Game Musings: You don't need to play a game to judge only its story.

[LordTheNightKnight]

@ Alic0004: "Are you talking about the technical merits of the story, or the actual emotional power it has?"

A story isn't really technical, but I'm not judging the emotional parts, since those can affect different people different ways. But a flaw in a story is still a flaw no matter how you feel about them.

@ Khuutra:"Yes, you do. Stories are judged qualitatively, and need to be experienced in a proper contxt to have judgment passed on them."

If something in a game seems nonsensical to someone, but you can explain it to that person without that person playing the game, that is still context. If you can't, then it's still going to be nonsensical even if that person plays it.

@ Doobie_wop:"The Path A and B thing show's you missed my point (which may have been my fault), if there is a plot hole in the game, it's because you missed it on your personal play through. If Ethan Mars dies, then whatever happens to Ethan Mars is thrown out the window, the story changes and is focused back on to the three remaining characters."

A character dying and throwing the story in a different direction is not what a plot hole is. A plot hole is breaking the internal logic of the story. If Ethan dies prematurely, it actually makes sense for the direction to change. Now if, hypothetically, Norman were to have some information he was told by Ethan, and in this hypothetical scenario where Ethan dies too soon, and Norman still knows the information, that would be a plot hole.

But the biggest actual plot hole is the notion that the police have no clues, even though the families of the victims clearly have them. So either the police are total idiots for not asking about them, or all those people have been withholding evidence from the police, for no reason. Even if the notes told them not to go to the police, there was no reason to follow that after their sons were killed. So either idiots, or liars.

So answer me this: How in the hell can that possibly make no sense when not playing the game, but magically make sense just because I'm playing the game?

That is the only valid response to that plot hole. The rules of plot holes do not change just because it's a video game, because even games have internal logic, no matter how f'ed up it can seem. Heck, games that break their internal logic in regards to gameplay can seem ridiculous, and become games you see on the Angry Video Game Nerd.

So story does not get to be exempt from following internal logic, or being judged by that, just because it's a video game. It's not a quantum thing, where the logic of the story suddenly changes depending on the observer.