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whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:16 am
by starku
lol at site with a connection ph34r me

anyway recently i have played several games that have raelly thought-provoking, well-designed and visually striking concepts or themes going on
and they have all caught the night train to cliche city around the midpoint

for instance binary domain/syndicate/deus ex

these games address similar issues in REALLY HACKNEYED WAYS, but they each have distinct styles and interesting ideas, and start off more or less well (dehr obviously being the worst off here)
and then around halfway they get on the fast train to transcentral with ridiculously hackneyed and uninteresting shit

basically if you near-future dystopia ends with you going up a big corporate tower to Stop the Badness, IT SUCKS DO NOT MAKE IT

in binary domain all the interesting shit about the nature of self and indistinguishable distinctions is thrown away for endless linear corridors and simplistic morality
in dehr the social stratification and ethical issues are thrown under a train in favour of near motivationless superstructural torture
in syndicate the consumerism becomes increasingly clunky after we go to the genre-essential 'poor zone' and we go up endless elevators to stop the madman from whatever

and this isn'y limited to scifi either; kingdoms of amalur has a pretty meta exploration of being a player character in a deterministic world and how this makes you basically unstoppable and throws it away for KILL THE DEVIL NAOW

its like after the opening areas everyone loses track of their themes and just goes to typical cliches

rich zone of corporateness? MUST CLUMSILY CONTRAST WITH OUTRAGEOUS GHETTOS THAT EXIST FOR ALMOST NO REASON
issue threatening to change something about society/the world/mankind? LUCKILY THEY BUILT A KILL ALL DALEKS BUTTON IN HERE
woman? BETTER DO WHAT SHE SAYS, BE REQUIRED TO SAVE HER, AND FOLLOW HER INSTRUCTIONS FROM A TO B

i am tempted to say much of this is like the tv show seaon thing

plot gotta be 'finsihed' or have an 'end' by the end of the game

so even if you start off being all thematic and talking about issues and confronting people with ideas, in the end there has to be a straight line to 'you won lol' with as many dumbass setpieces to show off <whatever> game feature

i mean the social commentary in every science fiction game of the last few years is inferior to fucking blade runner and that's just sad

anyway i want ot hear other people's thoughts about narrative quality over a games life or games that throw away their ideas to follow single player conventions

especially since i'll porbably nver play another game again, lol
:zaku:

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:46 am
by weemadando
I decided to play a bit of Mafia II just now, not sure why, but aside from the terrible "drive everywhere despite there being nothing happening" shit, I just entered the third act.

How do I know? Because my house just got burned down and I lost everything, all equipment, purchased items and money.

Because it wouldn't be an "open world" game without at least one reset.

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:28 am
by Zod
i think the writers just work so hard on world building that by the time they're supposed to finish writing the thing they don't really know what to do and take the easiest way out

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:49 am
by starku
You're probably right

Cause all these games have 100000000 codex entries of useless

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:55 pm
by Aaron
Look it's vitally important that we know how many rats the underhivers eat in Syndicate.

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:09 pm
by starku
Social stratification can ONLY be explored through clumsy 'some guys live in slum dungeons from 1925 and some guys live in space hologram castles in the sky' shit

Right??????

I'm just glad Los had prepared me for the dramatic drop in quality :v

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:34 am
by uraniun235
starku wrote: especially since i'll porbably nver play another game again, lol
:zaku:
lol is this for exaggeration or have you finally actually burned out on the endless aggravation that the wide world narrow gutter of video games causes you

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:38 am
by starku
Nah I just don't have any time anymore
Like I liked amular bu I'd never finish it
I like me3 multi but I'll never be around to play with anyone

I can't e fucked renting games for like 2 hours a week of play y'know

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:20 am
by Losonti Tokash
shit dude what happen

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:27 am
by zhaktronz
He got old

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:29 am
by starku
What's your excuse

You just got fat :v

I've seen the licence to prove it

ZING

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:31 am
by zhaktronz
Gotta be fat to be security

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:33 am
by starku
You totally shoulda got dog patrol at the same time dude

Crowd control needs refresher courses that's balls

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:14 am
by F.J. Prefect, Esq
uraniun235 wrote: lol is this for exaggeration or have you finally actually burned out on the endless aggravation that the wide world narrow gutter of video games causes you
Losonti Tokash wrote:shit dude what happen
He got a real job

And RESPONSIBILITY.

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:56 pm
by zhaktronz
But he is at the laziest govt dept of all :V

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:57 pm
by zhaktronz
Work were SHOCKED at how quickly my license was processed.

Only 3 months :v

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:40 am
by starku
Don't make me use my discretion pal

Re: whats the deal with videogame third acts

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:52 am
by zhaktronz
What's the cool down on discretion?

Gotta research expedited permits.