Aftermath: the End of Xi2
by SealWyf, HSM editor
So this was the end of it — despite our best efforts, the bomb exploded. What happened to the Continuum? We won’t know until the sequel. And then we’ll have to decide whether to play it. Those who didn’t play Xi: Continuum will probably not jump in for the encore, unless the reviews are enthusiastic. Those who have played Xi2 will have to decide whether the hook of the cliffhanger is sufficiently intriguing, and the cost reasonable enough, to give nDreams’ vision another chance.
Settling down to write a review of the last 47 days’ adventure, I find myself conflicted. I wanted so much to like this game. But instead I feel a great disappointment, a heavy sadness that edges into rage. This is precisely the emotion I felt after the second Star Wars trilogy, as the final credits rolled and we all looked at each other in the darkened theater, with the same incredulous reaction: How could they have ruined it so completely?
The original Xi, like the original Star Wars, was unique. Xi was a sacred text for early Home adopters. In a very real way, nothing nDreams could have done for a sequel would have lived up to our expectations. We remembered the original ARG too fondly to be rational about it. Whatever Xi2 was, however excellent in its own right, we were bound to be disappointed.
That said, it could have been a heck of a lot better.
I’m the first to admit that creating a good ARG is a monumental challenge. It’s a lot like opera, another art-form with which I have a passionate, enthusiastic and deeply ambivalent relationship. A superlative opera performance is a nearly impossible balancing act. First, you need a solid underpinning: good music and a strong, engaging story. Then there are the specifics of the production — the designer’s, director’s and conductor’s meshed artistic visions. Add to that the quality of the singers and musicians, the success or failure of the physical production and the intangible chemistry of a particular night in the theater. When it all comes together, it is magic. Years later, you will tell your friends about it. “You wouldn’t think she had a Wagnerian voice, but the moment she started the ‘Liebestod’, the hair on my neck stood up. You should have been there…”
In an art form as complex as an ARG or an opera, it is not fair to expect perfection. You’re simply not going get it. And when you get anything approaching excellence, it’s something to write home about. The best you can usually do is discuss the components: what was outstanding, what worked well enough, and what could use some improvement. And where we can go from here, if there is indeed a sequel. In the process, you find yourself clarifying your own expectations.
What makes a game work? Especially a game as complex as an ARG, or its close cousin, the RPG. Your mileage will vary, but for me, the heart of it is storytelling — the combination of narrative structure and emotional engagement that makes us ask, “What happened next?” Next in importance for me is gameplay — its diversity, challenge, and replayability. Good visuals are supporting elements — they’re nice to have, but not necessary if the story is strong and the game is engaging. We had good games before gaming consoles, or even graphic interfaces on computers. Xyzzy, anyone?
For me, the disappointment of Xi: Continuum was that it stood this hierarchy on its head. The strongest part of the whole experience was its visual component. The Continuum is a gorgeous public space, masterfully designed, and the ever-changing light and sound patterns are simply brilliant. I adore the animated trees, and the Trash section is subtly hilarious. The Continuum Apartment is another grand achievement, a beautiful evocation of the city, its shattered elements recombined with the surreal logic of a dream. It’s very nearly perfect — although it could have been improved by additional spawn points and a couple of picture frame spots. If Xi: Continuum were simply an art project, I would have given it top marks.
However, as lovely as it is, the Continuum is hollow. Because, in the elements that really matter, the game was seriously lacking.
Let’s talk about gameplay first. Everyone in Home is a gamer, and gamers have strong and definite expectations of what a game should be. One of the strongest features of the original Xi was the challenge and diversity of its gameplay. There are still parts I have been unable to complete — I simply don’t have the reflexes to handle those hover-bikes. But there were other parts of the game, such as the puzzles and the mazes, that I enjoyed immensely. Hexopolis was a lot of fun, and it was hilarious to find an old-school text adventure embedded in a console-based ARG.
By contrast, the gameplay elements of Xi: Continuum were tedious and unchallenging. I don’t consider myself a good gamer, and the fact that I found the tracker and combat missions too easy is pretty damning. I wish I had felt more danger from the lurking drones. However, they were very easy to avoid. And once I realized that the tracker goals were always marked by columns of light, I simply headed up to the observation platform to spot them, and plotted my course.
The card-based combat game felt too simple as well, at least during the narrative parts of the game. (I need to find a partner to explore the multiplayer version.) I understand it is modeled on Pokemon cards. I’m not familiar with that game, but I do enjoy Magic: the Gathering, and I found this game a lot less challenging. If I had enjoyed the card game more, I would probably have purchased the expansion packs. As it was, I muddled along with the cards I accumulated in the game, and had no difficulty with any of the assignments.
The only part of the gameplay I really enjoyed was using the Internet to locate the kidnapped Blaise. It was fun using Wikipedia and Google Maps to solve a game scenario. I wish there had been more assignments like that. It reminded me of the original Xi, and its Internet-based puzzles, which gave the illusion that we were participating in real-world events.
Which brings me, finally, to storytelling. I could have forgiven Xi: Continuum any amount of tedious gameplay if the story had been gripping. For me, that is the heart of the RPG / ARG genre — it is literature in the form of a game, and its goal is to make you care what happens next. It doesn’t have to be a complex story. Journey has shown us that. Its plot can be summarized in a single sentence: A pilgrim travels to a sacred mountain with the help of strangers who share her quest. But, simple as it is, we care about it. I’m not ashamed to admit I wept at the end, the first time I played it through. I’m sure a lot of you did too. We all have games we remember with deep emotion.
That’s what good stories do. They make you care about them. Along the way they give you characters you want to know more deeply, and let you share in their adventures. When the story’s over, it still lives in your memory, becomes a part of you and your life-experience.
And that, ultimately, is why I feel this heavy sorrow. I wanted so much for there to be a story. And for a while, it looked like we were getting one. But there was nobody there I cared about, and nothing I could fight for.
At the beginning, our side — Axiom, the “good guys” — plan to destroy the Continuum for no particularly good reason. Then that decision is reversed — again, for no particularly good reason. We even defend the city from the group that created it, although any reasonable interpretation of intellectual property rights would allow them to erase code that they had written. And, when we finally win them over to our side (despite our prior atrocities against their members, or their members’ simulacra), the Continuum decides to destroy itself — again, for no particularly good reason. In the final moments of the game, it succeeds. But wait — there’s going to be a sequel. So maybe it didn’t.
During all of this, we don’t have even the illusion of choice. There’s no point where we can steer the story. We are given assignments, and we carry them out. Or the day’s assignment may be to read a single, enigmatic email. This happened all too often. We were stuck in a pipe with nothing to do. It didn’t feel like a game, with the branching and choices RPG-like gameplay implies. It didn’t even feel like a movie. It felt like being stuck in a place we really didn’t want to be, waiting for something interesting to happen. Or at least looking for someone to talk to.
However, human warmth was also not part of the game plan. Our main contact is an AI construct with severe empathy issues. Adversaries flicker in and out of focus, but we never get to know them well. Most of the time, they are simply annoying. And the game pulls its moral punches by reminding us that they usually are not even conscious characters, only simulacra, so our treatment of them doesn’t matter. Jess, who might have been our channel to humanity, is mostly limited to delivering laconic text instructions through the Aeropal. We wander through the city alone.
Ultimately, the only complex character in Xi: Continuum is the city itself. And that is simply not enough. By the time the bomb goes off, we don’t care much any more. We’re simply glad it’s over. And that is the most damning thing one can say about any story.
Am I being too harsh? Probably. I’m still in the throes of disappointment. As time goes on and I look back over the Xi2 experience, I’ll probably find more in it to appreciate. One detail I already applaud was the use of the dismembered remains of MerylSilvertongue to hide the final apocalyptic bomb. This is intensely appropriate, because she was dismembered by our side, the “good guys”, in one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve encountered in Home. Linking that outrage to the destruction of the Continuum was a brilliant piece of moral algebra. Someone there is thinking. We could have used more moments like that.
So what comes next? Despite my depression, I admit to a cautious hope, the emotional equivalent to the first green shoots poking up after the forest fire. Because I know that nDreams has been following the users’ commentary, and is taking it to heart. So, to the chorus of negativity, I’ll simply add a few words:
Storytelling should make us care.
Characters should wake our empathy.
Games should keep us challenged; it’s better if they’re a little too hard than way too easy.
And gorgeous graphics are all well and good, but ultimately they need a soul.
February 4th, 2013 by SealWyf_ | 7 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
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I personally loved Xi2 only thing I’d do different would be add more jess voice-over I really loved the little bit we got.
ones and zeros have no feeling and while programmers do, programs don’t unless one believes that artificial intelligence has a soul.
stories need coherence and the feeling of a soul.
1 was the story and 0 the soul and is pi the sequel will it last forever or end peacefully.
however, it was an experience, was it not?
I wouldn’t say you’re being harsh at all, you’ve just summed-up everything I feel about this game Seal. It’s truly a shame that once it ended instead of wanting more or thinking of doing a re-play, I was just relieved it was over and done with. Maybe that’s partly to do with me trying to squeeze more engagement out of it than most players for the journals, I’m not sure. What I do know is that the days we only had 10 lines of email to read my heart would just sink at the notion of having to make a big deal out of something as sparse as “Hello! Read this. Now have a great day doing nothing! BYEEE”
I really hope nDreams takes on the feedback from the players that stuck with it and can make something more of it next time. But I’ll be holding back for the sequel to the sequel this time I’m afraid.
I’d rather watch a pair of trolls tear each other a new one each day than watch my beloved Xi degenerate into a “meh” moment again.
I have to say, its what I expected, there isnt many N-Dreams games that are not a daily chore. Aurora champion, fubar, xi2, trapomatic, savage manor all fit the format that is probably is more like a facebook game like farmville or mafia wars. Which is a very successful format. You will probably find there were more users after 40 days still using Xi2 than there were after 40 days on mercia or no mans land. Also means the 10 minutes to 30 minutes spent every day on Xi2 means your not using a competitors spaces or shops. If the format works for N-Dreams then great, if it doesnt and xi2 hasnt made enough money there never will be a sequel. Then it will become a meh moment. But im sure the next big release will have the woots woots and everything will be good again
I agree with much of what you wrote. One of the suggestions I posted for nDreams is they should take all the agents/associates from the combat game and give them each a story and larger role where you can meet and interact with them inside the Continuum.
Different paths to take in the story would add replayability, and it would be interesting if part of those branching pathways were determined by your choices and relationships with the other various agents. Imagine if the cliffhanger we were left with caused a rift between Axiom and its associates.
“You guys are the reason we’re in this mess to begin with! If you hadn’t dismantled MerylSilverTongue, we could have stopped the bomb. We’re done with Axiom. From now on, we will help restore the Continuum in our own way.”
100 associates, 100 different sides to choose from. I suppose that’s a bit TOO ambitious, but I think it would be cool.
I love that idea, McJorneil! I did wonder if those “associates” would show up in other contexts, and was disappointed that they did not. Writing a hundred different game-paths is probably not practical, but five or ten might be.
The Continuum feels like a space that could contain many different stories. All those mysterious storefronts and cryptic signs. And who runs the “necktie stand” souvenir cart? There’s room to play here, if nDreams chooses.
Hello, new to the site, thanks for having us. Read your article from December when Continuum was just launching, good read and having not played yet, have the same feelings echoed by Seal and the other users. The non realtime feel of it takes something away, and now that the daily intrigue is over, not sure I should get into it. Will I experience some of that good old Xi intrigue, or if I start Continuum now, am I just in for a self contained set of micro transacted mini games?
Thanks,
S.