| Bodhesatva said: That's not really a story, Legend. The more options you continue to add (200 endings now. 400 next year. 600 after that), the more storytelling breaks down, and the more it just becomes a series of actions decided by the end user with no real coherent thread decided by the designer. Which, again, is more like story making. If I decide I have a brother, and I'm nice to him throughout the game, and then I kill him in the end for no apparent reason, okay, those are some of the 200 choices I've made as I played the game as the end user. But that's a completely incoherent story that makes no sense whatsoever. |
I'm not talking about games like The Sims. I'm talking about games with clearly defined story elements (aliens invading Earth, etc) in which the God AI, character AI, and physical laws of the game are so advanced that there won't be 10 endings or 100 endings or even 100,000 endings scripted and changed slightly based on your character 's stats and some flags in the game. There will be literally an infinite amount of endings based not only on what your character does but also based on what the AI of all the non-player characters in the game do as well as the course of events in the game itself.
Also I agree it's not a story in the traditional sense but an interactive story in which you are very much a part of it and help to decide where the story goes. I think that's far more excited than playing some scripted story in which you're forced to go from point A to point B to point C by the developers. Really what is the point of playing an interactive story if your control of events is just an illusion? Why not simply go watch a movie, tv show, or read a book if you want no real control and the biggest benefit of interactive storytelling removed? I think fans of WRPGs really want the kind of thing I mentioned in my first paragraph as opposed to some fans of JRPGs who may just want the illusion of control.
