Steamflogger Boss wrote:
Do you mean games are getting too bloated and long?
Mainly I meant they have so much of the budget put into the art and marketing (the things that make them money, as opposed to making a good game or something) that they simply can't make as much stuff as they used to. Since about no one wants to blow 60 bucks on a 5 hour long game, they often do stretch them out yeah.
Personally I lean a little toward the "it's ok if a game is too long, you can stop playing whenever you've had enough" philosophy.
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Anyway, I'ma rant about vidya game stories let me rant about'em.
The foundation of the social side of the human mind is the tribe - a min/maxer that thirsts to find ways to use other people to get ahead, or at least not get exiled and devoured by elephants. If your story isn't interesting with your characters sitting in an empty room together (which is all sitcoms are - an extremely timeworn and effective medium), it doesn't matter much how many laser swords or cool monsters your piece of media has.
Video games are usually designed the exact opposite way - you're a murder hobo wandering around. Most of the characters you meet are disposable ~5 minute long boss fights, that have to have extreme gimmicks to be memorable. Get emotionally attached to a "home"? Forget about it, that joint was used up and thrown in the bin hours ago.
There are a few counter examples in the AAA industry. The first arc of Final Fantasy 7 has you blowing up power plants with your imaginary friends, before you leave the town you grew attached to and enter the mostly unimportant murder hobo section of the game. The new style Persona games put a huge emphasis on its characters.
"Games shouldn't be like movies" has many layers to it.
* The soap opera technique where they have a thing happen, and then pad out the rest of the week by having every character state their opinion on the current drama, is usually pretty dire. However, sometimes I'm thankful they're so thorough. Such as when Luke got wasted and drunk-drove his grandson into spaghetti. Do I want to know what all 34 of your characters have to say about
that, show? The answer is yes.