CastIronFabric Posted December 9, 2025 Report Posted December 9, 2025 (edited) 2 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said: Now, you see, I disagree. I think video games can be a good medium for narrative story telling, it's just that it fails in many cases because a lot of games get dialogue "written by committee" rather than being integral to the story. An equivalent is movies. We all know the tricks, the camera angles, the lighting, the sound design, these are all used to guide a viewer into a specific mental state. It's not rocket science, we've known this for years, it's very very easy to manipulate people in this way. When I encounter these sorts of tricks, rather than swept along with the intended emotion I am immediately "wtf, do you think I'm stupid, you need to dumb sh*t down and play music in order to elicit that response?" and that's me immediately disconnected from the film. Movie makers do this because it's back to that bear/person garbage bin analogy, you need to maximise everything so you need to cater to the widest audience. If that means metaphorically slapping someone across the face with a lack of subtlety then so be it, and hell mend any "vaguely intelligent" viewer who not only recognises the cues for what they are and are annoyed they've are being treated like a toddler by them doing so. I've played narrative games and enjoyed them, it's not that I have a blanket ban against them, it's just that an awful lot of them fall into the trap of being painfully transparent in their attempt to "appeal to a viewer's empathy" and sticking very strictly to that Western centric, and very often US centric, low quality bullshit. We've come a long was from discussing cut scenes in this game specifically, and apologies for going on a bit of a ramble, but if there ever were cut scenes that were included into VS (and the truth, is I can't see where they would go) then they would get immediately skipped by me. I understand that argument and that issue exists in movies and films as well. My view is like I mentioned but worth mentioning again. When a book, show or movie is extremely good you lose all sense of time and are hyper focused on the narrative being told, every small detail resonates and often can lead to important things later on. So again, super duper extremely duper super hyper focus, is what happens when a good story is being told. I have seen really good movies in which ONE..literally ONE small facial expression is a major plot point but its only noticed if one is paying 100% attention for around 40 mins before it even happens. In fact one of my favorite movies of all time is called The Interview (1998) which last time I checked is no longer streaming anywhere. Anyway, the entire movie is 2 people talking for 2 hours and yet is it friggin brillant. Try doing that level of detail in a video game? Now, imagine having that good story with that level of detail and every 10 mins you stop the story and ask the audience to do something nearly completely different and disconnected and then as soon as they get into that flow you stop again and put them back into story mode. nope. Edited December 9, 2025 by CastIronFabric 1
Broccoli Clock Posted December 9, 2025 Report Posted December 9, 2025 (edited) 16 hours ago, CastIronFabric said: In fact one of my favorite movies of all time is called The Interview (1998) ... oooft.... each to their own I suppose! In the UK dramas that involve one (or very few) locations, and only one (or again, just a few) actors, is called a "kitchen sink drama". If that is your bag, then can I recommend Locke with Tom Hardy? It takes the most mundane task, one guy driving to a location to pour some concrete, and as it progresses his whole life collapses around him (no spoilers) where the entire film is just Tom Hardy speaking into a camera in a car that he is literally driving down a motorway at night. If you are looking for something that is specifically about cranking up the psychological yet having the most bare bones presentation then it's a great watch. If you are the sort of person who likes trailers before watching then it can be found here. As for the rest of the post, I think we are pretty much in the same ballpark with our opinions. Edited December 10, 2025 by Broccoli Clock
CastIronFabric Posted December 9, 2025 Report Posted December 9, 2025 (edited) 1 hour ago, Broccoli Clock said: oooft.... each to their own I suppose! In the UK dramas that involve one (or very few) locations, and only one (or again, just a few) actors, is called a "kitchen sink drama". If that is your bag, then can I recommend Locke with Tom Hardy? It takes the most mundane task, one guy driving to a location to pour some concrete, and as it progresses his whole life collapses around him (no spoilers) where the entire film is just Tom Hardy speaking into a camera in a car that he is literally driving down a motorway at night. If you are looking for something that is specifically about cranking up the psychological yet having the most bare bones presentation then it's a great watch. If you are the sort of person who likes trailers before watching then it can be found here. As for the rest of the post, I think we are pretty much in the same ballpark with out opinions. I guess the core of what I am saying in summary is if the best selling game of all time (minecraft or before it the sims) had a story would sales go up or down. If neither, then that might be a data point developers might want to ponder over before spending millions of dollars on voice acting. Even if the story itself was really good. Edited December 9, 2025 by CastIronFabric
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