Ambition.
I am excited. There are many reasons.
Story telling has never before seen such a potential for empathy. Video games succeed as an art form when they show you a world, and the choices you make, are the ones that a person in that situation would make.
The bard would have you know that the task of a story teller, is to set your words adrift upon the ocean of interpretation. You check them for leaks and reinforce the hull, so that they can be heard and sail through storms of apathy and ambiguity. We now can create worlds. People can then enter the craft, see things that we show them and engage like a person would. Not only that we can assign character to the persona they inhabit.
Mass Effect takes this and hits the ground running. You are the hero, Commander Sheppard. The how is left to you, and has lead to the idiom regarding "Your Shepard," or "My Shepard." The differences in how people achieve the same goals within the story add to its intricacy, and carry clout.
I have never fired an automatic assault rifle, but in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it was the wheat of the bread. After the grueling chase in the final level, being reduced to naught but your dying lieutenant's handgun, bleeding out on a crumbling bridge, the game showed me the part of myself that did not hesitate. Monstrous in its own right, the part of me that aims for the head, that is willing to shoot a man with his back turned, surfaced. The camera zoomed out slowly, and I realized for the first time that were I there, fueled by vengeance, honor, and a righteous sense of justice, I would have done the same thing.
Valve attempts the impossible in Half:Life 2, which is only ever presenting the player with one choice, which is always the right one. The entire game is linear, and the only time that the next course of action feels unnatural is when you as a player become hung up. "Gordon Freeman would know what to do in this situation." crossed through my mind as I heard my HEV suit announcing Gordon's flat-line yet again. In one instance they kind of point at the fact that you have little input concerning character interactions.
Environment Design is going to be a crucial part of storytelling moving forward. Shaping the world under peoples' feet, leading them to points of interest, and allowing the player to naturally frame beautiful, moving, or disturbing scenes as they are presented, while also leading them through the story is going to be challenging. I hope to be a person who finds it rewarding as well.
Story telling has never before seen such a potential for empathy. Video games succeed as an art form when they show you a world, and the choices you make, are the ones that a person in that situation would make.
The bard would have you know that the task of a story teller, is to set your words adrift upon the ocean of interpretation. You check them for leaks and reinforce the hull, so that they can be heard and sail through storms of apathy and ambiguity. We now can create worlds. People can then enter the craft, see things that we show them and engage like a person would. Not only that we can assign character to the persona they inhabit.
Mass Effect takes this and hits the ground running. You are the hero, Commander Sheppard. The how is left to you, and has lead to the idiom regarding "Your Shepard," or "My Shepard." The differences in how people achieve the same goals within the story add to its intricacy, and carry clout.
I have never fired an automatic assault rifle, but in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it was the wheat of the bread. After the grueling chase in the final level, being reduced to naught but your dying lieutenant's handgun, bleeding out on a crumbling bridge, the game showed me the part of myself that did not hesitate. Monstrous in its own right, the part of me that aims for the head, that is willing to shoot a man with his back turned, surfaced. The camera zoomed out slowly, and I realized for the first time that were I there, fueled by vengeance, honor, and a righteous sense of justice, I would have done the same thing.
Valve attempts the impossible in Half:Life 2, which is only ever presenting the player with one choice, which is always the right one. The entire game is linear, and the only time that the next course of action feels unnatural is when you as a player become hung up. "Gordon Freeman would know what to do in this situation." crossed through my mind as I heard my HEV suit announcing Gordon's flat-line yet again. In one instance they kind of point at the fact that you have little input concerning character interactions.
Environment Design is going to be a crucial part of storytelling moving forward. Shaping the world under peoples' feet, leading them to points of interest, and allowing the player to naturally frame beautiful, moving, or disturbing scenes as they are presented, while also leading them through the story is going to be challenging. I hope to be a person who finds it rewarding as well.
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