Games with Intellectual Content

[Maitre]

I'll stick to the two games on your list that I've played:

Maybe I missed something in system shock2: I didn't find it all that brainy. Sure there were some overtones of moral when the game shows you the consequences of entrusting ourselves to computers that design their own organic species, and then decide that their creation has grown beyond control (wow, did you see that parallel coming?). But then again, the Chronicles of Riddick movie said some "interesting" things about the consequences of blind loyalty to a code (Vako's "keep what you kill" closing line), or a person (what's her name's buy in to Riddick's method of visual improvement), and I consider that film little more than entertainment for the reptile portion of my brain. Curse you, now I'm in the mood to watch it again.

Re: MGS for PS1, okay, there are some reasonable threads of message, but overall I'm left thinking "when is this cutscene going to end so I can blast something with my remote control missles." The story element in that game lost me when it deliberately broke the fourth wall, and then more or less required me to do the same thing 30 seconds later (yes I'm talking about the dialogue/fight with Mantis), and then it prompted me to make a correction IRL immediately thereafter like telling me "hey, by the way, we're going serious again." For anyone who hasn't played it, one of the villans demonstrates the power of his mind by making your controller vibrate after telling you to "put the controller on the floor." Then, in the fight that ensues, if frustrate yourself long enough without being able to land a hit, one of the characters phones you and tells you to "plug the controller into port 2" to prevent the villan from "reading your mind." After the fight, the game gives you a message saying "Please plug your controller back into Port 1." And don't you dare cry about spoilers, the game is 10 years old.

I think the intention to deliver involving gameplay/plot by introducing higher minded elements is fine, but I have a real problem with games that take themselves too seriously. Yes, books and movies have conveyed messages to the masses, and maybe video games are the 21st century method of diseminating political or social commentary, but I'm not buying into it yet. If you have a story to tell (a, singular), do it in a book or a movie where I don't have the illusion of cotrol. If you make a game, don't make me the lead character of your morality play, I don't play games to think (at least not too hard).