[DaveyB]

Originally Posted by Fien

Hey, Davey is back! Good to read you again.

Thanks Fien

Originally Posted by Fien

Did you happen to drop in at the right moment or have you been lurking all this time?

Bit of both . I drop by on fairly regular occasions, but not so often, nor with enough time to post anything myself...unless there's a really good reason . Did spot the info from you & a couple of other re "The Last Express" download a week or so ago, so thanks for that! I'll let oyu know what I think of it when I have time to play it - but that won't be for a time yet. We've just started on the German version of "Edna Bricht Aus"...

Originally Posted by Fien

But I'm sure we'll also find things to disagree on, just like last time.

Oh, no doubt

Originally Posted by Fien

Mart:


Oh no, please no back stories in the manual for me. They can be fun, but not in a game like TLE. Gradually getting to know the characters and their relations is an important part of the immersive experience.

For now, though, guess we're still agreeing . I want to form my own opinion about characters, not have a manual tell me what to think. For me, like with a good book, subplots & getting to know other characters (not just centreing on the main character or the "action" are very important.

Originally Posted by mart

I agree, but that's one of the examples I mentioned I believe (splitting it up, doing it gradually). It's simply bad design in my - subjective - eyes, a dialogue right after the game has started that takes around 15 MINUTES or so (!!). I know it's not a big deal and that some don't mind at all, and KasiaD pointed out that the name of the game is the LONGEST journey afterall :-). But I am always interested how designers solve these kind of problems (dealing with/using exposition scenes). And I must admit I stopped playing some games that were enormously "talkative."

As you say though, it's a subjective thing. For some of us, it's not that we "don't mind" a lot of dialogue early on, we like it! Personally a book (and similarly game, or film, or TV production) that can successfully use a lot of dialogue to draw me into the story/characters/world is, for me, a positive . Of course that word "successfully" is very important - you're totally right that it falls flat if you've no interest in the dialogue whatsoever!