RF Generation Message Board

watched this video and wondered what everyone here thought about this. there's a lot here i never considered, mainly because i never thought to ask "why" game writing is bad, i was just aware that it was in a lot of cases.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG1ziCvLkJ0

That guy has such an annoying voice. I quit listening after 37 seconds.

Anyways, of course game writing is awful. Games are supposed to be fun to play. Gameplay should be the first priority. A good story comes second. Or third. Or whatever.

the point isn't whether or not they're bad, it's already known that they're bad. it's just explaining some things about the writing process that might be unknown to most gamers to explain why the stories are often bad.

One of the reasons why Black Isle Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, inXile and such have such strongly written games and well designed worlds is because they set up a development cycle that is the polar opposite of the one outlined in this video. The team designs the background behind the world, NPC design, plot design, and narrative flow during the earliest pre-production cycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4NkADMQwzg

that's really cool, that's how it should be done if games want to be taken seriously as a media for good narrative.