If the Malazan Book of the Fallen got some video games.... oh god... that would be a Kingdom Hearts level of complexity and confusion and unresolvedness....Tobias Wolter said:
Valve's Making Up Half-Life Along the Way
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't G-man originally nameless (or maybe not nameless, but just not 'g-man') and (I think this is the case) that the players called him g-man for 'government man'. I don't ever remember seeing a black mesa logo on his briefcase, but I wasn't paying too much attention to his briefcase, more focusing on the hoards of aliens trying to munch on my brains.
Yahtzee, I want you to listen to me, and I want you to understand me: There is no such thing as looking too deeply into Half-Life's plot.
I've been afraid of this since Lost proved to me how much lack of planning can ruin a good story. At this point I can't imagine Valve revealing the Gman's origins without being a big disappointment. Still, we probably won't have to worry about these things for a long, long time.
Also, kudos to Yahtzee for mentioning Walter's World. I haven't thought of that in maybe a decade.
Also, kudos to Yahtzee for mentioning Walter's World. I haven't thought of that in maybe a decade.
I'm just going to come out and say this: being ambiguous is NOT good story telling. If all you're heading out the door with is a basic framework and some "neat ideas" that you'll back-fill later, you're not telling a story... you're being lazy and pretending a generic framework is the same thing as a complex narrative.
The ***** of it is that humans love mysteries. If you pretend something is significant and don't explain it (e.g. G-Man in HL1, Smoke monster in Lost, Cigarette-smoking Man in X-Files, the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks, and on and on and on), people eat that shit up. It's being provocative, but not providing anything of substance. In other words, it's masturbation... and it encourages people to get on internet forums and circle jerk with others about the significance of... whatever. Sure, it's fun... masturbation usually is... but it doesn't amount to anything because it's not part of the story... and whatever the fans spend hours theorizing is almost never how the story ends up playing out whenever things do get explained. And no, it's not because the final result outfoxes the fans... it's just to throw another curveball because that's all these kinds of writers know.
tl;dr: being vague is not being clever. Quite the opposite.
The ***** of it is that humans love mysteries. If you pretend something is significant and don't explain it (e.g. G-Man in HL1, Smoke monster in Lost, Cigarette-smoking Man in X-Files, the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks, and on and on and on), people eat that shit up. It's being provocative, but not providing anything of substance. In other words, it's masturbation... and it encourages people to get on internet forums and circle jerk with others about the significance of... whatever. Sure, it's fun... masturbation usually is... but it doesn't amount to anything because it's not part of the story... and whatever the fans spend hours theorizing is almost never how the story ends up playing out whenever things do get explained. And no, it's not because the final result outfoxes the fans... it's just to throw another curveball because that's all these kinds of writers know.
tl;dr: being vague is not being clever. Quite the opposite.
His name isn't mentioned in the games. However, in the game files, his character is listed as "G-Man".Burig said:
Oh Lord...a game of an Erikson book would need an in game wiki to help people keep tract of the characters let alone the vague plot threads.Tobias Wolter said:
OT: I always felt despite being vague at in places HL2 just seemed to make sense; I mean sure some parts are unexplained and seem tad odd but it never felt forced and I just went with it.
That's why I like Half-Life 2's story so much. First time I played it, and the Episodes, I got the main stuff. Then I checked the wiki and found SO MUCH MORE STUFF that I missed. I was like, "Wait, that never happened. What are they talking about? Where did they get this information? I don't understand..." So I would go back and play the game and look for all of this stuff and wow...and Yahtzee is right in that they can get away with so much because nothing ever seems to get nailed down. It's always just hinted at with everything, but never fully stated, so if they want to change something later, they can.
Such good storytelling. If only they didn't take so long to tell it. Well, whatever they do, I hope they don't reveal everything about the G-man. I want to know who he is, what he is, what he wants, and all that, but at the same time I'm fully aware that by giving me even ONE of those details, the Half-Life games will lose a massive amount of their charm.
Such good storytelling. If only they didn't take so long to tell it. Well, whatever they do, I hope they don't reveal everything about the G-man. I want to know who he is, what he is, what he wants, and all that, but at the same time I'm fully aware that by giving me even ONE of those details, the Half-Life games will lose a massive amount of their charm.
"I know I come across as a big frothing Valve fanboy sometimes, but it's not just because they paid for me to go on holiday once"
Am I understanding this right? Valve paid Croshaw to go on a holiday?
Am I understanding this right? Valve paid Croshaw to go on a holiday?
Has nobody ever played the PS1 version of Half-Life 1?
There is an extra co-op mode with its own storyline that runs parallel to Gordon Freeman's wacky adventures, an it explains a lot about why things will happen the way they do in Half-Life 2. Huh, there is nothing in Wikipedia about this either, how odd.
From what I remember you play as two women scientists, I beleive one is Alyx's mother and the other is that woman who betrays Eli Vance and crew to Breen in HL2. I never beat this mode, but it starts off as Magnason, the department head, in the same room with the two player women, getting breifed via video by Breen, the administrator of Black Mesa. Breen tells them everything is under control, but Magnason strongly disagrees and orders the two players off to go rescue some other workers.
Hasn't anyone else played this? I remember Yahtzee complaining about Magnason acting like everybody knew him in Episode 2 when he wasn't familure with Magnason. Well, this is where he comes from.
There is an extra co-op mode with its own storyline that runs parallel to Gordon Freeman's wacky adventures, an it explains a lot about why things will happen the way they do in Half-Life 2. Huh, there is nothing in Wikipedia about this either, how odd.
From what I remember you play as two women scientists, I beleive one is Alyx's mother and the other is that woman who betrays Eli Vance and crew to Breen in HL2. I never beat this mode, but it starts off as Magnason, the department head, in the same room with the two player women, getting breifed via video by Breen, the administrator of Black Mesa. Breen tells them everything is under control, but Magnason strongly disagrees and orders the two players off to go rescue some other workers.
Hasn't anyone else played this? I remember Yahtzee complaining about Magnason acting like everybody knew him in Episode 2 when he wasn't familure with Magnason. Well, this is where he comes from.
Thank you! I have no idea where this idiocy keeps coming from! Valve has not been building hype for Half-Life 3.WhiteTigerShiro said:
People are doing it to themselves.
Hi, you must be new to around these parts.PercyBoleyn said:
Captcha: "Dueling Banjos". Umm... Yeah. Half-Life all makes sense, now. Thank you, Captcha...
I always thought G-Man was kindof like Q. He seems to have complete omnipotence, but he isn't as humorous as John De Lancie...
When was it released?Towels said:
In the developer commentary for HL2E2 (R2D2), someone (Gabe?) says that they wanted a third character, because why in the world would these two dweebs - out of all the Black Mesa staff - be the only ones to survive AND have prominent roles in the resistance. There were three scientist models in Half-Life, so they fleshed out a character for the white scientist with hair. [And the fact that he HAS to reference the casserole is neat, but asinine at the same time.]
In other news, I have to take the side against Valve's writing in HL being minimalist. It is true that there was a great sense of 'Wait, did I miss something?' in the game. At least one scientist speaks for everyone saying; "What is going on?" Much of this is intentional. They could have had Gordon get to work on time and sit through the full briefing, but the intro was already too long, and Valve would have had to make up a bunch of science-y words. Then I would have ended up doubting Valve's science-ness.
I thought HL told a fairly coherent story which I largely understood. I can even tell you why the "Gman" talks funny. It's because he's the same voice actor that plays Barney. Those were very early days for voice acting in games. In order for the Barney actor to not sound like Barney, he had to change his cadence. Although apparently a bullsquid ate his diction.