Sleep is Death and the Social Experience

Video games are starting to reflect the fact that entertainment doesn't have to mean sensory overload.

The goal of modern video games is shock and awe. How big are the explosions? How many hours does it take to play through it? How much violence is there? Size matters. Story, experience, and emotion come second. Imagine if every Best Picture Oscar nominee was like Avatar, oozing special effects but lacking in substance. This is the case for video games. The industry has been hypnotized by the capabilities of our Xboxes and high-def TVs.

This, however, is changing as the tools to create interactive experiences become cheaper and easier to use. “Game auteurs” are starting to make their mark. Minimalist games focused on emotional experience rather than sensory overload are creeping into the mainstream.

The most notable personality of this movement is Jason Rohrer. Profiled in Esquire last year, Rohrer lives an ascetic, artistic life. He is a one-man video game production company. His games are deeply philosophical and sometimes, like much of philosophy, hard to grasp at first.

Last month, Rohrer released his newest creation, Sleep is Death (Geisterfahrer). At first, this game seems old-fashioned, boring, and painfully simple. It's a 2D pixelated environment where the player moves about, interacting with run-of-the-mill characters and objects. You talk to a bearded guy in a tank top, you walk around a kitchen, you see a little kid. There are no sound effects, no animations, no explosions. As you continue playing, however, you start to notice that the game reacts perfectly to every choice you make and everything you say. “This is some pretty sophisticated artificial intelligence,” you think to yourself as you play. “How the heck did he do this?”

Sleep is Death is an illusion. It's a two-player game; for one player, it seems like a simple, boring 2D environment. The other player, however, is presented with a complicated interface of controls that empower you as the God of the program, or in Rohrer's language, the controller. Rohrer solved the problem of artificial intelligence by replacing algorithms with the ultimate computer – a human mind. The challenge of the game is not to kill the enemy or solve a puzzle but to tell a good story with a friend. Sample games that Rohrer has posted offer a flavour for what can happen.

I played the game a few times both as player and controller. Maybe it's just my penchant, but every experience got very emotional and deep very quickly. Within a few minutes, my fellow player and I were creating stories about love and fear, memories and dreams. The enigmatic human experience continues to keep the singularity at bay.

There's much more to explore within the game itself, but what the game says about technology and our relationship with it is most interesting. If you read the great futuristic novels like Brave New World, Snow Crash, and Neuromancer, you’ll find they’re obsessed with entertainment experiences that overwhelm the senses, the virtual stimulation delivered by technology. What they didn't foresee was the likes of Facebook. They didn't envision technology as the great social catalyst that forges real-world connections.

The message of Sleep is Death is that entertainment doesn't have to come through sensory overload. We don't need 3D glasses and 5.1 surround sound; we need another human to share an experience with. You only need to look at the explosion of social networking games such as Farmville to see the mass appeal. Sleep is Death gives us canvasses upon which to create stories that help us connect with others. The game won’t be played by millions though; story-telling is hard. It takes effort. But the payoff is huge. You can't judge the success of Sleep is Death by the number of users – you can only judge it based on your own experience.

However, the implications of Sleep is Death in terms of how best to use technology are far-reaching. The games and experiences that truly capture our collective attention are the ones like Sleep is Death – the ones that facilitate social exchange anchored on a narrative. Part of the appeal of team sports is the camaraderie that develops through the team members’ shared history. Rock Band is popular not because of the unique gameplay but because it brings people together in a room; it's a social experience.

Rohrer has created an environment that lets the computer do what it does best: draw things on a screen, send messages back and forth, keep track of time. But he challenges the player to create the story. Technology is the narrative bridge, not the story teller. And that's the way it should be.