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People like to paint a picture of last minute changes made in panic, but it could also just be the leadership exercising the optionality they had built into the

by Tycho 11y ago

People like to paint a picture of last minute changes made in panic, but it could also just be the leadership exercising the optionality they had built into the project. Marathon has my favourite video game storyline ever. Told mostly through text in 'terminals', they had all sort of literary tools at their disposal. From journal entries to concrete poetry. Halo had a wonderful story and universe. But it also had incredibly cheesy cut-scenes. The real quality in Halo's story was to be found in the plot and the hidden terminals, plus much of fiction and accompanying material they published. Destiny has incredible textual and visual story-telling. All very mysterious like Marathon - it's still unfolding, and many things are unclear. But between things like the grimoire cards and the item descriptions, and the appearances of the ruins in which the game is set, your imagination can run wild. There were some rough edges, sure, but I'm glad about the way it's turning out.

OSButler 11y ago
For me the grimoire cards were destroying the immersion, as you had to login to the website to be able to lookup information that could just as well have been presented in-game. It reminded me a bit of how RPG games of old used to have journal entries in the manual, in order to be able to flesh out the story without being limited to a few lines on screen. The part where I gave up on the story was when you were being told that there's no time to explain anything, yet here you are, inside a hub area and without any urgency at all to proceed with the story line. It felt like they had to explain why they couldn't tell you about the background story with a nonsensical reason. I've enjoyed the gameplay, but just couldn't be bothered to keep up with the story due to the cards and odd in-game explanations.
- Tycho 11y ago
  Lots of people say that but I can't relate except on a very superficial level. I mean yes you have to look away from your screen to read the card on your phone or your laptop, but I look away from the screen for all sorts of non game related reasons. It's not like being in a cinema. On a deeper level I thought they added a great deal to the immersion. You have to hunt for scraps of information and try to piece together what happened in past events. You have to go on the Bungie website and discuss theories with rest of the community. Some fans even made voice acted recordings of the cards. Overall it led to much more investment of thought into the story (which remember is supposed to stretch for ten years) which I think is a greater type of immersion than what you get from pretty cut scenes that tell the story like a movie.
  - OSButler 11y ago
    This is an interesting point of view. I wasn't even aware of those fan creations. Having them available in audio log format would actually be quite neat. Maybe I'm too stuck thinking about it from a technical point of view, where it just doesn't make sense to me why this information couldn't be made available in-game somehow. However, looking at it from a hunt for information point of view and hearing that there's quite a bit of community discussion going on actually makes me a bit curious again. It's a shame, and in a way my own fault then, that all of this went over my head, as the in-game narrative put me off enough not follow up on the grimoire. It'll be interesting to see how they are going to handle the story in the next iterations of the series. I haven't played it myself, but heard that The Taken King supposedly has a lot more in-game narrative and cut scenes, compared to the original release version. I'm not asking for a movie, but a little kick in the right direction to get me curious enough about the backstory (like your comment) and make me interact with the grimoire would be nice.
jka 11y ago
Glad to hear another voice (and username :)) in support of Marathon! - I haven't yet played Destiny, but from the article / your comment, very much hope it's story-driven in the same kind of (obscure, often veiled, quietly melodramatic) vein.
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
> optionality What?
- Tycho 11y ago
  By creating large maps/worlds and building an interesting universe, they were always in a position to abandon the narrative that the writers layered on top, to write new stuff or change the pace of content delivery (push some stuff out to the expansions).

by Tycho 11y ago

OSButler 11y ago

For me the grimoire cards were destroying the immersion, as you had to login to the website to be able to lookup information that could just as well have been presented in-game. It reminded me a bit of how RPG games of old used to have journal entries in the manual, in order to be able to flesh out the story without being limited to a few lines on screen. The part where I gave up on the story was when you were being told that there's no time to explain anything, yet here you are, inside a hub area and without any urgency at all to proceed with the story line. It felt like they had to explain why they couldn't tell you about the background story with a nonsensical reason. I've enjoyed the gameplay, but just couldn't be bothered to keep up with the story due to the cards and odd in-game explanations.

Tycho 11y ago
Lots of people say that but I can't relate except on a very superficial level. I mean yes you have to look away from your screen to read the card on your phone or your laptop, but I look away from the screen for all sorts of non game related reasons. It's not like being in a cinema. On a deeper level I thought they added a great deal to the immersion. You have to hunt for scraps of information and try to piece together what happened in past events. You have to go on the Bungie website and discuss theories with rest of the community. Some fans even made voice acted recordings of the cards. Overall it led to much more investment of thought into the story (which remember is supposed to stretch for ten years) which I think is a greater type of immersion than what you get from pretty cut scenes that tell the story like a movie.
- OSButler 11y ago
  This is an interesting point of view. I wasn't even aware of those fan creations. Having them available in audio log format would actually be quite neat. Maybe I'm too stuck thinking about it from a technical point of view, where it just doesn't make sense to me why this information couldn't be made available in-game somehow. However, looking at it from a hunt for information point of view and hearing that there's quite a bit of community discussion going on actually makes me a bit curious again. It's a shame, and in a way my own fault then, that all of this went over my head, as the in-game narrative put me off enough not follow up on the grimoire. It'll be interesting to see how they are going to handle the story in the next iterations of the series. I haven't played it myself, but heard that The Taken King supposedly has a lot more in-game narrative and cut scenes, compared to the original release version. I'm not asking for a movie, but a little kick in the right direction to get me curious enough about the backstory (like your comment) and make me interact with the grimoire would be nice.

jka 11y ago

Glad to hear another voice (and username :)) in support of Marathon! - I haven't yet played Destiny, but from the article / your comment, very much hope it's story-driven in the same kind of (obscure, often veiled, quietly melodramatic) vein.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

> optionality What?

Tycho 11y ago
By creating large maps/worlds and building an interesting universe, they were always in a position to abandon the narrative that the writers layered on top, to write new stuff or change the pace of content delivery (push some stuff out to the expansions).