Sadly, you reminded me of a conference which took place in my University and I had high hopes for it. I am currently studying Journalism, and this conference (Called something like Latin Congress of Journalism...I...I don't remember) had several shows in its timetable. One of these was "Journalism and videogames", and hell, I was like...yeah! You hardly ever see something like that here (I'm from some stranded islands which are part of Spain; cool place though =P). So I got really excited. Like when Molyneux hypes something. (I love that guy, even if his latest games have been...well, not so good). Exactly the same.
I get to this show just in time. I was like "my body is ready", without the grim smile of Reggie. I wasn't alone, but there were like...two or three more students. And then the ones giving the speech came. "Oh! Oh!" I was like a child lost in a toy store.
Twenty minutes of "blabla", you know, usual stuff. The oldest one said something like: "The importance of narrative in gaming". And yes! That's what I was waiting for.
Then my hopes began to crumble. And then, they shattered.
Two hours and a half later, I don't want to tell you everything I forced myself to hear. I will summarize it. This guy (the old one) came and said something like "L.A Noire drew inspiration of L.A Confidential. That's where the name comes from." Basically, L.A Noire was the most successful attempt in videogaming narratives to achieve Hollywood style. Because, you see, according to this man, videogames narrative does nothing except copy-cating cinema. "It is its role model", he said. "Videogames want to achieve the quality born in movies". He kept using the goddamn L.A Noire to explain himself.
You know what's funny? When asked, he admited that he had never ever play videogames previously, yet he "made a huge research about gaming narrative". At that point, I was not sure if it was about narrative. But heck, he went on. Probably the most insulting thing he did was, when asked about past games of previous decades and ages, he sentenced that "when gaming started years ago, it was nothing more than a group of freaks in a basement, trying to cash money from a banal entertainment. No narrative. No identity. It was not until L.A Noire that videogames have found its place".
I'll never understand why didn't I just leave the place. I thought he would say "just kiddin'" at some point. But no. You get the point.
