Alan Wake: A Geekcentric Review

Yesterday afternoon I finished Alan Wake.  As most of my regular readers know, I am a horror junkie.  I love all things horror (okay, so all quality things), be it novels, short stories, video games or movies (though I'm not too keen on random and gratuitous splatters of gore).  I know this game fits more into the suspense-thriller genre, but it's close enough.  In fact, one of the things I loved about this game are the homages it pays, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to other great horror icons from Stephen King to The Twilight Zone to Silent Hill, Bioshock and even some scenes reminiscent of Resident Evil and the Left 4 Dead games.  Now, I've read reviews that complained about this title's facial animations and I know that there are people who will like this game and people who will dislike it.  Screw all that.  Welcome to:

A Geekcentric Review: Alan Wake Edition

Just so we're on the same page here, this isn't IGN or Ko-freakin-taku here.  I have my own gaming preferences and this review will reflect that.  I also have to include some frame of reference to the tabletop horror rpg I'm working on, because I did play it with that in mind.  Please note, that I'll keep any spoilers at the end of the review, appropriately labeled, and won't betray any major plot points.

The Story:  Alan Wake is the story of a writer who is suffering from debilitating (for a writer anyway) writer's block.  He and his wife take a trip to the seemingly idyllic small town of Bright Falls, WA for a relaxing vacation. While in Bright Falls, Alan starts to live through the events of a novel he wrote, but doesn't remember writing.  Things in Bright Falls get much more sinister at night and Alan's only feeble protection from the evils besetting the town is light.  This light can come from anything from tiny flashlights to giant spotlights.  It is up to Alan to save himself, the town, and those he holds dear from the evil that hangs over (and under) the town.

I really like the story in this game.  It kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next.  The manipulation of light and shadow added an interesting dimension to the game.  There are also some great plot twists along the way.  The biggest weaknesses in this area are the novel excerpts you find along the way, which are poorly written, leading me to believe that Alan isn't that great of a writer to begin with; and the times when story is sacrificed for gameplay.  The latter was particularly evident during the farm scene when the game briefly leaves its strong narrative roots and ventures into arcade shooting gallery territory.

The game is structured into episodes, like a television series, and plays like a tv adaptation of a novel.  Alan spends much of the game running his internal monologue or narration so that you know what he's thinking and how he feels.  I like the structure of the game very much, and I found that the narrative monologue helped cut down on some of what in most games becomes artificial and forced expositional dialogue.  There are a few flashbacks in the game, but they are not too jarring and are handled fairly well.

The Graphics:  The visuals in this game fall into a few different categories, some of which are handled better than others.  The wide vistas of Bright Falls and surrounding area are beautiful.  I found myself occasionally stopping to admire some of the more breathtaking views in the game.  The character modeling is uneven and goes from adequate and occasionally good to distractingly bad.  Alan must use some strong hair gel to keep it shellacked to his head even during strenuous physical activity.  I didn't find the facial animations to be particularly distracting.  I also didn't see too much extraneous and inappropriate hand gesturing (see Premonition, Deadly for an example).  The vehicles and other props are handled pretty well, as are the enemies that Alan encounters along the way.

I love the way the cinematics are incorporated into the game.  I often found my attention pulled in by a cinematic without even realizing it until I saw the graphics shift back into gameplay mode.  Throughout the game are radios and televisions that Alan can turn on to watch the live action Night Springs tv show (a la The Twilight Zone) or listen to the friendly local radio personality.

The Controls:  The controls are the biggest weakness of Alan Wake.  Thankfully, the game is structured in such a fashion that it never becomes a game-breaking concern.  The left analog/left bumper combination to get Alan to dodge attacks is unwieldy at best, and at worst doesn't work at all.  I did have this cost me Alan's life a few times when a dodge didn't register and I was pummeled by an enemy.  The other side effect of the dodge mechanic is that most of the time, when Alan runs, he starts with a strange looking stumble step, as the interface thinks you are trying to dodge before it realizes you are just running.  Shooting at enemies is also tricky and takes getting used to the games reticule being attached to Alan's flashlight beam.  I often found myself hitting the left trigger to unnecessarily boost the flashlight beam before pulling the right trigger to fire.  This cost me battery life on the flashlight, but I imagine it was reflexive due to the controls of games like Call of Duty that use that left trigger, right trigger combo.  The flashlight boosting mechanic was cool, if a bit metagame, but was difficult to pull off with vehicle headlights.  I often found myself changing direction unintentionally when I needed to boost the car headlights to take out an enemy.  As far as the driving controls go, I think this game nailed them.  I thought they were better even than Grand Theft Auto IV, with a more stable camera.

EDIT:  I realized that I forgot to mention contextual prompts...  I hate them.  I despise contextual prompts.  They kill my suspension of disbelief and remind me that I'm playing a game.  Resident Evil 5 did this constantly, prompting me to "press B, press B, press B, PRESS A, now hold down the left analog stick and swizzle it from side to side" and then making me repeat the scene if I didn't get the sequence and timing correct.  Terrible.  Alan Wake has some contextual prompt (such as starting generators, etc.), but they follow my cardinal rule of contextual prompts:  If you're going to use them, make them do the same thing every time. Remedy follows this, so they don't drive me crazy or kill suspension of disbelief.  The contextual prompts here are done pretty well.

Soundtrack:  This game has one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever experienced.  The music is well selected and utilized to optimal dramatic effect.  I love the music between episodes and always listened to the entire song.

Spoilery Stuff:  This paragraph (and only this one) contains some moderate spoilers.  If you don't want that, just skip it!  I noticed two fairly serious plot holes in this game.  The first is with Emil, who we never really meet.  We are warned about him, being told that he was Thomas Zane's apprentice and told to beware betrayal by Emil or a supposed ally like him.  Only it is never developed.  Also, there is a scene in the Sheriff's Office when Alan's agent, Barry Wheeler (who starts the game as a pretty annoying character, but is stealing scenes by the end), is on the telephone alerting a network of people that is dubbed "Night Springs" (like the in-game television series) to help combat the evil, but who never show up to help out.  I like the ambiguous ending and have been pondering the significance of the game's last line since I finished it.  Also, where does the cardboard Alan Wake standee disappear to?  Barry spends so much time carrying it around that I expected it to have some significance.  I also expected the radio host to have a more prominent role in the story.

Overall:  I think this is an excellent game overall.  It handled some of the themes that I plan on tackling with my tabletop rpg pretty well, such as the division of the action in to manageable bits and the shift from the "normal" world into a world where the paranormal is ordinary and back again.  I've read a lot of discussions about how this game isn't scary at all, but I think it is scary and atmospheric and well done.

There you have it, folks.  My take on Alan Wake.  I loved this game, even if it does have a few weaknesses.  I definitely recommend it for all of you survival horror and suspense fans out there.  I am anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Have you played Alan Wake?  If so, let me know what you thought!

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Behind the Shift

This morning I was having some internal debate with myself about mechanics vs. setting in THE GAME.  Thankfully, it didn't come to blows.  It remained a civilized discussion.  The internal discussion revolved around which sections I am working on writing and in which order (setting my writing plan).  At the core of it is one of those chicken or egg questions that can be answered different ways by different people, but I think defines the core of any game (notice that in any incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons, the mechanics are the first thing in the book, while in the White Wolf games, the setting comes first).  What comes first, the setting or the mechanics?

Obviously to me, the setting comes first.  When I began to hatch this diabolical plot to actually sit down and write the game I wanted to play, I had to define the setting first.  I didn't decide on a set of mechanics, then build a setting to fit.  For that matter, are setting and mechanics independent of one another, or can they be?

When I think of setting, I am thinking of more than just the world in which the action of the game takes place.  I am thinking more along the lines of the "story-world."  In my mind, the "story-world" is the combination of the meta plot of the setting and the environmental factors that directly influence, or are directly influenced by the circumstances of the world that are unique to this particular game setting.

For this game in particular, my first thought was that I needed a world that was dark and threatening.  Also, I wanted it to take place in the modern world.  From there, I started listing some preferences.  I didn't want the game to rely on the typical tropes of modern horror tabletop role-playing games.  Hence, I wasn't too keen on zombies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves or mages being the major players in the game world.  Those are all excellent horror tropes, and work well, but I wanted a departure from that.  The average horror gamer knows a lot about all of those things.  Hell, the average gamer or would-be gamer knows many different varieties of them, their ecology, their habits, how they live (unlive?), how they are destroyed, etc.  There are tabletop rpg's out there that handle all of those tropes quite well.  That is not territory I wished to tread.

I also decided early on that it was a must that the characters play ordinary schmoes.  I didn't want supers or monsters as characters.  I didn't even want characters who knew what  the hell they were getting into.  I wanted "Joe the Plumber."  I think that some Cthulhu games (not Delta Green) manage that pretty well, but I don't want the characters in my game to have the gradual spiral into insanity be their only option.  As I've written before, pre-existing games come with a built-in mindset.  Players who know the game almost unfailingly play it a certain way.  So, if I announced that I was playing a certain game, even if I set it in a completely different world and changed most of the rules, but called it... I don't know... Picking Daisies With Cthulhu or Vampire: The Office, people would approach the "hybrid" game the same way they approach a typical game of CoC or Vampire.

So, I knew I wanted ordinary people as characters in today's modern world.  I also knew that I had to do something that would enforce that this was a horror game.  I had to isolate the characters and, vicariously, the players as well.  One additional concern I had was something that has always struck me about horror games in general:  It is damned hard to instill and maintain that feeling of horror (or dread or terror) for long.  In a movie, you have a two hour (or so) timeframe.  In a novel, the reader can put the book down when the tension needs to be released.  I wanted a game mechanic that reinforces breaks in tension at the appropriate points.  Who is to determine these points?  That is where "the shift" was born.

"The Shift" is the defining feature of the setting.  It in fact makes the setting what it is.  Yet, at its heart, it is also a mechanic (perhaps also the defining one) .  To me, it is a marriage of setting and mechanic.  When the players (and the characters) first realize "the Shift" is happening, or even worse has already happened, that reinforces the horror.  It is an unknown thing.  It is dangerous.  It is surreal and extra-normal.  It gives the players the sense, like good music in any drama, thriller or horror movie, that "something is about to happen."  The gamemaster can make the Shift happen when appropriate to the story.  Or maybe the players can, through their characters, eventually find ways (albeit unreliable ones) to spark the event.  Then, when the tension needs to be ramped down, or cut off completely, when the players need to piss or eat or smoke or just tell jokes and talk about video games (or better yet, tell jokes about video games), the Shift can happen again.  The characters are back in the real world.  The immediate danger is past.  The characters have time to rest, research, resupply, and recuperate.  The 4 R's.  The scene, the episode, is over.  Then, before plunging them back into the unknown, the gamemaster and players can do a brief recap of events and  prepare for the next episode.

Props to Alan Wake for showing me what that structure could do for (and to) a game.  I started working on this a few months before that game was released and had no idea that I would see glimpses of the potential for what I was working on actively demonstrated in that game.  Silent Hill has always used it, but Alan Wake makes it even more of a narrative technique.

Now, it's your turn.  What games have you played that have a setting/mechanic feature that reinforces the game to you?  What is that setting element/mechanic?  They can be video games, board games or tabletop role-playing games.  Share with me!

Photo Credit: Stephen Calsbeek

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Sharing Cool Stuff - Maschine Zeit

I share things that I like.  That's what the internet is for, right?  I find something out there that I think is cool and I pass it along to you.  Ah, the power of having a blog.  But, as the legendary Stan Lee once penned, "with great power comes great responsibility."  Oh yeah?  I flaunt that responsibility.  I thumb my nose at it.  I...

What was I saying?  Oh yeah.  Right.  Cool stuff.

You know I'm a big fan of horror.  Well, David A. Hill, Jr. at Machine Age Productions is going to be releasing an awesome looking horror game called Maschine Zeit.  It's a space-horror game in the tradition of the Alien movies and Dead Space that looks pretty amazing so far.  You should definitely check this game out.  Besides, David is a great guy who has tolerated my forwardness and pain-in-the-ass questions.

He's made an excellent trailer for the game that has caused several people I've shared it with to ask me what video game system it's going to be released on.  It's not a video game.  This is a tabletop/pnp RPG.  Enjoy the trailer.



Cool, isn't it? I told you so.

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Alone In Bright Falls - Hoping Alan Wake Lives Up To The Hype

See More Alan Wake Screenshot at IGN.com

I don't play video games nearly as often as I'd like to be able to.  On top of the demands of normal life, my day job has added a little extra pressure lately.  There's also the writing.  Let's face it.  Right now, the writing is far more important than gaming.  I'm working on the game I've been writing about here on Geekcentricity.  I've got at least one other project on the back burner, simmering away, getting a few notes and such every now and then, but since the game is starting to really come to to a "rolling boil" in my brain, it's been getting the bulk of my writing attention.  Then there's this place.  I'm still here.  Still writing things other than the game.  And posting them here on Geekcentricity.  But I can see things gravitating.  Most things have been tying back to the game.  Even when I write about something else, I still see the relationship.  I'm okay with that.  I know that it will come back around.  I do cycles.  Since you're strapped in for the ride here, you might as well get used to it.  It'll make the trip must more pleasant.

Where were we?  Oh yeah... video games.

There are a couple of games I'm really looking forward to.  One of them is a game that's been scaring the hell out of me even though it doesn't come out for another 10 days.  It is a horror-themed game, but that's not what's been scaring me.  I'm scared because this game has the potential to be either phenomenal or really, really bad.  The game is Alan Wake.

I know.  The developer, Remedy Entertainment, isn't calling it a horror game.  They're calling it an "action thriller."  Even so, it still looks like it can pack a pretty good scare.  I just hope it works.  Sure, Remedy has the Max Payne games on its corporate resume.  But this game just looks like it's going to break a lot of rules.  That can be a good thing, or it can be something that the XBOX 360 audience is just not ready for, even if they do everything right.

The narrative structure of the game is arranged into episodes like a television series.  It's even said to have been inspired by television series like Twin Peaks, Lost, and X-Files.  I won't go too far into the setting or plot of the game other than to say it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town (Silent Hill anyone?) where the protagonist has gone to break out of a funk-inspired writer's block.  His wife disappears (Silent Hill again?) and he begins searching all over town to find out what's going on.  Except he finds out that he's written a novel that he doesn't remember writing (the game is also inspired by the work of Stephen King - The Dark Half seems to be an influence here).  And the horror novel that he wrote, but doesn't remember?  Well, it starts coming to life.

I can't wait to play this game.  It's been in development for years (first announced at E3 in 2005).  It has an ESRB rating of "Teen."  Those things scare me as much as any game content I've seen.  Not that a game has to be rated "Mature" to be good, but it's a horror... errr, I mean action thriller game.  I just associate the genre with some gore and the accompanying "Mature" ESRB rating.  Still, everything I've seen from this game looks incredible, so I'm stoked about it.  Let's just hope it's not another Alone In The Dark (2008).

Video Games | Alan Wake | Accolades Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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Welcome To My World - Building an RPG, pt. 2

Imagine waking up one day and realizing that the world has suddenly, drastically, changed.  It is no longer the world you knew.  The world seems dim, less colorful.  Maybe something is wrong with your eyes.  After all, you've been meaning to schedule an appointment with your eye doctor for months now, but just haven't gotten around to it.



Still, you have to go to work.  The eye appointment will have to wait.  Maybe you can call the eye doctor on your lunch break.  Hopefully he can see you next week.  You chuckle at the irony of that, but it just sounds dull in the confined space of your bathroom.  The fluorescent above the sink is slow in coming on.  It's done that flickery dance before as it warms up, but today it seems to take almost a minute to decide to produce some reliable light.  When it stops dancing and settles into a mostly even glow, the light seems to be more greenish-yellow than normal.  The mirror and tiles reflect this sickly hue and make you look distinctly unwell when you glance at your reflection.  You turn on the water in the shower and wait what seems like eons in the sickly light of the surely-dying fluorescent tube for the water to get hot.  You make a mental note to replace that damn bulb, as if you needed something else to worry about.  It's getting late.  The shower is taking forever to heat up, so you just climb into the barely lukewarm stream that's sputtering out of the shower-head.  Everything in this god-forsaken building seems to have picked today to give up.


After you turn the shower water off, you grab the towel off the bar and start drying off.  Hell, even the towel feels scratchy this morning.  You used the same fabric softener you always use, so maybe it's just the combination of everything else sliding down the shitter so far today.  Or maybe the not quite warm enough water has your skin hypersensitive.  Because even your favorite shirt feels rough.


As you climb the steps to the Green Line platform, you see some of the same fellow commuters you see every day.  It looks like everybody is having the same shitty day you're having.  They all look deep in thought, yet a little... vacant.  Like they're trying to focus on something in the distance, but can't quite make it happen.  You must look the same way.  The air in this damn city must be bad this morning.  It's stagnant.  You walk up beside one of your fellow travelers, you think her name is Carla... or Darla... or something like that.  Not too talkative, but usually good for a smile and a quick hello.  She looks at you and you're sure, for just about a second, that she's about to growl at you.  Growl?  That's an odd thought.  Then, she cracks a wordless half-smile and turns to stare at the approaching train.  It would've almost been less creepy if she had growled instead of that smirk she gave you.  What the hell is wrong with this place today?


---

The world is pretty much the same as the normal, real world we live in today.  We're in the infancy of the 21st century.  Yet, it is not.  The colors, contrast and textures of the world just seem a little bit off.  Light seems to be dimmer.  Everybody around you seems to be more drawn into themselves, a bit more on-edge than normal.  Tempers are quick and trust seems lacking.  During the day, there seems to be a perpetual haze, like smog, making the sun seem both dimmer and more harsh at the same time.  At night, the fog usually settles closer to the ground, muffling and distorting even normal sounds.  The news is as depressing as ever and all of our incredible technology seems to be intermittently on the fritz.  Lights flicker, traffic lights shift into safety mode, cell phone reception is erratic, and even the radio and television are prone to fits of static and white noise.  Batteries don't last as long, metal rusts more quickly, even beer and soda seem to turn flat more quickly than before.  Before what?  You have no idea.

And that is before the shift...

In this world, things sometimes seem to shift occasionally.  It's a gut-wrenching sensation and difficult to describe.  It's almost like the scene in front of you slides out of the way and everything you see starts to look like cheap B-movie props.  Like a backlot facade.  Visibility is poor, day or night.  Everything seems to age in an instant.  Buildings creak and groan audibly.  Decay is everywhere.  And worst of all, most of the people are gone.  You could be walking down a crowded city street in the middle of rush hour.  Vendors are half-heartedly hawking their wares to the weary masses.  Then, the television screens in the coffee shop next to you fill with static.  You cell phone turns itself off.  You feel a dagger of pain behind your eyes, and everybody is gone.  The bus that was driving by may sit abandoned and rusted in the middle of the street, the tires dry-rotted to uselessness.  A yellowed and faded newspaper that was printed this morning flutters in a warm, stale breeze.  Your watch may have a cracked crystal.  The battery in your cell phone is dead.  And the entire street is eerily quiet and deserted.  Except for the sounds.  There is a scratching, scuttling sound coming from the alley beside the coffee shop.  A wet slithering issues from the entrance to the subway station on the corner as you hurry past.  Sometimes you see things in the seemingly ever-present fog.  Things you wish you didn't remember.

Everybody who has experienced the shift describes it in a slightly different way.  Some report an attack of nausea, sometimes vomiting on their shoes when the shift happens.  Some claim it feels like a curtain slid open behind their eyes, leaving them dizzy and disoriented for a few moments.  Some have terrible headaches.  Some people even pass out.  A few people have described a sort of mental static that occurs around the shift, like a radio in the brain with poor reception squelching out until the moment passes.  Nobody knows exactly what causes it, or what causes the world to, just as unexpectedly, shift back.  It has always shifted back to normal.  At least the new normal.  So far.  People reappear.  The bus starts rolling.  The televisions come back on.  Your cell phone powers back up.  It's as if it never happened, other than your cracked watch.  If you're lucky.  If you're not lucky, you may encounter one of the things that are out there scuttling and slithering in the fog of that shifted world.  Then, when things shift back, someone finds your body... or at least part of it.

---

Such is the world of my as-yet-unnamed game.  There are a few terms I want to include that cover some key concepts:

• The Shift - Sometimes the world just changes.  The screen of "normalcy" slides to one side and an utterly bleak and decaying world is revealed.  Most of the people who exist in the "real world" are not present in this sinister "shift world."  There are things that inhabit this world.  And most of these strange, twisted creatures seem hungry for the flesh, souls, life-force, or something that only those who make the transition into this bizarre world can provide.

• Anchors - Anchors are people, and sometimes animals or even objects, who can make the transition into the "shift world."  The player characters are Anchors.  No one knows why Anchors make "The Shift", what it really is, or what causes it.  There are several theories on the matter, but none have been proven any more valid than many others.

• Morior - Some Anchors refer to the "shift world" as Morior.  Nobody is sure who started calling it this, or when, but the name has spread.  There are Anchors who carve or otherwise mark prominent locations in the "shift world" with the word Morior, so that disoriented Anchors will see it and realize that they "aren't in Kansas anymore" as some Anchors say.  Interestingly enough, these markings do not seem to appear in the corresponding "real world" locations.

So, there is my synopsis.  What do you think?  I'm putting on my chest waders, helmet, and goggles now.  I'm thickening up my skin in preparation for your thoughts and comments.  Please let me know.  I'm sure that there will be many revisions along the road between here and a finished product, so consider this Draft 1 of my synopsis.

---

¹When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
 ³Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
 ⁶Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. ⁷The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
 ⁸The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
 ¹⁰The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
 ¹²The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
 ¹³As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"
                    ~ Revelation 8 (NIV)

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Sheppard's Pie

Have you ever eaten shepherd's pie?  Unfortunately, I have.  From what I can tell, it's an unappetizing mish-mash of whatever happens to be leftover from previous meals.  At least it was when I was eating in school cafeterias.  Which wasn't all that long ago.  This post is the shepherd's pie of Geekcentricity.  These are odds and ends.  Leftovers that I covered in mashed potatoes and served up for your eating... enjoyment?  Or tolerance.  Yes, I know that some of you may like shepherd's pie.  Yes, I also know that I spelled it wrong in the title.  I promise I intended to spell it that way.  You'll understand in a few paragraphs.  Now, open wide...

I'm glad to see that things have picked up around here a little bit.  There are a few discussions that have originated on some of my most recent posts.  That gives me a clue about what you, my readers, find interesting.  Or at least care enough to comment on.  Which is actually easier to do now that I fixed my comment form.  Apparently the comment form was a victim of my redesign.  Anyway, it's all better now, so comment away.

Here are the posts that have been generating some comments:

• Laying the Cornerstone of Concept - Building an RPG, pt. 1:  The post in which I laid out the concept for a project that has been beckoning to me for a long time.
• Fear Itself:  A look at what scares us and why.  It is really more thoughts for the rpg I'm working on.

What those two seem to have in common is that they are the two posts about the survival horror rpg I'm working on.  With that in mind, look for the next installment sometime tomorrow.

I am now the proud owner of a shiny new (okay, so I've had it for a few weeks) Google Page Rank (cue the heavenly chorus of "Aaaahs").  It's only a "1" and I know it really means nothing at all, but still.  It's good to know that the Matrix has taken note of my existence.  Speaking of which, people are starting to come here from search engines.  The number one search term that people have used to get to my site?  Of course.  It's obviously "i4e for iPhone."  Something I've never written about.  Until now.  Here's a link to at least make your visit somewhat worthwhile.  I guess this means it'll continue to be my top search term.  Unless it get taken over by the ever popular "mi llamo es bob brent spiner."  At least I included Brent Spiner in my Geekcentric Guide to Twitter.  By the way, Mr. Bob Q. Googlesearcher, it should be "me llamo es bob."  I'm not sure why.  Actually, I know exactly why.  It should be that way because my wife said it should be that way and she's the Spanish speaker in the family.

Finally, I want to share another link that has been brought to me by the Great and Powerful Twitter.  Someone I should have included in my guide is Stephen Lea Sheppard.  You probably have no idea who that is.  Unless you've seen the excellent but short lived television show Freaks & Geeks.  Stephen played Harris Trinsky.  That's the guy who was Dungeon Master for the geeks on the show.  Yes, he's really a gamer.  He has actually written some gaming materials.  He also reviews video games.  I had the good fortune of participating in some great conversations with Stephen on the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroup many years ago.  

Wait... I was saying something about a link...  Right?  Okay, right.

So, Stephen tweeted a link to the blog post he wrote today.  It involves something near and dear to my heart... horror gaming!  It turns out that Stephen is a fan of Dead Space, one of my favorite video games.  He too has read the interview regarding the upcoming Dead Space 2. I was disappointed to learn that Dead Space 2 would be more of an action game than a survival horror game.  Except that it won't be.  Yet, it will be.  Now I'm confused.  It will be everything!  It slices!  It Dices!  You can even make julienne fries with it while cutting through a tin can!!!  What???  I'll let you read the conflicting statements for yourself.  Visceral says they want to empower the protagonist.  But Stephen brings up an excellent point about horror gaming:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't horror traditionally entail giving the audience the impression of a disempowered protagonist?"

That's exactly what I've been thinking since I first watched the interviews.  I agree.  That also sets the stage for tomorrow's (actually, now later today's) post.

EDIT:  Twitter brings me yet another example of a horror game being written with the "characters as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances" theme in mind.  The game is Razed, by Will Hindmarch.  Today, he tweeted a link to his latest design diary about the game.  That entry contains a quote I'd like to use here:

"This creates a hybrid environment where the familiar is rendered strange, yet the people who inhabit it are immediately understandable. They are us. My goal is to make Razed about ordinary people rendered extraordinary by their circumstances."

That's Once again, that's exactly what my thoughts are about the game I'm working on.  The world is going to be strange and unfamiliar, so I want the characters to be easy to identify with and familiar.

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Fear Itself

What scares you?

There it is.  I asked the question.  I want an answer.  What scares you?  I don't mean having your cell phone battery die so that you can't get your text messages.  I don't mean realizing you forgot where you put your car keys last night.

What scares you?  I mean "makes you wake up in the middle of the night bathed in cold sweat, fumbling for a light switch' scared.  I mean "making chocolate in your trousers" scared.  I'm talking public speaking scared.  What does that for you?

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
          - H.P. Lovecraft

Since I've started trying to write down my ideas and force them to coalesce into semi-coherent form on this survival horror rpg I'm working on, this is one of the questions I've been asking myself:  "Self, what scares you?" More importantly, I've started asking, "Why does that scare you?"

Looking at lists of the most common fears, the same things seem to pop up on most of them.  On further contemplation, most of the things on those lists also seem to have one of two things in common:

• Loss of Control - Many common phobias are based on the loss of control over ourselves or our surroundings.  Flying is one of my greatest fears.   Sure, I've done it a few times.  I flew out to Las Vegas last August for a video game conference.  I arrived there safely and I arrived home safely.  However, I was terrified the entire time.  Hell, I was terrified for weeks before I got on the plane.  While in Vegas, I tried to think of ways to not have to fly home.  Every bump.  Every noise.  Every unexpected movement of the plane caused me to panic.  Of course, I had to build walls around that fear so that it wasn't debilitating, but it was there inside me the entire time.  I know, everybody tells me that I'm much more likely to die in a car accident, but when I drive, I feel more in control.  I don't like trusting my fate to machines that may or may not be in good repair (or to the mechanics that work on them), or to pilots who may not be having a good day.  Fear of the unknown definitely plays into the feeling of not being in control, because we have no idea what to expect.

• Isolation - Fears like Agoraphobia (not angoraphobia - I think that's fear of sweaters, or rabbits, or rabbits wearing sweaters) and Claustrophobia are, at heart, fears of isolation.  Even though an agoraphobe might be in a wide open, crowded space, he still feels isolated, alone, and unable to escape.  We feel stronger in numbers.  We feel safer when someone has our back.

Even if we are not directly scared of the these things (loss of control or isolation), I believe it safe to say that your fears are heighten when you are isolated and/or not in control.  For example, allow me to magnify my fear of flying for your entertainment.  This is a synopsis of a scene I wrote earlier today:

• I am on an airplane.  This is the first level of my fear.  I am terrified of flying, so this is one of my basic fears.
• The reason I am flying is that I had to rush home to be with my dying mother.  This adds the stressor of having to take an emergency trip and the emotional element of potentially losing my sick mother.  Since she has, in reality, been sick off and on over the past few years, this makes it more personal.
• I wake up suddenly during the flight and cannot remember having fallen asleep, nor can I immediately remember where I am.  Now I combine my root fear with the sense of helplessness that comes with suddenly startling awake in an unfamiliar setting.  As I wake up, I become reacquainted with the knowledge of the reasons behind the situation, making the fear and stress more fresh in my mind.
• As I regain awareness of my surroundings, I realize that I am alone on this airplane.  Now I am experiencing lack of control combined with isolation.  Also, this is where the element of unreality sets in.  Am I dreaming?  Where did everybody go?  And finally, who is flying the plane?

Did you feel that?  That's not even the actual scene.  That's just an outline of the major points.  That is a terrifying set of circumstances.  If I was in that situation, I think would immediately lose control of my bladder, at the very least.  In other words, I'd be so scared that I would probably piss myself.  And there wouldn't be a damn thing I could do about it.  But hey, at least there wouldn't be anyone else around to see it, right?  

I think that the best, the most terrifying horror fiction, whether it's novels, movies, or video games, tap into these themes to get under our skin and burrow deep into our fears.  Think about it.  What are some of the pieces of fiction that most effectively use these fears to scare the shit out of you?

Here is a list of what those are for me:

• I Am Legend - As far as Robert Neville knows, he is the last man alive.  I think that both the Richard Matheson novel and the movie adaptation both play upon our fear of isolation quite effectively.
• The Shining - Stephen King isolates the Torrance family by having them snowed in at an empty hotel.  Then Jack loses control as he falls under the influence of not only the supernatural entities, but his old mundane nemesis: alcoholism.
• It - Another King masterpiece.  A good portion of this book takes place when the protagonists are children.  And when children are victimized by monster clowns, nobody ever believes them.  This creates the isolation.  Besides, the fear of clowns all by itself is enough.  Especially if that clown is played, in the movie, by Tim Curry.
• The Mist - Does this prove that Stephen King does the fear of isolation better than anybody else?  This novella has long been one of the scariest things I've ever read.  The audio play, which in my opinion is even better than the excellent movie directed by Frank Darabont, is over the top.  If you haven't read this, go find a copy immediately.
• Under the Dome - Though not one of King's best novels, I think it is one of the best explorations of what happens when you take a group of people who have lived in close proximity of each other for years, tolerating each other and keeping up a nice facade because that is what we are supposed to do, and remove all of the reasons for them to play nice.  Isolation and lack of control all wrapped up in one nice little package.
• Alien - This Ridley Scott film was way ahead of its time.  Isolation?  We're in space.  It doesn't get any more isolated than that.
• Dead Space - In the tradition of the Alien movies, this video game again isolates us in the depths of space, taking the protagonist, engineer Isaac Clarke, out of his element and making him fight strange zombie-like aliens.
• Bioshock - From the moment I arrived in this video game's underwater anti-utopia or Rapture, I was strapped onto a fear roller coaster.  As the protagonist, Jack, we are isolated in the once-beautiful underwater city (being thousands of feet underwater is almost as isolated as being in space - have you ever seen The Abyss?) and we eventually realize that we are not in control ("Would you kindly...").
• The Silent Hill Series - With at least 7 video games and a movie so far, this franchise almost writes the book on scaring you through isolating you, disorienting you, and taking away your control.  The protagonists usually become aware of their surroundings after some strange event that leaves them searching for someone that they love.  They enter the mysterious town of Silent Hill, or at least its surrounding environs, and immediately become cut off from the rest of the world.  There is a persistent mist everywhere that limits vision and increases the otherworldly feeling of isolation.  This franchise makes it an art form.  I can only hope that Alan Wake, due out soon for the XBox 360, comes remotely close to doing what Silent Hill has been doing for years.

So, what scares you?  Is it spiders(arachnophobia)?  Snakes(ophidiophobia)?  Vomiting(emetophobia)?  Snakes that vomit out thousands of scurrying, hairy little baby spiders?  Sit down next to me and tell me your fears...

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