I’ve noticed a trend—particularly in some recent RPGs—of, well, let’s call it ‘Netflixiness’.
Dialogue designed to leave absolutely nothing to interpretation, to exposit information in the most direct way possible, devoid of any real character or context. There’s an assumption that any moment the audience spends confused, curious, or out-of-the-loop is a narrative disaster.
I hate to keep knocking Dragon Age: The Veilguard about, especially since I still had a decent time with it all told, but the thing that made me break off from it after 60 hours really was its story. It’s a tale that does get (slightly) better, but it gave me a terrible first impression I never quite shook.
I love story based games, and the story is my favorite thing about a game, usually. Unfortunately, so many games try to tell you a story like a movie would or like a book would. They intersperse cutscenes between gameplay to tell you what you did or are doing. That’s… boring at best. Video games can tell stories in a unique way that other mediums can’t, because they’re interactive. DDLC is my favorite example, that game has a story that can only hit as hard as it does because you the player are an active participant in the story. Or Dark Souls, where the story exists for you to find, or not… everyone has a different understanding of what the story of that game is after their first playthrough, and the deeper you look the better your understanding is. Tell interesting stories in a way that uses the medium to the fullest and you’ll gain an audience. Recite a screenplay every 10 minutes between spurts of unrelated gameplay, and people won’t care about your story.
Nobody knows what you’re saying, you should consider spelling out an acronym the first time you use it.
If you don’t understand an acronym the first time you see it, you should consider looking it up. I will save you the trouble though; I was referring to Doki Doki Literature Club, a popular indie game with a long title that is commonly abbreviated.
I’m sorry but I disagree. You’ve decided to use an acronym that most people wouldn’t know, so I’d like to think it’s basic politeness to write it entirely the first time to avoid any doubt.
Yeah I’m aware of the game, but there was no fucking way I’m going to get that. It’s just common courtesy to spell an acronym out in parentheses the first time you use it. Pay attention next time you read an article on a news site that includes acronyms.
Fair enough, I assumed the game was well known enough to not need that. I still stand by what I said though, If you don’t understand an acronym, you can Google it and save some time instead of passive aggressively chastising someone on the Internet
I didn’t think I was being passive aggressive, but I guess I was kind of annoyed so maybe it came through in the comment.
The thing about googling acronyms is that sometimes there are more than one. And yeah, I probably could have used context to figure out which one you meant, but I’m… just not going to do all that lol
I apologize, I’ve been responding more emotionally than I meant to. I read the initial response as rude, and that set me off a bit. Your feedback was good, I just got hung up on what I perceived as the tone.
No worries… Like I said, I was annoyed so maybe you’re not completely off base.
Freaking YES. Movies need to spoon-feed a bit and so does TV, but you have a whole medium that lets people be as confused or not and that’s a great thing. If a player doesn’t care, there are options to not dive deep, if they do they will. My first playthrough I was confused what the genophage was. I heard bits and pieces but was genuinely confused. You know what I did? I walked over to my crew mate who mentioned it and asked him! Why is that so hard, the unknowns al_are_ the suspense! It’s what keeps me playing.
Compare that to mass effect Andromeda where they introduce it by having two characters explain it at length in front of the player. This event that would be on par with WW2. So natural. “Hey friend, I was just thinking about WW2. You know, that war that involved the acid vs the allies fought between 1939 and 1945 in which we saw a fascist leader march across Europe?”. Jesus hell have some respect for your players, stop fucking spoon feeding us.
It depends on the game. I still like Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2.
Those are the best games in the series IMO. Sons of Liberty is a prophetic masterpiece.
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