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MICHAEL MOORE
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FEATURED POST
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To say that good writing is the future of video games is, I think, a bit sort sighted. Video games have generally had relatively good writing, which has really gotten only better over the years. But the future of the medium is not in good writing, but in good storytelling. This may sound like splitting hairs, but it’s an important subtlety.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012 | Comments (0)
POST BY THIS AUTHOR (15)
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Developer Naughty Dog might have missed an opportunity by choosing to make a grizzled survivalist the main playable protagonist in The Last of Us.
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To What End, a game made during the 2012 Global Game Jam, demonstrates how the use of an abstract presentation allows the player to create a unique, personal story and meaning.
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Ever wonder why Little Mac is so little in the NES version of Punch-Out? Surprise: The game's actually doing you a favor.
L2wqr
We sometimes don't realize how simple game design decisions can affect how we play a game. I take a look at three popular action game franchises, and show how something as simple as a scoring system tied to the combat can influence the player in different ways.
2guys_1title
The system at face value may seem like it's merely there to play to the psychological appeal we have to see numbers going up, and see flashy graphical elements that make us feel that we are doing something good. But rather it causes the player to look at the environment, and approach combat in a way they likely wouldn't have without it in place.
2guys_1title
With so much talk about FarmVille, I decided to give it a try and see what so many people are playing it. After playing for two months I think I've managed to ascertain three things that draw people in and keep them playing this game, and spending money on virtual items.
2guys_1title
Red Dead Redemption stars two John Marstons: the one that Rockstar created and controlled, and the one that the players create for themselves within the game. Rockstar's John Marston exists in the cut-scenes and in-game dialogue, while the players’ John Marston fills the many moments in between.
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At GDC 2010 Bioware's Armando Troisi spoke about objective and subjective storytelling in video games. Specifically, about how most of Bioware's games are subjective stories, while the Mass Effect series is objective.
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COMMENTS BY THIS AUTHOR (8)
"hink you can, and i think this might be what we are getting in The Last Gua"
Thursday, February 16, 2012
"Yeah, we do need some more good female characters as the main character, but I didn't really want to make that part of my argument. I think generally we just need more unexpected main characters, like a Star Wars game where you play through A New Hope as R2-D2."
Thursday, February 16, 2012
"I could  see doing something like that it in a situation where Joel is unable to do anything (ie: tied up) and so you as Ellie have to do something to free him. But doing something like that is really tricky in terms of immersion since you are pushing the player into a character they aren't used to playing as, who shouldn't play the same way as the character they've played most of the game as. So it's fairly awkward since they kind of have to relearn the game a bit for something that might not add much to the game.

BioShock 2 actually managed to do this really well when you inhabit the Little Sister. However in that case you are still the same character, but you are possesing someone else's body. So the awkwardness of controlling the new body makes sense narratively and doesn't really break the immersion.

Arkham City also does  this well with Catwomen, but there you are controlling a character that essentially plays the same as Batman (aside from some of the things she can do.) But you can mostly get by with her by playing her much the way you would Batman. And then in regards narrative, her storyline is parrallel to Batman's which prevents any sort of immersion breaking narrative problems from arising."

Thursday, February 16, 2012
"I'd recommend checking out Bulletstorm. I was kind of turned off by the demo, but I picked it up during the holiday Steam sale, because of all the positive talk about it during game of the year discussions. It's not an amazing game, but it's not really trying to be. It is rather silly and ridiculous, but it's all rather lighthearted and fun."
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
"@Marcel

<Spoilers>

I think that the way I look at the final stranger mission is that those final missions at home with Jack, Jack sees his Dad as someone who did bad things and is now trying to get away from that and change himself. So regardless of how you, the player, see the John's death (whether it was sad or well deserved,) Jake would probably only see it as being undeserved since all he knows is that he did what the Feds wanted.

Thus it makes sense to me that Jake would be out for vengeance, but also what it does is if you played honorably with John it now opens the game up to let you do bad things. When playing with John I felt that I was staying with his character by doing honorable things, but as Jack I feel more open when playing to be a bit more of a jackass since he's willing to go through all the trouble to hunt down Ross.

</Spoilers>"

Thursday, June 03, 2010
"@Marcel

I meant to also make mention that I think depending on how you choose to go, dishonorable or honorable, that sort of determines how you will feel about the end of the last story mission. If honorable, sad; if dishonorable, perhaps that it was deserved. But I couldn't quite figure out where/how to work it in really."

Tuesday, June 01, 2010
"hough I would agree with the list in general, I'm a little surprised to not see a Touhou game instead of Ikaruga. Some of those games make playing Ikaruga look like Space Inv"
Thursday, July 02, 2009
"hough adding content like that is nice, the problem is that with smaller game, or not established franchises, they are taking time and resources away from the main part of the game in order to build this extra content. And doing so could cause the main game to suffer become of it. I know Garnett has made this point a couple of times on Listen Up when talking about the Uncharted 2 multip"
Wednesday, May 13, 2009