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Forums - Gaming - Crysis 2 writer: Halo’s story is “bullshit”

Scoobes on 13 April 2010
rocketpig said:
Bladycor, I think we're both striving for the same thing but I think we just see different viewpoints on it all. Here, I'll just link one of my last editorials:

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=7192

The key point being:

"Mass Effect 2 does more of the same but it keeps heaping choices on you and makes you face your previous choices at every turn. Instead of trying to imitate film, BioWare took a new approach to storytelling; story by character interaction. By making the non-playable characters intriguing, I found myself not caring about the over-arcing story and instead increased focus on my squadmates. In a medium that is desperately trying to find its niche in the artistic world, this is a bold new approach to story-based games. It eschews the limitations of film and focuses on gaming's own strong points while minimizing its weaknesses. Instead of trying to compete with film on a narrative basis, an area where games will never be on the level of cinema because of the disjointed nature of gameplay time versus narrative, it focuses on interaction on a person-to-person level and allows the player to forge their own relationships. Film will never be able to take this approach and BioWare is finally spreading their wings after first taking the plunge into this area of gameplay with Knights of the Old Republic. After years of trying different approaches and experimenting with different themes, they're showing that stories can be told effectively in this new format without trying to imitate another art form."

That's where I have huge problems with a novelist talking about how much videogame characters are "mediocre". OF COURSE THEY ARE. THEY HAVE TO BE TO SUCCEED.

You describe cideo game character as mediocre whilst talking about Mass Effect 2 where the characters are anything but. Honestly, comparing the generic characters of Halo games to the rather more interesting and thought out characters of Mass Effect games?

I'm not seeing your point.




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Scoobes on 13 April 2010
rocketpig said:
blaydcor said:

Okay. I've said all this in the comments on the article, so I'll just resay it all once:
1)His quotes are out of context. Original quote includes the line "Actually, Halo isn't bad. It's just average..." he then goes on to point out how his main quibble is w/ 2-dimensional side characters which lessen the emotional impact. He reflects on how you can still work within the strictures and archetypes of a good ol' let's-go-gun-'em-down action plot but still creating something impactful that resonates with the gamer beyond a superficial level. 

2) He didn't write Crysis 1. He had nothing at all to do with Crysis 1. Richard K. Morgan is a respected, best-selling award-winning sci-fi novelist with 6 novels and 2 movie deals under his belt. He was hired to help with Crysis 2's story due to his reputation.

3)He fully admits that videogames are not always the place for stories. He points out, however, that when games do fuse narrative with gameplay (he cites Bioshock), they recieve quite a bit of critical attention. Gamers who just ''skip cutscenes'' are missing half the content. He goes on to discuss the difficulties of making these cutscenes flow, keeping them interesting, and avoided Kojima-esque bloated excess.

4)In short, he's an intelligent writer who briefly mentioned Halo in a lengthy interview (where he does make a few questionable statements, but he usually does this in interviews, check out his blog/articles/etc).

2. He's a sci-fi novelist. That puts him right up there with "game writer" in my book.

Really? You think H.G Wells and Arthur C. CLarke are the same quality as game writers? Have you ever tried to write a Sci-Fi short story? Sci-Fi is actually one of the harder genres to write because it not only has to be original but you have to balance humanising the story with outlandish ideas and science.

@ bolded: Bolded for making sense




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Kenoid on 13 April 2010

I understand Halo's story is bullshit, all other good titles have crapped up stories. ITS A GAME FOR GOD"S SAKE!!!
Crysis developers can go off a cry with crysis 2's poor sales and with great titles celebrating their triumph
And why do crysis developers shake off from Halo's poor storyline? It's more well known for its multiplayers, smart guys.



                                  

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Scoobes on 13 April 2010
Kenoid said:
I understand Halo's story is bullshit, all other good titles have crapped up stories. ITS A GAME FOR GOD"S SAKE!!!
Crysis developers can go off a cry with crysis 2's poor sales and with great titles celebrating their triumph
And why do crysis developers shake off from Halo's poor storyline? It's more well known for its multiplayers, smart guys.

You do realise it's not Crytek saying this right? It's a respected writer they brought on board to help improve their story, so of course he's going to be critical of story in other games when specifically asked about it. And there are some good titles out there with good stories.

Some of you guys really need to look at these quotes in context (and who's saying them) before posting.




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rocketpig on 13 April 2010
Scoobes said:
rocketpig said:
blaydcor said:

Okay. I've said all this in the comments on the article, so I'll just resay it all once:
1)His quotes are out of context. Original quote includes the line "Actually, Halo isn't bad. It's just average..." he then goes on to point out how his main quibble is w/ 2-dimensional side characters which lessen the emotional impact. He reflects on how you can still work within the strictures and archetypes of a good ol' let's-go-gun-'em-down action plot but still creating something impactful that resonates with the gamer beyond a superficial level. 

2) He didn't write Crysis 1. He had nothing at all to do with Crysis 1. Richard K. Morgan is a respected, best-selling award-winning sci-fi novelist with 6 novels and 2 movie deals under his belt. He was hired to help with Crysis 2's story due to his reputation.

3)He fully admits that videogames are not always the place for stories. He points out, however, that when games do fuse narrative with gameplay (he cites Bioshock), they recieve quite a bit of critical attention. Gamers who just ''skip cutscenes'' are missing half the content. He goes on to discuss the difficulties of making these cutscenes flow, keeping them interesting, and avoided Kojima-esque bloated excess.

4)In short, he's an intelligent writer who briefly mentioned Halo in a lengthy interview (where he does make a few questionable statements, but he usually does this in interviews, check out his blog/articles/etc).

2. He's a sci-fi novelist. That puts him right up there with "game writer" in my book.

Really? You think H.G Wells and Arthur C. CLarke are the same quality as game writers? Have you ever tried to write a Sci-Fi short story? Sci-Fi is actually one of the harder genres to write because it not only has to be original but you have to balance humanising the story with outlandish ideas and science.

@ bolded: Bolded for making sense

Yes, because I believe Arthur C. Clarke is the same as (fill in blank game writer here). Or Asimov. Same thing.

BTW, HG Wells was a fucking hack. He was nowhere in the league of the two I just mentioned.




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BoneArk on 13 April 2010

I loved Halo, Halo 2 was alright and never played Halo 3.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

blaydcor on 13 April 2010
rocketpig said:
Scoobes said:
rocketpig said:

2. He's a sci-fi novelist. That puts him right up there with "game writer" in my book.

Really? You think H.G Wells and Arthur C. CLarke are the same quality as game writers? Have you ever tried to write a Sci-Fi short story? Sci-Fi is actually one of the harder genres to write because it not only has to be original but you have to balance humanising the story with outlandish ideas and science.

@ bolded: Bolded for making sense

Yes, because I believe Arthur C. Clarke is the same as (fill in blank game writer here). Or Asimov. Same thing.

BTW, HG Wells was a fucking hack. He was nowhere in the league of the two I just mentioned.

Well, he did win the Arthur C. Clarke award in 2008 (not to mention the Philip K. Dick award in 2003). So in a sense, yeah. 

That's a good Mass Effect editorial, but I think that's precisely Morgan's point too. You give gamers something they're familiar with, and then do it better. He's a sharp guy and very aware of the medium differences and challenges therein--it's all in the rest of the interview. 



Crusty VGchartz old timer who sporadically returns & posts. Let's debate nebulous shit and expand our perpectives. Or whatever.