[off-topic] Sony releases PS Vita SDK

H. S. Teoh hsteoh at quickfur.ath.cx
Fri Apr 20 13:18:32 PDT 2012


On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 07:24:48PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "Sean Kelly" <sean at invisibleduck.org> wrote in message 
> news:mailman.1942.1334874732.4860.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
> >On Apr 19, 2012, at 3:20 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
[...]
> >> Yea, pretty much. With a few exceptions (Splinter Cell 1 though...3
> >> or 4, and some Japanese stuff), I see the mainstream industry as
> >> mostly a "Pixar-wannabe high-def-animation factory" these days.
> >> They don't care about gameplay anymore, just storytelling,
> >> animation and emulating Hollywood.
> >
> >I've switched from calling those games to calling them interactive
> >cinematic experiences.  Some are actually enjoyable from a story
> >perspective, but overall I think they're an evolutionary dead end for
> >the game industry.=

Wasn't that all the hype in the early days where games like that were
called "interactive movies"? I remember Wing Commander was one of those
(or at least, it tried to be). But at least there was actual *gameplay*
going on in WC (you actually get to fly a spaceship and shoot enemies
down), as opposed to just point-and-click, choose-your-own-story,
see-how-many-permutations-of-the-same-old-video-clips-you-can-get.


[...]
> I'll take another game with a "Save the princess" backstory, or even
> *no* story at all, over a game driven start-to-finish by a
> less-than-spectacular story any day. Hell, it's much better replay
> value like that anyway: Listening to the same story over and over
> really kills replayability.

Especially when said story tries SO hard at being convincingly emotional
but totally falls flat, because it's the 150th time you're playing the
game and you've found out and exploited a dozen plot holes and game
sequencing bugs that allow you to trigger game events out of sequence,
so that the video clips just seem totally out-of-context.


> Does anyone care why MegaMan's trying to defeat Wily? Or his
> "emotional growth and struggle" while doing it? Hell no, they just
> enjoy doing it.
[...]

Exactly. Any "emotional growth and struggle" can only be emergent from
the game mechanics, not from a railroaded "you have to do things this
way 'cos that's how you're supposed to" plot dreamed up by some script
writer who got up on the wrong side of bed that morning. It's an
oxymoron, really. The only *real* "emotional growth" a gamer is going to
experience is the gratification from totally pwning the game mechanics
to get the highest score/credits/shortest time/what-have-you.

At the end of the day, it's the game mechanic that really matters. I
mean, that's the whole reason you're playing in the first place, right?
If I just wanted to watch a bunch of video clips, I'd be on youtube
instead.


T

-- 
The problem with the world is that everybody else is stupid.


More information about the Digitalmars-d mailing list