Word: players
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...there are other lessons to be learned from the fact that this epically gifted young player felt compelled to improve on nature. First, steroid use isn't just about individual choice. If Player A starts juicing and raises his home-run output by half, then Player B will conclude that he must shoot up to keep up. At the other end of the alphabet, though, Player Z is keeping up with Player Y, and both are in high school. If being Alex Rodriguez isn't enough, what...
...team have to use diagramming software to keep its various components straight. "It's an absolute bastard, because you're trying to track 50 characters," he says. "And the thing that makes it more complicated than, say, a TV show or a novel is that you as the player have choice. You can always do any of five or six things at once." Imagine Victor Hugo trying to write Les Misérables with Jean Valjean under the reader's control and you'll get some idea of what Houser is up against. The player is both the audience...
...whole thing was meant to feel almost like they're living on past glory," Houser says. "They think they're the last true Americans, the outlaws, the free." But like Niko - who appears periodically in Johnny's story and is an uncanny presence, since he's now outside the player's control - Johnny watches his fantasy deconstructed around him by main force. The further outside the law he goes, the more he sees that he's just as trapped as he ever was. "He's no freer than a guy who goes to an office every day," Houser says...
...freedom that gives games their distinctive character as a storytelling form. They grant players the freedom to make choices rather than frog-marching them through the action. But therein arises a contradiction: in order to feel as if they're really interacting, players have to believe they can truly go anywhere and do anything in Liberty City. At the same time, in order for a story to get told, they must be gently but firmly stage-directed through the plot. "You've got this beautiful 3-D world that lives," Houser says, "and it's got all these background characters...
Lopez is a Hall of Fame golfer and four-time LPGA Player of the Year