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Originally Posted by Sanjuro2
edlglide, we have a very different view of things... I don't believe it's necessarily an asset to take more time to develop characters, particularly given the fact that RPG writers are often terrible. I believe there is true skill to be found in effective "editing", so to speak. I've never seen characters in ANY RPG that are as good as those in say...The Godfather (which I name simply because most people have seen it). And I can spend three hours with that and be far more satisfied than a 40 hour RPG that only took so long to "develop" things because the writers lacked the skill to abolish useless filler.
But, this is my view, not yours. And believe me, there was a time when I would have agreed with you...
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I think you misinterpreted what I said. It's not necessarily an asset to take more time to develop characters at all -- but when someone is actually doing a good job with it, more time = better. There are some RPGs with phenomenal stories, and excellent writing. Not the majority of them by any means, but yes there are some quality ones. I agree with you that there are many movies with far better characters than those found in any RPG..........but your mention of 40 hours compared to 3 is misleading. Someone writing for an RPG probably doesn't have more than 4 or 5 hours of storytelling anyways -- most of that 40 hours is spent wandering around in dungeon-type areas and fighting/killing things. A movie, on the other hand, is 100% storytelling. In any case, I agree that some movies offer better characters than you'll find in any RPG, but that doesn't mean there aren't RPGs with quality stories. And furthermore, I was arguing RPG stories against other gaming stories......not against real novels or movies. I've yet to play any game (including Syberia, which I discuss momentarily) that can come close in terms of story and character development to some of the classic novels and movies that we all know.
As for Syberia........I just disagree with you two completely regarding the story. I don't think it would have been a good novel -- I think it's rather amateurish in writing terms, if you start trying to compare it to really excellent novels. As far as games go the story is done quite well (although I didn't find it all that meaningful, I found it somewhat smug about it's perceived depth), but it can't hold a candle to most quality books. This is of course purely my opinion, and you certainly could have taken something from the story that I did not. Just like a book, really......some people think a certain book is beautifully written and full of depth whereas others think just the opposite. Not from a lack of intelligence by any means, but simply from a difference in viewpoint. So I suppose we can just agree that we disagree about the story.
