New Orleans mission The Murder of Crows in Blood Money is an excellent example of this, having a main outdoors area full of civilians and then a series of courtyards and alleys from which you can enter apartments and bars.
And Thief 3 is exactly the same, especially its city levels - you sneak around, trying to avoid the city watch, looking for shadows and niches you can hide in, all the while looking for the alluring glint of loot. In that way, it presses some of the same buttons as Wolfenstein 3D used to do: The nazi gold providing great motivation to find those hidden areas. But in Thief 3, the loot you find isn’t simply padding for your high score, it can be sold to your fences for money you can then use to buy equipment for your next mission - the reward is internal to the fiction. It all stays in the story, see? And of course another brilliant aspect of Thief 3 is that once you have the whole city figured out, you get the wall-climbing gloves and whole new spaces open up to you.
What these games have in common is a medium-freeform approach to level design. We’re not talking S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Oblivion here, the game is divided into a linear string of confined levels, but each of these levels (each of the pearls on the string) is an open area within which you may move freely. Hidden areas are perfectly possible to include in more micro-linear levels such as in Half-Life or Call of Duty, but it doesn’t give you (or rather: me) quite the same joy of discovery. And the funny thing is, because the levels are so open, the areas don’t even really have to be hidden. It can just be an open window leading from the street into an apartment or a locked door you can pick to find a storage room with goodies.
If pressed to explain this thrill of intruding on the privacy of fictional characters, I can come up with a few reasons. First of all it plays to a curiosity that I think most of us have - an urge to look behind the building facades we see every day. In games we have the freedom to do that - to break into homes and take whatever we please without fear of repercussions or (less selfishly) without hurting anybody. This overlaps with the compelling nature of mystery and adventure - we tend to enjoy finding things we weren’t meant to find or being in on secrets. Certain structures will feel more fascinating to explore than others: Breaking into a generic apartment and robbing the place is all well and good, but finding out that I can jump out the window on the second floor of a tavern and grab onto the balcony outside, which offers access to that apartment without having to sneak past the guard posted at the front door - that is the sort of thing that makes me smile broadly or perhaps even chuckle quietly to myself as I play.
So that’s why I love these intricate, open levels, and it’s why I tend to love the hub areas with safe zones more than I love the real missions where you’re trespassing everywhere. I love constantly moving between public spaces and prohibited spaces, sneaking off the beaten path populated by friendly NPC’s to explore the places where I’m not supposed to be. And fun as playing such games are, it’s even more rewarding to build those levels.
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 17:58
I’d say it’s pretty much the same thing that drives all kinds of geeks (eg. hacking something or exploring and collecting underground stuff like music and films). Obviously though people like that are a special breed and not something universal, inherent with mankind in general - which is why this kind of games never became the mainstream.
Jonas said,
February 17, 2008 at 18:05
Well I think some of the traits it appeals to (curiosity, urge to explore and discover) is something most people have, but it’s probably not everybody who choose their games based on it. Also I think there’s a lot of other factors that contribute to why the Thief and Deus Ex franchises never became the mainstream. Note that Hitman is mainstream, even if it’s on the periphery of the mainstream, and Hitman has a lot of this stuff.
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 18:21
“(…)it’s probably not everybody who choose their games based on it”
which is what I meant. Of course most people are curious about one thing or another but some are far more into exploration than others. I’ve only commented because although you didn’t write it explicitly I was under the impression that you see those mysterious spaces as something that fascinates most people the way it does with most DX fans. I think this is not the case.
Also I wouldn’t say Hitman is really mainstream, it’s (like GTA) well marketed and I think lots of people never really explore it but just go straight forward from quest to quest instead.
Jonas said,
February 17, 2008 at 18:25
How many units do you think you need to ship to be mainstream then? Because the Hitman games have sold several million
I wouldn’t know how most people play it though, so I can’t really take that into account.
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 19:34
Yeah, just like GTA it sold very well but still it’s not what we call mainstream, right? It takes much more than one successfull franchise to define the mainstream. It’s an exception and it’s not about exploration.
GTA is more about exploration but that’s also an exception. It successfully aims at one of the largest target groups ever, pubescent teenagers and young adults, while it gets incredibly much free publicitiy that sounds cool in the ears of exactly these people. It became cult because it broke some moral rules and it offered some quite unique gameplay. So this actually became some special kind of mainstream (like Tranatino) if you really want to call it like that but as we can see all the clones it provoked failed. It remains an exception that may have left some inspirations.
I feel really uncomfortable when I try to write about this because I know it’s more complex and I am lacking some important information but essentially you may agree that the mainstream still consists much more of games with pretty graphics but low complexity and depht. This missing depht includes those well thought out mysterious spaces you are referring to. The mainstream concentrates on a bombastic experience for everyone (like the CoD-series, which is still lovely because it’s so incredibly well executed) and not the extra content that someone may or may not discover someday. It’s not effective enough to spend development time into it, I suppose. On the other hand, there is this phony hardcore-community that almost always bases its opinion on these details that could be seen as admirable commitment by the developers. The love or hate of such a community may become a financial factor too but it’s unimportant for the quick buck, I guess.
The point is the reason for those games without “mysterious spaces” are a successfull majority is that the majority of gamers is not so much into exploration as you seem to be (and I am).
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 19:39
*needs edit-button*
Jonas said,
February 17, 2008 at 20:59
“you may agree that the mainstream still consists much more of games with pretty graphics but low complexity and depht”
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that, though it’s partially true. The mainstream is made up of many franchises, but two of those franchises are Hitman and Grand Theft Auto, agreed?
“The mainstream concentrates on a bombastic experience for everyone (like the CoD-series, which is still lovely because it’s so incredibly well executed) and not the extra content that someone may or may not discover someday.”
Apart from GTA and Hitman, the mainstream also includes Call of Duty, sure. But it also includes Civilization and a bunch of football games, which are mainly simulation. In the first-person storydriven department, it also includes Bioshock and The Elder Scrolls (at least Oblivion), both of which hinge on exploration. Bioshock and Oblivion both have plenty of mysterious spaces. Oh yeah and is The Sims still the best selling game ever? Not exactly a bombastic experience… though I wouldn’t think it has a whole lot of hidden areas either.
Anyway, I already agreed with you that most people don’t pick their games based on the openness/linearity of the level design, so we’re going out a tangent right now. And it’s a silly tangent too, because I did mention that mysterious spaces can easily be included in linear levels - Half-Life 2’s Buggy-levels are great examples of that
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 21:52
As you’ve said there are all sorts of games that make up the mainstream and the majority of all the games that rank in the Top 20 of the sales charts, which represents the mainstream IMHO, just don’t contain noteworthy mysterious spaces - as far as I can tell.
Just don’t look at them as something that usually intrigues most of all the players. That was pretty much all I wanted to say.
Actually it sometimes can be annoying to know that there are things hidden but unfortunately you haven’t discovered much by simply playing the game your way. You can’t help to think about what you may have missed. IIRC you wrote about something similar in reference to MP achievements.
Shacker said,
February 17, 2008 at 23:00
Wait, there are TWO medbot crates on liberty island? Where’s the other one?
Also I enjoy optional exploration in DX because of the integration into the fiction you mentioned, stuff like finding a repair bot in a boat in hong kong was really cool (it also gave me the horrifying realization that they’re willing to have things stored in cardboard boxes though) especially since I even found a datacube talking about it later. I don’t think I’m nearly as thorough as some people must be (I actually missed the fake floor in Alex’s office the first time I went to Unatco this run, even though I knew exactly where it was :X)
I don’t know how important I’d categorize exploration in games for me though, I think it’s just one facet of my appreciation for attention to detail.
Jonas said,
February 17, 2008 at 23:24
“Actually it sometimes can be annoying to know that there are things hidden but unfortunately you haven’t discovered much by simply playing the game your way. You can’t help to think about what you may have missed. IIRC you wrote about something similar in reference to MP achievements.”
But is it better to not include optional spaces at all, essentially giving the finger to the players who want to explore? You can’t please everybody, fox. You do have a point about my stance on MP achievements, but on the other hand I’ve never managed to get 100% loot in a Thief 3 mission yet, even on my second playthrough, and you don’t see me complaining about that. I’m at a loss to explain why the MP achievements bug me more, but they do.
Oh and the top 20 from this month’s PC Gamer UK: Football Manager 2008, CoD4, Crysis, CM2008, The Sims 2, WoW: Battle Chest, The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, UT3, The Orange Box, Simcity Societies, C&C3: Tiberium Wars, Gears of War, Dawn of War Anthology, MoH: Airborne, The Witcher, Medieval 2: Total War, World in Conflict, Empire Earth 3, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, Age of Empires 3. My point? No idea
But yeah you’re right, it’s not a major selling point in games. I don’t believe I ever claimed that, and I think I even pointed that out in one of my comments above. So what the hell are we debating, fox? WHAT ARE WE DEBATING!?
(What the hell is with the manager games though!?)
Jonas said,
February 17, 2008 at 23:33
Oh and Nick, I assume the medbot container you already know about is the one just to the left as you leave the docks at the beginning. The other one is on the other side of the statue:
Clearly the best and most mysterious space in all of Deus Ex (which is saying quite a lot) is the sunken section of Canal Road in Hong Kong - ludicrously hard to find on your own, yet quite elaborately constructed and thoroughly implemented in the game’s fiction.
fox said,
February 17, 2008 at 23:55
“So what the hell are we debating, fox? WHAT ARE WE DEBATING!?”
Dunno?! Uh…huh?! Must have something to do with…ah…manager games, right?
Jonas said,
February 18, 2008 at 01:00
Yes, manager games. Lol silly people buying the same game every year, lol.
Shacker said,
February 18, 2008 at 08:15
Damn that hidden medbot!
I found the sunken part of the canal road on accident this playthrough, it was weird. I knew it existed but I had no recollection as to where it was until I went through and went “holy shit, water!” or something to that effect.
Jonas said,
February 18, 2008 at 12:04
Hong Kong has most of my favourite hidden spaces, but Paris also has a good deal of them, such as the apartments you can break into, among other things interrupting a domestic dispute. I also didn’t find the Icarus phone call until I cheated my way to Paris specifically looking for it after my second playthrough a few years ago
fox said,
February 18, 2008 at 19:53
Offtopic and awesome:
http://kotaku.com/357671/the-witcher-gets-enhanced
Jonas said,
February 18, 2008 at 20:35
Aye, I saw. Very cool
Daniel said,
February 23, 2008 at 17:37
Not to start the arguement again but IMO Hitman and GTA are very mainstream. Also my research suggests that all so call hardcore gamers enjoy exploration and discovery, though most prefer the less taxing exploration of the main plot. Going out of your way to discover areas takes more effort, however even when you don’t, discovering a secret area in say Tomb Raider, is still a huge joy even if you weren’t looking for it.
Jonas: You’ll find a load of a Christopher Alexander’s Patterns look at this sort of thing from a real world perspective. Of particular interest to you Paths and Goals [120], Path Shape [121] and Secret Place [204]. I had actually thought there were some better ones but I don’t seem to be able to find them now.
re The Witcher: It looks like you’ll have to buy it again if you already have it.
Jonas said,
February 23, 2008 at 17:47
I’ll really have to give APL a read, huh? It’s just so big and intimidating. It’s definitely not unique to games though, I remember having secret places as a kid. Thick bushes in the park with enough space between them to hide a couple of kids, spaces behind containers where nobody ever looked, etc. Even now I relish walking around in central Copenhagen looking for narrow passages between buildings.
Do you have a link about that Witcher thing? Last I heard they were going to offer it up as a free download if you owned the game, so what you’re saying comes as a surprise to me.
Narcissism Incorporated » Fixing the Sewers said,
July 31, 2008 at 20:26
[…] the map were hidden simply by virtue of the map being so big and intricately structured. I believe I’ve mentioned it before, the sense of a “secret” that’s grounded in the fiction of the world, rather than […]