More of Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins has also written another article about dramatic elements in games. Almost whole article is about visual aspects of games, however I have pick this part of article because I think its talking in a way about dramatic elements and I find it interesting. 

''Because we read realism against existing artistic conventions, breakthroughs in realism call attention to themselves -- they are spectacular accomplishments. When the marines behaved "realistically" in Half Life, it was so compelling precisely because we read them against how npcs had functioned in previous games. As long as the artistic devices are foregrounded, we are unlikely to forget that we are playing a game. Realism isn't about creating confusion in the mind of the consumer; it is about using the medium to call attention to some aspect of the world around us. And more often that not, the best way to help us see the world from a fresh perspective is through exaggeration or stylization''

 

Indeed half-life was one of the first fps that has ''realistic'' AI of enemy. However I will talk here about other game which is Hitman: Codename 47 released back in 2000. I am old fan of this game and I have to say that the action, storyline as well as hard ''smart'' AI enemy got stuck in my head until now. Which is kind of surprising because I played Half-Life too and all what I remember from this game was first level where to accident happen in laboratory. Hitman was first game that I played at that time that I had quite a lot of trouble with. During the game I could chose how do I do missions and what weapons do I buy for each mission. Lots of the time when I try to act as a silent assassin I had lots of trouble with enemy. I was getting captured and killed in silly moments. It was the first game that I encounter where enemy was not shooting to me when they first time see me. I had to break some rules or look suspicious in order to take their attention. Also the main character has captured my attention, the mid age hair less man was perfect to work as a assassin, it made the game so much more dramatic and curious.