Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

tasks for the player to perform. Sega’s Dreamcast game Shenmue, for example, looks absolutely gorgeous and has a suitably epic story line, but the gameplay is somewhat limited.

What we want in general from a videogame story is not interactive narrative at all, but a sophisticated illusion that gives us pleasure without responsibility. Sure, it might be nice to feel like we really are infiltrating a terrorist compound in Alaska, or going on an exotic quest to find an archaeological artefact, and if prescripted story scenes can enhance this feeling of involvement, then they serve a useful purpose. If we can further choose to do certain things, and so see certain episodes of the story in a different order, then fine—but we don’t want to have to make crucial narrative decisions that might, in effect, spoil the story for us. We want to have our cake and eat it too.

A great deal of cake, not to mention roast chicken, salads and pizza piled high on hundreds of trestle tables, was consumed at Sony’s 1999 E3 party, held in the lots of Sony Pictures in Culver City. This is where the throngs at the Los Angeles videogames fair went to wind down one evening—at least, those lucky enough to secure invitations. Before the stage was taken for a

197