Ulysses VS, Demons Souls

Someone in this article stated that people who believe in the Demons Souls school of game design are a lot like those folks who believe that literature should be both cryptic in theme/writing style and loaded with words & phrases that are hardly spoken in the English language. To say that the complexity in Demons Souls is a lot like the complexity in Ulysses is misleading though, as Demons Souls goes to great lengths to accommodate and engage players through both it's control scheme and repetitive design structure whereas Ulysses by comparison makes no welcoming gesture or early indication that it serves a similar purpose.

Introduction

In case anyone reading this is not familiar with the basic structure of Demons Souls gameplay, it basically has players fill the shoes of an agile warrior in a hostile world. They are given some weapons, a shield and the ability to fight. Through a nuanced combat system and clever environmental design players are then forced through repetition to see basic patterns in the world, with its numerous ledges and traps. This causes people to more closely understand the game worlds influence on their bodies, and take into account measurable ratios such as weight/velocity/strength/stamina, all of which are incorporated into the game mechanics themselves.

Please continue.

Most new players to Demons Souls will quickly realize (within a minute or two) that the world they inhabit is a harsh place that is both dangerous and alluring. They are then compelled through this to take stock of what resources they have and decide how best to proceed. Most don't, and the Souls series has its fair share of critics and quitters. For the ones that continue though, overcoming the obstacles ahead, their reward is getting to explore more of the same game through small variations in the overall structure of the game, a hallmark of Japanese game design philosophy dating all the way back to Kung Fu Master (1984).

Controversy

How did the commentator that mentioned Ulysses not see how different these two works are? One incredibly complex for the non-linguist/cryptographer, containing veiled themes, and the other with a simple theme & gameplay structure that could be understood even by most within an hour or two of playing? I think the confusion came in with regards to how both the book and the game force players to learn relatively complex literary/gameplay patterns if they want to understand the experience. Demons Souls also uses what some might perceive as an abstract control method whereby your thumbs and fingers control all of the action. I believe this is probably where comparisons were drawn, and maybe the commentator simply could not come to terms with the control scheme or see's the sporadic in-game checkpoints as excessive and alienating.

Can a control scheme be both abstract and intuitive though? Does moving a joystick from left to right to make a game character run ever make sense? I suppose it can, otherwise how would one explain the enormous popularity of Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. among children and non gamers? This is most likely why side scrollers adapted logical methods of interaction such as utilizing directional controls (although Pac-Land attempted otherwise), which were then reworked later into analog controls once game worlds evolved into the third-dimension. Demons Souls therefore has to be a logical and intuitive interface, as it adds to the foundation set years ago by other games like Super Mario Bros. and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Furthermore, inventory management in Demons Souls (a big part of the game) is arguably no more complex than learning how to work between multiple Tabs on a web browser or navigating a cellphone. These kinds of mechanics have become almost ubiquitous among individuals who play any form of video games (which there are many).

Conclusion

Writing off Demons Souls as an alienating and overly complicated game is simply wrong. If any games deserve this label it should be the ones that do not work hard enough to engage players, content to have them playing as side characters in their cinematic masterpieces. Or the games that happily give our gold stars for mundane and simple tasks that can be completed with little to no effort aside from the players time. Demons Souls by comparison is game that compels players not only to 'play', but to do so with all their might and perseverance. The controller in a new experience of Demons Souls reflects this, your fingers learning to slowly working in harmonious patterns as you move into uncovered areas, shield up, eyes peeking in the shadows, ready to roll at a moments notice and hoping there aren't any sharp drops ahead. When engaging in combat you then learn the art of strafing, blocking, parrying, conserving your energy, and at times running away. This is player engagement on multiple levels, and Demons Souls is utterly immersive as a result. Ulysses by comparison offers a very different kind of immersion, one that is inconsistent with that provided by the streamlined, predictable and intuitive world of Demons Souls. Given these structural differences absorbing and understanding the world of Ulysses is far harder for the average reader than playing Demons Souls is for the average gamer, which is exactly why games have such an advantage over books to begin with.