The gaming tripod

Longtime gamers know that console wars are usually followed by periods of relative calm when the games themselves take center stage. With three apparently viable consoles and two well-established handheld systems all in place, now would seem to be such a time. It's been seventeen months since the launch of the Wii and PS3.

At the risk of ignoring many interesting games, I believe three just-released titles provide a telling snapshot of the gaming landscape. Grand Theft Auto IV, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit provide three very different experiences for gamers and represent three distinct legs of a "gaming tripod" that illustrates the evolution of the medium in some useful ways. If you can bear with my awkward metaphor just a step further, I'll suggest that a tripod is apt because its primary function is to provide support and stability for a device (in this case, the games industry) perched on top.

GTA IV is the grand epic narrative experience - the evolved descendent of RPGs, adventure games, and other genres that rely on storytelling as a central component of the player's experience. Obviously these games contain ludic properties as well (rules, interface, timed objectives, win/lose missions, etc.), but at the risk of reawakening the slumbering narratology vs ludology beast, I believe GTA IV, more than any previous GTA game, aspires to provide an immersive storytelling environment and an empathetic connection between player and protagonist (Niko Bellic).

Mario Kart Wii is the latest installment in a series that has always focused on playful colorful fun. No backstories. No cutscenes. No story-mode. The avatars are significant only to the degree that they represent various sets of racing characteristics. Most players don't associate meaning or identify with the characters in any certain way. Large bearded homophobic men will happily race as Princess Peach in a pink buggy if doing so will give them a racing edge. It's hard to imagine two video games more different - stylistically, tonally,  structurally, and aesthetically - than GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii. And that's a good thing for my tripod theory.

Wii Fit (available now in Japan and Europe - I played it at GDC in February) is something altogether different. I initially assumed its appeal would be based on integrating the balance board into games that could make unique use of it (snowboarding, surfing, etc.). I was trying to squeeze it into a paradigm I understood, and seeing the balance board as simply another game controller, this made sense to me. While it's clear the device can function in this way (and it ships with a collection of "balance games"), Miyamoto clearly has something very different in mind. If he were a tripod-metaphor man, I feel certain he would see Wii Fit as the third stabilizing leg of the gaming tripod. ;-)

Wii Fit is designed to function as a health station for families. Combining yoga with aerobic and muscle exercises, the system builds a game framework around these activities to provide feedback and make them more fun. Your avatar levels up (or down in this case, since it's based on weight and fitness) by grinding through repetitive but fun and rewarding tasks in a persistent environment tied to real time. The persistent real-time environment is the world you live in. When you check back into Wii Fit after that beer and bratwurst bender...your avatar will know about it and suffer the consequences with you.

Your Wii Fit avatar connects to you on a substantive and physically realized level. Instead of slicing your way through armies of orcs slouched in your chair munching Funyuns, Wii Fit presents you with an avatar who can only succeed if you do. She may not look nearly as cool as your Mage in her flowing robes and open midriff, but your cute little Mii has eliminated a layer of separation between you and your on-screen persona that no video game has ever removed. Guitar Hero and Rock Band come close, but Wii Fit requires your whole body and extends - if you "play" it right - into your whole life.

So in an odd and unexpected twist, Wii Fit arrives as a perfect complement to the narrative and the ludic. In its own unique ways, it is neither and both of these. Some will consider it no kind of game at all. It's a glorified scale that connects to your TV. Others, I believe, will engage with it in a variety of meaningful ways, both mentally and physically.

If you look at it the way I do, Wii Fit (and the door it opens to consumers putting a versatile gaming device in their living rooms) GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii look like three stable legs of a sturdy gaming tripod. At least for now. Who knows? Maybe this thing could become a four-legged table.

Comments

[Korey]

I think you're right on that these 3 games represent 3 major types of gaming experiences available today (or soon). But I wonder how many people will be able to appreciate all 3? Variety in gaming is, I think, nothing but a good thing for the industry. That being said, I have very little interest in Wii Fit. Perhaps that would change if I had a chance to play it. I don't know. But I think I can still appreciate it as something different and unique. And in that regard, I agree that it is a very valuable leg of the 'gaming tripod.'

[Georg Dudas (Stuttgart), Germany]

my family, they all have ideal weight (my wife (3X), son (7) and daughter (2) )... and actually, I am as heavy as all of them put together :-( so Wii Fit was an instant buy for me here in Germany. I am chacking my weight every morning and changed my lunch/dinner diet, excercising the Wii fit training 10 minutes per day. In 11 days I lost 2 kg... and the great thing is that I get a chart, so that I always can check if I gain weight...

Mario Kart Wii was the first game my wife enjoyed with me and my kids. Even our 2 years old could grab the steering wheel and drive for fun... although the hardcore press is not impressed by it, I think it is still a great game on it's own right.

GTA IV can be played very differently, I will introduce my wife to it first as a tourist game.. and the story as a Soprano-like setting (the Sopranos are as violent as mainstream entertainment can get, but my wife is a Soprano-Fan, so I think GTA shouldn't be more sexist or racist than the Sopranos)...

so, the tripod is almost like a triforce of gaming :-)

btw. Remember how Nabokov was banned in the U.S when he tried to publish Lolita? The mainstream media did not learn from their past mistakes... as to a point where they seem to be irrelevant in a broader, long-term perspective. Kudos to Rockstar and the Housers that they did not give up in progressing the medium. great art is usually not a very mainstream thing...

regards,
George (Stuttgart, Germany)

[David]

I'm not certain there are just three legs - or four. For example, I could easily imagine the Spore franchise being as groundbreaking as GTAIV. It doesn't have the built-in story that GTAIV, but it's not designed to NOT have a story, like Mario Kart or Wii Fit.

What do you think?

[Michael Abbott]

@Korey I'm curious as well to see how these games distribute among the current gaming audience. Will Wii Fit expand the market, as Nintendo hopes? Or will is mostly be purchased by existing gamers? I'm sure they'll be tracking this very carefully.

@George "The triforce of gaming" - love it. :-) I think I chose the wrong title for this post!

Your GTA comparisons to the Sopranos are interesting. When you really look at it, GTA IV is still a fairly restrained game purely in terms of graphic content. There's no nudity. No graphic sex. The violence isn't as over-the-top as 10 other recent movies I could name. I'm not saying it's not full of adult content, but to hear some describe it, one would think it's some kind of underground snuff film.

@David I thought about Spore (and Little Big Planet) when I was writing this essay, and I wasn't sure how to characterize them. In the end, (if they turn out well) I think they're going to be incredibly inventive, user-content-creation driven experiences that will push the medium forward in useful ways...but they still seem designed within a recognizable gaming framework. LBP is, essentially, a platformer, and Spore looks like a way-cool amped up version of The Sims mixed with Civilization and a little Second Life thrown in. I think they're genre-bend or genre-meld games, rather than entirely new experiences.

Having said that, I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong, and sort of hopeful that I will be! ;-)

[OmarDa]

When I decide to go on my "beer and bratwurst bender" I will answer to no Wii, Mii, or Miyamoto! ;-)

I see the tripod too, but I feel certain it will evolve into, oh I don't know, a coffee table in coming years...but for the life of me I can't figure out what that 4th leg will look like. Maybe that's the fun of an emerging medium. It's still...emerging!

Interesting post that has me grinding. Damn you Brainy Gamer for making me think! [grin]

[shoinan]

Interesting post. I appreciated it as an owner of all three of these games. I completely agree that GTA represents 'the narrative', Mario Kart 'the ludic' and Wii Fit 'the other'.

Here's a thought: Each game offers single player and multiplayer experiences but in completely different ways. Take Mario Kart - a game that excels in mutliplayer but is taking its first steps into online play. Its multiplayer component is so important that it has 2P split-screen online play. Then you have GTA IV - a game that most would think of as defined by its single player narrative but it too is embracing the next generation of consoles by integrating online multiplayer.

Lastly you have Wii Fit - it may seem at first like a single player game but in the long-term it's a multiplayer experience - its emphasis on family and progress comparison gives it an almost drawn-out co-operative feel.

Anyway - not sure of the significance of my waffle. Maybe it's important for all three 'legs' of the tripod to both support single-player and multiplayer gaming. Maybe not.

Oh - in answer to Korey's comment - at least 2 :)

[Michael Abbott]

Hi Shoinan. I agree with your notion that multiplayer mode appears to be de rigueur these days, but it's especially interesting to see the various forms this mode takes. The Halo definition of multiplayer is one way of doing it, obviously, but I'm curious to see how coming games provide other kinds of non-competitive versions of multi-play. You and Georg both describe a way of engaging with Wii Fit that is definitely "multiplayer," but not anything like we think of that experience in Xbox Live games, for example. As you suggest, multiplayer is here to stay, but what will that mode look like in future games? I'm very curious to see.

@OmarDa I consider it my solemn responsibility to engage your noggin. ;-)

[Richard Terrell]

I picked up Mario Kart and GTA, but since I got my hands on Brawl, Wii Fit has been my most anticipated game of the year.

In a weird way WiiFit is the game that's missing from my family. My sister and mom do yoga. My dad likes to jog/walk/hoolahoop in front of the TV. And my Bro and I enjoy games and exercise regiments with plenty of feedback. I'm counting down the days until my tripod is complete.

[David]

I don't think I'd classify LittleBigPlanet with Spore, unless I missed an update to LBP's gameplay.

I think what I was getting at was a difference between "User-Explored Stories", and "User-Generated Stories".

Second Life and LittleBigPlanet seem to be just pure sandboxes to me, where "UES" and "UGS" can be made, but are not inherent.

[juv3nal]

I don't know about the choice of Mario Kart as the ludic leg. I mean I get how its nice that you can draw the parallel that GTA and Mario Kart are both ostensibly at least partly about getting in cars and going fast, but it seems that if the comparison is going to break down on Wii Fit, you might as well have gone with something abstract like Tetris. I can't really articulate why, but the absence of any avatar & not having recognizable objects (like cars) feels a "purer" ludic experience IMO.

[Michael Abbott]

@Richard I feel the same way. I do think for some people Wii Fit will provide a fun way to bring family members together doing something healthy. Obviously, some will find it silly or artificial, but I'm willing to jump in and give it a try just to see. I'll be surprised if Nintendo fails to make it fun or at least interesting.

@David Point taken. I was referring mostly to user-generated content, which is, of course, different from storytelling or story constructing. I expect LBP to be less a sandbox and more a social networked place for play and original content sharing. In this way, it connects to Spore (at least from what I know about both).

@juv3nal I agree that something like Tetris is a "purer" example of ludic gameplay. I chose Mario Kart Wii mainly because its release coincides with the releases of GTA4 and Wii Fit, and that seemed like an interesting snapshot of the gaming landscape at this particular point. I do think I'm stretching a bit in this essay to make everything fit my "tripod" metaphor, and I don't mean to over-generalize, but I think the basic point I'm trying to make is basically true. On a basic level. ;-)