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Cinematics Do Matter?
In direct contradiction to a discussion we had about David Jaffe's opinion on the subject earlier today, GameDaily Biz has an editorial up arguing that cinematics and story are very important game elements. From the article: "There have been times in our industry where sub-par product has been sold through its cinematics, but there have also been times when products have failed to live up to the promise of its creators. The merits of if a cinematic and/or story detract from a game experience is rather mute, as story is one of the oldest and fundamental forms of entertainment, expression and communication"
I'd have to agree. They're very, very effective in certain situations. Although this may be a simplistic view, it helps immerse me even more in the storyline. For instance, I was really able to "get into" StarCraft years ago. If you think about it, the carefully woven single-player missions with the cinematics in between, effectively changed it from being a "yet-another-RTS-clone" into a space-opera.
Far older games, which had even simpler graphics, benefited more. Yes, I do agree that plot is more important, but used carefully, they can and often do, drive the plot.
Sorry, I wasn't on earlier.
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