Book Review: merritt kopas puts together a fascinating snapshot of Twine games in VIDEOGAMES FOR HUMANS

 

The rise of Twine games is one of the more interesting parts of the increased access folks have to the tools of game creation. For those who don’t know, Twine games are text-based games, usually rather short, usually covering personal and abstract topics and developed by only one or two authors. In this collection, merritt kopas (a writer, game dev and podcaster) brings together game creators, critics and writers to play through one Twine game each (curated by kopas) and comment on their playthrough. Since Twine games are primarily text-based, the game texts are reproduced in full on the page, separated from player commentary by font. It’s a really great idea and one that effectively turns Videogames For Humans into a book-length collection of Let’s Plays.

Press X to Hug: Aesthetic Reinforcement in Videogames

In recent years there has been a lot of writing on ludonarrative dissonance – the point where a game’s story and mood are disrupted by gameplay elements. Higher-profile examples include open-world games such as Watch_Dogs, in which the main character casually robs passers-by and leaves beaten-up crime suspects in back alleys, and yet builds a “reputation” as a people’s champion for his vigilante justice. This dissonance can lead to a breaking of immersion, and crucially, distort the moral aesthetic of the game. Today I’m looking at some instances of the opposite: features which exist primarily to enhance this player immersion, and reinforce the game’s aesthetic.

Raw emotion and musical imperfection: Comparing Casey LaLonde, Mom and Car Seat Headrest

I’ve been noticing a trend in my recent purchases on Bandcamp and the like: independent/unsigned artists who blend electronic beats and melodies and a smattering of traditional instruments with an overwhelming sense of emotional honesty. This ranges from the beautiful, layered electronica of Casey LaLonde’s Floating Rooms to the stripped-down confessional of blacksquares, particularly 3, her newest release as Mom. On the less electronic side of things are artists like Car Seat Headrest, whose latest album How To Leave Town features some of the most stark and evocative depictions of anxiety I’ve heard. All three of these artists work solo for the most part (there are guest appearances here and there), though LaLonde’s album features mastering by 3noneTwo.

Car Seat Headrest – How To Leave Town

In Nintendo’s whimsical fantasy world, I don’t exist

By now most of the Internet is aware of the upcoming Nintendo title Tomodachi Life, a Sims-style life simulator where player avatars interact in an expansive online world. They can play games, be best friends, go shopping, and even get married. That is, of course, as long as they’re not queer. When the original Japanese release included a bug that caused same-sex couples to appear, Nintendo called the result ‘strange’ and soon released a patch to erase this inadvertent feature. Of course, the glitch was causing other in-game problems, but the way the company discussed it was clumsy, and the implications were troubling. Two dudes or ladies getting hitched would simply break the game, because it had never been part of the code to begin with. Nintendo does not think queer relationships are abnormal, they just never considered our existence in the first place. So Nintendo’s all cool, right?

It would take a year to find out the answer: Nintendo confirmed earlier this week that the western release of Tomodachi Life would not include same-sex relationships. Cue sighs and further disappointment from a fanbase already tiring of the company’s paternalistic social attitudes. A month ago, a gay Nintendo fan called Tye Marini started a Facebook and hashtag campaign ‘#Miiquality’ in order to protest against the games giant’s decision to keep the straights-only world presented in Tomodachi Life. Nintendo could have just repeated the fact that the game was never coded to support such relationships. But they went further:

“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life. The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.”

– Nintendo Of America, speaking to the AP

So let’s break this down. Tomodachi Life is a quirky, cutesy, idealised fantasy world. And to help the verisimilitude that would keep that world immersive and fun, Nintendo have made sure not to include same-sex relationships. Because that would hamper people’s enjoyment of the game.

STRAIGHTS ONLY => BETTER GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE

There is also the queasy and genuinely upsetting statement – a complete fallacy – that Nintendo was ‘not trying to provide social commentary’. But their commentary is social, and it is simple:

in our world, LGBT PEOPLE DO NOT EXIST.

And furthermore, could never exist. Because queerness is not whimsical or quirky, it is one of the sad parts of real life that Tomodachi Life has chosen to excise, in order to enhance our gaming experience. There’s no murder in this world, or drugs, or theft, or gay people. Because that’s how a ‘playful alternate world’ ought to be. It’s straight-washing at its most insidious, and hurtful.

I’ve always been a Nintendo gamer. My first console was an N64, I brainstormed hypothetical new Nintendo games with friends, I drew ideas for Zelda dungeons or Perfect Dark guns on empty pages in my school notebooks. The only modern Nintendo console I don’t own is a WiiU, and I was planning on buying that at some point this year. I’ve also, since I can remember, been gay.

I’m under no illusions that Nintendo was ever socially progressive – you can’t be anything but white in Animal Crossing, Princess Peach is still the ur-damsel, Samus Aran has been successfully character-assassinated to hell and back. More closely related, Fire Emblem Awakening – a game whose mechanics are closely tied to its characters’ relationships – does not include same-sex romance.

But it still stings. It’s still a small reminder from a very large part of my life, that I am Other, and that I am Abnormal.

Nintendo have made it very clear that their games – their world – have no place for me.