Narrative in Games Part 1: Cutscenes vs Gameplay

Don't worry, in another 10 minutes you'll remember this is a game.

Video games have had a rather mixed history when it comes to storytelling. While many games certainly make attempts at telling grand, meaningful stories most of them tend to exist primarily or entirely inside either cutscenes or dialogue dumps. Despite the fundamentally interactive nature of games their actual narrative tends to be strictly non-interactive - or at best with only slight variance along a small number of discrete paths. As a result many in the gaming community heavily criticize cutscenes in games, claiming that they instead try to mimic films rather than utilizing the inherent strengths of the medium.

So, are cutscenes a crutch that less innovative or skilled developers rely on, or do they have merits within video games?

Bit Rant: Leveling Into Atrophy

Bit Rant is a parody series intended to overstate issues with specific elements in gaming for comedic effect. While some points are valid to a degree it is not intended to be taken literally.

Experience and leveling systems have become so ubiquitous in games that you'd be hard pressed to find any game released in the last several years that didn't have leveling in some form. Despite constant jokes about the pervasiveness of mechanics like shooting and sandboxes, leveling systems largely sidestep major criticism despite being arguably the most overused element in all of gaming.

It's unfortunate that the most manipulative and least interesting mechanic in the history of gaming is the aspect that has been propagated through the entire medium.

Simplification of Games: Dumbing Down vs Focused Design

The "dumbing down" of games tends to be a pretty polarizing topic for many gamers, and it's easy to understand why. In order to be interesting or fun games have to engage with the player on some level, and one of the most common and effective ways of doing that is a challenge - and a game being too simplistic or easy can fall flatter than the disk it ships on.

With all the ire and venom the gaming community throws at dumbed down titles I think that gamers have lost sight over what they're trying to fight for. A lot of people will cite specific game elements or tropes as crutches for dumbed down titles rather than trying to understand what makes a game engaging or not.

Rather than argue whether specific games are or aren't dumbed down, I'd like to take a look at what does (and doesn't) cause a game to feel dumbed down.

The Elder Scrolls Online Beta Weekend: First Impressions

Well, I was lucky enough to get a beta key for the Elder Scrolls Online beta event last weekend so I dove right into it. Most of the press I've seen regarding ESO has been from the perspective of long-time Elder Scrolls fans looking for their next fix rather than an MMO player checking out a new entry in the genre, which seems a bit unusual to me. Now I certainly have some experience with the past Elder Scrolls games but I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore fan of the series.

So, here are my first impressions of the game from the perspective of a fan of MMOs rather than Elder Scrolls specifically.