This really stems from something I've noticed in media as a whole. It didn't used to be so common, but it's steadily gotten more and more common. And that's a sense of being fed a story, being fed all that right facts dotted everywhere that add up to the full truth. Or the sense that a progression of events has been manipulated to explain to you what's going on and why, rather than picking it up naturally. It's forced coherence, rather than understandings that build themselves by experience. It's less discovery, and more seeking out the breadcrumbs that have been neatly positioned and arranged.
To use an example, Majora's Mask was one the best games to tell a story interestingly. Everything was very ambiguous, but it didn't lack a definite framework around it. So the mind constructed understandings very fluidly on its own. The original Deus Ex did this as well, and the first Unreal did too. On the media side, a good example would be Neon Genesis Evangelion / Serial Experiments Lain.
Now, some of this arises from my own personal taste of course. Gaming has kind of lost it's spark for me, for quite a while now, and I guess this is partly a "what I'd like to see" opinion. But on the other side, I do think effort into storytelling has decreased massively. Creativity needed to be used to make up for hardware limitations, but as technology has advanced, very few developers have really learned to take advantage of these new capabilities. From neither a delivery standpoint, or frequently, from a cinematography one as far as how the layout of an environment effects not just the gameplay and appearance, but the story as it's experienced by the player.
Lastly, there's a sense of...entitlement. About "knowing". As though the point of playing through a story is to go from "not knowing" to "fully knowing". I don't really like this, personally. It's not really discovery at that point, it's just point A to point B with nothing really beyond itself. In our own life, we rarely fully come to know why certain things happened and exactly how it all fits together. Why should a character in any given game be perpetually strangely entitled to always fully uncover what is happening around them, or have it explained and rolled out? To leave at the end having the full truth and explanation of everything? Elements of ambiguity should sometimes remain.
So, I suppose discuss as seen fit. What does everyone else think about the state of information and story delivery in modern games?
The answer is simple: (most) game-writers are terrible at their job. They always have been, it's just more apparent now since more games are trying to tell a story.
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No, there has never, ever been a sandbox game with a story or ending... except Grand Theft Auto... and Saints Row... and Red Dead Redemption... and Crack Down... and Assassins Creed...
From what I can tell, you're saying that stories these days are being explained to you, instead of you finding them out and understanding the story by yourself. And you want there to be some elements of mystery, like how my imagination used to fill in gaps in games when the question of why was not answered.
If so, then I agree. I also wish that plots weren't so ridiculously complicated (i.e. Kingdom Hearts, though I might just be a simpleton), and weren't filled with crappy plot devices and characters, along with gaping plot holes.
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Hey, guys. Quote me if you want me to respond. Otherwise I'll have no idea what the hell you want with me.
Friend Code: 1263-6258-8121 (Poison)
Friend Safaris: Poison: Swalot, Whirlipede, Seviper.
To use an example, Majora's Mask was one the best games to tell a story interestingly. Everything was very ambiguous, but it didn't lack a definite framework around it. So the mind constructed understandings very fluidly on its own. The original Deus Ex did this as well, and the first Unreal did too. On the media side, a good example would be Neon Genesis Evangelion / Serial Experiments Lain.
Now, some of this arises from my own personal taste of course. Gaming has kind of lost it's spark for me, for quite a while now, and I guess this is partly a "what I'd like to see" opinion. But on the other side, I do think effort into storytelling has decreased massively. Creativity needed to be used to make up for hardware limitations, but as technology has advanced, very few developers have really learned to take advantage of these new capabilities. From neither a delivery standpoint, or frequently, from a cinematography one as far as how the layout of an environment effects not just the gameplay and appearance, but the story as it's experienced by the player.
Lastly, there's a sense of...entitlement. About "knowing". As though the point of playing through a story is to go from "not knowing" to "fully knowing". I don't really like this, personally. It's not really discovery at that point, it's just point A to point B with nothing really beyond itself. In our own life, we rarely fully come to know why certain things happened and exactly how it all fits together. Why should a character in any given game be perpetually strangely entitled to always fully uncover what is happening around them, or have it explained and rolled out? To leave at the end having the full truth and explanation of everything? Elements of ambiguity should sometimes remain.
So, I suppose discuss as seen fit. What does everyone else think about the state of information and story delivery in modern games?
"fails because I'm a simpleton"
From what I can tell, you're saying that stories these days are being explained to you, instead of you finding them out and understanding the story by yourself. And you want there to be some elements of mystery, like how my imagination used to fill in gaps in games when the question of why was not answered.
If so, then I agree. I also wish that plots weren't so ridiculously complicated (i.e. Kingdom Hearts, though I might just be a simpleton), and weren't filled with crappy plot devices and characters, along with gaping plot holes.
Hey, guys. Quote me if you want me to respond. Otherwise I'll have no idea what the hell you want with me.
Friend Code: 1263-6258-8121 (Poison)
Friend Safaris: Poison: Swalot, Whirlipede, Seviper.