In Defense of Hepler Mode

[Timmibal]

Snippety

Dude, I'm sure there's a better way of expressing your displeasure with her writing than the last line of your post.

How about "The author's impressions of romance leave much to be desired, and her interpretation of homosexual courtship should be viewed as a poisonous insult by the Gay community", or "The author seems to be unable to carry narrative pacing with the assistance of a bucket" or "This was simply awful, I would request those hours of my life back, but it's less traumatic to pretend they simply didn't happen".

See, nobody can call you a mysoginist troll by saying that.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"Why is one type of gameplay skip-able and not the other?"

Uhm, because WATCHING an ingame MOVIE is not gamePLAY... Playing a game is about, well, playing.
If the gameplay sucks so much you don't want to PLAY through it, clearly this game isn't for you. If you are dying to know the lore, read the inevitable tacked on book series instead.

Yathzee hated the skip option in Alone in the Dark, and rightly so.
If your game sucks so much it needs skipping, it's a shit game.

The same goes for cutscenes, you should only skip if you're forced to rewatch it (which is SUPER shitty design!) after dying.

Call me a purist, fine.
For me, this is how it should be.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Unrelated to the topic at hand, can people explain to me why Hepler is such an allegedly unequivocally terrible writer?

Her work on The Anvil of the Void questline in Origins was an incredibly atmospheric and well-paced piece of storytelling, with each scrap of information pertaining the fate of Branka's house uncovered slowly but surely to finally reveal the true extent of the horror it involved.

She was also responsible for Bethany and Leandra in DAII, both of whom were very sympathetic and grounded characters.

That leaves Anders, whom I will concede isn't exactly a personal favourite, but not nearly as terrible so as to deserve the kind of vitriolic contempt I've seen levelled at her.

I get the distinct and unpleasant feeling that a majority of complaints regarding Hepler are really just tied to her having an opinion on games which doesn't necessarily ring true to the base.
- That, and her being a woman in a subculture inhabited by a very peculiar and nasty breed of misogynists.

 

[sumanai]

"Why is one type of gameplay skip-able and not the other?"

Uhm, because WATCHING an ingame MOVIE is not gamePLAY... Playing a game is about, well, playing.
If the gameplay sucks so much you don't want to PLAY through it, clearly this game isn't for you. If you are dying to know the lore, read the inevitable tacked on book series instead.

Yathzee hated the skip option in Alone in the Dark, and rightly so.
If your game sucks so much it needs skipping, it's a shit game.

The same goes for cutscenes, you should only skip if you're forced to rewatch it (which is SUPER shitty design!) after dying.

Call me a purist, fine.
For me, this is how it should be.

You're not a purist.

Conversations in Bioware games aren't in-game movies, they're interactive. Therefore they can be considered to be a type of gameplay. Also the part you're quoting explicitly mentions that what is being questioned is two types of GAMEPLAY existing and only one of them being skip-able.


@Timmibal - Changing the argument so it's easier to argue against? Classy.

People, there's more to gameplay than just combat. There's more to challenging gameplay than combat. There's more to games than combat. Just because it's the only thing you care about doesn't mean it's the only thing that exists, and no-one is suggesting that you should be forced to skip the parts you like. And I don't see how being able to skip individual gameplay segments means the whole game turns into a movie. What if I just want to skip a particularly badly made segment but nothing else?

 

[Therumancer]

Games are about gameplay, hence why they are games. The cut scenes, cinematics, and storylines are all guests there, which can improve the quality (vastly) but are not what defines the medium in any way.

The problem with "Hepler Mode" is that it defeats the purpose of playing a game at all, if your just looking at an endless sequence of cut scenes, then you might as well just go watch an animated movie... and the newest "Pixar" feature isn't going to cost you $60.


What's more the entire attitude represents a lot of what is wrong with the gaming industry right now, with games becoming increasingly linear, and dumbed down, while the cinematics and graphics continue to get better. People looked at things like "Final Fantasy XIII" and a lot of the criticisms were pretty much that if they wanted to make a game like that the should have just made "Advent Children II" and dropped the pretensions of it being a game at all.

Simply put Hepler represents the cancer in the gaming industry right now, and while people say she's "just a writer" she is someone who is part of the design process, and apparently important enough to be able to speak for the company publically. She made those comments a while ago, but when you see the direction Bioware went in, it's not surprising there is a lot of ire, since a lack of reaction was probably seen as approval by the community at large.

The industry is doubtlessly upset about this, because honestly this backlash is them hearing exactly what they don't want to hear. "Hepler mode" and focusing primarily on story and cinematics is how they would prefer to develop games because it's easier and probably less expensive than developing and refining actual gameplay and mechanics.

It's sort of like the bane of the PnP RPG market, writing the stories and metaplots, and developing entire game worlds, is comparitively easier than coming up with a set of good mechanics. Many games have died because they took the whole "story trumps mechanics" bit too seriously and then wound up with a bunch of what amounted to $30 novellas and guidebooks to places that don't exist, with very little gamers could actually do with them. The classic RPG credo is "a good system can be used for any setting, a good setting is never going to be as good as one you create yourself" and people tended to forget about that and well... dozens of small press dreamers now fill the RPG graveyards of the world, while those that actually have enduring mechanics systems (no matter how you criticize them) like D&D and Palladium continue to dominate, despite people saying "I like this world" or "I feel this set of mechanics are better for this".

The point here being that the heart of a game is the gameplay, something like "Baldur's Gate" never would have worked just based on the story, it was the infinity engine, and the way that it played that kept people coming back for more, and that engine was also recycled into other games which became successful because it worked as an avenue for playing those stories.

I'll also say that there is such a thing as earning your progress, patience is part of that. If you think that the game is screwing with you by having thousands of monsters between you and the next plot point, you know... having to earn your victory, it's probably intentional. That's part of the game. Being able to "Hepler" your way through it defeats the purpose and gives you your reward (the next cinematic/plot point) when you didn't earn it. Part of the point to beating a game is that sometimes players aren't going to be able to proceed, or otherwise burn out, that's "losing" so to speak. All those games you stuck with and beat? They are ones you won, as opposed to those you didn't finish.

Basically the industry needs to kick Hepler to the curb, her continued existance in this business is a sign that the industry doesn't care about the gamers, like it or not she's become the focus of some major gaming issues which admittedly go beyond her, even if she represents part of it. It would be an assurance that the gaming industry is at least taking the gamers seriously. I mean I DO hate to say it, but writer or not, she really has no place in the industry right now. Maybe she can get a job writing books, or doing screeplays or something that doesn't involve gameplay that better fits her ideals.

 

[grigjd3]

I like this plan. I could have watched through the entirety of Metal Gear Solid IV without ever having to bother with any of the tiresome gameplay. Oh wait, that's what I did in the first place.

 

[Irridium]

Also, I find it funny that quite a bit of people seem to be against this, yet one of the most popular mods for Dragon Age Origins lets you skip the fade [http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=816].

Seems like quite a few people will gladly jump at the chance to skip parts of a game they don't like.

 

[chronobreak]

Ya can't really say games are just about fun, that's too broad. It's a business for game makers, a profession for professional gamers, it's different thing to different people. If I had to say what gaming was "about", I guess I'd say it's about interacting in a virtual setting, but even that may not be an accurate description.

Also, i'd say it IS more about gameplay. Like, there's a genre for virtual novels, but that's what they are called, they aren't really games. To be a game you have to interact, and interaction is the core of gameplay.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Also, I find it funny that quite a bit of people seem to be against this, yet one of the most popular mods for Dragon Age Origins lets you skip the fade [http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=816].

Seems like quite a few people will gladly jump at the chance to skip parts of a game they don't like.

Let's not forget other similar mods, like 'Skip Peragus' for KotoR 2, 'Skip Taris' for KotoR, 'Skip Chateau Irenicus' for Baldur's Gate 2, and the Skip the Intro for Oblivion and Skyrim.

 

[Irridium]

Also, I find it funny that quite a bit of people seem to be against this, yet one of the most popular mods for Dragon Age Origins lets you skip the fade [http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=816].

Seems like quite a few people will gladly jump at the chance to skip parts of a game they don't like.

Let's not forget other similar mods, like 'Skip Peragus' for KotoR 2, 'Skip Taris' for KotoR, 'Skip Chateau Irenicus' for Baldur's Gate 2, and the Skip the Intro for Oblivion and Skyrim.

Also, I'm sure plenty of people keep an Oblivion save right at the exit to the sewers, so they don't have to play through it again.

Same with Fallout 3. I (when I still had the game installed) kept a save right at that final door. So I wouldn't have to go through the Vault again.

 

[subtlefuge]

I like the idea of skipping combat, but not of skipping gameplay. People who want the option to sneak or speak their way through games should definitely be given it, but if all you want is a few CG scenes, they make movies to fill that highly specific desire.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The extremely ugly responses to Hepler, both at the time of the story and now in thsi very thread, make me rather sick. And, yes, I often find myself these days loving games but hating being a gamer considering the company it puts me in.

Hepler is a writer and *gasp* just because she works at Bioware doesn't mean she has to enjoy every single aspect of either the games they make or the games others make. She doesn't even really have to enjoy playing games at all as, quite frankly, that's not her job. Actual quality of her writing aside, for better or worse, it may be worth asking whether she would perhaps be better at the job if she were more interested in the games as a whole but it doesn't mean she can't do her job if she doesn't possess that interest.

Games including some sort of streamlined mode don't hurt anyone. In fact, all they do is open up the medium we claim to love to more people. I'm sorry, but people who may have different interests in the realm of the medium or perhaps even different physical abilities that may disallow them from certain experiences are not people who should be locked out of enjoying videogames. Let's say that someone has difficulty with their fine motor control due to nerve damage, or maybe they are without hands due to either an accident or genetic defect. Should they really be locked out of enjoying gaming simply because they can't complete a complete twitch heavy combat scenario if they otherwise enjoy the experience the game provides? If no, then how is this different from someone who may be physically capable but simply doesn't possess a level of interst in that activity?

I also find it curious that someone wanting to be able to speed through combat scenarios is being widely equated to someone wanting to skip gameplay. Have those making these statements forgotten about the fact that combat does not necessarily equal gameplay? Are widely acclaimed games like Journey, Portal, Flower, Katamari Damacy, Tetris, Monkey Island and Catherine suddenly not games because combat is basically non existent? How about a game like Chrono Trigger where combat is there but is not particularly physically demanding? How about something like Silent Hill 2 where there is combat but it's largely optional (and, often, inadvisable)? Demanding and physically challenging combat is not gameplay. It may be part of gameplay, and it often is, but the two are not synonymous.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Honestly, the fact that people take offense at giving everyone more choices just baffles me. Sure, I'd play through the combat in a game, in addition to enjoying the story, but if you don't want to, that's fine, too.

If someone gets butthurt about giving people these choices, that's just childish, IMO.

EDIT: and the fact that people are dumping on Hepler...just grow up, people. Come on.

 

[maxben]

Hepler Mode is fine by me but is it still a game then. If you are skipping the combat then it simply becomes an interactive movie or the stories that appear on here sometimes.

There are no such things as interactive movies, no one sells anything labelled that. However, technically most video games would fall into the category of an entertainment that you watch (movie) and that you interact with (interactive). Its not like you interact with a video game with different senses than a movie, as you would with books or music, other than making choices with a controller.
The choose-your-own adventure book is a book, and a choose-your-own adventure video game (or interactive movie if you prefer) is a video game.

Never say never. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_movie]

Also, I think people are really generalizing/oversimplifying things here - obviously this is not a mode that can or should be in every game, or even in every genre. However, there are games that it would definitely be a good fit for, and that shouldn't be overlooked in a lump statement.

Ok fair enough, but the first setence of that article is "An interactive movie is a video game that features highly cinematic presentation and heavy use of scripting, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage."

So I still feel justified to some degree

 

[ThePS1Fan]

Metroid: Other M had a theatre mode. You could just watch the story, why you'd want to is beyond me but it's there.