Trigger Happy
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very “real”-looking people; for the game to remain
innocent, visceral fun, they must remain partial
symbols, retain that “computer look.”
Modern videogames are in this way more seductive
than ever, as thanks to their visual enhancement they
challenge us doubly. The same gameplayer who
couldn’t help just watching Lara for a while also mused
that she found it more disturbing when Lara died than
when Pac-Man died, because she saw the character
drown in a “realistic” fashion. Modern games have the
potential, as yet largely unfulfilled, to deliver a richer
overall experience to the player.
The history of videogames’ iconic powers, their
increasing ability to draw a pretty world, has opened up
new potential for semiotic richness. But good graphics
cannot work alone: what matters in modern gameplay
terms is the interaction of all three types of sign. A
gorgeous game with nothing interesting to do is just a
bad piece of software.
As videogames deliver richer visual experiences, it
seems, ever more people will be willing to pick them
up and play. A good modern exploration game such as
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (Lara’s last outing
on the original PlayStation) depends very heavily in
this way on its iconic attractiveness. Jeremy Smith of
