I will be providing more thematic-focused, concise lectures based on themes, characters, and narrative threads, but I figured I'd also do more "close reading" style approach to some of the scenes. Let me know what you think! p.s. Sorry about the sniffles and coughing. I'm battling a lingering cold. :P
Nice Video, as always! 25:00 Regarding choice in MMOs: Does the world and story belong to one player, you, or every player on the server? Does the singleplayer experience matter over the experience of the group? -WOW puts you in the position of the chosen hero, living among other chose heroes, where everybody is a chose hero, and nobody is actually special. Participation trophies for all! -Guild Wars 2 gives you a single player story and a multiplayers world. What happens in the world map is somewhat tied to the main story but you could experience both separately without taking the other into account. You could even go to the PVP maps and level up there without ever experiencing the story. It was suppose to be a MMO for everyone but ended up being a mass of water as wide as an Ocean and as deep as a puddle. Player choice is only on what area of the map you want to explore with the story and what quests you want to do. The outcome is mostly the same. -SWTOR does choices better, with actual outcomes that are remembered all the way to the ending of the vanilla game, and sometimes even within the expansions. It was made by Bioware. The best system might be to combine the GW2 story choice system with the finality of SWTOR. But there is and issue with this, in that, you end up creating parts of the game that very few people will see and experience, and that is very hard to justify to your superiors that work with the budget. "Yes boss, we are gonna create a portion of the game and story that not many people will chose and it's gonna cost the same as the portion that will be chosen by everybody else. Not only that but it leads to branching story lines that send you to different maps, and it will end up in a different ending that will mess-up all out future expansions." If money wasn't and option and if the company was owned by the same people that work on the games(with passion), like the creators of BG3, then it might work. It will never work at Ubisoft, EA, or other AAA companies. Even so, I don't think that BG3 would have been as awesome as a MMO. Cost-wise, a AAA company has the following Budgets: Small or mobile game: 6-10 millions Single-Player games: 40-60 millions Open world games: 200+ millions MMO = An amount of money that you will never be able to make back
22:21 I like not being special in video games because you technically start out as a flawed nobody. I then like how I am allowed, and given the tools, to become better and achieve greatness. I would also like the the opposite. I want to be able to fail. I want to have reasons to fail. I want to progress and win through failure. Winning does not teach us anything but failure has a thousand lessons. I find that many people who win, and win, and win, end up falling hard and never getting up the moment they fail, but a person that has mostly failed in life has the strength and toughness of character to eventually get up and win tremendously.
27:00 These are the 4 player types: - Social - Killer - Explorers - Achievers These are the main feeling we are trying to evoke through games: - Meaning - Accomplishment - Empowerment - Ownership - Social Influence - Scarcity - Unpredictability - Avoidance It's a lot more complex but RUclips does not let me give you a link to the main charts. Search Yu-Kai Chou "The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design" Combine this with the generational charts and you end up defining your consumer/user/customer.
Yeah. I did hear that SWTOR does indeed have some very interesting narrative choices, which I think makes having limited characters (limited jobs) more OK because there is a replay factor involved. I'm about level 37 in GW2 and tackling Riannoc's blade thing, and I'm struggling a bit with feeling invested. However, I hear the story gets better, so I'm trucking. I do feel like the opening questions were very interesting, but ultimately it didn't really impact the world. Which is fine, for me. I think sometimes that people who are overly invested in these kinds of player choice matter debates are usually what I call "immersion andies". Do you think AI will help small/mobile game studios to leverage its power to create something that can rival a single-player AAA game? I suppose we are already seeing the beginning, but I wonder.
@@TheNigel01 100% agree. Yeah. So, in this vid, you will see points where I felt very challenged in the narrative. Where they bring you back down to earth as it were. I just feel like some people forget what their WoL is and the journey that got them to where they are today. I find it vastly more exciting to be faced with real challenge and overcome it, whether in the gameplay or the narrative.
@@chiekokurokumo RUclips just delete my big comment responding to your question. It did this after I tried adding a mention about a game generating app through the Edit comment option. In short, AI might work but it's too silly at the moment.
Offtopic question, but something I think might make for a good video topic in the future. Have you noticed a spike in hamfisted writing lately, whether it be in movies, games, or shows?
ABSOLUTELY. Rings of Power is an example of mishandled characters, misunderstanding of genre, damaging messaging, and disrespect of canon. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is another example of the same, but with an added touch of the "mah aesthetic" vibe I get from some 'precious' creatives. In fact, WoW isn't the only game struggling with hamfisted writing. Disney also does as well... as if afraid that people aren't "getting the point." Beyond that, "telling not showing" is a common problem in some games, like WoW and B/C-tier MMOs. I have some ideas sketched out to tackle major shows that really annoyed me, but I gotta find time to do my research before just spouting opinions. :)
![[Final Fantasy 14][ARR-EW spoilers] The Chosen One? Or The Nobody? An Exploration of a False Binary](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KZk1UbddvIo/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Final Fantasy 14][ARR-EW spoilers] The Chosen One? Or The Nobody? An Exploration of a False Binary](/img/tr.png)
I will be providing more thematic-focused, concise lectures based on themes, characters, and narrative threads, but I figured I'd also do more "close reading" style approach to some of the scenes. Let me know what you think!
p.s. Sorry about the sniffles and coughing. I'm battling a lingering cold. :P
I hope you'll get better soon
Wonderful video! Cant wait to see you elaborate more on the intricacies of writing in the later expansions
I always choose "dot dot dot" because the option "I want to get to know those weird whitehaired twins" isn't available.
😂 Genuinely a good video, but the total indecision at the start while making your character had me laughing out loud, my kids looking on in worry. 😅
Nice Video, as always!
25:00
Regarding choice in MMOs:
Does the world and story belong to one player, you, or every player on the server?
Does the singleplayer experience matter over the experience of the group?
-WOW puts you in the position of the chosen hero, living among other chose heroes, where everybody is a chose hero, and nobody is actually special. Participation trophies for all!
-Guild Wars 2 gives you a single player story and a multiplayers world. What happens in the world map is somewhat tied to the main story but you could experience both separately without taking the other into account. You could even go to the PVP maps and level up there without ever experiencing the story. It was suppose to be a MMO for everyone but ended up being a mass of water as wide as an Ocean and as deep as a puddle. Player choice is only on what area of the map you want to explore with the story and what quests you want to do. The outcome is mostly the same.
-SWTOR does choices better, with actual outcomes that are remembered all the way to the ending of the vanilla game, and sometimes even within the expansions. It was made by Bioware.
The best system might be to combine the GW2 story choice system with the finality of SWTOR. But there is and issue with this, in that, you end up creating parts of the game that very few people will see and experience, and that is very hard to justify to your superiors that work with the budget. "Yes boss, we are gonna create a portion of the game and story that not many people will chose and it's gonna cost the same as the portion that will be chosen by everybody else. Not only that but it leads to branching story lines that send you to different maps, and it will end up in a different ending that will mess-up all out future expansions."
If money wasn't and option and if the company was owned by the same people that work on the games(with passion), like the creators of BG3, then it might work. It will never work at Ubisoft, EA, or other AAA companies. Even so, I don't think that BG3 would have been as awesome as a MMO.
Cost-wise, a AAA company has the following Budgets:
Small or mobile game: 6-10 millions
Single-Player games: 40-60 millions
Open world games: 200+ millions
MMO = An amount of money that you will never be able to make back
22:21
I like not being special in video games because you technically start out as a flawed nobody.
I then like how I am allowed, and given the tools, to become better and achieve greatness.
I would also like the the opposite. I want to be able to fail. I want to have reasons to fail. I want to progress and win through failure.
Winning does not teach us anything but failure has a thousand lessons.
I find that many people who win, and win, and win, end up falling hard and never getting up the moment they fail, but a person that has mostly failed in life has the strength and toughness of character to eventually get up and win tremendously.
27:00
These are the 4 player types:
- Social
- Killer
- Explorers
- Achievers
These are the main feeling we are trying to evoke through games:
- Meaning
- Accomplishment
- Empowerment
- Ownership
- Social Influence
- Scarcity
- Unpredictability
- Avoidance
It's a lot more complex but RUclips does not let me give you a link to the main charts. Search Yu-Kai Chou "The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design"
Combine this with the generational charts and you end up defining your consumer/user/customer.
Yeah. I did hear that SWTOR does indeed have some very interesting narrative choices, which I think makes having limited characters (limited jobs) more OK because there is a replay factor involved. I'm about level 37 in GW2 and tackling Riannoc's blade thing, and I'm struggling a bit with feeling invested. However, I hear the story gets better, so I'm trucking. I do feel like the opening questions were very interesting, but ultimately it didn't really impact the world. Which is fine, for me. I think sometimes that people who are overly invested in these kinds of player choice matter debates are usually what I call "immersion andies".
Do you think AI will help small/mobile game studios to leverage its power to create something that can rival a single-player AAA game? I suppose we are already seeing the beginning, but I wonder.
@@TheNigel01 100% agree. Yeah. So, in this vid, you will see points where I felt very challenged in the narrative. Where they bring you back down to earth as it were. I just feel like some people forget what their WoL is and the journey that got them to where they are today. I find it vastly more exciting to be faced with real challenge and overcome it, whether in the gameplay or the narrative.
@@chiekokurokumo RUclips just delete my big comment responding to your question. It did this after I tried adding a mention about a game generating app through the Edit comment option. In short, AI might work but it's too silly at the moment.
Offtopic question, but something I think might make for a good video topic in the future. Have you noticed a spike in hamfisted writing lately, whether it be in movies, games, or shows?
ABSOLUTELY. Rings of Power is an example of mishandled characters, misunderstanding of genre, damaging messaging, and disrespect of canon. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is another example of the same, but with an added touch of the "mah aesthetic" vibe I get from some 'precious' creatives. In fact, WoW isn't the only game struggling with hamfisted writing. Disney also does as well... as if afraid that people aren't "getting the point." Beyond that, "telling not showing" is a common problem in some games, like WoW and B/C-tier MMOs. I have some ideas sketched out to tackle major shows that really annoyed me, but I gotta find time to do my research before just spouting opinions. :)