Quote:
Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83
I must notice that is not so common, for a game designer, to be first and foremost a writer and a storyteller. Unfortunately, many designers are nothing but mere technician without any real gripping vision about a story should and could be told, or about the powerful, meaningful theme an interactive movie/story can successfully convey.
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Right, and what this genre lacks are true storytellers, people who may not have to know all the technical stuff, but who can write real(!) stories ,who can create real characters and involve players in an emotional way.
There are so many games out there ( i´m mainly referring to the "bigger productions" ) that are so poorly written it´s a shame. Artificially constructed plots , so shallow, that people who might have a theoretical interest in interactive fiction, that actually don´t play games, will never have a look at adventure games again if they should have stumbled into something like this coincidentially, as they might consider this to be the standard. And for reaching new markets (thinking about nonplayers, interested in storytelling in general, how to approach them would be another question), the current writing standard is just way too low.
And another sign for the low writing qualitys are main characters in adventure games. If i think about games by Future Games, Frogwares or the Art of Murder for example ( and there are way more examples) it feels like they said: Hey , we almost forgot that there´s gotta be someone the player needs to control, so let´s give him a name and throw him right in there. Personality? What for, who cares!
But how shall i -as a player- be able to care one bit about the fate of the maincharacter if he or she doesen´t have ANY characteristics, detailed background etc.
Personally, beside the superficial nature of many adventuregame plots, the maincharacter situation is one of the worst things about the genre from my point of view.
That´s one reason why i appreciated Martin Ganteföhrs Overclocked approach so much. I was even more interested in the way David Mc Namaras personal problems got slowly worse and worse than in the mainplot. That´s what i think we can expect from a writer. Main characters with real inner conflicts and problems, personality, not the liveless, soulless and artifical robots we get delivered over and over again.
Oh, did i ever mention that Jane Jensen rules?
