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July 09, 2004
A kinder, gentler kill: My Slate column on "stealth" games

Slate just published my latest gaming column, which is about the rise of "stealth" games. I ponder how the idea of sneaking around and avoiding conflict changes the gameplay, aesthetics, and implied morality of an otherwise violent game. At one point, I shove the needle on the Pseud-O-Meter into the red zone by namechecking some big thinkers:

Philosophers from Machiavelli to Hegel have pointed out that the weak must always pay nervous attention to the behavior of the powerful. That psychology is precisely what makes stealth gaming so gripping: You're always fretfully observing your opponents. To get past a guard, you might spend five minutes just standing there, stock-still, spying on him to figure out his movements, the better to creep by. The upshot is that you feel like a minor character in a play, eavesdropping on conversations as you attempt to unravel Thief's intrigues. (The enemy characters scheme and backbite with positively Elizabethan glee.) It's like a video game designed by Carol Gilligan: You have pay attention to relationships and monitor everyone's feelings.

You can read the entire thing on Slate for free, and, as always, if you have any comments to share, feel free to post 'em Slate's discussion area The Fray -- where intelligent conversation is always appreciated!

Posted by Clive Thompson at July 09, 2004 01:00 PM

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Comments

Toronto's Eye Magazine has a KILLER article about the Thief game and the ideas you talk about --http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_07.08.04/city/pleasurecircuit.html

In about a week it will get moved to this blog:
http://theculturalgutter.com/videogames/


And I must admit: the D & D thief was my favourite character class.

Posted by: Erik at July 9, 2004 6:06 PM

Excellent link, sir: that column is indeed cool!

I confess to never having played as a thief in D&D. Only now with hot tears do I realize what I missed.

Posted by: Clive at July 9, 2004 11:52 PM

Clive, this is great stuff. I think you should make it your goal to be the first video game critic at The New Yorker. Totally serious.

Also, I lurrrve the idea of Frogger as "the ur-stealth title," and even perhaps the progenitor of "survival" games like Resident Evil -- it's all about having NOT QUITE ENOUGH time/space/health/ammo/whatever. Much more fun, if you ask me, than being an undead Martian general with super-grav armor and 10,000 rounds of plasma bullets. Or whatever.

Posted by: Robin at July 12, 2004 4:58 PM

Many thanks for the kind words! Hell, if the New Yorker ever calls asking for video game criticism, I'll pick up the phone, that's for sure.

I would also totally play any game that actually let me take the role of an undead Martian general.

Posted by: Clive at July 12, 2004 7:45 PM

The role of sound in stealth titles is also often overlooked. Hiding on the other side of a corner, listening to footsteps, trying to judge how many opponents you have to avoid or where they are was a big part of the enjoyment I got out of steath games. No longer was gaming just a purely visual environment but an auditory one too.

Posted by: Chris at July 13, 2004 11:10 AM

I suppose that quality sound effects will be the next big tech. boundary to crash. I don't mean things like stereo panning or sub-sonic amplifiers -- we have those. But a well-selected sound effect can instill more creepiness than any gore shot can ever convey.

The Randy Quaid suspense vehicle Parents (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098068/) was about cannibal conformists in the 1960s. Not one of the shots of the person cutlets was as disturbing as the multifarious variety of slurpings, gurglings, crunchings, and slicings that the folley artists created as a sonic backdrop for the images.

Posted by: Erik at July 14, 2004 4:12 PM

I think your just getting older. I play a variety of FPS and have done so since doom. I am 32 now and I notice that I like only team based fps games where squad communtication and teamwork is essential. I would rather play a quiet game of chess than sneak around for a couple hours.

A previous post mentioned sound as being the "next thing" I would tend to agree with that, we have good sound now, but it has a lot of room for improvement.

Of the topic, What the heck ever happened to Virtual Reality, I am still waiting for a home based fps real time multiplayer VR game. The company who markets this to the consumer and not just the military is one I will by stock in untill the day I die or respawn.

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