wakeup said:
alphamalet said:
wakeup said:
alphamalet said:
wakeup said:
lack of game play doesn't mean bad game play as that is what the developers intended. Bad game play is when the game play mechanics they do use aint solid enough. Saying i didn't like that it had QTE's doesn't work as a argument.
Lack of gameplay is almost always unjustifiable as well. If extremely minimal gameplay is present, and doesn't add to the experience, you shouldn't be making a game.
not really that's whats great about games, there are no boundaries and you shouldn't try and define what a game can, cant do. for example heavy rain is a interactive experience and i love it for that and i also love its game play style. if you don't like that type of gameplay fine but that doesn't make it "bad".
There is a difference between interactivity and gameplay. Something can be interactive, and not be a game. Heavy Rain (from what I remember) has interactivity, not gameplay. If you are going to make a "game", then underutilizing gameplay does a disservice to what you are trying to make, and the medium as a whole. If you are making an interactive experience then fine, but stick to that and don't get bogged down with needless gameplay that will interrupt the pace of the experience.
Also, there are authorities on the subject matter that have defined gameplay, interactivity, and what constitutes a game. There is some grey area to it, but the quintessential component that is required for it to be a game is gameplay. To gloss over and disregard it is not the mark of a successful endeavor in the medium.
The point: Basically, if you want to make a game, then you need to give adequate focus to the gameplay. If something other than gameplay is the primary concern, then you need to rethink the medium that you have chosen.
if that's what they want to make you cant stop them from doing that. What other medium would you suggest as TV and film have no interactivity at all. Heavy rain had game play elements where you walk around the environment. "does a disservice" how? heavy rain couldn't have been made any other way as it doesn't follow traditional game play tropes. Just because its different from what you normally expect doesn't mean it has any less merit. By my standards if i interact with it its a game. I hate the word game anyway, i prefer the term interactive entertainment.
I have been studying game design at a university for four years, and I can tell you that interactivity does NOT constitute a game.
Interactivity purely means to be able to have input in a system, with a result.
Gameplay is the partaking of a challenge within a system, defined by rules, in which a quantifiable outcome results.
Heavy rain consists mainly of dialog choices, and quicktime events, but at no point can you fail them or get a game over. They do not present a challenge that results in a quantifiable outcome. Certain outcomes might elicit a specific emotional response from the player, be it the "good" or "bad" ending, but those emotions are relative to that player, and can't be quantified. It would be like calling the ability to move your mouse and click icons on your desktop gameplay. You don't play your desktop, you interact with it.
You're right, Quantic Dream can make whatever they want, and I can't stop them, but merely undertaking a different endeavor in an established medium does not automatically constitue a successful entry to that medium. I think Heavy Rain would have been better if it were a film, a visual novel (which has interactivity), or a series of videos. Walking around environments hardly lead to anything meaningful, presented no challenge, and broke the pace of the game. If I remember correctly, even Yahtzee complained that the beginning of the game had you walking around doing stuff that amounted to nothing. That isn't helping Heavy Rain with it's primary goal which is to tell a story. The thing about telling a story is that that are a plethora of other mediums better suited for doing that sort of thing, where it can and should be a primary focus. If people wanted nothing but story, they would read a book or watch a movie, but people pop in video games because they want to PLAY something.