I will write a Dishonored!

[The_Lost_King]

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Also you don't have total freedom in Dishonored, if you do things in a certain way, there are consequences and they restrict this freedom.

Of course there are consequences!! Why would there not be consequences for killing everybody?! Life has consequences, and choice has consequences. Things are not going to be all sunshine and rainbows if you kill the entire city!

Yeah, but this is a GAME, and a really fun one at that. They made the mechanics so they could be fun and the moral choice aspect serves to restrict you.
Look at Thief. There the story works with the mechanics, Garrett says that killing is a mark of an amateur and that's a good reason to play non-lethaly, the game never punishes you with a story consequence, it just becomes more boring if you run around and kill people. While in Dishonored running around and killing people is fun, the game punishes with giving you a bad ending. The difference between Dishonored and Thief is that Thief uses the story and characters to benefit the fun of playing while Dishonored discourages the fun of playing with story consequences.

Whoa. That post needs paragraph spacing.

Narrative in a video game is always a careful balance. Mute, personality-empty protagonists are handy if you want to give players freedom to play the game in different ways. So one player's Corvo is a cold-blooded killer who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake, while another player's Corvo will do anything to avoid murdering his fellow man.

Yeah, but why would they bombard you with so much motivation for Corvo? He does everything because he wants revenge, because he loves the empress, because he loves Emily, because it's the right thing to do... The worst thing of all is that all of these motivations conflict each other in many ways(examples- if he loves the empress, then why would he want to fuck Calista, if he loves Emily, then why would he ignore her) . Corvo is a character, he is not a blank avatar as in Skyrim or Bioshock, and that often works against the player's actions and the story's direction.
Also you don't have total freedom in Dishonored, if you do things in a certain way, there are consequences and they restrict this freedom.

When did consequences restrict freedom? Without lawyers being involved, I mean.

Consequences don't restrict freedom, they emphasize player choice. The best example of this is Kreia explaining the ripple effect on Nar Shaddaa.

Just because you commit an action doesn't mean that's where it stops. It has repercussions. Sometimes things happen that you just didn't plan on.

It doesn't matter why, the important thing is the result and I think that Dishonored would benefit from removing the moral choice system. Its not making an artistic statement like The Line or Bioshock did and it draws attention away from the strong parts of the gameplay. Its just a slopy gimmick to make you play the game twice, and Dishonored has a shitload of replay value even without the multiple endings .

It doesn't at all make sense to have a good ending if you slaughter everyone though. You have eliminated the entire city guard and half the population of Kirkwall. You really expect a good ending? That is stupid and kind of babyish.

And this is exactly my point, the story is written it a way that goes against the gameplay.

It doesn't contradict the gameplay. It reacts to the gameplay.

 

[bug_of_war]

The story was fine, there was nothing wrong with it (I didn't like it though...) so I don't see why you felt the need to write a whole new story around the game. I mean, I get fan fiction but this kinda seems like the whole Mass Effect 3 debacle. People can't accept that they just don't like the story so make their own set in the same universe so that it suits their own personal needs. It's not a bad thing to do I guess, but to outright say "the story is bad", without actually saying "this is my opinion", is just...I dunno, disingenuous?

 

[maninahat]

I don't like it. you complain about the wooden story in Dishonored,and replace it with another one with all the same problems.

First things first: "going home to find your family slaughtered" is an extremely cliched fantasy and videogame opening. In fact, it's kind of present in the original Dishonored (returning home, just in time to see your girlfriend/The Empress murdered). The problem with these openings is that they are entirely mechanical - they are there to give the protagonist a reason to do what they do, but they offer no emotional involvement for the player. We haven't met the family or the Empress before, so why should we care when something bad happens to them?

Secondly, you've discarded the hackneyed revenge plot, only to replace it with all the features of another. Presumably the first thing our protagonist wants to do is track down and get revenge on the people who imprisoned him and murdered his family. If he doesn't immediately go do that, then that means his family dying meant nothing to him. Which raises the question: why bother having a dead family, if not for character motivation?

The original Dishonored story is flat and poorly written, but it is possible to salvage both in rewrites. More time spent with the Empress would have helped us gain a rapport, so her death actually has an impact. If Corvo talked, it would have the dual effect of showing more of his character, whilst giving other characters something to work with. All the voice actors in that game sound like they are phoning it in, which suggests bad direction and little to act upon.

Finally, the writers needed to make the damn Outsider an interesting character. He is offensively boring and unimaginative: a teen tryhard vampire who's only wants you to dance for his amusement. In game text describe him as a Lovecraftian whale in his original form, hoping to get revenge on all the whales we killed - if that's so, the writers should have made that an explicit character trait, with the Outsider actively encouraging you to be as destructive and chaotic as possible.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Whoa. That post needs paragraph spacing.

Narrative in a video game is always a careful balance. Mute, personality-empty protagonists are handy if you want to give players freedom to play the game in different ways. So one player's Corvo is a cold-blooded killer who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake, while another player's Corvo will do anything to avoid murdering his fellow man.

Yeah, but why would they bombard you with so much motivation for Corvo? He does everything because he wants revenge, because he loves the empress, because he loves Emily, because it's the right thing to do... The worst thing of all is that all of these motivations conflict each other in many ways(examples- if he loves the empress, then why would he want to fuck Calista, if he loves Emily, then why would he ignore her) . Corvo is a character, he is not a blank avatar as in Skyrim or Bioshock, and that often works against the player's actions and the story's direction.
Also you don't have total freedom in Dishonored, if you do things in a certain way, there are consequences and they restrict this freedom.

Because being given a motivation makes it easier for the player to feel invested in the story? I guess it's like the way actors want to know what the background and motivation of their character is, but they still play the character in the way they feel is right.

And gameplay choices are no fun at all if they don't have consequences.

 

[wintercoat]

All I know is, what with the deaths of the Empress, the Spymaster cum Lord Regent, several influential nobles, one of the most decorated Admirals in the Navy, half the population of Dunwall dead due to plague, and even more due to Corvo's actions, infighting between the nobles as they fight for control of the Empire due to the perceived weakness of a child Empress, Morley no doubt attempting another rebellion, the death of one High Overseer and the banishment or death of the other, along with the deaths of countless Overseers, The Fugue Feast will no doubt be cancelled. That's the real consequence of the high chaos ending if you ask me.

I'm with you man. I mean, who cares if Corvo's actions directly lead to the destabilization of the Empire of Isles. Where's my sunshine and rainbows? Where's my goddam orgy?!