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| Re: Bungie responds to Activision contract. | |
| Posted By: Leisandir <joecooperstein@hotmail.com> | Date: 5/22/12 1:42 p.m. |
In Response To: Re: Bungie responds to Activision contract. (Cody Miller) : This is an illusion. It only interacts with you in simple predefined ways. : You have the illusion of real interaction. Play a REAL RPG like D&D, and : you will see that you have ACTUAL interactivity within the story. You can : change things however you want. In FFVII, you can only change things the : way the game designers want you to change things. Have fun resurrecting : Aeris! Your only MEANINGFUL interaction is what you decide to attack with, : and when you decide to heal. So it's a bad example of mechanics and story interacting in a positive way. Listen: I want you to go watch an episode of Extra Creditz. Season 1, episode 21. The episide is about how mechanics can and should work to reinforce the narrative of the story. By synergizing the two, both are stronger - the player has a reason to care both about what he is doing and seeing. And, as for D&D? How often do you DM? The story of a D&D campaign can come in two ways: either there is no overarching plot, and the story comes from the way that the characters and players interact with one another and the DM (easily achievable in multiplayer games - check out Artemis, or any game that asks the players to work together in a particular instance without giving them much else in the way of narration); or there IS a main storyline including specific tasks that must be completed, enemies that must be fought, and events that must happen. It doesn't matter if the Cleric is able to heal the Rogue or the Fighter manages to defeat the boss by using his carefully chosen feats - the party will still go through the same encounters planned by the DM, and the story will reach its conclusion according to the rules set by that one player. If you constrain yourself to a set of rules, you are limiting yourself. Those limitations are not bad, and in fact are necessary to tell a good story. If someone comes to you and says, "Think of a story," you're likely to take a few minutes before either giving up or spouting out something terrible. If someone says to you, "Tell a story, and it must involve an armchair, an inheritance, and be less than five minutes in the telling," what you come up with will be far more interesting than when you had no limitations. It is no different in a videogame - you're still limited by the rules of the game, you're still likely progressing through a predetermined storyline, and that doesn't matter. Choice in games is more than who lives and dies, which nations rise and fall, whether or not the main character succeeds. It is in how the player avoids the obstacles, even when there's only one viable solution; in how the player interacts with others in multiplayer; in every aspect of the playing.
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