Metagaming has fucked my mind. This new breed of video game aims to focus the player on gameplay conventions, deconstructing them and leaving the player pondering over the whys and hows of the game design process. These gameplay conventions – which have evolved over the past few decades, since the days of Pong, bulbous joysticks, & text-based adventures – are the palette game designers draw from, they are the conceptual building blocks that the interactive arts are sculpted out of. And while many of these conventions can function to enrich the game-playing experience, there are certain wide-spread practices which undercut the true potential of interactive media, certain stale or lazy or harmful practices which have evolved over the medium’s short life.

All games teach us something, whether in the explicit sense of an edutainment, Reader Rabbit-type game, or whether it’s the subtler teaching of the game-world’s rules (the rules you need to internalize in order to succeed/win), or whether it’s the more abstract, psychological level of teaching/conditioning certain behaviors or puzzle-solving mindsets. In Jonathan Blow’s Design Reboot lecture (and this is a must listen for anybody who cares about games or interactive media experiences), Blow makes the accusation that many game designers fail to be discerning in how they choose to appeal to the player, offering up the gameplay equivalent of crack cocaine with gratuitous and extraneous rewards, rather than more psychologically & emotionally nourishing rewards systems. And I think if you’ve played enough games there’s a ring of truth in this – grinding to level up a character in RPGs comes to mind as being one of the more insidiously addictive abuses in the designer-player relationship. It’s a cop out on the designer’s part that seems to teach the player his/her time and mental state is of little value, but its effectiveness in getting players to invest time in the game is undeniable.

So what is meaningful gameplay and how do you design a game that’s more than what amounts to a junkie’s fix? That’s a fairly tricky question with no single answer, but I believe it begins, as Blow states, with designers being true to their own ideals of what makes for worthy gameplay. The interactivity provided by video games allows them to reach much deeper connections with their audience than other mediums. And as they become an increasingly ubiquitous part of society, as technologies such as Augmented Reality gain traction and become commonplace, the sociological power of games as a medium grows exponentially, and we must consider how to responsibly design them. The beauty of metagames is that they force you into these considerations, they tear apart the facade so that you can focus on an archetype of a convention as represented in the metagame’s gameplay. They function not to answer the questions of what game designers should do, but rather they function to more viscerally bring these questions into the player’s consciousness.

For example, in You Have to Burn the Rope you are given the winning strategy right in the game’s title, it’s a game you can beat in under a minute. By making the gameplay so incidentally brief, YHTBTR brings focus away from the gameplay and towards the reward system – burning the rope earns you a pleasant musical credit sequence which asks you what you’re going to do with the rest of your day now that “you’ve managed to beat the whole damn game.” You’re praised for being “the hero we all wish we could be” in glorious song. After beating YHTBTR, I found myself thinking, “Hell, there are plenty of games that take tens of hours to complete with very similarly structured conclusions/rewards.” In this way YHTBTR asks the player, “what is a worthwhile reward?” When hours upon hours are invested in a game, how do you pay that off so the player doesn’t leave with an empty, dissatisfied feeling, the feeling of having been cheated?

Other exciting examples of metagames include This is the Only Level, Achievement Unlocked, and the truly wonderful Upgrade Complete. All of these games experiment with structure – in Upgrade Complete, for example, the currency you earn playing the game can be used to buy better graphics, backgrounds, music, menu items, the ability to save, and much more. As I maxed out each upgrade, I found myself reflecting on the role upgrading plays in game design – how can it be used as an effective reward system, and how can it be abused to create a relatively empty gameplay experience that is nothing more than striving for a snappy sound effect with the words “Level Upgraded” fading in and out over your avatar? These are important question that the average gamer will most often overlook, and it’s why it can be so easy for designers to abusively take advantage.

Then there’s Ginormo Sword. I would like to warn those of you with addictive personalities to approach this game very carefully, because even with it’s primitive graphics and relatively limited scope, it can take over your mind if you allow for it. It is the epitome of the grinding RPG – you earn money by defeating different types of monsters, and this allows you to purchase upgrades for your character stats and your sword’s width and length (eventually you get to the point where your sword takes up the entire screen); you can spend hours killing bosses over and over to earn enough money to increase your stats to the point where you are able to defeat the next wave of kooky critters. As I played it I found myself, at times, in a state of self-loathing, yet I felt powerless to stop – I had to defeat the Avatar God and get 100% of my monster library. But I wasn’t angry at the designer because the game is unflinchingly upfront with what you must do to progress. And like the previously mentioned metagames, it reveals something about gaming conventions in the gameplay, and this is what I’m coming to find so invaluable – it instigates important questions: with such deceptively simple gameplay & graphics what makes Ginormo Sword so addictive? Is relying on grinding as the principle gameplay element irresponsible to players or a valid and amusing technique?

Taking things in a completely different direction, Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is a delightful trip back to legendary designer Tim Schafer’s groundbreaking work on such LucasArts classics as the Monkey Island series. In Host Master, you play as Schafer himself as he prepares to host the Game Developers Choice Awards. The entire game takes place backstage and gameplay will be quite familiar to anybody who recalls LucasArts’ SCUMM-based adventure games. While many SCUMM games incorporated a certain amount of metagaming (e.g. addressing the player directly), Host Master is downright soaked in it – the puzzles conjure up the entire genre, and it’s hard to overlook the fact that you’re playing a game taking place backstage at an award show for games. And beyond any of that, the gameplay is so reflexive, so self-acknowledging, that you can’t help but think through the structure of the puzzles.

This is what is so singularly valuable about metagames – they reveal an aspect or quality of gaming, or certain game genres, that you would normally overlook, that would normally be covered up as best as possible – typically a well-designed game skillfully shields the player from the elements that make it up, just as a typical narrative film attempts not to draw attention to formal elements (e.g. editing, lighting, image texture). One is meant to be carried away by the experience, engulfed by it, and therefore one has little opportunity for critical reflection. A metagame, however, functions more like an experimental film, foregrounding structure and form so that the audience is forced into considering the formal ingredients that it’s composed of – the structure and components of gameplay are elevated to the realm of conscious analysis. And for game designers and New Media artists, whose medium of choice is uniquely characterized by the interactive experience, playing metagames can teach how to effectively craft those experiences – while they aren’t explicitly didactic, their value is found in the questions they raise. Playing the metagame forces you to experience a critique of gaming. That’s what’s so beautiful about them.

Check out:
Offworld: Make Mine Meta
The Play’s the Thing by David Radosh

[EDIT] Had to remove this last bit for legal reasons. [END EDIT]

What are the effects of mass dissuasion? Particularly on the demented and the obese, and the crippled carriers of woe and burden? What is it that makes their suffering replete with justification and beautiful righteous meaning?

-Hoffman F. Price

I feel, sometimes – often times, even – that I’m completely separated from the eternal Truth, separated from human communication, pushed to uncomfortable limits (which I often force myself towards in the hopes of experiencing life more tangibly), I feel like the boundaries of life as I’m seeing them now hold fewer bubbling potentialities and more pain and loss than I’m yet capable to contend with.

That’s not to say that I’m lacking in certain achievements and increased abilities, new understandings to bring me hope and fill me with a sense of well-being. For instance, in the last couple weeks I’ve come to Know that people don’t mean a lot of what they say. We go around judging people by improvised thoughts and comments, we develop these superficial impressions of people and hold them as accurate enough to hold against or in favor of the individual in question. And we force said individual into defending that thought by taking it seriously, rather than encouraging reflection and a deeper connection with his thoughts and beliefs. You can’t understand a person in such a straight-forward fashion, you can’t believe in specific words and phrases uttered under the pressure of a specific moment, you need a pattern of thought, repeated utterances in varying environments and conditions, and most importantly a series of actions. And even then you only have a partial picture that you can spend years filling in.

In accepting that Knowing a person is a much more complex interaction than merely having an idea of him based on specific, isolated utterances I feel like I’ve gained one more unit of enlightenment for myself (a trifling matter to many, but it’s one which provides me with vast quantities of aesthetic ecstasy). I strive so desperately for that sensation, for that experience of deeper insight and fuller understanding. And what you understand, what gives you strength, you should share with others, because only others can point out how much shit you’re full of.

Flash Gordon’s erotic adventures explain what words can’t:

It’s been far too long without any activity on this thing. I’m such a negligent internet presence. I know. One day soon I’ll be much more reliable, I’ll have quaint stories for you on a regular basis.

I’ve been in a bit of a bizarre new world (for me) the last six months, working as the associate editor on a documentary that’s going to be on HBO this coming year, and the hours have been strange and varied (which certainly keeps things interesting). I’ve been drinking far too many energy drinks (aka legal speed) to keep my blood-caffeine content sufficient. Can somebody explain to me how these things can be legal over the counter when I need a scrip for Adderall? Fucking thin line.

Now that things are wrapping up on this project, I’m back on the job search. As always, I just want something that allows me to exercise and expand upon my multi-media arts based background, something that blends the technical with the creative. I’m able to do increasingly more and more with media, taming it, whipping it into shape, massaging it into the colors, sounds, and shapes that make the video image resonate with reality. Controlling and manipulating media is becoming almost an obsession of mine, perhaps because it facilitates the illusion of a control over reality and existence, but I can’t shake the magnetic draw of the gooey stuff begging me to mold it.

As for the site, plans have changed significantly. Exploder Face will remain dedicated to my own creative works (for the most part), and the ambitious online gallery that I mentioned last time will be it’s own entity, the home base for an upstart multi-media production company currently known as Spot of Shine. Spot of Shine’s site is still in progress and it will hopefully launch in the next few months. In the meantime, though, I plan to rework Exploder Face so keep an eye out for all sorts of new content coming soon.

Maybe with some help I could survive, I thought, maybe with a little help. But I’m so sickly and alone, and its like it’s all going by. I’m just a sad blur outside the window of the passing train of life. I’m missing it all, the greatness. I must achieve greatness to experience greatness, to find other instances of greatness and draw them to me. I won’t be lucky enough to find it otherwise.

And it’s funny how we just accept the lot dealt to us, and people so quickly forget the point of view of the other guy, they just slip into the tunnel vision existence, the meat and potatoes and fucking IHOP omelets, and the prescription pain killers with the nylon uppers, they become the dull pasty sauce we need to build a society out of. And they have no empathy, it’s all closed down and excluded, it’s all my superiority, it’s all about my subjective world’s power over theirs. But perhaps I may understand some basic principles outside the realm of traditional thinking, and now I stand at the base of a startling precipice, a great galactic mountain hulking over the landscape, and as I look up into the clouds I know that’s where I must one day be. I know that I’ll spend the rest of my life climbing, and the farther I can make it the better, but I must be careful not to lose my footing.

And my stomach swells with the sugary paste, like it’s some kind of volcanic chemical reaction in my gut, like I’m inflating with confectionary sugar until it ultimately blows out all my orifices. I could eat one more of those candy eggs and see if it worsens things, that would be one good way to test that they are positively the culprit.

Maybe with a little more consideration you’ll feel like coming out again and joining us. Think about it and let me know how it strikes you. I don’t want to push, I don’t want to tumble, I want to be your free rider, I want to be your shooting star. Blowing things to epic proportions and eating all the fat on that juicy meaty bone, and the lamb tastes wonderful, but if I close my eyes I might be able to resolve the future with the past and the mind with the last of the expeditions and traditions of the unilateral televisions and without the truest form of astronaut sinking battle ships in East Berlin.

The human mind is a hyper-complex bio-computer, capable of things that most of us remain unaware of throughout our short lives. But what if you could understand how your brain functions more intimately, providing yourself with the motivation and know-how to reprogram, to redress psychological imprints which hinder the way you live your life? What if you were really in charge of how you thought and acted and felt? While all of this may seem beyond the realm of possibility, Robert Anton Wilson has a supremely thought-provoking book that just might make you reconsider a thing or two.

I’m speaking of the marvelous work: Prometheus Rising. In it, Wilson uses a mind-paradigm adapted from the studies of famed LSD guru Timothy Leary. This model divides the mind into eight circuits, with each circuit determining particular human behaviors. In outlining his model for the mind, Wilson provides numerous case-studies and philosophical dilemmas which help the reader relate to and digest how the model applies to real life situations.

Wilson, a razor wit with the charm to match, never bores. While some of his ideas are significantly abstract, and while at times he can take a while getting to the point, there is never a dull moment. Wilson takes very abstract, mind-warping ideas and tries to make them more accessible. In the process you may feel a little lost at times, but he makes his points strikingly lucid by the end of each chapter.

Especially towards the end of the book, Wilson makes quite a few outlandish predictions of events to come. He predicts immortality to have become a reality by the early 2000s. His futurist visions seem to be way off, and his use of some of Leary’s ideas does cast a questionable shadow over things. And yet, for every premature prognostication, Wilson illustrates a dozen case studies which educate and elucidate. And the model which he lays out, while not a perfect representation, does provide a very effective means to channeling the lessons Wilson has to offer.

If you recognize your imperfections but are having trouble understanding how to begin the process of self-improvement, check out Prometheus Rising. This is a must read for anybody interested in philosophy, psychology, sociology, or pretty much anything interesting.

8.5/10