Damn, I went on this thinking Terry Pratchett was going to do some game scripts.
Hell, now I'm dissapointed
Hell, now I'm dissapointed
Pratchett Talks Games
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
For a second I expected Terry, just like everyone else clicking the link, I think.
Mostly because I remember reading about Terry Pratchett playing Half-Life 2 and Oblivion. I'd expect him mentioning what kind of story telling gaming would need, rather than his daughter that hasn't made a story for a game that interested me as of yet.
Mostly because I remember reading about Terry Pratchett playing Half-Life 2 and Oblivion. I'd expect him mentioning what kind of story telling gaming would need, rather than his daughter that hasn't made a story for a game that interested me as of yet.
I think games are the wrong place for storytelling in the first place. They should be about the player generating their own unique experience, like what the aimed for with left 4 dead, only on a much larger scale. There needs to be more putting a character in a situation , fallout 3 style, and less watching a plot unfold while you observe mindlessly with no effect on its outcome, like gorden freeman ( while I love halflife, is it not too much like an episode of lost with interactive shooting sections?). I want to feel like my actions have an effect on the situation Im in, not like cog in some wheel some writer has dreamed up in their seattle office. Fallout 3 is the only game I have played that gets close, but bioshock is the only one that justifies the players mindless complacency with their situation
No offense ms. Pratchett, but the story in Overlord was awful.
The producers might be more to blame than the writers, though.
No doubt producers want to protect their investments, so they go with the tried-and-true "John McAntiHero, Asskicker Extraordinare" rather than try anything refreshing, like a proper Overlord that was actually pure evil.
The producers might be more to blame than the writers, though.
No doubt producers want to protect their investments, so they go with the tried-and-true "John McAntiHero, Asskicker Extraordinare" rather than try anything refreshing, like a proper Overlord that was actually pure evil.
That sounds like one of Sid Meier's rules of game design. "The Player Should Have the Fun, not the Designer or the Computer." Maybe try one of his games like Pirates or Civilization.DogofRaw said:
I was thinking. Hmm Terry Pratchett is a brilliant author and all but wtf does he know about games??? Rhianna Pratchett makes a little bit more sense i guess.
Had no idea Terry Pratchett's daughter was this hot. Is there anything Terry Pratchett isn't talented in producing?
Also had no idea she wrote Heavenly Sword, which explains why the story didn't suck.
Also had no idea she wrote Heavenly Sword, which explains why the story didn't suck.
Hey, that is really weird, I had that exact same idea in the shower this morning (don't ask). Quests could be based on events from the various novels and supplements (such as perhaps meeting Venter Borass, from the Discworld Mapp, or maybe doing missions for various characters, and so on). That would be pretty amazing, that would be one of the few MMO's I'd consider playing, especially if we could see the entire Disc...Pezzer said:
As far as the comments on the style of protaganist I whole heartedly agree. To be honest the gritty, dark, angst-driven hero was cool as a counterpart to the clasic White Knight, but nowadays it has become the standard rather than a counterpoint to the standard. Oddly a lot of people don't realize this and compare it to the "Boy Scout" type heroes, when in reality they have probably never really run into any, especially fans in their teens and 20s.
To be honest the two overused stereotypes I loathe most right now are the gritty anti-hero, and the reluctant hero ( "Oh noes, I have all these awesome powerz but I just want a normal life" ). Especially seeing as for some retarded reason the reluctant hero is also sold as an ordinary guy (hey, I'd love to have powers and be exceptional, breaking out of my rut).
Truthfully though I don't think it's entirely the producers that are as fault. Part of the problem is that writers keep churning this stuff out and never produce anything decent that is differant, and well-written enough to jump out at said producers.
As far as the FX budget compared to the writing goes, well I can see the point there, but a lot of the most enduring properties over the years are those that managed to have both a good plot and decent FX for their day. While making a bundle at the box office (which admittedly is probably all the producers car about) I doubt in 10-12 years that Transformers 2 will be remembered as anything special, and quite probably will be sitting in the $5.99 pity bin at Wal*Mart if even there.
In comparison (while many might hate me for this) I expect people will continue to recycle things like the "Nightmare On Elm Street" franchise, which will continue to drop in price, only to disappear for a while and re-appear in $100.00 box sets (which people will buy). The reason being is that while "Nightmare On Elm Street" had good FX for it's day, the concept endures because it's fairly original premise made it a classic, especially seeing as it was done/written pretty well even accross most of the sequels. Pretty much everyone knows who Robert Englund is, his most famous role, and ridiculous amounts of trivia about that movie series even if they insist they hate it or "don't like gore movies".
Of course then again, a big part of it is probably that few producers care about leaving a lasting legacy. They just want to turn their $200 million dollars into more than $200 million dollars in a few years. Of course, while this would seem to encourage the mindless, consider the number of utterly aweful FX movies that have been box officer disasters.
Like anything with movies your going to see a lot of drivel for every truely classic experience. Whether it be dramas, or science fiction/fandom movies.
>>>----Therumancer--->
To be honest the two overused stereotypes I loathe most right now are the gritty anti-hero, and the reluctant hero ( "Oh noes, I have all these awesome powerz but I just want a normal life" ). Especially seeing as for some retarded reason the reluctant hero is also sold as an ordinary guy (hey, I'd love to have powers and be exceptional, breaking out of my rut).
Truthfully though I don't think it's entirely the producers that are as fault. Part of the problem is that writers keep churning this stuff out and never produce anything decent that is differant, and well-written enough to jump out at said producers.
As far as the FX budget compared to the writing goes, well I can see the point there, but a lot of the most enduring properties over the years are those that managed to have both a good plot and decent FX for their day. While making a bundle at the box office (which admittedly is probably all the producers car about) I doubt in 10-12 years that Transformers 2 will be remembered as anything special, and quite probably will be sitting in the $5.99 pity bin at Wal*Mart if even there.
In comparison (while many might hate me for this) I expect people will continue to recycle things like the "Nightmare On Elm Street" franchise, which will continue to drop in price, only to disappear for a while and re-appear in $100.00 box sets (which people will buy). The reason being is that while "Nightmare On Elm Street" had good FX for it's day, the concept endures because it's fairly original premise made it a classic, especially seeing as it was done/written pretty well even accross most of the sequels. Pretty much everyone knows who Robert Englund is, his most famous role, and ridiculous amounts of trivia about that movie series even if they insist they hate it or "don't like gore movies".
Of course then again, a big part of it is probably that few producers care about leaving a lasting legacy. They just want to turn their $200 million dollars into more than $200 million dollars in a few years. Of course, while this would seem to encourage the mindless, consider the number of utterly aweful FX movies that have been box officer disasters.
Like anything with movies your going to see a lot of drivel for every truely classic experience. Whether it be dramas, or science fiction/fandom movies.
>>>----Therumancer--->
I don't believe games will ever prioritize storylines when 9 out of every 10 gamers I know skip the cut scenes and storyline elements to get to the "meat".
Games like half life and bioshock are successful for completely separate reasons. There is a massive quantity of players that are completely surprised by its relatively complex story. It just doesn't enter their heads until they actually witness it in game(presuming they don't ignore or skip all the chitter chatter).
I know about 30-40 or so people that game, and there are only 2 of us that are consistent book readers that understand narrative in any way. The rest are basically either new gamers, having started within the last 5 years or so, or "limited time" gamers. They only sit for about an hour max per week and don't remember storylines. They just don't have the time to become emotionally involved with digital characters. Even if they are basically hanging out with them for significantly longer then with movie characters.
To build on this, ask yourself this question, of all the people that you know that play games. How many do you think would actually appreciate or even recognize a "good" story. Of all the gamers I know there are about 6, however, 4 of those don't actually give a shit about story and skip the cut scenes if they can.
However, saying all this, as the medium grows and grows, the overall pool of story starved gamers will increase. And this will have a direct effect on story driven games. I just don't see this happening in any significant amount until something really above average happens narrative wise, which is completely unique to the medium.
For me, I do wish there were more games set in a more esoteric historical setting, as someone that loves history I find my only refuge is strategy games and occasionally something like assassins creed coming along, though since that had a weird sci fi metaplot it seemed a slight let down for me, who really would have rather stayed in Outremer.
Games like half life and bioshock are successful for completely separate reasons. There is a massive quantity of players that are completely surprised by its relatively complex story. It just doesn't enter their heads until they actually witness it in game(presuming they don't ignore or skip all the chitter chatter).
I know about 30-40 or so people that game, and there are only 2 of us that are consistent book readers that understand narrative in any way. The rest are basically either new gamers, having started within the last 5 years or so, or "limited time" gamers. They only sit for about an hour max per week and don't remember storylines. They just don't have the time to become emotionally involved with digital characters. Even if they are basically hanging out with them for significantly longer then with movie characters.
To build on this, ask yourself this question, of all the people that you know that play games. How many do you think would actually appreciate or even recognize a "good" story. Of all the gamers I know there are about 6, however, 4 of those don't actually give a shit about story and skip the cut scenes if they can.
However, saying all this, as the medium grows and grows, the overall pool of story starved gamers will increase. And this will have a direct effect on story driven games. I just don't see this happening in any significant amount until something really above average happens narrative wise, which is completely unique to the medium.
For me, I do wish there were more games set in a more esoteric historical setting, as someone that loves history I find my only refuge is strategy games and occasionally something like assassins creed coming along, though since that had a weird sci fi metaplot it seemed a slight let down for me, who really would have rather stayed in Outremer.
I wonder if it is the 'what' as it is the 'where'. I am okay with such stories if it is done in an original or underused setting. prototype in Florence, or a Florence like city? Something like that? Give me locales that aren't America or similar in something that isn't a period game.
As for the stories themselves, well she is correct, this is a medium that shouldn't be tied down to Hollywood-esque stories, they are free to make their own, but a push must be made or the general gaming populace won't bother with such radically original or underused stories or concepts.
Oh, and this woman is quite striking. Terry Pratchett, one loves you for extended periods of time.
As for the stories themselves, well she is correct, this is a medium that shouldn't be tied down to Hollywood-esque stories, they are free to make their own, but a push must be made or the general gaming populace won't bother with such radically original or underused stories or concepts.
Oh, and this woman is quite striking. Terry Pratchett, one loves you for extended periods of time.
While Terry Pratchett has already commented that he is generally against this, if you feel up to the challenge there's always The Discworld MUD [http://discworld.atuin.net]!Pezzer said:
If you're not familiar with what a MUD is, just put it like this: Take a text adventure game, add tons of other players and make it an RPG. (OK, it doesn't HAVE to be an RPG, but it almost always is). If you don't mind the typing and reading line after line of text, this is what you'll want. I must admit, overall they've done a good job of capturing a lot of the feel of his stuff, and they've had over 10 years to perfect it.