27th May 2004, 11:11 AM
I never noticed any nods to movies there, likely because I'm no film buff, so I never had a thought of "oh I remember that from whatever movie", so it was serious to me.
But some developers do write the stories themselves as they go along, and it's not always the art department that does it. With Blizzard, the art department pretty much controls game development, but in other companies, the art department is pretty much told exactly what to do and what the story is and they have to work around that.
Oh yes, your ideas of the future where stories are TRULY interactive have been the goal for a long time. However, it's VERY hard to manage all the variables. Fable is giving it a try for example, a truly fully interactive story, but they can only let you interact with so much. Finally, all the lines of the scripts, no matter how many branches they add, will ALL have to be written by the makers of the game. Not a single game has had characters that can actually decide what to say themselves. There is only so much freedom a computer can allow for. However, within the boundries of having to write all the variables of the story themselves, thus limiting how varied each play experience can be, there is still a lot there. Being IN the story is still fun, even when the story is prewritten with only a few variables. Ignore that, and you get that feeling that you are the one who's causing all these events to happen by your actions. Yes, it's not full FREEDOM, but it's certainly a fun experience that shouldn't be ditched just because "games are not books". However, a game can have both great gameplay and great story. Chrono Cross for example accomplishes this VERY well, as does Metal Gear. Then again, that's all in my opinion on these things. I enjoy going through interactive stories even if the ability to change the story is nearly non-existant. I tend to push that fact aside when I play.
But some developers do write the stories themselves as they go along, and it's not always the art department that does it. With Blizzard, the art department pretty much controls game development, but in other companies, the art department is pretty much told exactly what to do and what the story is and they have to work around that.
Oh yes, your ideas of the future where stories are TRULY interactive have been the goal for a long time. However, it's VERY hard to manage all the variables. Fable is giving it a try for example, a truly fully interactive story, but they can only let you interact with so much. Finally, all the lines of the scripts, no matter how many branches they add, will ALL have to be written by the makers of the game. Not a single game has had characters that can actually decide what to say themselves. There is only so much freedom a computer can allow for. However, within the boundries of having to write all the variables of the story themselves, thus limiting how varied each play experience can be, there is still a lot there. Being IN the story is still fun, even when the story is prewritten with only a few variables. Ignore that, and you get that feeling that you are the one who's causing all these events to happen by your actions. Yes, it's not full FREEDOM, but it's certainly a fun experience that shouldn't be ditched just because "games are not books". However, a game can have both great gameplay and great story. Chrono Cross for example accomplishes this VERY well, as does Metal Gear. Then again, that's all in my opinion on these things. I enjoy going through interactive stories even if the ability to change the story is nearly non-existant. I tend to push that fact aside when I play.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)