TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITATION

[Jaime Lannister]

James: You worked on the groundbreaking Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed games for writing in history. How would you say that it holds up against or compares to modern games that receive praise for their writing, like Bioshock or Half-Life 2?

Chris: Probably not as well, because Bioshock and HL2 took a better route with story presentation, and integrated the story more into the environment and scripted event placing, which I feel works much better for games than reading text.

Full voice acting and facial animations makes games better. "Show, don't tell" is a crucial rule of storytelling.

 

[Helton]

God damn, Chris.

 

[Balor]

Well, in theory, it is. However, that's a pretty big limitation, cause making it as believeable as done by your imagination when you read text is VERY hard. Like 10x hard then in Ass Effect.

 

[Balor]

Oh, and more abstrastract ideas are outright impossible to communicate.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Well, in theory, it is. However, that's a pretty big limitation, cause making it as believeable as done by your imagination when you read text is VERY hard. Like 10x hard then in Ass Effect.

I think you're on to something. Even with today's technology, a fully 3D game in the crazy-ass world of Planescape would be nearly impossible without taking stuff out.

 

[MisterStone]

Describing things through dialog, item/character description, and scripted events in the game engine is also "showing, not telling". Just because it uses text does not mean that it is "telling".

People think that games these days have such fine graphics that they can represent anything, whereas the truth is, they can't. By insisting that the game stick to "what you see is what you get", and not using text, devs are actually limiting what they can include in a story, because they will shape their story according to what they are able/willing to pull off in-engine.

 

[Fez]

It's the same reason that books still are not obsolete in the age of cinema, radio or computers. Of course try telling that to people either obsessed with making a shiny graphics engine with ever more realistic breast physics or the kids that want to play such games (because redding is teh hard).

 

[Balor]

Well, also 'showing' as scripted scenes, cutscenes, etc (unless done procedurally somehow, and that is not-so-science fiction so far) is MUCH more labour (and, therefore, time and budget) intensitive.
Hence, you have to:
Dumb game down for 'wide audiences', to cover up developement costs.
Rise the price of game, due to above.
Make it shorter and less complex.

That's the price of 'progress'. Fuck that, if you ask me.

 

[St. Toxic]

books still are not obsolete in the age of cinema

bboks r 4 fagz

 

[Fez]

books still are not obsolete in the age of cinema

bboks r 4 fagz

 

[Mareus]

Shit Chris! I thought this is something I would hear from assholes like Todd Howard, but never from the maker of PST! Talking about the decline of gaming industry...

 

[ixg]

Yo where's a link to the interview and such and such

 

[PorkaMorka]

I don't understand how full voice acting could possibly be considered a good use of resources by anyone.

Are these gamers illiterate or something?

I can read much much faster than the voice actor says the lines. I assume everyone can.

So what am I supposed to do, sit there and let him slowly say all those lines? Or just click through it and get on with my life?

So why bother recording all those lines?

 

[Mareus]

Wait, ixg has a point. Where is the goddamn link?! I refuse to believe Chris said those things until I see some evidence. This may turn out to be another spam crap.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art51731.asp

 

[ixg]

Nice try, "Jaime Lannister"

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Voice acting is better. Would you rather have a wall of text saying something like, "'Trust me', said the NPC in a deceitful tone." or actually hear that deceitful tone? Plus, technology allows the writer to convey things such as inflection, facial animations, and body gestures much more easily and concisely, leaving the author more time to work on actual dialog.

 

[Bluebottle]

Strictly speaking his reasoning isn't terribly far off the mark. The main places he falls down is, like many artists, playing down the quality of his work, and forgetting that there are some things that can only be shown to the player through text. It is often the case in any medium that goes through what could be called a technical advancement, and games are going through such advancements more often than most, that perfectly good techniques are unecessarily written off as being obsolete. It is usually later generations that come along and re-evaluate discarded techniques.

He also doesn't take into account that technology, while interesting to the creator, is of little importance to the player (though in games moreso than most other mediums). It can help tell a good story, but at the end of the day, it is the core source material that really matters. In this sense PST stands up far more favourably than either HL2 or Bioshock. Especially Bioshock.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Nice try, "Jaime Lannister"

idgi

 

[Jaime Lannister]

In this sense PST stands up far more favourably than either HL2 or Bioshock. Especially Bioshock.

On the contrary, I'm sure a good graphics department could do a much better job of bringing the self neck wringing, the sensate orbs, or even "O" to life than my imagination could.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

GOD DAMMIT

 

[Bluebottle]

In this sense PST stands up far more favourably than either HL2 or Bioshock. Especially Bioshock.

On the contrary, I'm sure a good graphics department could do a much better job of bringing the self neck wringing, the sensate orbs, or even "O" to life than my imagination could.

I can't tell if you're being facetious, or not. I'm going to hazard a guess at yes.

 

[Murk]

GOD DAMMIT

i was seriously getting hit with deja vu here

JL ftw

 

[uhjghvt]

When I left the politicians, I went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to myself, you will be detected; now you will find out that you are more ignorant than they are. Accordingly, I took them some of the most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them - thinking that they would teach me something. Will you believe me? I am almost ashamed to speak of this, but still I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

old.