I’ve been reading your articles for some time now, and after a while there’s something I came to believe is very true: Zelda isn’t fun because of “story” and “puzzles”, but because of the real gameplay, the great worlds, and the overall feeling of being more of a hero with each weapon or upgrade you get.
“Zelda is Story, Not Gameplay”:
It’s an article from a popular Zelda fansite. Here’s what I found most shocking to read:
“(…) And then when I’m playing, it is the story that drives me through the game. That’s what keeps me coming back.
When I’m playing through a dungeon, my thoughts aren’t ”I wonder what puzzles await me inside”, but rather they are ”I wonder what will happen with the stroryline when I finish this dungeon”. That is what gets me through the trials of the temples. In Ocarina of Time my drive to get through the game was to see what happened when the Door of Time was opened, or once all of the medallions were collected. In The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess I was driven by a desire for answers to questions like “who is Daphnes?”, or “who is Midna?”. It was the story. It was the cutscenes and the cinematics. Gamers often criticize games for cutscenes that are too lengthy, but it is those very cutscenes that make the game for me. (…)”
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You never get at the truth by listening to customers. You only get at the truth by observing their behavior.
Gamers tend to emphasize the outcome as why they play. Non-gamers look upon gaming and emphasize the escape is why gamers play (which is why they assign a stigma as if the person is running away from life).
But the truth is gaming is not about running away from something or about running to something. We play because it is fun to play. That is all.
The person who wrote the piece never declared his joy at the puzzles.In fact, he is suggesting they are a chore as they are an obstacle to overcome to get to the ‘story’.
I would pick up a book or see a movie if there were official Zelda versions, but there aren’t, so the games are where I must go.There certainly is Zelda media in the form of books and even a cartoon show. And everyone who has read books knows that the very basic and generic ‘story’ of Zelda is picked up from various fairy tales in a Celtic Wonderland.
When someone is young, they often have difficulty separating the ‘story’ from the other elements that the game uses such as sound effects, music, the player’s active interaction, and all. I knew someone who told me he liked Mega Man II because of the story. I was like “Oh, really?”.
Unlike other forms of media, games assault the player with all forms of senses from music to sight and giving the player control of the perspective (mostly). And since the player is an active agent, instead of a passive audience, it tilts any ‘story’ more to ‘awesome’ since the player is involved. Let me find a better way to illustrate this.
Do you know the reason why political campaigns put out little buttons and signs? No one is ever persuaded to vote for a candidate because someone is wearing that candidate’s button (or sign). The real reason for the buttons and signs is to turn supporters more to ‘active participants’, even if wearing a silly button will do nothing, because it locks them as supporters. Before they wore the button, it was “the candidate is doing well.” After they wore the button, it became “we are doing well.” The active agent ties his/her fate with what is being engaged.
Or another example, music that you dance to will leave a bigger impression than music you just listen to. Being an active participant tilts the media into more of an ‘awesome’ thing because it becomes about the participant.
Video game stories, which are crappy, often get seen as ‘awesome’ because of the player’s participatory role. If you took Twilight Princess’s ‘story’ and made a movie out of it, it would be laughed out of town. The movie industry has zero respect for video games and often say “It looks like a video game…” to denigrate mediocre movies.
Or to throw in a World of Warcraft example for fun. You come to the Barrens. You get a quest. “Welcome to Barrens! Kill raptors until you get ten raptor horns.” You go to another land and get another quest. “Welcome to Arathi Basin! Kill raptors until you get ten raptor horns.” You go to another land and get another quest. “Welcome to Stranglethorn! Kill raptors until you get ten raptor horns.” You go to another land and get another quest. “Welcome to Un’Goro Crater! Kill raptors until you get ten raptor horns.” This may sound ridiculous, but it sums up the most successful RPG ever made.
The story is nonsense. But the player will like it because the player is a participant. The story is not about raptor horns. The story is about YOU getting the raptor horns.
The story is not about Link finding out who Midna is. The story is about YOU finding out Midna is. You get to be the hero. Not some remote character in a movie or novel. And when you are the hero, you will cheer any story… even if you collect raptor horns.
But this is a reason why Zelda cannot break out of being played by young people. The original Zelda was played even by 40 year old men. I remember showing the Wii, when it came out, to a 60 year old and showed the Virtual Console where he stopped me and said, “Oh yeah, Zelda. I played through that game when it came out.” hahaha.
When Zelda was out in its prime, it not only had a massive reputation as it was the ‘golden cartridge’ game. It had massive competition that ate into its sales. Don’t like Zelda? Well, there was Crystalis. Didn’t like Zelda II? There is Battle of Olympus. Didn’t like Link to the Past? The SNES had all sorts of adventure games, too many to count. Even competing consoles not only had their Mario counter (Sonic, Bonk) but a Zelda counter as well (Golvellius, Sword of Vermillion, Beyond Oasis for the Genesis, Neutopia I and II for the Turbographx-16).
But with Ocarina of Time, the vast world of it took so much money and time there could be no competition. Nintendo removed competition by buying marketshare. More on this above…
