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Indigo Prophecy Creator - No More 'Porn Narrative'
simoniker writes "There's a new postmortem for Quantic Dream's console title Indigo Prophecy, as described by creator David Cage, online, and one of the most interesting sections in the 8,000 word postmortem is how the game has tried to reshape storytelling for games away from the basic: "One of the key points in Indigo Prophecy was the idea of getting interactivity and narration to work together. Most games oppose these two concepts or rather, they develop them in turn: a cut scene to advance the narration, then an action scene, then another cut scene for the narration. The structure of this narrative process is very close to that of porn movies.""
what's wrong with porn?!
Lack of narrative strength.
Is that why Doom3 sucked so much?
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Now that's f'n hot!
Now seems as good a time as any for gazing into the pixels of moral decay!
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
This would explain why Doom3 had monsters going into closets, closing the door, and patiently waiting for you to open it... ...and why no one on the development or QA team called this "story line" into question.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Think how much better the game would have been if the story was "I'm here to fix the copier... oh zombies." or "Did somebody call for a pizza... oops demons" every porn scenario I can think of including "Let's offer this hellspawn a ride in the van and see if we can trick it into..." is way more fun than the thought of finding and reading those damned PDA email files.
Now admittedly Indigo Prophecy isn't all bad, the engine is work of pure genius. It's what adventure game developers have been trying to create since Adventures went 3D with Grim Fandango and its ilk. It's great, even the action sequences are VERY well implemented. As a result of this I wanted to like the game. It's like the SCUMM engine for 3D, except instead of being used to support a good title its trapped under I don't what, some kind of horrid dark twisted parody of a plot. I wanted to like the game so much because of the engine, which makes it a joy to play, except for the constant assault on your willful suspension of disbelief that is the plot. At the start I was thoroughly loving it, "This Game Rocks! Its the Adventure I've been waiting for!" And then it all starts to go downhill, as ok, secret mayan clan council runs the world, "Hmm, ok I can accept that; this engine fucking rocks! It's all indiana jones prophecy style shit, I can dig that." Then it just keeps getting worse, as we have the matrix waking up, taking control from the mayans and killing all the humans and, "OH MY GOD! WTF is that (living!!)cop doing with that shambling travesty of undeath(Not kidding, he's a zombie!) that is the main character?"
Maybe if this was the plot of Stubbs the Zombie or something, but no, Cage seems to want us to take this work seriously as a work of fiction. And note that, despite all his talk of revolutionizing things, a "new way to make games" and all that, it's a very stock adventure game, quite linear really, with a lot of Resident Evil style action sequences. It doesn't do anything that, for example, "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" didn't do in 1992, except be in 3D, which was done at least as far back as "Grim Fandango" in 1998. It's also actually quite linear, and very short, especially in comparison to titles like "The Longest Journey" or "Curse of Monkey Island". It's not like he implemented a complex branching plot system in game (as has been done in many text adventures) The emotion system is just taking the sanity system from the "Call of Cthulhu" and applying so that there are puzzles/action sequences that you don't HAVE to solve to advance, but if you fail too many of them you lose because one of the main characters kills himself/herself. This is interesting, but not earth shattering, and it sure doesn't make up for bad writing.
They also need to quit telling people what substances they can put INTO their bodies, be it glass, latex, or THC!
Putting glass, latex and THC into your body?
I can only assume that you once had a horrible, but spectacular, accident with a bong.
Nope, in FF7 there was just a small piece with the brothel and crossdressing. Not really entertaining.
OTOH the Elder scrolls...
The Lusty Argonian Maid
Crassius Curio
Act IV, Scene III, continued
Lifts-Her-Tail: Certainly not, kind sir! I am here but to clean your chambers.
Crantius Colto: Is that all you have come here for, little one? My chambers?
Lifts-Her-Tail: I have no idea what it is you imply, master. I am but a poor Argonian maid.
Crantius Colto: So you are, my dumpling. And a good one at that. Such strong legs and shapely tail.
Lifts-Her-Tail: You embarrass me, sir!
Crantius Colto: Fear not. You are safe here with me.
Lifts-Her-Tail: I must finish my cleaning, sir. The mistress will have my head if I do not!
Crantius Colto: Cleaning, eh? I have something for you. Here, polish my spear.
Lifts-Her-Tail: But it is huge! It could take me all night!
Crantius Colto: Plenty of time, my sweet. Plenty of time.
END OF ACT IV, SCENE III
Also, if you want to know why Khajiti are sometimes nicknamed "Barbie", have a peek at part 4 of The Real Barenziah.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
That also explains why none of the demons ever wore pants.
Some of them do...