quote: Original post by sunandshadow
1) gamedev has be down a lot in recent months
2) we''ve either reached consensus or agreed to disagree on the traditional controversies of writing for games.

Good points.

quote:
3) I don''t know about everyone else on this one, but the questions I''ve had for years about writing have either been answered or I''ve given up on them (Can any of you explain to me what makes a psychologically satisfying plot? Or what''s worth writing? I thought not.)
4) Are any of us actually writing anything? I''ve written maybe 3 pages since Xmas, so what do I have to discuss?

I hate to say this but I think that I at least tend to think in terms of mixing the programming & writing together. I don''t think many of us tend to think in the sense of writing as in how to write a story. We think in terms of how to make a story-based game and how to mix it w/ gameplay. That what makes this forum special is to figure out how to mix story w/ the game.

Some of the most interesting threads were when we talked about how to make random stories or how to make a good story non-linear...







"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd
Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.

What a plight we who try to make a story-based game have...writers of conventional media have words, we have but binary numbers

quote: Original post by morfe

Unfortunately, while many people did post in here, very few, are really Game Writers. Designers, yes, programmers, most likely, but there aren't exacly hordes of Game Writers pleading for the existence of this forum.

Yeah, I agree w/ you there. I love some good ol' fashioned literary material, but I know that I don't know much about it. At least I don't know enough to talk about it in great detail. Furthermore, I am a strong advocate of interactivity, so naturally I will want to talk about how to use the game mechanics to alter the story which starts crossing over to other areas besides game writing. I think most others think in the same fashion.

Maybe it's okay that this forum tends to move in the direction of how to mix story and gameplay. It had served that purpose well when it started.




Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.
What a plight we who try to make a story-based game have...writers of conventional media have words, we have but binary numbers


Edited by - Nazrix on February 15, 2001 5:00:12 PM

quote: Original post by sunandshadow

4) Are any of us actually writing anything? I''ve written maybe 3 pages since Xmas, so what do I have to discuss?

HMMMMPH!!! HMMMPH, I say!!!!

I actually started writing up a fair bit of worldbuilding and background plot stuff. I had a ton of questions I wanted to ask. I even posted some intro stuff, but when I did so I got near zero response! Only morfe replied-- and not to say morfe''s chopped liver or anything, but I was expecting a bit more. Even a, "Dude, you suck, go back to coding... and you mispelled ''the''" might have sufficed.

I figured either the writing itself was pretty boring or it was that evil sci-fi stuff. Perhaps I''ll rework it to include dragons, dark elves and a fifty page royal bloodline... yeah, maybe that''ll work...

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

I found my way here whilst loking for instructions on using Quake console......I know how to use the Half-Life console and I wanted to know about HL''s ancester.

And so you lot ask about ''what makes a good game?''

And I feel inclined to contribute my twopence worth!

After you have played HL you have to download custom games......to prevent terrible withdrawl symptoms. So the basic themes of HL are examined from many differnt angles. Some games focus on the dark and scary angles of HL [like USS Darkstar, which is HL + Alien] all contain dark humour and ''in jokes''. Some games go for maximum blood and are Quake style, whilst others focus on the puzzle aspect of HL.

One of the most important aspects of HL is, for me, the motivation of the hero. Simply staying alive and overcoming terrible adversity is NOT enough. The hero needs to feel anger and sadness, he needs to feel a sense of acomplishment at doing something that NEEDS to be DONE........

Oddly enough, Riven has these elements......combined with atmospheric music. Even though you explore Riven without any ''danger''...no zombies/headcrabs/vortigaunts etc, there is a wrong that YOU [almost.....because I found Riven TOO difficult]want to put right.

In Half-Life, the shock of seeing one''s fellow scientists shot by soldiers....combined with the shock of being responsible for causing a terible accident produces a combination of conflicting emotions and it is THIS that makes Half-Life so interesting.

Gordon Freeman is fighting for his life, to save the world and looking for REDEMPTION.

And that is WHY Half-Life, even though the story line is bog standard sci-fi, is such a brilliant game.

I check this forum every time I log on, but don''t really have much in the way of meaningful response.

I enjoy reading the threads here, the arguments and questions are highly interesting (to me at any rate). I''m just sort of gearing up to think of posting here as I''ve finally finished my world building. It may not make sense, it may not be possible (If you want reality, push the power button and walk away ), but I created it (with many revisions after reading stuff on here, believe it or not...).

I''m going to use this world as the basis for the greatest game project of my life that I''ll start one day. I''m still working on some things, but until then I''m going to have a go at writing my own book.

I think this forum helps those who aren''t game writers more by showing them how others think. It''s like a little window into their thoughts, without needing a brain surgeon (handy that, do you know how much they charge? )

Faradhi Sobriet-Treves
Press to test... *click* Release to detonate...

hasta la vista, "Jim"

The best game is a game that isn''''t.