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| Re: Interesting Frankie Quote | |
| Posted By: Narcogen <narcogen@rampancy.net> | Date: 6/14/11 4:29 a.m. |
In Response To: Re: Interesting Frankie Quote (Cocopjojo) : I wasn't really talking about continuity or plotlines or anything like that. : I was just talking about two different methods of describing reality - one : which can be as realistic as the author wants, and another which is : significantly less realistic due to the constraints of being a video game. : You said the video game is the authoritative medium for you, which I found : interesting. It's like using a laser to measure distance versus just : eyeballing it, and then picking eyeballing it as the authoritative method : of describing reality. To choose the video games as the authoritative form does not require selecting *gameplay* as the authoritative expression. The cutscenes of each game alone essentially comprise near-feature-length animated films, and that's in addition to all the corroboration that gameplay, perspective moments, and scripted sequences add to that when they aren't doing something that can't be assigned canon value because of gameplay requirements-- like invincible cinematic characters, for instance. For me it's an issue of primacy. Halo is a series of games on which some novels and other things are based-- some more loosely than others. As a series of games, they are exceptional, even if one of the reasons they are exceptional is how well they tell a story, something audiences expect more readily from other formats. As a collection of light novels, anime episodes, and comic books upon which some videogames might (or might not) be based, Halo is not particularly exceptional. To prefer them over the games would be like, if forced to choose between them, preferring the Ringworld games over the Ringworld novels-- which is something I would not do. The Ringworld novels are exceptional. The games are only of note because of their relationship to the novels. I realize who I am talking to here, and I'm really not trying to be rude-- but for me, the creator of Halo is Bungie, just as the author of Ringworld is Larry Niven. So the primary works in the canon are the ones Bungie authored directly-- not ones they supervised, brainstormed, inspired, approved, edited, looked at, were aware of, supplied materials for or threw the Halo Bible over the wall at. In your example, a laser is a more accurate and complete method of measuring distance than the crude approximation of "eyeballing it", even for a practiced expert. I would not accept that a novel or a comic book is a more accurate, more complete, or in any other way "better" way of doing what Halo does-- which is telling a story that is in some measure interactive within an immersive fictional universe. In fact, I'd say that it gives little away to the other methods in terms of raw capability, and adds elements that are impossible in those other methods. : Regarding the depictions of reality in Halo, one medium has countless
I might very easily say it is because of those constraints. Just because an author can write whatever they want does not mean that they should. A real, living, breathing, working universe has real constraints on it just the way game developers have constraints on their time and resources. I might perhaps concede that game development is "more constrained" in one sense, but given the budgets available for making Halo games it is hard to swallow. I would wager that there are feature films made today for far less, with no interactivity. More realistic? I'm unsure how that even applies, except with the rather specific and limited situations like the friendly fire scenario you mentioned, and related invulnerable character issues. The necessity of not treating such incidents in a strictly realistic way is a gameplay-required concession-- just as player death and resurrection is, and I don't assign "canonical" value to those interactions, either. I can call the games the authority on Halo's world and story without putting into the story bible the idea that UNSC marines are highly tolerant of Spartan friendly fire, for instance, because this is clearly a gameplay-driven aspect. For me, playing the game is where Halo comes alive. It is a place I can visit any time I like. I may acknowledge that there are ideas or objects Halo might contain, but were never included because of the limitations you cite. However, it does not make the experience more enjoyable to read a novel where, free from those constraints, the author is then able to give those characters capabilities they cannot have in-game. This only raises unpleasant questions, draws undue attention to the design constraints of the game, creates further cognitive dissonance when feats that are impossible within the game-- even if merely because of the impracticability of depicting them within the game-- are given life with a few stray words in a novelization. I'm speaking generally, here, and not of specifics. This doesn't really apply to, say, the jetpack question, for instance. Honestly, within the ancillary material I've seen few things I can think of which could not have been included within the games, should the developers have so wished, and more inclusion of needless, pointless details and retcons designed to explain away previous conflicts in the games that only later end up being revised themselves. Those extra details are nice-- except when the end up raising more questions than they answer, which is when they tend to draw too much attention to themselves.
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