Evil Avatar publie la deuxième partie de l’interview de Randy Smith, l’un des auteurs de Thief 1, 2 et 3. Il parle rapidement des nouveaux jeux d’infiltration, puis embraye sur des réflexions de game-designer :
I tend to think that all art, media, and expressions serve the larger goal of communicating shared experience, of answering the most important questions of individual existence, such as: How should I live my life? […] Film does this well when it presents a fixed narrative in which relatable characters struggle in situations of value crisis… What should they do? You relate to them across the screen boundary and agonize with them as they exhibit repeated failures until they finally get it right, and you’re relieved with them.
That doesn’t work in games, because of the interactive nature of the experience. It is an approach that is tried and true for film, but not for interactive art. Pursuing those well-trod paths is one of the pitfalls our medium seems to be experiencing, in my opinion. But interactivity is the distinctive feature of games, and it fundamentally changes how players relate.
Suddenly you are not empathizing with a character you have no control over, you are connecting with a character that you DO control. Every success and failure, every correct and flawed value judgment is your OWN, not something to agonize about remotely. Audiences LIKE to watch characters on screen struggle and fail, but when they are at the controls they are strictly driven to SUCCEED.
