Where were you in 1986?

A long time ago, back when most computer games were sold in tapes, there was a game called The Trap Door. This might be an odd way to start a blog about next generation gaming, but please stick with me to see where this is going. The game was a typical puzzle-solving adventure where you had to perform several tasks for your boss, who had you trapped in a castle. Some elements of this game shock me even now: there were only 6 different screens, and there were 5 missions to solve using all the objects that were lying around in these few rooms, that included things as fun as boiling slimeys, or crushing eyeballs into juice (it was based on a children's show, you know). Every time Berk (the player) picked up some object, you could see him grabbing it from the ground, holding it in his hands, and dropping it when necessary. And in order to solve a mission, you needed to figure out the logic behind all objects just by paying attention at the screen, eg. in order to crush the eyes, you needed to use some small eyes as seeds, grow them into some eye plant, collect the big eyeballs, put them in some container, and crush them with the help of some nasty creature that came out of the trap door from the title.

I'm bringing this up because this game had some amazingly modern concepts in its game play. The idea of an interactive environment seems to be one of the cornerstones of next-generation gaming. But even more, what I like the most in The Trap Door is that there is an implicit language for players to learn and understand, that explains by itself the rules of the game, letting players try and use game objects as they like, only implicitly assuming that all of them will be of some use in some of the missions. But there is no HUD, no labels, no signals to show what every item does, or how it is used. Through a clever use of simple yet clear graphics, everything seems to announce what it is and what it is supposed to be used for. Comparing it to recent games with that kind of freedom taken to a much larger scale, eg. Oblivion, where apparently there are thousands of useless objects spread throughout the game - or Dead Rising, where all interactuable objects, even though it's apparent what can or can't be used, is labeled using a HUD- is proof of an amazing ability to interact with players in a smarter way, letting them learn the logic, instead of being constantly guided by lazy game designers.

I must admit I like being guided a little, at least at the beginning, but following a path that has been laid down for me to follow obediently is little less than being treated as a puppet, or a well-trained monkey. Even though actions scenes usually still take the type of ability that truly comes from eye-to-hand coordination, finesse and finely paced moves, when it comes to solving the story, too many games keep treating their players with a disdain for their ability to make their way through the game. Some people complain about those games which storytelling is basically an interactive movie where you get to move the character where he's expected to, and not much else. It's better to switch to a simple cutscene where the story is plain exposed. If the player isn't able to change the course of the story anyway, what's the point in asking him to go through a predefined set of movements or actions?

Next-gen gaming is all about choices. Letting players actively interact, and even change, the story, figuring out the non-player characters, not as a game abstraction, but in their true condition as allies, opponents, or plain witnesses. That's what next-generation gaming is supposed to be about, using next-gen technology (graphics, animation, physics) to increase the amount of believability of that story, those characters, those settings. One good thing about having all that computing power at hand is that it forces the game designer to think of more clever ways of challenging the player. The tricks that have been routinely used in the past should be banned and slightly fade into memory. More and more games are proposing truly next-gen game experiences, with or without the help of cutting-edge technology. After all, if The Trap Door did it back in 1986, it sounds simply stupid that a 21st century game designer isn't able to work that out.