Interesting you note Lost Odyssey, I left a comment on that webpage anyway but I'll post it below as I highlight LO as a game I think failed to tell its story, which could have been so much more. Apologies for its length.
"Nice article, I frequently wonder why games these days claim to have a deep, immersive story, but all they mean is they drag on a long time and sometimes a character will die. There’s a lack of research into why characters act the way they do and in a way I think it’s the smaller things that make a character special.
Take for example a game I’ve been playing through lately: Lost Odyssey. I looked forward to this game greatly through its development as it claimed to have a really emotional storyline, it was literally described as a game that would make you cry (and cowritten by a popular Japanese novelist). What I found is that all they meant is some scenes would feature extremely forced emotions, like how the characters tend to cry a lot. Specifically a scene in the early section of a game where you meet a couple of kids, save their lives, then they take you home and it turns out their mother is the main characters daughter he thought was dead and everybody cries a lot when she dies of some mysterious illness and as a player you’re sitting there thinking “oh kay.”.
In a storytelling perspective Lost Odyssey fails in another way, in determining who the bad guy is and what makes him evil. For the benefit of those who haven’t played it before I’ll sum it up now: He has an evil goatee, audacious clothing and laughs when bad things happen to innocent people. You know, like all the real life villains. It would be equally appropriate if he walked around with a t-shirt on simply saying “Bad Guy”. This isn’t criticism unique to Lost Odyssey though, lots of games suffer from a similar analysis into the characters.
Going back to what I was saying about the smaller things that makes a character special, I want to draw reference to some of the events in film and TV that make me smile the most. There’s this bit in the first episode of Twin Peaks when Cooper is about to do an examination of a corpse and he asks the assistant to turn the light off, in real life the actor misheard and thought he was asked what his name was, to which he replied “Larry”. Not breaking character, Kyle MacLachlan once again asked him if he could turn the light off, to which the other actor awkwardly obliged.
It’s this really awkward moment which is given so much humanity because of a slight slip up! It’s little things like this that make characters seem more human and sympathetic at times which you literally NEVER see in games these days. If I wrote a game I would ensure the characters sometimes trip over their words, get things wrong sometimes, lie.. Actually, just make mistakes in general, because it’s the most human trait I can think of!
One more short example before I wrap up this overly long comment. There’s a cult comedy that I’m sure many are aware and fond of: The Big Lebowski. Some people don’t get the humour in this film, but the reason why others are so in love with it is because of the characters that are built up and the language they use, which was an absolute master stroke of writing by the Coen brothers. The Dude struggles to get a straight, clean sentence out of his mouth most of the time. He’s always umming and ahhing and stealing quotes from other people and things he has heard on the TV, every um and ah of which was written into the script, not adlibbed by Jeff Bridges. It’s all these “flaws” I guess you’d call it which I believe makes a character more charming.
Maybe it would be better for game story writers to not write a beginning, middle and end? Perhaps it would be better to establish a world, then write the characters and REALLY flesh them out, then write the beginning to the story and see how these human characters react to the story. Maybe, just MAYBE they’ll end up in a much more interesting scenario.
He says they need about $600,000 a year. Maybe just have a $1 annual subscription? I'm sure not many people are going to complain about that (though there'll always be a few).
I think if we're going to make touch typing classes mandatory (which is a good idea) then hand writing classes should also be on the curriculum. I can't speak for the US, but certainly in the UK I know that writing is mostly forgotton about when in school. In my early early years good handwriting was encouraged but apart from a few months of handwriting lessons, it was never really taught.
Also I think somehow kids need to be veered away from the habit of shorthand typing and use of so many abbreviations, it's getting progressively worse over the years how kids type and it's bleeding into how they write. I've read a couple of my younger sister's coursework for school and was gobsmacked (and kind of amused!) to see "OMG" and "LOL" in character dialogue. This is kind of off topic and besides the point, but communication is becoming more and more impersonal as time goes on and it's damaging. If we teach some sort of "communication" lesson which could encompass this kind of thing then it might be beneficial.
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Classical is too inoffensive. Maybe I should introduce these officials to Merzbow...
Blasting Pulse Demon at bus stops and town centres at night is sure to keep away the youths. And the adults and old people.
(Admittedly I'm just saying this because I'd love to walk down an empty town centre in the middle of the night hearing Merzbow everywhere)
Interesting you note Lost Odyssey, I left a comment on that webpage anyway but I'll post it below as I highlight LO as a game I think failed to tell its story, which could have been so much more. Apologies for its length.
"Nice article, I frequently wonder why games these days claim to have a deep, immersive story, but all they mean is they drag on a long time and sometimes a character will die. There’s a lack of research into why characters act the way they do and in a way I think it’s the smaller things that make a character special.
Take for example a game I’ve been playing through lately: Lost Odyssey. I looked forward to this game greatly through its development as it claimed to have a really emotional storyline, it was literally described as a game that would make you cry (and cowritten by a popular Japanese novelist). What I found is that all they meant is some scenes would feature extremely forced emotions, like how the characters tend to cry a lot. Specifically a scene in the early section of a game where you meet a couple of kids, save their lives, then they take you home and it turns out their mother is the main characters daughter he thought was dead and everybody cries a lot when she dies of some mysterious illness and as a player you’re sitting there thinking “oh kay.”.
In a storytelling perspective Lost Odyssey fails in another way, in determining who the bad guy is and what makes him evil. For the benefit of those who haven’t played it before I’ll sum it up now: He has an evil goatee, audacious clothing and laughs when bad things happen to innocent people. You know, like all the real life villains. It would be equally appropriate if he walked around with a t-shirt on simply saying “Bad Guy”.
This isn’t criticism unique to Lost Odyssey though, lots of games suffer from a similar analysis into the characters.
Going back to what I was saying about the smaller things that makes a character special, I want to draw reference to some of the events in film and TV that make me smile the most. There’s this bit in the first episode of Twin Peaks when Cooper is about to do an examination of a corpse and he asks the assistant to turn the light off, in real life the actor misheard and thought he was asked what his name was, to which he replied “Larry”. Not breaking character, Kyle MacLachlan once again asked him if he could turn the light off, to which the other actor awkwardly obliged.
It’s this really awkward moment which is given so much humanity because of a slight slip up! It’s little things like this that make characters seem more human and sympathetic at times which you literally NEVER see in games these days. If I wrote a game I would ensure the characters sometimes trip over their words, get things wrong sometimes, lie.. Actually, just make mistakes in general, because it’s the most human trait I can think of!
One more short example before I wrap up this overly long comment. There’s a cult comedy that I’m sure many are aware and fond of: The Big Lebowski. Some people don’t get the humour in this film, but the reason why others are so in love with it is because of the characters that are built up and the language they use, which was an absolute master stroke of writing by the Coen brothers. The Dude struggles to get a straight, clean sentence out of his mouth most of the time. He’s always umming and ahhing and stealing quotes from other people and things he has heard on the TV, every um and ah of which was written into the script, not adlibbed by Jeff Bridges. It’s all these “flaws” I guess you’d call it which I believe makes a character more charming.
Maybe it would be better for game story writers to not write a beginning, middle and end? Perhaps it would be better to establish a world, then write the characters and REALLY flesh them out, then write the beginning to the story and see how these human characters react to the story. Maybe, just MAYBE they’ll end up in a much more interesting scenario.
But what do I know? I’m no writer."
how about classes that teach social conventions and behaviorism for kids who are slow at that?
That's a good idea with serious potential. The bullies can call it: "Retard Class"
He says they need about $600,000 a year. Maybe just have a $1 annual subscription? I'm sure not many people are going to complain about that (though there'll always be a few).
So if you haven't got aspergers you've got haemmorhoids? Is that what you're saying?
When I was a kid I was obsessed with the first two Terminator films. I kept praying they'd make a Terminator 3.
Now I've seen it I want to go back in time to kill my younger self before I can grow up to have such destructive thoughts.
Holy shit, Clippy reincarnated!
"It looks like you're committing religious genocide!
Would you like help?
# Get help with murdering the enemy
# Murder the enemy without help
# Sweet jesus get me out of this suit!
"
I think if we're going to make touch typing classes mandatory (which is a good idea) then hand writing classes should also be on the curriculum. I can't speak for the US, but certainly in the UK I know that writing is mostly forgotton about when in school. In my early early years good handwriting was encouraged but apart from a few months of handwriting lessons, it was never really taught. Also I think somehow kids need to be veered away from the habit of shorthand typing and use of so many abbreviations, it's getting progressively worse over the years how kids type and it's bleeding into how they write. I've read a couple of my younger sister's coursework for school and was gobsmacked (and kind of amused!) to see "OMG" and "LOL" in character dialogue. This is kind of off topic and besides the point, but communication is becoming more and more impersonal as time goes on and it's damaging. If we teach some sort of "communication" lesson which could encompass this kind of thing then it might be beneficial.
I'm sure the Dharma Initiative did something like this in the 70's.. Didn't it set off a nuke or something?
Not lupus, then...