Time to Visit Yokosuka - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 127

to talk to our support staff on the spaceship and fi nd out about our next mission.
When the level starts we are straight back into the FPS .
However, this is not the case with Shenmue. Cut scenes are activated at the
user's command as a result of navigation and agency in general. There are many cut
scenes in Shenmue but they are integrated into the gameplay which does not have
recognizable levels. In fact, Shenmue leads us on a subtle dance, which involves
offering agency and then taking it away—by a PSAS—because we exercised it. We
are allowed to explore in our own time and, usually, to choose when and whether
or not to exercise agency, but the perceivable consequence is a PSAS. There are
other times when a cut scene is imposed on us, because of the game logic, rather
than a direct response to agency. For instance, we get to a particular warehouse in
the docks after trying to fi nd it and then fi nding a way to sneak past the security
guards and are rewarded by a beautiful cut scene in which we meet someone we
have only spoken to on the phone. This person passes on a lot of very useful infor-
mation. The scene is prerendered, using the game engine, and lasts quite a long time.
We are switched to movie .
There are also little cut scenes where nothing much happens, which are very
fi lmic, which we do not initiate but which tell us for instance that night has arrived—a
tracking shot of the skyline at night, perhaps with the rain falling if that is part of
the current “Magic Weather” pattern.
In fact, PSAS and these little interludes build up suspense as we anticipate new
revelations regarding the protagonists. In this sense PSAS and miniature cut scenes
can be seen in some way as analogous to the variety of shots which build up scenes
in fi lms. We are happy to sit back and watch a major cut scene because we are used
to watching PSAS and mini cut scenes. This is the way narrative and agency actually
work together in Shenmue.
Shenmue also makes use of interactive variations on the PSAS idea. Quick Time
Events (QTEs), for instance, occur in certain situations and require us to recognize
an icon representing a particular button on the game controller fl ashed up on the
screen, and then press the actual game controller button within a fraction of a second.
We usually get several goes at this until we get it right. Examining, picking up, and
buying objects also works in a similar way to an interactive PSAS.
There are several forms of interactive PSAS:
• The fi ght scenes (QTEs) where we are required to press a button (icon fl ashing
on screen) at the right moment in order to complete the PSAS in our favor.
• The various sequences where we are buying and accumulating objects,
looking in drawers and cupboards, etc.
• Conversations where we need to press the red A in order to ask the next ques-
tion and elicit the next response.
The various forms of PSAS are thus:
• Basic, uninterrupted PSAS.
• Interrupted PSASs, e.g., conversations, looking in cupboards, buying things
to take or not, deciding to buy or not or to carry on talking or not.