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Forums - Gaming - Tribune: Is 'Grand Theft Auto IV' the greatest writing of the century?

Outcast said:
How terrible! Mainstream press finally giving video-games some praise!

Why do they praise GTAIV for excellent writing yet they don't they acknowledge MGS4's excellent storytelling?

 



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Riachu said:
Outcast said:
How terrible! Mainstream press finally giving video-games some praise!

Why do they praise GTAIV for excellent writing yet they don't they acknowledge MGS4's excellent storytelling?

 

Such a stupid question, I'm not going to bother answering it.



Words Of Wisdom said:
theRepublic said:

Words Of Wisdom said:

I talk to roughly 20 of them daily.  I bet that's more than the number of newspapers you read daily.

In the end, it just seemed pretty ignorant of you to call a lot of people you've likely never even met morons.

Take a look at this article for instance.  All it really consists of is a basic overview of GTAIV, some sales figures, a bit of information on the company that created the game, and a sensationalist title.  In fact, there's very little in the article even related to the headline at all.  It's a pretty normal article all things considered but with the headline, it has managed to suck in a variety of readers and get copy/pasted on several websites.

Whether or not you like the title or even the article contents, the author has successfully managed to get hundreds of people who don't even normally read the Tribune to read his article.  I can think of many adjectives for it, but moronic is not one of them.

A few points:

--You seem to be arguing that sensationalist journalism is a good thing.  That's dangerous territory, my friend.

What makes you think I'm arguing it's a good thing?

The tone of your posts throughout the thread have been in support of the article.  The bolded is basically a classic argument in support of sensationalism.  If that is not your intention, then you may want to make that clear.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

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He and DTG should get a room and have a nice conversation together.

Eh, better then saying MGS4 though.... i guess.

L4D has the best writing and story for a game this generation if you ask me... and i'm totally serious and can give off many reasons why.



Riachu said:
Outcast said:
How terrible! Mainstream press finally giving video-games some praise!

Why do they praise GTAIV for excellent writing yet they don't they acknowledge MGS4's excellent storytelling?

 

Because MGS4 has horrible storytelling for a videogame.

It stops the action way too much to have long cutscenes.

It would be the equivlent if you were watching Die Hard... and then every 15 minutes the audio cut out, the action stopped and you were given text to read about what happened for the next 10 minutes.

Only for everything to start up again and the process repeat.

Good storytelling isn't copying another medium.  It's using your medium to it's maximium potential.

 



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Kasz216 said:

He and DTG should get a room and have a nice conversation together.

Eh, better then saying MGS4 though.... i guess.

L4D has the best writing and story for a game this generation if you ask me... and i'm totally serious and can give off many reasons why.

I can give you one reason why I disagree with you: it doesn't have the necessary depth and emotion for truly memorable storytelling.  Compared to games in the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy series, L4D jsu doesn't have the depth.  Also, there is not actually story in L4D.

@Outcast

Could you please stop being rude?  You shouldn't risk getting banned from the site just to reply one of my posts.

 



Kasz216 said:
Riachu said:
Outcast said:
How terrible! Mainstream press finally giving video-games some praise!

Why do they praise GTAIV for excellent writing yet they don't they acknowledge MGS4's excellent storytelling?

 

Because MGS4 has horrible storytelling for a videogame.

It stops the action way too much to have long cutscenes.

It would be the equivlent if you were watching Die Hard... and then every 15 minutes the audio cut out, the action stopped and you were given text to read about what happened for the next 10 minutes.

Only for everything to start up again and the process repeat.

Good storytelling isn't copying another medium.  It's using your medium to it's maximium potential.

 

I couldn't agree more.  Great post.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Mobile - Yugioh Duel Links (2017)
Mobile - Super Mario Run (2017)
PC - Borderlands 2 (2012)
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)

Riachu said:
Kasz216 said:

He and DTG should get a room and have a nice conversation together.

Eh, better then saying MGS4 though.... i guess.

L4D has the best writing and story for a game this generation if you ask me... and i'm totally serious and can give off many reasons why.

I can give you one reason why I disagree with you: it doesn't have the necessary depth and emotion for truly memorable storytelling.  Compared to games in the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy series, L4D jsu doesn't have the depth.  Also, there is not actually story in L4D.

@Outcast

Could you please stop being rude?  You shouldn't risk getting banned from the site just to reply one of my posts.

 

Sure there is.  You just need to be able to know a story beyond "Hey people are telling me what's going on!".

The story in L4D is easy.  There is a plague ravaging the earth... your with a group of survivors and you need to get out.

The depth of emotion is there.  It's fear.  Fear in the creepy setting, perfectly stylized, and knowing that the boss infected could be... anywhere.  Even when you know how to play the game... you don't know where it's coming from and any time can be a "holy crap" moment.

It doesn't weigh you down with backstories and flashbacks because they aren't needed.  In fact they're out of place.  All these people care about and anyone in such a situation would care about is one thing... the same thing you do.  Surviving.

The game would be much worse off if between scenes there were cheesy cutscenes where you discovered there was some secret government plague that broke out and infected everyone or something like that.

The game gives you everything you need to give you a realistic zombie expierence and give you all the atmosphere of it.  It conveys everything really well.



...



Kasz216 said:
Riachu said:
Kasz216 said:

He and DTG should get a room and have a nice conversation together.

Eh, better then saying MGS4 though.... i guess.

L4D has the best writing and story for a game this generation if you ask me... and i'm totally serious and can give off many reasons why.

I can give you one reason why I disagree with you: it doesn't have the necessary depth and emotion for truly memorable storytelling.  Compared to games in the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy series, L4D jsu doesn't have the depth.  Also, there is not actually story in L4D.

@Outcast

Could you please stop being rude?  You shouldn't risk getting banned from the site just to reply one of my posts.

 

Sure there is.  You just need to be able to know a story beyond "Hey people are telling me what's going on!".

The story in L4D is easy.  There is a plague ravaging the earth... your with a group of survivors and you need to get out.

The depth of emotion is there.  It's fear.  Fear in the creepy setting, perfectly stylized, and knowing that the boss infected could be... anywhere.  Even when you know how to play the game... you don't know where it's coming from and any time can be a "holy crap" moment.

It doesn't weigh you down with backstories and flashbacks because they aren't needed.  In fact they're out of place.  All these people care about and anyone in such a situation would care about is one thing... the same thing you do.  Surviving.

The game would be much worse off if between scenes there were cheesy cutscenes where you discovered there was some secret government plague that broke out and infected everyone or something like that.

The game gives you everything you need to give you a realistic zombie expierence and give you all the atmosphere of it.  It conveys everything really well.

L4D is irrelevant to this thread. It does atmosphere well, but the storytelling and writing are bare-bones/non-existant.