What happens when disbelief is reinstated.
Another day lacking in revision due to my total inability to work when not under immediate pressure. Tomorrow, I expect, will be busier.
Suspension of disbelief is a very odd thing. The human mind will gladly forego logic and reason if you can spin a good yarn. I notice it more and more in video games, rather than in books and movies.
I began thinking about this a few days ago when I got Pokemon Diamond (still hooked at 24 hours and 31 minutes in). Pretty much every Pokemon game starts with a warning by the player character's mother not to venture into the long grass just to the north of the small village in which you begin. Now, this makes sense, superficially. Wild Pokemon are in the long grass. They're dangerous. They could hurt the poor little boy.
Hang on.
He can't ever go into the tall grass? The tall grass directly north of his house that you have to go through to leave town?
As soon as you apply logic to it, you very quickly realise the implication that this boy (or girl if you prefer, in the later games), presumably in their mid-to-late teens, has never been able to leave their small, three house and one laboratory town until the day the game starts?
The same applies to a lot of other games. Now, I'm willing to ignore some stuff. FPS games, despite what Jack Thompson says, are not in any way like holding an actual gun. Obviously, the Superdy-duper Space Badass that the player controls has the skill with weapons. I'm willing to accept the simple levelling system in RPGs that allow small-but-destined farm boys to become god killing machines in 60 hours (80 if you do all the sidequests).
Even games like Trauma Centre make sense at some level. You, as the surgeon, have special medical skills and tools that are simplified for player interaction.
Then you get to games like Pheonix Wright. Now, I love this game. I intend to buy the sequel after my exams, when I have the money and can risk another highly absorbing game. This game has a lot of quirks. I'll go along with the three day trials and the psychics and the total lack of anyone with an ounce of sanity. I figure there are legal loopholes that let lawyers take vital evidence from crime scenes and present it, not to the police, but only at appropriately dramatic times in court.
But, really. What did Pheonix do at law school? I can come in and learn his entire job in about 30 seconds. And do it for him.
There are probably dozens of other examples and if you have any good ones, leave a comment. As for now, I have to sign off and contact Sam. He wants to try the Wi-Fi again so I'm temporarily trading him my Murkrow for a Misdreavus.
Suspension of disbelief is a very odd thing. The human mind will gladly forego logic and reason if you can spin a good yarn. I notice it more and more in video games, rather than in books and movies.
I began thinking about this a few days ago when I got Pokemon Diamond (still hooked at 24 hours and 31 minutes in). Pretty much every Pokemon game starts with a warning by the player character's mother not to venture into the long grass just to the north of the small village in which you begin. Now, this makes sense, superficially. Wild Pokemon are in the long grass. They're dangerous. They could hurt the poor little boy.
Hang on.
He can't ever go into the tall grass? The tall grass directly north of his house that you have to go through to leave town?
As soon as you apply logic to it, you very quickly realise the implication that this boy (or girl if you prefer, in the later games), presumably in their mid-to-late teens, has never been able to leave their small, three house and one laboratory town until the day the game starts?
The same applies to a lot of other games. Now, I'm willing to ignore some stuff. FPS games, despite what Jack Thompson says, are not in any way like holding an actual gun. Obviously, the Superdy-duper Space Badass that the player controls has the skill with weapons. I'm willing to accept the simple levelling system in RPGs that allow small-but-destined farm boys to become god killing machines in 60 hours (80 if you do all the sidequests).
Even games like Trauma Centre make sense at some level. You, as the surgeon, have special medical skills and tools that are simplified for player interaction.
Then you get to games like Pheonix Wright. Now, I love this game. I intend to buy the sequel after my exams, when I have the money and can risk another highly absorbing game. This game has a lot of quirks. I'll go along with the three day trials and the psychics and the total lack of anyone with an ounce of sanity. I figure there are legal loopholes that let lawyers take vital evidence from crime scenes and present it, not to the police, but only at appropriately dramatic times in court.
But, really. What did Pheonix do at law school? I can come in and learn his entire job in about 30 seconds. And do it for him.
There are probably dozens of other examples and if you have any good ones, leave a comment. As for now, I have to sign off and contact Sam. He wants to try the Wi-Fi again so I'm temporarily trading him my Murkrow for a Misdreavus.
Labels: alasdair, rant, videogames
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:03 PM
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