‘Starchitect’ Theory and Thoughts Towards Video Games

Over the past few days I’ve been considering what to write about for this week’s entry.  Recently I have found myself not being 100% what to write about or needing to know a lot more about a topic to give it a proper assessment (North African Kasbahs being one of them).  However, like those odd ideas that you have at 2am this one came across while thinking about something somewhat unrelated; the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry in Bilbao, Spain. 

The Guggenheim is an iconic structure from 1997 that has been heralded as a moment for architecture, culture and society to coexist within the context of a super-modern aesthetic.  Its flowing structure is rather striking and personally makes me think of a modern, modernism (reinterpretation of 1920s Modernism) if one could be allowed to say such things.  Personally, I’ve not been too informed on the piece because as with my history, I’m pretty much a ‘bottom-up’ theorist and find a lot of my interest in things like housing projects and the sorts, but a term used to describe the Guggenheim did get me thinking. 

You see, I had originally looked at the Guggenheim recently due to a couple job postings for museum staff and I was interested what level of involvement they entailed.  As with all my job hunting, I look to do research into the site and its archives through a varied mixture of the official press and opinion pieces, but an interesting discussion appeared on the subject of ‘Stararchitects’ which naturally has some crossover with other forms of art.  For those of you not aware of the term, ‘Stararchitects’ describes pieces of Architecture (or Architects themselves) that get risen to the status of fame and celebratory note, where people can align themselves with a fan mentality.  During my studies of architecture, the general census from my fellow students was that of Corbusier and his greatness (which of course the guy is very influential), but aligning with my previous viewpoint I found interest in his housing concepts and how I could discuss it alongside theorists.  I can very much remember visiting Villa Savoye in France during my 1^st year field trip and upon being asked what I felt about it I gave a response of respect, but of a reserved nature to which my tutor replied with, what I felt, was a combination of dislike and surprise.  Since then, I’ve kind of built a bit more respect for the piece but for me the human side through interaction has always grasped my interest which I hope to present here in some fashion. 

(Anyway, towards games)  If you take this concept you could probably attach it to any form of media, but I feel games have a unique way to show this through the combination of multiple factors which I hope to discuss here. 

Originally I felt there were three rough ways that games present high-regard in today’s world: the individual, the presenter and the genre.  The individual is what I would call the auteur designers or influential people making games for a particular studio.  To give a couple examples we can say David Cage or Roberta Williams.  These people attain significant recognition for the work they do for a specific area which they become known for.  For these examples, their genres of cinematic/narrative/action and point-and-click/80-90s adventure games define them where it may seem odd to discuss them outside of these genres.  Lastly, their companies of Quantic Dream and Sierra are known for these people and for these types of games and that’s what gives them high regard and status as a piece of the history of video game culture. 

In today’s world, there are examples that follow this and add to the extent that we can create both positive and negative connotations of the ‘Starchitect’ theory.  One of which is Ubisoft where the name has become ubiquitous with yearly open-world franchises that follow a ‘theme-park’ selection of mini-games and collectables to engage the player.  Another can be Bioware, with fantasy RPG’s with a strong narrative base, mature elements and recognised voice actors like Jennifer Hale.  On the complete opposite of this, Activision publish the Call of Duty series that has defined a multiplayer generation even beyond its FPS construction bring quasi-mmo progression into the larger public eye (of course, mmo-style progression was done before this in titles like battlefield 2 but CoD is the big one). 

When I look at other forms of media like film, I may see directors with specific genres or production companies with very specific stories, but I don’t necessarily feel that they all come together as often as in the earlier days of cinematography.  If I were to think of an example I would probably say Hammer Horror but if you are more versed in film media please feel free to comment as I would like to discuss this concept. 

To bring this to a conclusion, it’s in our nature to recognise trends in a number of fashions, but I believe that games have been able to find their own little way of showcasing this topic and continue to reinvent its meaning.  Recent years has seen the YouTube personality come into the fray as our method of consuming content has significantly changed with the advent of higher speed internet and I will be interested to see how the grow culturally along with the media of video games.  

“Keep running up that hill” Player Interaction and Accomplishment

A couple weeks ago I discussed my thoughts behind how man-made mountains of architecture can have a connection to game design.  Today I want to take a piece of that theory and see how it’s been used to show challenge and accomplishment in games throughout my time enjoying this medium. 

I’ve recently been helping a couple people in my local museum on the subject of architecture in New-Town Britain (post war 1950s+) in which we’ve talked primarily about the large amount of experimentation that was going on.  One of these examples was Bishopsfield in the 1960s; a residential area of flats, maisonettes and open-plan living spaces that featured an interesting street layout.  The Core block, which featured flats and the majority of the communal space, sat high on the landscape while the channels of homes splintered into narrow streets on a gentle slope to the surrounding landscape.  Although this piece is somewhat modelled on a North-African / Moroccan setting, is does have a polarising view from residents and architects alike.  For me, I find it interesting because it reminds me of a prison bloc in that you have the central guard tower high up against the rows of cell-blocks cowering underneath it forever under its watchful eye.  With all these views taken into account it did make me think about vistas, viewpoints and the use of height in architecture, which naturally brought me to the man-made mountain theory and finally to here. 

So for a game, what does a hill do?  Gives height to an area for the purpose of a vista; a defendable position that needs to be held from an encroaching horde; a natural border to the landscape to push the player to another objective; or an objective itself to overcome in a varied numbered of ways.  When I looked through my time playing games, I considered a mixture of these views, but what commonly came up were that of the antagonist and that sense of overcoming an obstacle which has been presented to us.  Here are a couple examples of what I’ve experienced over my time in gaming:

MediEvil (PSX) – Level 3 Cemetery Hill

Rocks slow your progress as you climb the hill to complete the level (Image from Medievil Wiki)

MediEvil is one of the games on the PlayStation that I loved playing many times throughout my childhood; being a mix of combat, plat-forming and mild RPG mechanics that many games of the time used.  I have never owned a Nintendo console, so I never got to play games like Mario, Banjo Kazooie, or the Legend of Zelda so MediEvil holds that feeling that these games may have for you.  In regards to hills, MediEvil has an early level called Cemetery Hill that tasks the player (Sir Daniel Fortesque) go after the antagonist (Zarok) up a steep hill upon which sits an asylum.  Zarok turns to animate nearby stone gargoyles that start chucking boulders down the hill’s path to impede the player in their progress.  The player then must use a combination of movement, safe-spots and attacks with a club to get around these obstacles and reach the end-point at the entrance of the asylum which features the game’s first boss.  The hill in this case has a visual representation as something to climb up to achieve a goal and overcome a challenge to which physical obstacles are placed much like a feudal encampment with its raised sections, wooden walls and elevated keep. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – SafeHouse and Heat

Heat and the hill featuring both going down the hill and up it while the chaos ensues  (Image from google search) 

I did originally put down my experiences of earlier war games charging up the beaches in Normandy, but I feel like that example is a bit too similar to the MediEvil one.  With CoD however, I feel it still has that feeling of the charge and a challenge to overcome with the physical representation behind a bit more subtle.  I understand CoD and subtlety aren’t usually connected with its Hollywood-esc action scenes but in this context I feel it does it well.  The first mission (SafeHouse) is a stealthy approach up the hill at night to find one of the antagonists of the game hiding in Azerbaijan.  The movements are slow and the gradient change has a similar feeling going through the set pieces.  The players have a similar experience next with the brilliantly designed “All Ghilled Up” but upon returning to the present timeline we’re met with a frantic reimagining of “Safehouse” called “Heat”.  This mission deals with the player having to take on enemy reinforcements coming up the hill to clear a suitable area for extraction by helicopter.  At this point, going up the hill has been replaced by the notion of getting down the hill while dealing with the presented challenge via a couple of different means (guns blazing, stealth, etc).  Being at the top, one could imagine we have the sight advantage, but much like the earlier MediEvil example, those enemies have things to hide behind and fortify giving us a kind of a role-reversal situation where this hill that we achieved has been turned against us.  When playing this game, I played it on its hardest difficulty setting (if I remember correctly that was veteran) so the mass of enemies combined with the limited health-pool was met with a challenging experience that took me a decent number of tries to accomplish. 

Dear Esther – The Tower

The Tower and its glow an ever present hill to climb (Image from steam screenshot library)

I have mentioned Dear Esther in my previous man-made monuments piece but it has some bleed over to this.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to play “Journey” on the PS3 as I haven’t owned a console since the PS2 but if you have you will probably see some similarities.  The Tower is an ever-noticeable symbol in this game in that it represents an objective to attain at a foreseeable future to the player.  It is this game’s hill (beyond its natural hills that are present throughout the time of play) in that the visual representation is something to overcome while the story narration builds –up to an event like a peak. 

With all this being said, I come back to my post-war residential block of Bishopsfield and think ‘where do you fit in all this?’  To be honest I’m not sure where to place it, but if I had to it would probably align itself with a stealthy piece of gameplay like Metal Gear Solid.  That being said, I may be thinking too literal with the guard tower design theory I mentioned earlier.  Hills are challenges that can manifest themselves as both physical and physiological items and I task you to think about it next time find yourself interacting with such a space both in-game and in the world we live in.  

The Joy of Exploration: Coins, Badges and a Jumping Puzzle Drydock Scratch

This is somewhat becoming a running theme with me where I plan to write on the Monday and don’t get to it until Friday, but having IRL commitments does put a spanner in the works unfortunately.  I had planned to write something a couple days ago on my next topic, but I didn’t want to jus rush it out and not give it a proper post.  Because of this, I want to take a little bit of time talking about an early morning playing Guild Wars 2 last Tuesday. 

As I have mentioned in the past, one of the biggest draws for me in MMO games (as well as single player games) is the feeling of exploration when going into new games or pieces of content.  It’s a factor that can potentially save a game with mechanics that I’m not fond of or that I have great difficulty with.  Finding out “What’s around the next corner?” or “What’s over the next hill?” ties into that natural curiosity which can come from both physical actions and in-game.  As it may come across, I’m quite the curious person and as such would like to travel the world, experience other cultures and learn new languages; so on a similar level when I find myself finding a large cavernous area I never knew existed in GW2 I want to just forget my previous intentions and explore. 

This area in question features in the Silverwastes (one of the new maps brought out during living story season 2) where after clearing a skritt camp taken over by bandits, I find myself under the map with a large ship precariously positioned over a dark void of nothingness.  This area signalled the start of the “Drydock Scratch” jumping puzzle.  

For those who aren’t aware of, a jumping puzzle is a platforming mystery that tasks the player with reaching an end chest through a series jumps, leaps and logic solving through item collection.  These puzzles can vary in size, from single structures like “Under New Management” to multi-staged monoliths like “Hidden Garden” and can sometimes have a polarising view from players due to the potential pitfalls and lengthy retries.  I for one love these puzzles, so being met with this challenge even in the early hours of Tuesday evening / Wednesday morning pushed sleep to one side as I took in my surroundings.

Progress for this puzzle started off slow, seeing a number of potential places to go and a cavalcade of golden badges littering the surrounding area giving me a mixture of confusion and intrigue.  This mixture of feelings kept with me as a chose a path and started to encounter large rock formations, more badges and milestones which somewhat informed me that I was going in the right direction; even thou I could see a number of other opportunities to take whether they be intentional or not.  Being an engineer and having access to a rifle, the combination allows the player to use a ‘leap shot’ ability which has allowed me to skip parts of puzzles in the past. 

I continued on, finding more milestones and gaining a bit of verticality when suddenly I was met on the top of a mesa-like formation overlooking the map of the Silverwastes.  At first my thoughts were that of relief as it seemed I was making clear progress to a goal, but on the other hand a sense of still being overwhelmed by the land mass.  I continued into my ~20-30 minute journey when I started to see other players below me going about their events defending one of the forts for the meta, only for it to hit me what this meant.  Pressing M to see the map I noticed that I was half way across the map, a sizeable distance from where I started covering a lot more land than what a normal puzzle would present itself with.  This made me think “how far does this thing really go?” as I spend the next 30 minutes continue to explore this ‘map within a map’ collection the golden badges and trying to figure out how to get around, before realising that it was rather late and I was needing to get up in just a few hours.  Although I didn’t find the finishing point on this occasion, it entertained me for this hour period and that is one of the many ways in interact with this medium of games. 

This feeling has similar reactions when it comes to other game genres.  RPGs have that ‘one More quest’ 4x’s have ‘just one more turn’ and multiplayer shooters just one more round’.  In this jumping puzzle, it was ‘just one more badge’ or ‘just one more milestone’ and I’m happy that I was able to experience this piece of content very naturally beyond the thrall of day one explorers or through the use of companion guides detailing every turn.  I’ll probably look to have another stab at it tomorrow but for now, that was a pretty cool thing you did there. 

Next time, “running up that hill” physical and mental hills and viewpoints from architecture.