Big Bad Streets - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 116

• A18: street furniture, cafe furniture, motorway cones, road work signs, etc.:
pointless destruction
Only the fi rst three of these make any contribution to eventual success. Altogether
this indicates that there is an unremitting level of risk in Driver.
Both games use alien attractors, though in different ways. In SinCity all guns,
ammo, health, and power-ups are essentially alien because of the way they fl oat just
above ground. Health is directly connotative in that the object “health” represents
a concept, the individual's physical well being. In Driver the three end-of-level
markers are all alien, but appropriately so. This is because it would be diffi cult to
fi nd a specifi c building or location at the best of times but when trying to complete
a level in a damaged car pursued by psychotic police cars it would be nearly impos-
sible. Also the added tension of almost but not quite having completed a level, A15,
adds to the excitement of the game.
If we look at rewards, we see that the rewards in SinCity are concerned with
both high level objectives such as increasing the frag count but also lower level
objectives such as increasing health, weapons, and ammo. The rewards in Driver
are all focused on the overall objective of reaching the specifi ed location to complete
the level. There are no rewards that decrease damage or give the player extra time.
From this, and the observations on attractors above, we can see that Driver is a game
of attrition and requires more or less a complete focus on the main objective. SinCity
is very much about rising and declining fortunes and the player's control over them.
This brings us to the patterns of intention setting and planning in the two games.
In SinCity it is the normal pattern of gameplay to have a number of intentions and
their connectors, plans, and so forth active at any one time. There are always the
overall objectives of ambushing opponents and keeping a lookout for opponents
looking to do the same. However, players will also have lower level intentions,
which they will operate concurrently, to get more ammo, weapons, and health. They
will switch intentions quickly if a lower level one becomes obtainable. Attaining a
lower level intention does not remove it from the current list. In such games players
will keep many such intentions active so they can satisfy them pragmatically as the
opportunity arises.
In Driver the high level intention, the level's mission, runs concurrently with
the lower level intention which supports it and is to do with the current situation on
the street. When the latter is satisfi ed, a new lower level intention is identifi ed to do
with the next street situation on the way to the main intention. This pattern is only
interrupted by the arrival of police on the scene, A4, at which point other short term
intentions to do with immediate survival come into play and temporarily replace
both the high level intention and its current lower level supporter. However, although
the patterns of intention setting and holding may be simpler for Driver than SinCity,
the manner in which we arrive at those intentions is not at all simple.
If we look at the Table of Surprises for Driver we can see a lot of sources of
information via an array of connectors that support the main view into the current
cityscape. Driver is not as straightforward a fi rst/third person game as it might seem;
in fact, we have the following competing for our direct attention: