Shadow Idol: On chasing the unattainable.

[silveradept]

Super Mario Brothers, in addition to being a trope namer for many things, including the subject of this particular entry (In Another Castle), can, like many old-school arcade games, provide us with insight into our lives. It (and all of the various reimaginings of its core gameplay mechanic, including Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Great Gianna Sisters, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and so many more) presents us with a simple challenge - get to point B from point A, collecting treasures, avoiding or defeating enemies, and exploring the world for secrets. For a beginning player, mastery of being able to run and jump at the same time (or similar move-and-action controls) is the building block of the experience. Many players don't get into entire genres of games because they don't have the time to invest in learning the coordination. (Myself, I'm a horrible twin-stick shooter, so console FPS is outside my strengths.)

These days, it seems that the genre of casual games has appeared to appeal to the people who aren't able to get into the "hardcore" disciplines of platformers, real-time strategy games, first-person shooters, and multi-hundreds-of-hours RPGs and MMOs. I say seems because interactive fiction, visual novels, quiz games, and plenty of other "casual" games have existed for just as long as platformers and the rest. I played several incarnations of Jeopardy! alongside Hunt The Wumpus in addition to Atari games like Secret Quest and Breakout, for example. (And the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy celebrated the 30th year of its interactive fiction this year...while Nintendo released the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers a few years ago. So yes, there's lots of overlap.)

For platformers and beat-em-ups and shooters, the gameplay mechanics are usually the same - start simple, with only a few opponents that can be defeated by basic means, then ramp up the difficulty by introducing new ways of defeating things to deal with bigger grouping and new types of enemies, as well as puzzle-type segments where areas can be cleared through specific sequences of actions. All in pursuit of a goal, which can be as simple as "rescue the princess" or as complex as "stop inter-world conflict through gunplay and intrigue". Where games get interesting is that they like to dangle the goal right in front of you, right before pulling it away from you. Having beaten the level boss, you head into the capture room...

"Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!"

And thus, the adventure continues, because the Big Bad was just here, or you've been chasing the wrong lead, or while you were out, the forces of darkness came in and stole your love interest. Or because the President has been kidnapped by ninjas, and you didn't really think that you were Bad Enough to just go rescue him straightaway, did you?

Here's the other thing - I actually haven't received that specific message about princesses being elsewhere, because as soon as I knew how to get them, I hit the warp zones, since they allowed me to make the most progress in the shortest amount of time. (And on old Nintendo consoles, as I found out trying to play my way through Ninja Gaiden III, if you wait too long, the console starts to act up and make your game unplayable) I also had the power of the Game Genie, a cheat device that would allow me to alter values in the game memory so that I could have infinite lives, energy, or power-ups. (Having come to the consoles very late, I could take advantage of cheap things.) Being able to use both of those things was no guarantee of victory, but it certainly helped take any pressure off in terms of having all progress reset at the next game over.

As one might guess, the enjoyment of the game and the way it is played change based on whether you have access to cheat devices or guides to help you through the game. One life lost is more important when you have two than when you have ninety-nine. Or when you have infinite lives and health. Regrettably, we have yet to figure out the invincibility cheat, but I think some people have the infinite resources cheat.

All this is to say that every person has a preferred playstyle for games, and a preferred genre or five to play that speaks to them and their skills. I think many people have that same idea for the life they would like to live, but unfortunately, we don't get nearly enough practice at the skills and scenarios that life throws at us to be able to play our preferred game, and many of us start without the benefit of resources or the cheat codes that let us get more. And without access to our stat sheets - apparently, all our values are hidden.

So, I can only offer the following benediction: may the things you seek actually be in the other castle.

Comments

[redsixwing]

I love these allegorical posts so, so much. (Though normally I have little of any intelligence to say in comment.)

I've been playing a game recently in which the plot events are artificially spread out by means of long, boring level grinds required to even get in the door. This irritates me - I do enough level grinding, do I not? - and causes me to think that my time may be better spent looking for ways to automate the grind, or use abilities I already have to amplify one another such that mere power is not the be-all and end-all. Still, I hate to spend so much effort for so little payout.

The benediction is lovely. Here's to rewards at the end of the quest.

[silveradept]

Here, here.

A good level grind affords opportunities to practice skills and learn new ones along the way. This feels more like you're stuck in the post-game, where you have to tediously grind out levels and materials so that you can face Bonus Bosses.

Or you're in a Dragon Quest game, because those level grinds are painful.

[redsixwing]

Hee!

Not every boss should be a bonus boss requiring a tedious grind. (Bravely Default I am looking DIRECTLY AT YOU)

[silveradept]

Nor should bosses be sprung upon unwary players without indicators or save points.

[marahmarie]

As one might guess, the enjoyment of the game and the way it is played change based on whether you have access to cheat devices or guides to help you through the game.

I stopped playing purely visual games 20 years ago when I got tired of defeating them. I got so good at Super Mario, Pac-man, Rubik's cube that I knew all the shortcuts, twists and turns by heart (without guides, without cheats, and without reading a single book). And once I got that far, it bored me. Games were no fun once I knew how to win; the enjoyment was all in the puzzle-solving, in the guessing at strategy, in the challenge. In the mystery of what was still left to learn.

This applies to life in general: anything I'm really good at it I'll grow bored with and stop doing. So now you know what I'm not good at...but seriously, it scares the crap out of me to think I'll ever master what I currently enjoy, like writing, coding, cooking, playing Scrabble, because I'm afraid if I ever get too good at any of it, like everyone is looking at me and going, "Oh, expert, brilliant" like they did with the games I eventually abandoned out of boredom, that I'll just quit doing it all. :)

[silveradept]

The good thing about many of those hobbies, though, is that they don't really have a defined endpoint or level of maturity that says "I'm just too good at this." They tend to have higher tiers always ready for someone to challenge.

I wonder what you would think of procedurally generated or randomized games, where things are still mostly the same, but that their placements or puzzles are different every time.

[marahmarie]

I think those would be excellent for someone like me to indulge in because the risk of boredom would hover near-zero and the challenge would constantly be there. The only fly in my ointment might be how my perfectionist self might get frustrated in wanting to go back to correct mistakes I made in the last random game that I didn't see or think to correct until it was over - but of course it would be too late, with the new iteration in front of me. Also, being me, there's always the risk that if the games aren't random enough, I'll eventually pick up patterns between them and defeat them all in the long run. :/

[silveradept]

Well, many of the random games, like roguelikes, have you develop general strategies and knowledge to increase your odds of success against the RNG and the unknown unknowns, but there's always the possibility that something gets dropped in your lap that you cannot actually handle. Which could be highly frustrating to the perfectionist - playing the perfect game is still no guarantee of success.

[marahmarie]

To me - and it seems like nothing, really - but the perfect game, or damn near close to it, is MS XP's old Internet Reversii. You have basic rules and understand its challenge, but the other player will always make unexpected moves; sometimes you can win simply by psyching your opponent out (or the opposite, you realize you are the one being psyched out until you choke - bad). I never got tired of it; it was always a good way for me to blow off steam while on hold or defragging Aesop or whatever. Unfortunately my current copy of XP doesn't have Games installed and I'm not buying MS's old Plus! pack just to get it, so...

I'll google "rouguelikes", though, when my eyes begin to cross again from coding later on this evening. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

[silveradept]

Sounds like you'll have a blast with them, then. The biggest and most sense and least friendly of them, NetHack, is free, and its complexity is in the range of "people can play it seriously for years and never get close to completing it". So, many happy games to you.

[marahmarie]

Googled it just now; do you play it online? Where specifically?

[silveradept]

Nethack can be played online on a variety of servers, some of which may have their own modifications to the game in place. You can also download it for just about any platform that you want to and play it offline.

[redsixwing]

Oh goodness I loved Reversi.

Online Reversi is even better.

Have you ever played Go?

[marahmarie]

No, I never did. Googled it, though, and it looks interesting. :)

[silveradept]

Go would be an excellent game for you - there aren't many computer programs that play it well, and it's a game with so many permutations that you really have to be able to read and respond to your opponent while also putting your own plans into place.