027Jess Kinghorn Oscar Taylor-Kent
WRITER BIO
Congrats! You’ve unlocked Jess Kinghorn’s bio and can ask her heavy-handed
questions for that max romance meter rank. But as you sent her the ‘pianist of
happiness’ video earlier, she’ll reject you. Don’t worry, you’ll still get a trophy.WRITER BIO
One thing Oscar Taylor-Kent doesn’t want credited is who’s behind the sugar
in OPM Towers’ PS4 game boxes. Whether someone on the team uses them to
carry doughnuts round the office is a mystery that should never be solved.OPINION
M
y teeth are sunk
into Dontnod’s
Vampyr once more.
Blood-sucking
doctor Jonathan Reid is
caught between a rock and
the Hippocratic oath. As you
decide the ultimate fate of a
number of key NPCs – often
pillars of the handful of
communities that are eking
out an existence in post-war
London – it’s difficult to
discern the immediate
outcome of your decisions,
or identify which choice is
the archetypal ‘right’ one.
Vampyr definitely still uses
the usual RPG suspects of
‘good job, hero,’ ‘wow, you’re
evil,’ and ‘I’m hedging my
bets’ choices for a lot of its
character conversations.
However, key decision points
present few ‘easy’ options,
especially as things usually
don’t end well for anyone
involved with Dr Reid. Don’t
get me wrong, it’s still a
classic ‘hugely ambitious but
definitely doesn’t stick the
landing’ 7/10 game. Amid its
hokey vision of a London
even gloomier than the real
thing, I began considering
how wish fulfilment, power
fantasies, and an emphasis on
playing ‘optimally’ (even in
more story-focused games)have become our medium’s
bread and butter – and it’s
time for something other
than toast for every meal.ROLE MODELS
There is the concept of
‘playing to lose’ within LARP;
by not trying to win, by
making in-character mistakes,
players can introduce
compelling conflict to create
more interesting, collaborative
stories. For example, a recent
event I attended uses a
system in which it is difficult
for player characters to die.
Nevertheless players chose to
terminate their characters in
order to facilitate impactful
story and development for
others. There was even a
funeral where in-character
respects were paid!
It brought to mind Dr
Reid’s confession to Father
Larrabee on the steps of St
Mary’s Church. How you
choose for Jonathan to grieve
is a highly personal moment
that packs a wallop. It’s a
refreshing change from many
RPGs’ emphasis on ‘say the
right thing and everyone will
love you,’ and I can’t help but
feel that games should learn
to let us lose a little more
gracefully than ‘game over’ or
the absolute worst ‘Bad End.’O
ne frequent argument
at OPM Towers
revolves around the
closing credits for
the missions in Metal Gear
Solid V. Whether you
consider them tedious or
“very cool, like television”,
you’ve got to admit it’s neat
to have credits per mission
as opposed to them being
dumped in one sometimes-
lengthy clump at the end of
the game. Though I wish
they were more expansive.
I’d like to see more of the
MGS V approach, taken to a
finer detail (and with the
option for it to not get in the
way if it’s not your thing).
There are so many tiny things
I love in so many games, but
more often than not it’s hard
to have an idea of who
actually worked on them. Your
favourite games might all have
staff in common yet you
could never know. Who’s
really responsible for your
fondest gaming moments?POINTING FINGERS
Granted, developing a game
is often a messy process. It’s
hard to nail down specifics
in such an iterative activity,
but that doesn’t mean games
can’t try to be better about it,
especially the Triple-A projectsin which it’s easy to get
lost. There’s more visibility
there used to be – at the
Borderlands 3 announcement
event, Gearbox crammed all
the staff in attendance onto
the stage, which was lovely.
And projects like Raising
Kratos, the feature-length
documentary on the making
of God Of War, spotlight parts
of the process you wouldn’t
know otherwise. But it would
be great to see these things
having a stronger presence in
the games themselves.
It’d be great to have more
insight into who worked on
certain parts of each game,
and what experience they
drew on. We love to highlight
stories about the creators
behind the games in the mag,
so you’ll find out more from
us – who knew, for instance,
that Marthe Jonkers, senior
concept artist on Cyberpunk
2077 (interviewed last issue),
started off working in Japan
on games like Dragon’s
Dogma and Monster Hunter:
World? Knowing that, you can
see how some of that time in
Japan might influence the
designs of the Night City.
Seeing more of those
throughlines colouring the
games we love can only be a
good thing in the future.FANGS FOR THE
MEMORIES, BUT WE WANT
MEATIER DECISIONS TO
GNAW ON.
SO MANY PEOPLE WORK
ON GAMES – IS INDIVIDUAL
ACCREDITATION THE SOLUTION
TO UNWIELDY CREDITS?
Games should learn to let us lose, and
even die, a little more gracefullyWe need better spotlighting of just who is
responsible for our favourite gaming moments