The Best of Kotaku, This Week

ALL choice in video games is an illusion. The thing people don’t seem to get correctly, is that every mechanic in a video game is an illusion of you doing something. If I’m playing through a character action game, all these complex animations and hit detection are being simplified to button press combinations and me moving the analog stick.

All the matters is the system presenting you the illusion doesn’t suck. If the illusion is strong, the player buys in. Bayonetta is a strong illusion of combat, and Ninja Gaiden 3 is a garbage illusion of combat. Witcher 2 or Fallout: New Vegas are good illusions of player choice, while Mass Effect1-3 and Dragon Age 2 are bad illusions of player choice.

I do think Diablo 3 would be better if my character stuck up for himself, and had a personality to go with the voice. It would be even better if I got to make the damn choices in the game, since all the combat is built around me deciding what abilities and runes to use, along with what type of equipment…it just seems so natural for you to do the same with how you communicate with the world. Heck, then Diablo 3 would actually be an RPG, instead of an action game with RPG combat and character customization mechanics…seriously nothing you do outside combat makes it an RPG.

Well folks, Gotta Go!