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I think that's a good point, however some counterexamples I would give are Dragon Age, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect. They are massively curated and plot-driven gam

by Zikes 12y ago

I think that's a good point, however some counterexamples I would give are Dragon Age, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect. They are massively curated and plot-driven games which many gamers will replay a great deal to re-experience the plot rather than the gameplay. In some cases they will replay them to re-experience the plot in spite of the gameplay.

stcredzero 12y ago
> They are massively curated and plot-driven games which many gamers will replay a great deal to re-experience the plot rather than the gameplay. In some cases they will replay them to re-experience the plot in spite of the gameplay. But in those cases, do we have a story supporting a game, or a game as the substrate/presentation medium for a story? I think we are actually talking about two vastly different things mashed under the same overall label of "game." These two things can even exist in the same piece of software we would call a "game." You can have a very plot/story/roleplaying based experience in Eve Online. You can also basically ignore all of the above and just go for a fairly sandboxy/emergent experience. (I will also note that the two player populations in Eve Online were somewhat distinct, and even when people were in both, they tended to do this by "switching modes.") Clearly, there are many kinds of computer games where plot can be mostly, if not completely nonexistent. There is also clearly a subset of story-centric games that use the interactive medium to primarily tell a story. They are clearly not the same thing. (There's a good analogy with movies, in which some are very focused on the music/soundtrack and others are more focused on action and visual spectacle or the story/plot.) (EDIT: To determine how "core" something is, ask yourself: Could the same "thing" exist as a movie, book, or in some other kind of medium without drastically changing? I would say that the overall experience of Mass Effect would drastically change were it to become a TV miniseries. However, you could conceivably create a TV miniseries with nearly the identical plot of Mass Effect.)

by Zikes 12y ago

stcredzero 12y ago

> They are massively curated and plot-driven games which many gamers will replay a great deal to re-experience the plot rather than the gameplay. In some cases they will replay them to re-experience the plot in spite of the gameplay. But in those cases, do we have a story supporting a game, or a game as the substrate/presentation medium for a story? I think we are actually talking about two vastly different things mashed under the same overall label of "game." These two things can even exist in the same piece of software we would call a "game." You can have a very plot/story/roleplaying based experience in Eve Online. You can also basically ignore all of the above and just go for a fairly sandboxy/emergent experience. (I will also note that the two player populations in Eve Online were somewhat distinct, and even when people were in both, they tended to do this by "switching modes.") Clearly, there are many kinds of computer games where plot can be mostly, if not completely nonexistent. There is also clearly a subset of story-centric games that use the interactive medium to primarily tell a story. They are clearly not the same thing. (There's a good analogy with movies, in which some are very focused on the music/soundtrack and others are more focused on action and visual spectacle or the story/plot.) (EDIT: To determine how "core" something is, ask yourself: Could the same "thing" exist as a movie, book, or in some other kind of medium without drastically changing? I would say that the overall experience of Mass Effect would drastically change were it to become a TV miniseries. However, you could conceivably create a TV miniseries with nearly the identical plot of Mass Effect.)