It takes all kinds to make a world…

And if we borrow from the logic inherent in genetic legacy, the more diverse the better

November has been quite the queer journey through spacetime, as its only been a little over a week since the month began, and yet October feels like yesterday. I suppose I was struck with this notion due to a consideration of the articles I’ve written on My Friendly Neighborhood (MFN), which are many and varied in content and quality, but has only commanded my attention since Halloween’s demise. I find it refreshing to be able to pack tiny lifetimes into such pocket sized dimensional spaces in such a brief amount of time, something I posit does an excellent job of invigorating the intellectual spirit, I find. With all of that in mind, I suppose we press on today, and perhaps wrap up some final thoughts involving MFN, so we may move on to delusionally apprehended pastures of questionably dubious colorization.

Thinking about it now, I imagine any readers who stumble upon my work all willy nilly like, unfamiliar with my normalized but distinct creative machinations, may be disappointed with my regular expoundments upon the content of the game, as I tend to think much bigger picture, and metaphysically so, when considering a titles engagements. With MFN, I honed in on the problematic nature of the AAA game development model, a topic I discussed in my White Whale Standard article, and how it creates a toxic feedback system that mostly betrays everyone involved except the money-men by days end, and leaving games like MFN behind in the proverbial dust. A lot of what predicates this realm seems to be a detached sense of fictional realism that surrounds the desirous perceptions of many champing at the bit, and an impossible hunger which never finds its satiation point. The unfortunate reality of this situation is that this entire situation is a result of reckless abandon, when it comes to perspectives on quality and value judgements, so all we can really do to help alter the state of things, is to focus on what matters, what it means to qualify quality, which involves having to change our outlooks, and perhaps give second thoughts to what we consider acceptable on the spectrum of quality moving forward.

In developing upon the theme we have running here, and that is one of bemusing paradox, harkens back to a familiar theorem I’ve discussed here before, and has had surprising legs with which to carry the concept, and that is the Absent Rain Theroem (ART), and a particularly striking example of utilizing ART, in understanding quality of what MFN possesses…or more accurately, does not possess, with the quality of the game itself in someway, dictated by what isn’t there. More over, what’s fetching about this predication, is actually reinforced by this notion that MFN refrains from Death Stranding itself onto the island of metaphysical estrangement, totally divided from the reality of its own situation, that of which is an offering of pure conceit and no worfhwhile interactivity whatsoever. This of course, leads us to have to consider how an exchange of metaphysical worth supercedes the value of the observable assets of said experience, allowing MFN to remain staunchly out of reach of a zero sum value, and begs the question of us to thoroughly take a personal inventory of how we go about evaluating a premise with a strength that eclipses the standards of its ratifiable tangibilities.

One would venture a guess and surmise that a first person survival horror that certainly whelms the senses by neither delivering a standardized metric of satisfaction in both the realms of tension and gunplay, would have quite the impossible uphill battle in ensnaring players to the side of reason, and enchanting them on the games behalf, but MFN seems to do this exact thing in shinning spades, showcasing what kind of burdens can be marvelously output from an engine of nonsensical variety, and the product it can proudly produce. Part of this reality is based upon the reliance of something I’ve referred to as “fill in the blank design”, where imagination if used strategically, is able to electrify the senses into a state of shocking imaginative aptitude, in willing to life the audacity of what lies just beyond the veil of the discreet disillusionment that sleight of hand excels in, in accessorizing the head nods and playful assertions hanging in the air of whimsy and mischief there after. All this in the name of evoking an old school sensibility that is a rare pedigree these days, and a example that helps to perpetuate rationality among the inmates who run the asylum that represents the gaming industries more insane proclivities of inbred homogenization that has rattled my core in recent days past.

While the game does bow out on a high note, something I’ve even lauded as a commendable act of performance reserve, which is certainly refreshing in an age of the blood squeezing tendencies of aggressively handsy rock fondlers, MFN would have done itself a solid in reconfiguring the order of events by shifting setpieces a bit, as the “rough start syndrome” (RSS) prevalent in the title, which is not unique to it, nor unheard of as an element that plagues even the best of what gaming has to offer, still stands to be reasoned with via strenuous testing and repetitive iteration, which usually sets apart the concluded with the deluded, in the realm of polished design methodologies prevalent within the medium.

And though this next bit has a whiff of more meandering speculation about it, taking us perhaps slightly too far afield of direct deconstruction of the games premise, I think it stands to reason that games like MFN, provide an earnest example of how even a flawed experience cut from a more traditional cloth, can still radiate with the glow of abundant creativity that evokes a sense of suspenseful engagement in seeing how the perverse mystery untangles within the realms of madness, something I can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing within reference to any GAAS title coming to bare. Exceedingly different premises that run against their pure directives of course, and one shouldn’t judge a Halo by it’s lack of Call of Dutying and vice versa, but there stands a ringing endorsement to the profoundly compelling proclivities of where simplicity through storytelling can provide, even in its lack, where the endless glut of a GAAS experience falters in the field of engagement levels, and a type of game that has claimed the lives of too many developers, in a cautionary tale acting as scarecrow as headstone in the early and final resting place of creatives in the graveyard of profit margins.

By final curtain call, MFN is deserving of a round of applause, inherent with the same kind of warmth that emanates from its own sense of commendable inventiveness in the field of playful performance.

-Pashford