cexantus

@Zeik said:

@bushpusherr said:

I think a lot of the people who don't consider TWD "GOTY" material, including myself, actually mostly enjoyed the experience of playing through it. In a vacuum, it's easy to praise the best parts of that game. But, the game of the year awards take it out of the vacuum and pit it against all the rest of the year's best games. That's why the issue of gameplay has become such an important one, because you are comparing The Walking Dead to all of these other awesome games that have fantastic gameplay. If it wasn't a competition, I seriously doubt anyone would really care. I don't think it's a "hipster-esque" backlash against something popular.

Yeah, the actual shooting is more engaging than the action set pieces in The Walking Dead, but the parts where TWD actually excelled was when it engaged the player in the narrative, made them get involved in what was happening in the game and made the experience matter. That's why TWD excels as a game, and why it was more enjoyable to play than something like CoD.

Exactly. I'm gonna throw out an overly complex word here: Ludonarrative dissonance--where gameplay and narrative are completely separate from each other. Basically, it's like how the Uncharted series does it's damned hardest to present Nathan Drake as this likable, down-to-earth hero, only for him to be given a gun and turned into a mindless psychopath the moment control is given to the player. As Zeid already said: TWD achieves resonance because the gameplay works hand-in-hand with the narrative. That's why people are reacting so strongly to that game. It offers you no release; there's no moment where the game lets you have "fun" and mow down a bunch of zombies. When you take control of Lee you're still someone who is completely overwhelmed by his situation and essentially made to feel helpless. That's why TWD provides such a harrowing experience.

@BeachThunder: Agreed. People have this really limited idea of what defines something as a "video game." Has no one played Myst or Maniac Mansion or any other point-and-click adventure game when they were younger? Or are we just going to pretend they never existed and that games like Call of Duty have always been the standard for gaming?

Now to answer directly to the OP, I will say this: Taken by itself, I guess you can argue that the gameplay of The Walking Dead lacks the kind of quality we've come to expect from most big-budget video games. But since no one judges a game based on a single aspectit--at least, no one who's sane anyways--as a whole TWD certainly deserves every accolade it receives because it does the one thing that most games just can't do: it combines every aspect of gaming (narrative, graphics, gameplay) into a cohesive package that resonates. When a game makes you sweat because you actually care about the characters, that is a game worth playing.

I hate this notion that just because video games are about player-interaction, that narrative somehow isn't important. Games have come a long way have become far too complex to get by merely on gameplay.

@Wraith1:

OH GOD!!!

Future Diary is pretty fucking awful, but Yuno is the sole reason why I stuck with it till the end.

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

@Akyho:

It's a bit easier with Cancer and Aids; Sexism is more of a societal issue and it's difficult to "act" on. I mean, where does it all come from? Misogyny and racism doesn't just occur in a box--it doesn't just happen. There's always a reason for it and it has much to do with preconceive notions about gender, race, and sexuality.

But is that really what's going on here? Is Patrick, or anyone else for that matter, generalizing an entire gender of men for being sexist? I'm not entirely sure that was the point of Patrick's article. Brodehouse, you're clearly an intelligent person and I agree with many of the things that you have to say; however, I think that the issue here is far more complicated than simply saying "THAT'S WHAT HR IS FOR!!!!" and being done with it.

Do I feel this way because I'm guilty for being a man? No, not really. Do I think that all men in the gaming industry are ugly, disgusting swines that exert their power over the helpless females? No. But I do think that this sudden call of awareness does in fact speak to a problem that people (men and women) do have in gaming. Are we really going to pass all that off as simply a group of people whining? This industry, as many tend to be, is home to a vast number of talented artists of different races, sex, creeds, etc... But more often than not, all that talent gets homogenized into a single product for some specific audience that look the same and act the same.

@illmatic19: Just read the comment section and it's kinda obvious why more people don't speak up. You're more likely to encounter apathy than empathy or sympathy. "Grow a set of balls and stop whining" has become the philosophy of the day. Is it any wonder why women don't often speak up, particularly when rape is involved. And it's not just women either. To avoid turning this to simply a "problem of the week," this conversation really needs to open the doors to whole variety of social issues such as race, gender, sexuality, etc, etc...

Yet what's the attitude whenever this gets posted on a video game forum? "Oh, not this again." "Oh,this is totally a non-issue." "Oh, feminism is trying to overthrow teh males." The reason why awareness should be continually made is to combat apathy; there's still far too many people who think that "this is normal." That we shouldn't change things because "that's how its always been," and if you argue against it "you're crazy for bringing it up." So yeah, I'm totally find with awareness being constant; It should be.

Again: If we want gaming to be better, we have to expect it to be better.

I just...

Guys, you can't get all pissy when someone decides to say that gaming isn't art, yet turn around and stick your fingers in your ears whenever someone actually wants to treat the medium as art. It's not just "ooohing" and "aaahing" at something that looks pretty; it's being able to discuss intelligently of what gaming says about our society. If it's done for literature and film, why exactly can't it be done for Video Games. Sexism is still a problem, racism is certainly still a problem (isn't it kind of telling that something like how The Walking Dead portrays race is an absolute rarity) ignoring the problem, or saying people need to "grow balls" does not fix the problem.

If we want gaming to be better, we have to expect it to be better.

@AhmadMetallic:

*snicker* *snicker*

They think developers actually give a shit about their fanbase.

@Hippie_Genocide:

But the fans are certainly to blame--they're the ones still buying the games. They're the ones that are funding a developer's projects and, in a sense, deciding what games get passed on to the public. There's a reason why true innovation, in a large-scale sense, is a risky venture. That's not to say the game industry is innocent, but it's definitely a two-way street in this regard.

@rubberluffy: So I checked this show out.

JoJo is fucking silly. I love it.