hawkinson76

I used to be an obnoxious straight edge kid, from high school up through college. I was stupid. Alcohol has a place in any healthy lifestyle. For me, the enjoyment of spirits, wine, and beer developed hand in hand with a love of cooking. Go watch Ratatouille, and then try some wine, cheese, and apple slices under a tree in the park.

wait

No. But I don't read anyone else's either. If I am curious about a game (based on previews, trailers, podcast impressions) I'll just buy it, usually a year or two later when it is cheap.

Batman and Robin. I walked out of the beautiful Mann's Chinese Theater. Two decades of attempts to watch reruns on Cable also failed. Unwatchable.

@BrockNRolla said:

@Gaff said:

@Seppli said:

@BrockNRolla said:

I think it's more about most games having stories that function in the service of gameplay rather than in the service of their narrative. When a developer thinks up a bunch of gameplay scenarios and plugs them into a generalized story, you end up with pacing problems and a disjointed experience. By the time you reach the end, the story hasn't been respected enough to provide a satisfying conclusion.

Many will harp on the importance of mechanics in games, but in the long run, I don't remember how, "awesome it was to push buttons on my controller and kill all those guys," I remember whether or not the storyline was any good. I'd like to see more of a commitment to creating a whole story before production of a game. Doesn't matter if you start at the beginning or the end, it just has to be a strong whole.

I guess it's just how the industry operates. Fiscal years/quarters. Shareholder value. Deadlines. Shit's got to be on schedule. Very few developers make marquis games and have the luxory of a 'When it's done!' business-side of things.

In such an environment, if you don't make sure your final act and ending are tight early, you might never get around to do it properly. Hence all the halfbaked, unfinished, halfassed, absent, cheap, horrid final acts and (non-)endings.

At least that's what all the circumstantial evidence points to.

On the other hand: video game developers aren't professional writers. Another factor is that development staff has ballooned so much that there aren't a lot of games or franchises in which a single writer (or body of writers) has complete control over the narrative structure or has stayed with the game / franchise until completion. Take a look at people like Ken Levine, Hideo Kojima, Amy Hennig or "small" indie developers like Jonathan Blow, Jenova Chen or Phil Fish. They're all examples of creators with a strong vision of where their stories are going and whose games have been touted as landmarks in video game storytelling.

So we need dual threat writers/developers, or at the very least, a writer with a vision that will be respected during the development process. Even in cases where a lot of different people touch a narrative, I don't think that means it dooms it. Many TV shows are written by a group of writers, and this allows them to bounce ideas off of one and other before committing to them. It could lead to a middle-of-the-road product as well that goes in no particular direction, but one can never really know just based on the make up of the writing staff whether or not something will turn out.

This is why I don't like TV, watching the same characters act/speak very differently depending on who wrote a given episode is maddening. Video games do NOT need to be done like this, because they aren't burning through 24 scripts a year and dealing with casting issues (pregnancy, death, or just quitting). Video games can tell a complete story, beginning, middle, and end, and pace it over any amount of gameplay (4 minutes or 40 hours). You don't need to worry about cancellation, or having your budget cut halfway through the season.

The only reason we are having this discussion is because Bioware broke the game up into a trilogy, allowing them to change things between games (clips?!) while still trying to stay true to some story bible. The end result is uneven, which is all I expect from even the best television. I would have been happy with three mass effect games with three different lead characters set against the same backdrop of galactic peril, then their arcs could complete within a single game. Cmd. Shepard in the first game, A Cerburus agent in the second game, and, I don't know, an Alien lead or something (hybrid?) in the third.

wait, no kids, nieces, young cousins to gift at least the S/NES to? My 9 year old daughter plays a lot of classic games on her DS.

@believer258 said:

@SuperSambo said:

@believer258 said:

@hawkinson76 said:

@believer258 said:

Not enough. I have some extra weight on me but I haven't actually gained any weight over the past two years at all. I just haven't made the effort to lose any, either. I guess the equilibrium I've hit is due to walking all around campus all the time with a soft drink of some sort in one hand.

I did this for a while (not the campus part, weight gain came at a desk job), but it was deceptively unhealthy, my cholesterol (epsecially HDL) steadily climbed even though my weight was steady.

Oh, I know. I plan to get on - or, rather, off "it" - this summer. I know the issue here, it's just that time and energy is a bit of an issue.

@hawkinson76 said:

How do you people have time for all this jogging/running? You guys have hours a week to spend running no where?

I also often wonder this as well. Where is all this time that a lot of duders seem to have? Certainly some of them are unemployed, others have enough money to never worry, but certainly not everyone is in either of those camps?

What is your schedule to the point where you cant find spare time :S

It isn't so much that I don't have spare time, it's that by the end of the day my energy is gone. As of tomorrow this schedule is gone, but for the past few months I've been going to and studying for four different classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, going to and studying for two classes on Tuesday, going to one class on Thursday, and working Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. I also spend a lot of time walking all around campus (between classes and during work), and am expected to help keep the house clean.

Well, you asked and I answered. Anyway, at days' end I'm rather tired and at weeks' end I like to savor as much time as possible. But after exams end next week I'll have tons of unemployed free time, so I'll get 'round to exercising then.

Up at 5:00am, (exercise?), bathroom, shower, cook breakfast for the kids, get the kids up, take care of the baby while my wife showers, help the kids/yell at them for taking too long, eat the now cold breakfast, get the the bus stop between 7:00-8:00 (depending on how many thing went wrong or if I slept in), get to work around 9:00 (30 minutes late), get out of work at 6:00-6:30 (8 hours, plus unpaid lunch, and usually arriving late), get home 7:00-8:00 (depending on traffic and how late I stayed), just in time to help with homework/dinner, then its off to bed for the kids, about an hour of quality time with the wife, and then off to bed for us, unless I stay up playing Fez, in which case I wake up late and screw up the whole week. Sometimes I get home after my kids have already gone to bed, and that really sucks.

@UitDeToekomst said:

@hawkinson76 said:

How do you people have time for all this jogging/running? You guys have hours a week to spend running no where?

yeah, really. all my time is taken up working, sleeping and playing video games. no running for me. unless i'm being chased by a bear or something. and if that happens, i'm guessing i won't be running for very long.

You just have to be faster than your friends. Also, always take a slow friend with your when camping.

How do you people have time for all this jogging/running? You guys have hours a week to spend running no where?

@believer258 said:

Not enough. I have some extra weight on me but I haven't actually gained any weight over the past two years at all. I just haven't made the effort to lose any, either. I guess the equilibrium I've hit is due to walking all around campus all the time with a soft drink of some sort in one hand.

I did this for a while (not the campus part, weight gain came at a desk job), but it was deceptively unhealthy, my cholesterol (epsecially HDL) steadily climbed even though my weight was steady.