You are a prophet of gaming so I will listen to you, but since I aint' got a credible graphics chip in this babe, I will have to let you down.
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I don't think all of today's games have forgotten about good character and gameplay. Look at Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands. Neither game has any real story (, but the characters and their dialogue are distinctive and cool//funny.
IMO gameplay is the most important factory in any game. A character could be super cool and a story could be super interesting, but if the controls are shit then the other two traits are rendered pointless.
The very best games can meld all three traits.
The Jak series is one of those games which feature interesting characters and designs, good story and great gameplay.
I agree with you mister,
I mean, I usally don't give a shit about stories (of course there are some exceptions like bioshock and RE series :) ), but I just play games if they look fun, Pokemon, Mario stuff, Dead Rising, blablabla,
jeez, people should stop whining about good graphics and story plots,
you're supposed to play games to have fun, right?
read books if you want a good story...
I think you improved the likability factor of the blonde chick with the swept hair. She looks like a playful romp, of course she is missing a coaster on her head. I mean a man has got to have a place to set down his fawty son.
Shooters are the new platformers. And :| is the new mascots.
And videogame stories still suck they just have more/longer cutscenes.
I really find stories to be an engaging part of video games I play. Of course, there will always be little place in my heart for games like Geometry Wars and things of that nature... Trying to make a story for geometrical shapes would probably make me want to shoot myself (oh wait... wasn't that a phase in Newgrounds... Yes it was :3 ) Anyways, all I am saying is that stories create an illusion of depth in games and I really find nothing wrong with that. Heck, sometimes it's somewhat interesting reading up on the lore of games even if none of it is really relevant.
I do have trouble relating to guys who can punch 7 people at once.
Yet another reason why Valve is THE SHIT! People used to ask, 'why doesn't Gordon Freeman talk?' Its because you ARE Gordon Freeman. He is a name for the sake of having a name, and the world is held together by the characters who inhabit it. You fill in the rest. Amazing that one of the first real games to HAVE a story in the FPS world, happened to get it right.
'Safe' is a great word for more than just the character designs. So much money goes into games now days that its almost impossible to take risks! Few are willing to invest in something that might not break even, and thus games cannot evolve. They do fake it though, as every game has their ONE 'innovation,' their one sideshow gimmick that makes that game special. 'Oh, well in our game you can go into 'Weapon Time' were everything is slower' or 'Well in OUR game you can enter into 'Space-Time Defiance Mode' that causes the flow of time to decrease! OMG we're so original!'
I always considered myself to be a pretty likeable character
Give me a sprited Megaman over a cgi'd one any day. Nuff' said
I totally agree. Could you give an example of "interesting characters"?
It seems like as the graphics capability improves, the characters fade into the background. Once Final Fantasy 7 came out, it seems that all of the effort that could have been spent on making the character seem human has been spent on making their hair as huge and awkward as possible. Normal hair? Must be an old man or a random NPC. Give the damn guy a crew cut and make him smirk or something, there must be a happy medium somewhere.
Sure the animations and combat systems and stuff have been greatly improved in RPGs over the years, but finding a character that isn't a sword-wielding transvestite has gotten harder and harder. Sure back in the day those 8 and 16 bit sprites couldn't show more emotion than a giant drop of sweat or something beside their heads, but dammit that was all that was possible back then, and they made it work. Nowadays all we see are gun toting refrigerators in Gears of War, bland trannies in FF games and a pair of eyes staring out from somewhere within cleavage for the feminine role in damn near everything. It's like every idea has no moderation. Want a big character? Make him HUGE! So big he can't fit in doors or cars or the screen. Cool hair? Lets make it HUGE! Boobs? HUGE! BOUNCY! Cut those last 4 levels, 'cause this girl's boobs need a new physics engine!
Not that these games aren't awesome for what they are, and there ARE some awesome characters out there, but they are rare. When I do find an engaging character, it's still only a matter of time until they are ruined by furry flaming tentacle incest rape fanart.
I blame the internets.
don;t u dARE talk sh*t about samurai shodown
Speaking on people loving "story over character," I personally kind of group "character" into a subset of "story," as any situation will turn out extraordinarily differently depending on which characters interact with the situation, but, if one allows this as a given, I agree with you and tend to lean towards character as opposed to theme, plot, or ambiance (although all of these elements have their place and time). I mostly feel that a typical gamer will just say that they enjoy story to not be looked down upon by other gamers who are actually aware of what elements of a game make the game so appealing to themselves; like, I wouldn't doubt it if a surprising number of gamers who really are mostly about gameplay/entertainment value who read this blog end up starting to say that they LoOoOoOvE the character aspect of videogames as to not be made fun of by other gamers. I have yet to find a noteworthy amount of people who "play games for their story" and actually have anything interesting to say about said story. And I'm aware that you're apparently more concerned about designers, but gamers and their "story" is mostly what my pet peeve is about, and it's a big problem.
I also agree with the realistic graphics beef. Graphics should be more about style and ambiance than anything - which has loads to contribute to actual story - but I feel that, for above mentioned reasons, game designers hear gamers say, "we want better graphics" when they really don't know what they want, and game designers, therefore, feel that they were doing something right. Windwaker and Twilight Princess make good examples of how graphics can enhance character or other story elements, though; the graphical style of Windwaker totally fits the ambiance of the story as well as the Zelda series' goofy characters, while Twilight Princess gives an appropriate focus to light and dark to fit the theme of the piece, despite graphics being realistic (which is great, because I'm usually more inclined to admire more stylized graphics).
And one problem that I feel really plagues the character market (if you'd want to call it that) is a designer's lack of competency... I was watching/comparing the first, second, and third seasons of Invader Zim the other night and observing the mannerisms/vocabulary/traits of each of the characters as the seasons went on, and they progressively came less and less close to the first season (due to production crew changes). It's just too weird to see secondhand writers and directors attempt to imitate a developed character, and perhaps the problem takes root in people not throwing enough originality into scripts 'n storyboards 'n such, maybe even making the characters over-the-top rather than bland at times. You obviously have a very developed concept of designers "overdoing it" in terms of character as seen in Girlchan :P
I feel the solutions to these problems will grow from a scholarly development of videogames as a legitimate medium in cooperation with designers' realization that videogames are more than just a form of entertainment. The stereotype gamer will unfortunately just have to follow suit.
Speaking of likable characters, where's Girlchan 4?
Those four probably have itchy pubes but don't want to show it XD
tell me about it,the producers nowadays fuck everything up,they're to worried about the storyline(which is usually bullcrap novel style nowadays,nothing original of course with some exceptions) and graphics(seriously...who gives a shit bout the graphics and omfg hd stuff),what i love in games is the GAMEplay and the expressions of lmao/awesomness that the chars make when stuff happens and even when it doesn't just seeing epic faces while shooting(just an example) would make a game alot funnier.
to me the best game ever made was gunstar heroes back in the sega genesis day,sure the main char only made expressions when hit or victorious,but the gameplay was insane and hitting the foes was always pretty funny and the bosses always made epic faces(taking the last 2 of the list of course) sometimes i litterally rofl'ed,just my opinion,i don't see a game like that in ages.
good graphics are what make games great amirite
pianomaster42
Characters are more important than story, but just by a little. Reasoning: You can have good characters in a really shitty story, but you can't have a good story unless the characters are top-notch.