Dear Esther: An interview

[Sexbad]

I never said that gameplay was the only thing that mattered, just that without gameplay, a product is not a game and should not be marketed as one. Story is not required. Some of my favorite games have very little or no thought put into their narrative and storytelling. Some of my favorite games have lots of thought put into these aspects. The one thing they definitely all have in common, though, is the fact that they contain gameplay. I play them.

Games don't have to be about story, but I do think there's something magical about it. But they definitely need interactivity and some sort of action taking place (and I don't necessarily mean violence). Dear Esther focuses on the unnecessary, basically blowing off the necessary, making it something completely different. It may be the best piece of interactive fiction ever, but as a game, it's unsubstantial, and it tells a story in a very backwards manner.

Also, I'd like to correct your description of The End of Us. Instead of gameplay, you're talking about its controls. Of course the only thing that you can physically do is move up, down, left and right. But the gameplay dynamics involve interacting with a mysterious object that provides feedback. How you move influences its movements, and sometimes it even influences you. As you play with it, you begin to develop a relationship (either one of friendship or one of why-the-fuck-is-it-hitting-me-ship).

It tells its story completely by using interactivity to its advantage. Films, books, music, and other forms of art cannot do this. Dear Esther tells its story by triggering a voice whenever you pass through certain parts of the map. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. It's like listening to an audiobook, but slightly different.

Also, blops is shit, but it is a game. I don't want it to be the best selling game of all time, but I'd want Dear Esther to be in that position even less so, because it's not a game. I wouldn't want to go to the movies and have the feature presentation be an incredibly well-written text scroll. I wouldn't want to buy a novel that consists entirely of creatively, cryptically arranged words. These are all different from what I expect, and I can see myself liking them, but they have no place pretending to be things that they are not.