So according to blogger the last time I actually posted anything on here was in march. Do you know what was in march? If you have been reading this blog at the time or now... or ever really, you would know that mass effect 3 released and caused a great and many splashes in many gaming focused communities. So that was 9 months ago. So what brings me back today? hmmmm?
Well this and that. Go ahead and check em out real quick - you'll need to know at least the basics to fully immerse yourself in my train of thought.
Welcome back! Hope you didn't get lost on the internet for hours wondering how you got started down the rabbit hole in the first place, so you may be asking yourself what story and a video game cover have in common. Or you may be really smart or smarmy and already have an answer. So here where it gets interesting.
The game cover is designed to give a consumer and idea of what they will get when they get home and open the game and start playing. Just like any industry this means that there is pop, indie, and various other genres to appeal to. Now imagine for a second you know nothing about a title in your hand except what the cover tells you. Does it say action? Does it move you in ways you can't yet realize and does it make you wanna buy it? For almost every cover art the answer is generally no. I'm sure that there is market data out there that like to believe that suggestive colors and poses, types and sizes can affect the purchase habits of a consumer. However most of the time a consumer falls into a couple different categories - either they know something about the game and what's in store for them, or they were told about it from a friend or an associate working there.
So the game informer article postulates that story is perhaps secondary to game play mechanics, that the way we dress up our mechanics shouldn't be the focus. In various articles Mr. Miyamoto has said that the story is not important, that game play is the star of the show - check it here for his exact words. So if one of the most famous people in game development history says that, maybe a budding game designer should re-evaluate how he looks at games. I see them as an amalgamation of all art - trying to desperately put together all the needed aspects to drive someone to continue playing a title through pixels, colors, story, purpose, reward, programming and sound. Perhaps I'm thinking too deeply about the actual conception of a title and should re-prioritize my view.
Now how is cover art and story connected? The cover really doesn't tell you as much you'd like about a game. Halo 4 is a great example of what a cover art can and cannot tell you about a game. Knowing nothing about the title you could tell its futuristic, it has guns and that you'll probably play as the machine dude on the cover. A great many of you might actually say," Dude you haven't even scratched the surface of what this game is about!" Now what does the cover tell you about the story? The same amount if not less, given that most people won't analyze a cover and will just a quickly move on to the next.
The entirety of this post is dedicated to really one thing - That is covers and story don't tell us anything about the actual game mechanics, the thing that actually is compelling us to play it. If a game controlled like crap and you felt less rewarded for your actions or didn't get what you were emotionally looking for out of it, then you stop playing. So my question for anyone reading this is go look at your favorite game cover and tell me if it tell you what you need to know about the game mechanics or story - if so tell me in the comments I'd like to see it from your perception.
