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Re: Back with a touch more, but not much. | |
Posted By: Narcogen <narcogen@rampancy.net> | Date: 3/7/06 12:02 a.m. |
In Response To: Re: Back with a touch more, but not much. (Peptuck) : In game > out of game. I beg to differ. Halo is a fictional work. The first, best explanation for why something happens in a fictional work that supports an interactive experience like a videogame is going to be asking the question-- "what part of the gameplay experience requires this element?" To some extent, the quality of the job the developer has done in integrating the narrative experience of watching a story unfold through cutscenes and interactive sequences, and the experience of playing through the game and interacting with the characters in that universe, will be in the number of inconsistencies between the two experiences. However, I do think it is possible, valuable, and interesting to distinguish between points where the story drives the gameplay and where the gameplay drives story elements. For instance, the way Flood fight is an obvious example of the former. The story defines flood combat forms as parasitic zombies, and that's how they fight-- without strategy or guile, they come in endless waves with brutal disregard for their individual welfare, because their individual welfare means nothing. In this case, Bungie's story about who and what the Flood are have driven the gameplay mechanic. My point is that the Tartarus boss battle is an example of the reverse-- that the gameplay requirements of that encounter have conflicted with the reasonable assumptions one can make from the backstory, overemphasizing an aspect of Covenant culture to a degree not seen anywhere else-- the hoarding of special items or technologies for a privileged class. Tartarus' unique weapon is the most extreme example of this in the game, and no other comes close, and the primary reason for its existence is not the backstory-- it is the gameplay. To misunderstand that is to assign undue importance to story elements that exist almost solely for the purpose of gameplay and are not essential for the motion of the primary storyline. |
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