tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post910599933015495532..comments2024-02-24T03:34:18.060-05:00Comments on Stealing Commas: Game stories and a desire to go off the railschris the cynichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06872875475212333027noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post-72344422452649456892012-06-28T00:18:23.018-04:002012-06-28T00:18:23.018-04:00Fair enough - most studios are already looking to ...Fair enough - most studios are already looking to the next thing. Maybe you would have to make it with an MMO team deliberately tasked with adjusting the game based on playthrough data. Perhaps a "debrief" of some sort automatically sent to the team after each result so the team can see where people are going and where complexity needs to be built in.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post-70729639360249857122012-06-27T18:03:48.455-04:002012-06-27T18:03:48.455-04:00With something like the Resident Evil games set in...With something like the Resident Evil games set in Raccoon City, the city is going to be destroyed in the end. No amount of branching will change that, so the only questions are:<br />1 Do you get out?<br />2 How do you get out?<br />3 How many people are with you?<br /><br />With Deus Ex some level of variation would revert to the mean very quickly, for example being able to escape the ambush in Battery Park would mean you'd have to break into the detention facility you'd otherwise have to break out of because you had to get some information from inside of there anyway. Others would lead to quick endgames (Staying with UNATCO would essentially destroy the resistance, so you'd have a few mopping up missions and then MJ12 rules the world.)<br /><br />And other things present more interesting, more involved, possibilities.<br /><br /><i>So it can be done, just that such a game would basically have to release itself repeatedly as new variations and combinations are found and the complexity of the interactions grow.</i><br /><br />Yeah, that's basically what I'd want. Not that I expect anyone to do it with the kinds of games I play.chris the cynichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06872875475212333027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post-73111617846839087062012-06-27T17:00:29.521-04:002012-06-27T17:00:29.521-04:00The problem is that at some point, all of those br...The problem is that at some point, all of those branches have to collapse into an endgame. With something like Star Control, the timer before the destruction of the universe keeps the player on track, but in a theoretically infinite-branching kind if game, eventually the game has to be limited, if only for the purpose of driving the plot forward.<br /><br />Or, you have a very devoted development crew and make Nethack. So it can be done, just that such a game would basically have to release itself repeatedly as new variations and combinations are found and the complexity of the interactions grow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post-29510145475853227042012-06-22T18:43:34.526-04:002012-06-22T18:43:34.526-04:00I have noticed something similar in RPGs, a charac...I have noticed something similar in RPGs, a character comes to deliver information or a plot-important item to the main characters while sustaining heavy injuries, and then dies after his job is complete. I want to make a pithy Marathon reference, but nothing's coming. This often happens when my party has heal spells. It wouldn't really change the plot much if we cast our most powerful heal spell on the guy as soon as we saw him, but that guy would get to live. I want a game with "heal first ask questions later" characters.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889388775673754833.post-6296265948851021322012-06-22T04:49:19.780-04:002012-06-22T04:49:19.780-04:00It gets sillier - I remember some points in AVPII ...It gets sillier - I remember some points in AVPII where I somehow skipped over tripwire thresholds, and met someone completely unresponsive whom I could walk around for ages... until I went back over the tripwire, and she suddenly started screaming and dying. <br /><br />(But this sort of thing is why I am a role-player, proper RPGs none of this computer stuff - because with a human GM in the loop you really can tell any story you want to while keeping a level of uncertainty so that you're not simply writing a novel.)Firedrakenoreply@blogger.com