Sequels

Sequel. Sometimes this is used like a dirty word, "Yeah that movie was awesome, but I heard they're working on a sequel." "Ah dude, they'll ruin it." You get the point. Why do sequels have such a bad rep? Well, probably because most of them are terrible. In most cases, a book or movie is its own self contained story. With everything wrapped up, writers struggle to find a way to extend the conflict, or create a new one with the same characters. The originality of the piece is lost, and what comes out is a piece of crap. Usually, the ones that avoid this are movies and books that clearly intended to have a sequel or series from the start. The first piece is not wrapped up, leaving things unsolved makes fans clamor for more. The risk of this though is: your sequel better be good.

But sequels in video games seem to be different. In many cases, sequels are enjoyed more and played longer than the original. Why is this? The story of a game is not subject to different rules than those of a movie or book. So what do games have that the other two do not? Simple: gameplay. You don't (shouldn't) just install a game on your PC and sit back for an hour and half. There is interaction to be had! How does this work with sequels? Well, first, let's define sequel a bit better as there is another difference in the gaming world versus books and movies.

For one thing, games can have expansion packs. These are usually miniature add ons that add to the existing game. Common examples would be adding new unit types to your army, giving your character new classes to take, or a new land with say 10 hours worth of new adventure on it. They arn't really sequels, they just add new things. Books and movies miss out on this entirely. How would you do this for a book? Pick your favorite book and think of how an expansion pack might be added to it. At best it would come in the form of a supplement book, which perhaps gives the history of the lands or characters. Or perhaps it would detail what exactly happened to the beloved character Fah while she was seperated from the main characters. It could work, but it is generally not as valuable as a (good) expansion can be. Downloadable Content (DLC) on Xbox Live is allowing developers to spit out mini expansion packs at a pretty good rate. The general complaint about DLC however tends to be, "I paid 10 bucks for a 3 hour new mission. I want more." Perhaps developers need to spend more time on their DLC packs, but it does go to show that video games are not immune to the "Sequels Suck Syndrome", and when misused can become little more than another avenue to annoy their audience with.

With expansions out of the way, we come to actual seuqels. Unlike expansion packs, these are My Game 2 and stand entirely on their own as a whole complete game. Expansions require the parent game to be installed first, sequels do not. They can be enjoyed as a seperate experience apart from the original, though the story would be a bit lacking and or confusing. But, what makes gamers frequently rave for a sequel, and get annoyed when they go back to the original? Gameplay. The developers have now had an additional couple of years to tweak, improve, and perfect the gameplay from the original. Any ideas they had to cut from the first because of time constraints can be implemented. They can spend more time trying to figure out how to implement Summons with their new system. Plus, they can make targeting a bit more reliable, rebalance the characters some, and make the UI a little more user friendly. Whatever the original lacked (whether or not the player realized it), the sequel often sports. The game is almost always more fun to play, the story might not be as good, but that's less important in video games. Also, if the developers are smart, they've heard a lot of feedback on the game and found what players liked and what they didn't. They can then retool the next game to better suit the players. Maybe they drop the annoying minigame and add more flying missions. That sort of thing is very common and makes many players much happier with the sequel, despite how much they loved the original. All you've got to hope for is that the things they add more of, were the things you liked.

So, think about some of your own sequel experiences. Books, movies, and video games all have them, and there is little chance you havn't run into any yet. How do you feel about sequels?

Need I say more?

The Psychology of Video Games

With my choice to now go all the way for my PhD, the possibility of teaching opens up. In thinking about what sort of classes I might want to teach, I tried to come up with new and interesting options for video game focused classes. My favorite one I've come up with is what I should have done my psychology through literature term project on. I think the main goal of this idea is to torment my psychology teacher, since I'd want him to co-teach it with me. But, forget psychology through literature and take my new class: Psychology Through Video Games. What follows is an example of a discussion we might have in such a class.

Before we begin, we need to understand The Shadow. The quick description of The Shadow is that it is the part of your psyche that you don't like. We all have the capacity to be thieves, murders, and rapists, but we hide that part of ourselves away. We refuse to acknowledge that it is part of us. This, is The Shadow. The best example of this is the story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

The game we are going to look at now is Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories. The character we follow here has a constant battle within himself of light versus dark. He can call his darkness to aid him in battle. The other important item of note is what a "nobody" is. In the first game in this series, it is established that a person who gives into the darkness in their heart (arguably their Shadow) becomes a heartless. The main goal of that game is to defeat Ansem, leader of the heartless. In this game however, you quickly discover that you fought only half the battle. When a heartless is made, so too is a nobody. Nobody's are beings of complete darkness, pure evil. They are Shadows themselves. This is important to note as Ansem makes an appearnce here, and the main villian we see is a nobody.

It is also worth mentioning that there are many Disney elements in this series, so Mickey will make an appearence.

Now watch this movie in its entirety:




Now that we've watched that, here are some things to think about. First, what are the benefits of the Shadow? Riku's darkness/Shadow actually physically saves him from being killed by Lexaeus. Many say that the Shadow is needed to make assertive choices. Like how Dr. Jekyl is a total wimp without Mr. Hyde. Now, at the same time, what are the dangers of the Shadow? It clearly threathens to consume Riku. If he completely gives in, he will become like Lexaeus. Then, finally, Lexaeus says something very interesting, "You're also capable of controlling the darkness." The ideal relationship between a person and their Shadow is to acknowledge it, work with it, but keep it under control. When a person suppresses their Shadow too hard too long, when they cast it into the darkness, then it consumes them, because shadow thrives in the darkness. Serial killers whose neighbors describe them as "they were the nicest people, very quiet, and kept to themselves" have been consumed by their Shadows. But Lexaeus suggests it can be both controlled and that it shouldn't be feared.

From later in the game we have an example of when Riku finds this balance. Embedding it is disabled so here's the link instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7bhBoJo3vM

So what do you think now? Discuss.

Maybe Final Fantasy and Disney were two different things for a reason....