A Week In Comments

First of all, it’s a question of budget. It takes millions of dollars to design an exciting, linear adventure. Imagine how much more it’d cost to make a game where every action, every failure has consequences on the story. You may say “Dragon Age/Fallout 3/etc did it”, but those games hardly used that gameplay aspect as a substitute for HP. There were a few moments in the story you could affect, and that’s it. It’s

not the same.

Secondly, it’s a question of developer freedom vs. player freedom. Some game developers are very content with immersing the player in their story. What you’re describing is a writer’s nightmare. If we ever want to establish videogames as a viable storytelling medium, we must get over this misconception that since videogames are interactive, their story must be interactive as well.

Lastly, and this is a purely personal standpoint, I feel like a big part of the fun in videogames is overcoming challenges. Losing a life or restarting at a checkpoint isn’t annoying to me if I learned something from it. Heck, when I play a game with unlimited lives, most of my first tries on a boss fight consist of recognizing its patterns. I don’t care about dying, I’ll revive and I’ll have a stronger knowledge of how to defeat that opponent. Canonical? Absolutely not. Challenging and fun? Well to me, yes.

We mustn’t lose track of what videogames are. I believe videogames are first and foremost meant to be fun. The storytelling and immersion aspect are welcome, but unessential.

NEWSFLASH: Most real women aren’t going to have the same body type as a virtual women designed to be attractive.

If a fat chick wants to dress as Bayonetta, so what? If a black guy wants to be Mario, who gives a crap?

It’s a costume. The idea is to dress up and have fun.

But RUSSIA!

With their Vodka and Kalaschnikow!

And with their Lenin Mausoleum!

Always singing horrible songs about Stalin and tanks by the fire with accordion!

These are just a few attributes of the evil ways of the Russians.

Their attitude just pisses Americans off.

I like the lanyard, but the shirt must have been made by Kotaku commentators.

I’m guessing..

Microsoft: Get Kinected

Nintendo: Why settle for double Ds, when you could have 3DS..

You say “skill is skill.” Does skill in basketball transfer to skill in golf? Does skill at Tetris transfer to skill in Modern Warfare? Similarly, a skill based tactical system does not transfer to a skill based action system.

And I thought the main plot (certain loyalty missions aside) suffered in ME2. It was terribly, terribly bland and generic, huge threads I cared about were left hanging, they threw on a coat of “darker and more jaded” paint on most of the characters from the first game and left it at that. Even the decision trees suffered, many of my “paragon” choices I made shoehorned my character into being an ass anyway. Considering we’re no longer playing ourselves, but our version of “Hawke,” looks like that could very well happen again too.

I like new, innovative games, but this isn’t innovation, it’s replacing what we had with something some other game already had. And honestly, even to an extent I can respect that, because there is obviously an audience for that. But to do it with both of their franchises and leave those of us who don’t like those big-name games they’re aping out to dry? I think people have a right to feel betrayed by that.

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