Episode One in my array of video “lectures.” Originally combined as a display for an art story category during SCAD, loosely modeled after Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s Zero Punctuation reviews. Made to be presented upon shade in a classroom. Like a intro/outro music? Download a full marks here! Penguin Cap www.carbohydrom.net Burning Up ocremix.org
Video Games and Storytelling
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March 6th, 2009 at 4:04 am
*cough*half life*cough*
March 7th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
very nice !!! please make more!
March 9th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
where was metal gear on this ?
March 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
It’s good, but don’t alter your voice, makes it annoying to listen to, I’m sure your real voice isn’t that bad.
March 12th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Subbed after seeing a couple of your lectures. i know this vid is from 2 years ago, but games have come a bit further in terms of writing. look at brutal legend, heavy rain, and god of war 3. they are well-written stories with dialogue and character development that keeps the player engaged.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:04 am
There’s a lot to be said for this lecture. I appreciated its delivery, and also its message which I whole-heartedly agree with. One of the few ways to get one’s writing ability across in a game is to be an independant developer. You don’t see that hardly at all in the Indie games of the Xbox, but you do on the PC with adventure games which, while not nearly as popular as they once were still have more of a following than people thing.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:52 am
the long way around is that we can improve the education of the general public so that they develop some form of snobbiness (a.k.a standards and/or taste) and actually seek well written games out….
March 18th, 2009 at 8:16 am
It is amazing how well you can explain topics while keeping these lectures fun. Very fun, and very informative. Excellent job!
March 19th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
hey guys i have a free halo 1 download for pc available at my channel!!! it includes all the maps unlocked!!!
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
omg this was really funny and informative
March 24th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
before i saw the comments i was thinking exactly that heavy rain has been slated by everyone i know but the im still gonna get it coz i reckon that you just have to give it time gamers are very impatient if u dont give them something to do within the first 10-15mins they get bored, the same thing happens when u read a book or watch a film i find the longer it takes to reel u in the better u will find it
March 28th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Kingdom Hearts isn’t so bad.. I’m addicted ha ha, though I am only on the 2nd sadly…and what about Zelda?
March 29th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Heavy Rain focused more on storytelling than gameplay, and I think it paid off beautifully.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:41 am
bioware has done a great job in storytelling. most of their games have done well and are great.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
wat bout the zelda games they are well written and have a great story.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:12 am
kirithem your totally right, not that you bright this to the public we know what we can do but every game company needs to see this video!
April 4th, 2009 at 9:23 am
my favorite story is silent hill 2, and before you say anything, read Dan Berlou’s Plot analysis of silent hill
April 7th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
For me it is Mass Effect 1 & 2 and dragon age origins
April 9th, 2009 at 2:23 am
In your opinion, what game has the best story?
April 10th, 2009 at 3:47 am
I think it was also due to the success of older titles as well, specifically Half-Life and System Shock 2. People are more likely to buy a game from a group of people who made an earlier amazing title. I never would have bought BioShock, the day it came out, if I hadn’t known that the creators of System Shock 2 made it.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:39 am
@Cudgeon I actually have Personna 4 and I”ve played several entries in the Shin Megami Tensei series, however I find them slightly frustrating because the game’s difficulty demands power-levelling, which isn’t something I excel at.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
just try out things like persona 3 and 4. If you like those, look in the rest of the shin megami tensei series, they do have some refreshing stories, especially for jrpgs, and there mainly pretty well done. Theres still hope in japan, even if its just from the smaller publishers like Atlus.
April 16th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Actually a criminal of this is the final fantasy games, which has been telling the same bland story for twenty something years now. I am guilty of buying almost every single one, but that may be a vain attempt to hear a new story, not just a rehashed one with different characters and settings.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:37 am
ya know, there is at least one incident I can think of in where a game developer actually did bring a writer in at the start of development. Hironobu Sakaguchi brought in short story writer Kiyoshi Shigematsu to work on Lost Odyssey and the results were wonderfully awesome. And the game itself actually sold quite well. So that right there is proof of concept youre getting at. Now if only other game developers would follow this example.
April 19th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
The only Half-Life 2 and Bioshock seem to sell is because of awesome gameplay to back it up and the fact the story is actually IN the gameplay. Unless the gameplay can effectively merge with the story an awesome, well thought up game won’t get its just desserts.