Poll: i hate exposition

[A random person]

Expands upon the story (you don't want exposition, play Tetris).

ugh. i'd rather experience the story instead of listening to someone explain it to me in an unnecessarily long dialogue.

Does the technology exist to make games with 200+ hours worth of gameplay?

To be fair to him, there are games that tell stories through gameplay (Half Life, Bioshock, etc.) and are quite effective for it. I'll admit that such methods would be difficult with some plots, however, and even with the examples I gave some parts still qualify as exposition.

 

[Saris Kai]

Whats with all these 'I'm low brow and have the attention span of a gnat and am proud of it!" Troll threads recently?

What's with people not actually reading the damn threads recently?

I did read it, I stand by my post. The OP is either a troll or just being foolish.

 

[DarkRyter]

so, i just played Ico
and i remember why i hate exposition so much.

some games take their stories way to seriously and i just want them to STFU. (i'm looking at you, Hideo Kojima)

i liked playing a game that was a nice simple game.
i liked Ico.



EDIT: EXPOSITION =/= STORY. exposition is flat-out telling you stuff that you'd figure out anyway or stuff that probably doesn't matter.


tl;dr
i like 'playing' video games, not sitting around while characters yap about things i don't give a fuck about. i'd rather leave those details up to the imagination or have to figure them out on my own.

From the sound of it, you don't hate exposition, you just hate story.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I never really got the mouthbreathers who feel it's too much work to read a few lines of text or sit through a cutscene without explosions.

Are they 12-year olds raised on Halo?
Are they illiterate?
Are they adrenaline junkies with zero attention span?

I dunno. I understand that it can get frustrating if a game has a really bad story but still tries to force it on you by bring cutscenes, but for most games I don't see why reading a bit of text or listening to some dialogue would be a bad thing.

Anyway, if you hate exposition so much, why don't you stick to games that focus on the action in stead? I mean, nowadays you'd be a fool anyway if you bought a game without researching it on the net first, and it would be trivial to find out if a game is exposition-heavy.

 

[_zuul]

From the sound of it, you don't hate exposition, you just hate story.

from the sound of it you don't have an imagination, or you hate thinking.

 

[_zuul]

Whats with all these 'I'm low brow and have the attention span of a gnat and am proud of it!" Troll threads recently?

What's with people not actually reading the damn threads recently?

I did read it, I stand by my post. The OP is either a troll or just being foolish.

i'm foolish apparently.

 

[_zuul]

story- plot, characters, events that you're supposed to care about.

exposition- dumping probably meaningless details



HOW HARD IS THIS?

 

[_zuul]

You may hate exposition, and that's fine and dandy, just go back to your Call of Duty.
I'm going to leave and play a game that's intriguing.

i don't play call of duty.

i'm going to leave and play silent hill 2.

 

[heyheysg]

so, i just played Ico
and i remember why i hate exposition so much.

some games take their stories way to seriously and i just want them to STFU. (i'm looking at you, Hideo Kojima)

i liked playing a game that was a nice simple game.
i liked Ico.



EDIT: EXPOSITION =/= STORY. exposition is flat-out telling you stuff that you'd figure out anyway or stuff that probably doesn't matter.


tl;dr
i like 'playing' video games, not sitting around while characters yap about things i don't give a fuck about. i'd rather leave those details up to the imagination or have to figure them out on my own.

Is it telling a story that happens off-screen as opposed to a story that happens on screen?

A way for Kojima to not use exposition would to go the Dragon Age/Mass effect way of leaving the stories written around the place or having guards talk to each other in-environment.

One is basically letting the player decide if they want to read a novel inside a videogame, the other can be easily be missed

 

[DarkRyter]

story- plot, characters, events that you're supposed to care about.

exposition- to provide some background and setting, and give players some information about the plot

Expostion is everytime something is learned that was not known before.

You pick up a tape in Bioshock, that's exposition. You watch an opening cutscene, that's exposition. You're walking by some guy and he says "Hey [insert character name here]", that's exposition. You look around and see you're starting out in a forest. You look at a character and their name appears above their head. You read the title on the box. All of that is exposition.

Doesn't matter how you learn it. It's that you learned it, that makes it exposition.

 

[Spacewolf]

i didnt think ICO told you a bloodything you didnt have the slightest clue as to what was going on

 

[kawaiiamethist]

If you care about the story and characters it's important. If you're going to make a poll, don't attack people prior for their interests.

 

[Captain Schpack]

...What's ICO?

..........................................................

You sir, have lived up to your name. A cookie for you.

 

[Awexsome]

I understand what the OP is trying to get at here (i think). He likes the story but doesn't want a lot of extra really unimportant stuff. First thing that came to my mind was stuff like the encyclopedia in Mass Effect. But then that stuff is completely optional. As for required cutscenes of useless stuff... the only time I can think of having something like that are games where the main plot itself already needs a timeout to re-examine itself.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

my real beef is that i bought phantasy star portable

Excuse me one second. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
PSO was awesome, but after playing PSU trial thing and considering the card trading thing which I have far too much self respect to play, I think the series died with the Dreamcast.
You can't complain about exposition. It is, by definition, filling you in about parts of the story you can't know about. If it wasn't there, you wouldn't know it. The only alternative and I get the impression that would still piss you off, so y'know...

FF X is mentioned above, this is a good example of a quality story told without (much) infodumping

FFX has an awful story. It's basically about some unlikable wimp wanting to get his nuts off in some girl who's trying to save the world by dying? Ugh. I could write a more interesting story. Better characters too.
The thing is with Final Fantasy games is that it's not that they give you too much information, it's that they spell it out ina really dull and unrealistic way.

 

[_zuul]

my real beef is that i bought phantasy star portable

Excuse me one second. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

ha you're funny.

yes, i know.

 

[_zuul]

nothing, nevermind

 

[atol]

From the sound of it, you don't hate exposition, you just hate story.

from the sound of it you don't have an imagination, or you hate thinking.

I got the same impression, and I'm pretty sure I like to imagine and think, I do it all the time.
It's been quite a while since I've played Ico, but I don't remember it trying to push story on you. In fact, I felt somewhat disappointed that there wasn't more explaination. Speculation is fun, but I don't always like to append upon someone else's story.

 

[FalloutJack]

Might I suggest you never get into RPGs, then. And get a better avatar.

 

[BillyShakes]

i'm going to leave and play silent hill 2.

But... Uh... What? I mean... huh?