I stole the title of this post from Bill Clinton’s famous presidential campaign, It’s the economy stupid. After seeing Scenecaster’s new Facebook game Quest for Eternal Life, the title seemed fitting. I don’t mean to rip on Scenecaster it just exhibits the limited capabilities virtual worlds developers have to overcome, and in trying to overcome them we commonly go astray. Virtual worlds lack much of the functionality games take for granite (but should have in the coming years) and so the developers were correct to focus on the story and exploration. They use the classic game Myst, another development team trying to work around the limited capabilities of CDs (they were great at storing content but slow at retrieval). Using Myst as a model they create what amounts to an interactive story. Where The Quest for Eternal Life goes astray is the same place the Myst series went astray, with character.
The quick intro explains that you’re searching for an elixir with the power of immortality. I have to admit though after the intro I didn’t exactly play along, I just clicked about trying to see what was possible. Soon I had picked up two items (a potion and a pair of glasses) and was in another room. That was where my game came to an end.
My earlier strategy of clicking around failed me in this room. I put the glasses on the skull and opened the blinds but that was about it. Luckily they give you three clues to help you along, so I used one.
The glow of dawn’s light can lead you to knowledge.
What the heck does that mean? Oh right, it’s a game not expressly an interactive story. Either way, the clue only succeeds in frustrating me. I try and burn another one of my 3 precious clues.
You have your clue for this scene.
I call it quits.
How was it so easy to step away from the game? They never hooked me. Following Myst it is relying on three things to build interest.
- The challenge
- Exploration
- Story
I’m not a gamer so the challenge didn’t do it for me. The exploration could never be on par with that of a multi-million dollar video game. And the story never got started because story starts with character. You play the game in first person view so you never see yourself. I can’t feel any connection with the character I’m playing. There is no other character in the game, just the remnants of their existence. But really this is the same problem the Myst series ran into as Chris Crawford pointed out years ago.
A variation on this design is the interleaved story/puzzle, best exemplified by Myst. This game offered a classic adventure-style puzzle built into a kind of hidden story. The product’s popularity was boosted by the use of beautifully rendered 3D imagery. The result was a huge success, but Myst didn’t offer anything like true interactive storytelling. Players deduced the story from fragments picked up during their meanderings through the Myst world. The story itself was completely noninteractive, in no way responding to players’ actions. The most convincing demonstration of this approach’s futility lay in the declining success of the product line. Although each succeeding product in the line offered even higher quality, overall sales dropped off. The Myst concept was a fad, not an enduring solution.
One other problem of mixing games and story, and a classic problem with interactive story is that games are driven by the player where story driven by the plot. Like me, if you’re interested in the story you’ll most likely have a similar reaction when the game aspect intrudes. I don’t want to have to advance the story, I want it to advance me. I want the story to adapt to any odd thing I might do but I expect the story to catch up and lead me along again.
Screencaster made a noble attempt, but they forgot character. Character is the key to unlocking it all. Myst used graphics and novelty, the series however could not repeat the novelty. We watch super hero movies knowing the outcome because of character. Character is what hooks us. The problem is, it’s rather difficult to create character given the capabilities of virtual worlds of today.
Perhaps the hook, The Quest for Eternal Life was relying on was collaborative play. The opening screen does say:
You’ll Need Your Friends to Find Eternal Life
In the help section it goes even further.
Q: How do I send this game to my friends so they can play?
A: At the bottom right of the page you can select any one of your friends to join you playing The Quest for Eternal Life. Better yet, invite them all to play with you.
I unfortunately wasn’t hooked enough to invite any friends. It’s the character stupid.
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