I feel the same way. I lack the will to become engrossed in a massive storyline. I would rather pick up a controller and fight, race, or run my way through a game without losing momentum to a story.Quote by: ruksak
It is interesting to note how Microsoft and Sony released systems all about graphics and capabilities while Nintendo snuck in with a cheaper system, with mediocre graphics, and blew them all away by focusing on fun!
When you said all fps felt the same it sorta seemed like a non-gamer thing to say, but I dont think you sounded like a cynical asshole. I'm kinda surprised by how offended some people seem to be too, guess people take video games very seriously here.
I'm big on entertaining myself (legally much to my dismay) so I am heavily exposed to all sorts of entertainment--movies, music, books, video-games.
What I've found is that video-game stories are, at best, above average. And the average story told in a video-game is mediocre. There are exceptions every once in a while but in video-games those exceptions are few and far between.
Books are best at telling stories but they are a one-trick pony. Movies are great at it but they can fall back on other features, such as action, special effects, and boobs, to become decent regardless of the story. Games are the most versatile and they have the most they can fall back on. Actually, story is what games fall back on when they aren't doing their primary jobs well. Many storyless games are awesome. Many games with stupid stories are awesome. And many games trying to weave a great story wind up sucking at it--and everything else that makes a game good.
When I was much younger I was totally into the "deep" stories of Metal Gear and Final Fantasy and such. I can't even play the more recent installments of these games without wanting to puke though. The stories are so heavy-handed and full of themselves and they shove that garbage down our throats in 10-minute cut-scenes and pages of crap text we are forced to click through. Some game designers have apparently forgotten they are not novelists and they fall into one of the major traps new and self-righteous writers get caught up in--the need to shove every little snip of back-story and every little note they wrote on a bar napkin in our faces because it's all pure genius.
I love casual games because many of them set a small scope and do what they do really frickin' well. Journey has an awesome story and it is a game with essentially no text, voice-overs, or dialogue. Super Meat Boy is an awesome game and it makes fun of the simplicity of its own story. Games like World of Goo, Machinarium, and Limbo (and Out of this World from my old Amiga days) have exceptional stories told in simple yet effective ways. And these games come out quickly. They are tight, well-constructed, economical, and they aren't going to leech 800 hours of my life away. They can accomplish their goal in 10 to 20 hours, I'll walk away feeling completely satisfied and I'll probably find my way back for seconds or thirds at some point.
And then comes the bloated pile of story slop we will be served up on May 15th--Diablo III. 12 years in the making. Is that story going to be good? No frickin way. It's going to suck and yet we are going to get beat over the head with it simply because it's 12 years worth of creative jizz based on a story that was stupid to begin with. Is the game still going to be great? Probably. But it's success sure won't have anything to do with its story. Games don't need stories. Developers should spend more time helping the game tell its story through setting and mechanics than stupid voice-overs and "click X to turn the page of text" stuff. I'd love to see a movie try to get away with the pages of text.
Games, books, and movies should stick to what they do well. "Choose your own adventure" books aren't the rage because they suck at what they are trying to do. As do games with built-in novels. The biggest problem is that they are often bad at what they are supposed to excel at as well, simply because resources were chewed up by trying to implement the crap story.
So here's a note to Blizzard: Five people care about your Diablo "story." The millions of the rest of us want to kill shit, kill each other, and get awesome loot while doing so. And we don't want to wait twelve years to do it either.
That's why EA and Blizzard and Electronic Arts should be shaking in their boots. People are actually enjoying $10 games that were designed by a handful of programmers over a summer. And we are getting sick of these $100million bloated monstrosities that come out years later than they should have and are way worse than they should be.
I enjoyed the hell out of a $10 Steam game called Terraria. I liked it so much that when I saw the developer was working on a pseudo-sequel called Starbound I actually made a note on my July calendar to check when it was coming out--which I'm sure will be in a timely manner. The Diablo III post-it fell off my calendar about seven years ago.
"It seems foolhardy, redolent of danger, and doomed to failure. Otherwise, I can find no fault with it." --Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby)
Here's another classic grumpy comment:
I think "entertainment" is probably valued too much, and the entertainers are too eager to please. I don't think creativity should always be about people having fun. I'm not saying "Fun should be abolished," but that I often want more than just to be entertained.
Grandpa h.
Post by post, building his arguments by smashing a couple of theirs -- for America.
It may sound stupid, but a good part of my "maturing" from childhood to adulthood was actually based on the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. It managed to convey real-world ideas, situations, and values while being entertaining and fun at the same time. I do hope that video games continue to emulate these things, as movies have always done.
Very true. I suppose my desire to be entertained overlaps my desire to be "moved." I definitely know there are games, movies, and books that change who I am. I forgot about that aspect because it happens so rarely. Thanks for reminding me!
"It seems foolhardy, redolent of danger, and doomed to failure. Otherwise, I can find no fault with it." --Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby)
That number has been lowered to four. The Fifth guy died from lack of sunlight exposure.
The development was sidetracked by the cash-cow known as WoW. They announced D3 some 4+ years ago, and I simply cannot understand how the development process could take so long considering the resources that Blizzard must have after raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for each quarter for many many years now. A peek at some of their earnings in 2011 here.
Dear Optimist, Pessimist and Realist, while you guys were arguing about the glass of water, I drank it! ~ Sincerely, the Opportunist.
That's part of the problem. I don't think video games can just be some novelty that you use to blow away hours on the plane. Do you believe the same about movies, books, or television? I think that the interactivity of games is what sets them apart from a simple novelty. A nice article on that:
Supreme Court sees video games as art - CNN
Though I do agree that simplicity helps, games don't have to be so simple and easy to appeal to the casual crowd that they become boring, like many of the tutorial-laden games of today.
thatsssss a nice post you've got there
On chess, football, and bridge etc. I find none offensive. I mean gameplay and story depth. Though I agree with all the people who hate ten minute unskippable cutscenes.
thatsssss a nice post you've got there
One last thing: It's kind of Ironic that Rovio is displaying an ad for angry birds on this thread.
thatsssss a nice post you've got there
What troubles me in this regard is when the cutscenes are so tied to the gameplay that one MUST watch them. Many times in the past I have skipped the cutscene and found myself lost, having to re-watch the scenes in order to garner a debriefing of sorts.
I have to go back to what Muckracker was saying. These game developers seem to think their stories are something that they are not.....good.
I could follow Mario's story. Save the princess, ooopp...Koopa grabs her and runs to his castle. Easy peezy. This is far removed from the grandiose dynamic presentations given in many new games.
I don't think these casual downloadables are a threat the the industry, however. These games are aimed at both hardcore gamers as a travel friendly alternative, as well as people whom do not typically play games. I don't see casual games eating into the profit margins of multi-million dollar developments. No more than Hot Pockets will eat into the pizza delivery business.
Dear Optimist, Pessimist and Realist, while you guys were arguing about the glass of water, I drank it! ~ Sincerely, the Opportunist.
Casual Gaming, as I see, is a natural consequence of gaming going mainstream. After all there are plenty of pulp movies and books that cater to a market that merely wants to be entertained without having to think about anything. The entertainment industry thrives on sales of shallow products because it seems that most people wish to see media as disposable.
Speaking as a gamer who was playing before games went seriously mainstream (although since my first console was a Super Nintendo you might disagree), I don't really think I've been affected by the mass adoption of gaming systems. I still game as much as I ever did, and I still play a lot of creative, brilliant games. Some developers that used to be brilliant have fallen from grace (Nintendo), but the market has also become much better for indie developers.
A game does not have to have a message to be a valid piece of art any more than music does. Is there an overriding message to Moonlight Sonata? Not that I can make out. Does that mean it isn't as valid as Revolution by the Beatles? Of course not. Art does not have to be intellectual to have substance.
Most people who play games never get past the Call of Duty/Angry Birds/EA Sports Sim franchises. And personally I don't care; it doesn't affect me.
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