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We can't keep making videogame stories for players who aren't paying attention to them (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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I've noticed a trend—particularly in some recent RPGs—of, well, let's call it 'Netflixiness'.

Dialogue designed to leave absolutely nothing to interpretation, to exposit information in the most direct way possible, devoid of any real character or context. There's an assumption that any moment the audience spends confused, curious, or out-of-the-loop is a narrative disaster.

I hate to keep knocking Dragon Age: The Veilguard about, especially since I still had a decent time with it all told, but the thing that made me break off from it after 60 hours really was its story. It's a tale that does get (slightly) better, but it gave me a terrible first impression I never quite shook.

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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

not all games are (should be) made for as broad an audience as possible

The problem is that when a AAA game costs three hundred million dollars to make due to all the performance capture and famous actors and high fidelity graphics and whatnot, you have to reach as broad an audience as possible in order to make that money back.

I think this is what's killing the blockbuster movies, too. Everything needs to be lowest-common-denomenator to have a hope of turning a profit.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    It's also very important to remember that AAA doesn't refer to quality; it's terminology borrowed from financial products to indicate how safe an investment it is to generate a return.

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