Finished reading the topic. Came to a few startling conclusions.
1. Some people have severe reading comprehension problems. My assumption is that it's due to a severe lack of reading as a whole, something more than messages on forums. Please start reading more books, it really helps to ameliorate symptoms of the "idiot" variety.
2. The "idiot plot" is something we should give a lot of thought to. Some people advocate for non-linear, open choice games but I disagree on that, and I'll use the Mass Effect series as a reference point. Not the best point of reference, but it'll have to do.
In Mass Effect you have the choice of deciding who Commander Sheppard actually is. And I've talked to a lot of people that have played the game, I know some that are extremely passionate about it and I've also seen some very strange character developments in said game. There are few games this generation that have garnered the amount of attention that Mass Effect has and such a loyal fanbase as there are few games that allow for the level of immersion it allows. But a lot of the problems the games have had stem from the open choices that they allowed players.
Gamers are a weird bunch. We embody characters yet rarely actually connect with them. We make them do things that they usually wouldn't do because at times it looks cool or because we want the perks of some high charisma or what not. That's where the weird things come in. I've seen people play all three games as the highest of saints, yet at the end chose the most demonic of options. From an outside perspective, it doesn't make sense for the character to do the things it's done in the manner it's done them. But the player has open choice and may end the story in whichever way he pleases, but at a disconnect from the core of his/her character. And that, in my opinion, dilutes both character and story, because the variety of player mindsets must be taken into account and it just cannot be fully predicted. I believe there would have been no reasonable way of concluding Mass Effect 3 without someone in the fan base going ape.
In a way, giving the player complete control over your character is, in itself, the way of instituting the "idiot plot" (as I've seen some on you are fast to lash out: no, I am not calling gamers idiots). You cannot account for what every player will decide. Give most players too much freedom and some will find the experience too scattered for them. I've met people that couldn't get into Morrowind because they felt abandoned and without direction on that island, good as the story may have been.
So yes, we should really think about how we are to make a game character that is player driven, engaging, harboring his/her own personality, and yet still offer a degree of freedom to the player that would not contradict the core of the character or the whole story of the game. I think the main character from the Walking Dead games is PERFECT in this regard, same as with the father from Heavy Rain -I'm sorry, I'm really bad with names sometimes-. Both of them are completely player driven, put into extreme situations and, despite any input from the player, nothing they would do would seem to go against their core personality. And that's why we have gotten attached to them and we cared so much for them, because our decisions made them move along their stories and we have shaped them and their relationships with others, without compromising who theyactually, without actually breaking the game's immersion - and please don't bring up the Shaun glitch...it happens, it's humorous, but it's not relevant-.
The crutch is that both games had to sacrifice gameplay to be able to implement such characters.
As a fanbase, we should think about how such characters and such decisions can be translated from that genre of games into a more action oriented one, without seeming as silly as saintly Commander Shepard, diplomat and her of the galaxy, punching a reporter in the face. It's something Naughty Dog seems to have on their minds and we should hope they'll succeed in this.
3. The story of the Uncharted games...
What's there to say. Just found a book in the bookshop completely copying the main outline of Uncharted 3 and the cover was exactly the plane crash scene from the game. So even writers seem to have taken notice. Not that I believe that book would have been worth the money to get it, but I'm just saying.
Also, I've read quite a few books a lot worse than the Uncharted stories, both in terms of pacing, as in characters or plot devices instituted. Need an example? Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller. Read better one. Seen better films. Seen worse films. You can't really say that it's a whole lot worse than some medium or another because honestly all mediums of entertainment are mostly comprised of crap.
Give the story props for what it does and what it wishes to be. It tries at least, which is a bit more than other games do.
I've personally enjoyed the Uncharted games on just about any level. I like the characters and their interactions, I liked the settings, I like the sound work, I like the graphics and the set pieces. Uncharted is what it is and it's one of those cases where it's good as it is.
Let's hope The last of us is another step in another right direction.
I'm still a bit groggy from a bad night's sleep so I hope I've been at least coherent.
Tl;dr: Blah!
