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Opinions on an article about videogame writing
Topic Started: Sep 23 2015, 02:00 PM (1,613 Views)
Aevis Martius Ravi
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Origins

So, I stumbled upon this article and whilst reading it felt many mixed feelings on it. (The article is kind of lengthy.)

A couple opinions of mine. Read after the link


Anyone else have opinions on it?
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Necare
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Fallen Angel

This guy is dumb.

:luna:
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gnik drazil
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The sun no longer sets me free
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wow, is this a for real article? this has to be a joke about gaming "journalism"
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Admiral Miral
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The Light of Hope

"Try-hard" is my favorite professional terminology.
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Kula Diamond
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atlus tracts

this article is worse than brazilian political propaganda writing-wise
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Necare
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Fallen Angel

Remu handing out burns so sick they could be radiation poisoning.

:luna:
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The Phantom Squee
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Sound the horn and call the cry: "How many of them can we make die?"

Posted Image
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Crash
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Wheey! I've became a human being!! I am very handsam!

I mean, some of the things he lists I agree with, but he doesn't really explain well WHY they're a problem, he just says that they are.

Also had to laugh for a bit when he mentions Jason Rohrer and Brendan McNamara as good examples of games writers.
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HyrulianJedi
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uguu~
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Really, his only points that I agree with are "Telling, Not Showing", "Depoliticization", and "Masses of sexism, homophobia, trans*phobia, racism". The rest often contradict these (or other) points hilariously. He criticizes the creation and examination of 3-dimensional characters and their mentalities, then begs for depth of response when it comes to violence. He wants games to make statements about political and social issues, but criticizes them for doing so with any kind of self-awareness.

Hell, even his actual points I disagree with in part. I'm a huge supporter of having non-white heterosexual cisgender macho men as protagonists, but to say that writing will remain in the gutter until that changes simply isn't true - a story (or game) doesn't need diversity to be good. Lack of diversity is a problem in a medium as a whole, not with an individual story (though stereotypical representations of a group can be).

Dude isn't very good at this.
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King in the North
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I can't take an article that uses the "Top 10 things you need to see!" thing seriously.
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Jackal
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Come and Take It - Temple Tsundere

I haven't clicked the link since I'm not a moron; is this about ethics in games journalism?
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Necare
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Fallen Angel

Not quite, the bit about "homophobia, sexism, racism, etc." is just one of ten brief points he reviews, incredibly badly, that supposedly outline everything that is wrong with gaming.

:luna:
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Silvy
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idolswag4lyfe

Well, there's a few things I agree with to an extent, but he contradicts some of those anyways. It's like he's trying to say games need to be more simplistic and not have any depth to them, but then he also says that games are too shallow and simplistic.

The point on functional characters is something I've always felt makes a game much more immersive, having them react to your actions or certain plot events is great(Ys and King's Field both do a good job with plot events, while Bioware handles reactions to the player well).
I do agree that some games try too hard to be mature in a way that's obviously an attempt to appeal to teenagers, with the amount of gore present in video games attributing to that as well. It's one thing to shoot some enemy that's trying to kill you, but when it does some close up "slow-mo kill cam" like in Fallout for example, there's an added glorification of killing that you wouldn't get normally and it doesn't really add anything to the experience outside of an eyeroll.

On depoliticization, I think he'd be pleasantly surprised if he read between the lines more while playing video games, since some games touch on these topics in more subtle ways and some of them aren't even subtle at all.

Hating on lore and psychology in games is ridiculous, especially when you state that you want more depth to your games. Also, if he only has 5 out of 100 games that don't support racism, homophobia, etc. that sounds like a questionable collection of games to me.
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Saturos
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heart-under-blade

Yeah, basically echoing what HJ and Silvy said. He also didn't really mention like, any RPGs apart from Skyrim. >_>

He has a lot of points here, but they're not substantiated or kind of gone into detail. He does provide some examples, but yeah...

It sounds like he would've been better served writing an article on what he wants to see in games, rather than what he doesn't want to see, since it doesn't sound like he has a firm grasp on it yet.

Also I lol'd @ him confusing postmodernism with satire
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HyrulianJedi
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uguu~
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Saturos
Sep 23 2015, 06:31 PM
It sounds like he would've been better served writing an article on what he wants to see in games, rather than what he doesn't want to see, since it doesn't sound like he has a firm grasp on it yet.
Which, amusingly, also kind of contradicts his own stance!
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Saturos
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heart-under-blade

That'd be a good topic for Temple, actually. "What do you want to see in video games?"
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The Phantom Squee
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Sound the horn and call the cry: "How many of them can we make die?"

Some of those things HJ, Silvy, and Satty mentioned also tie into the fact that just pointing at a game and saying "This game is sexist/racist/homophobic" really isn't helpful, much less applying a blanket judgment like that to games as a whole. You can find those things anywhere if you're looking for them--Game has a male lead? Sexist for not having a female lead. Attractive female lead? Sexist for thinking women need to be sexy. Unattractive? Sexist for thinking strong women can't be attractive. Revealing costume? Sexist for objectifying women. Non-revealing costume? Sexist for saying women can't be proud of their body. White female lead? Racist for implying only white women can be strong. Non-white, with appropriate cultural clothing/possessions? Racist for stereotyping. Dressed otherwise? Erasing her culture.

Those critiques are meaningless if he can't look at them in context, which really undermines his approach to that particular point.

EDIT: I would be glad to contribute to a topic about stuff we want to see more in video games. Positive critique like that is much more effective than trying to hash out a list of "no-nos."
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Saturos
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heart-under-blade

Well, he definitely has a point about misrepresentations of race/gender/sexuality/class in games. The only one I can speak to from his list of citations is Grand Theft Auto (namely, I've played Vice City), but it's definitely guilty of all those things. >_>
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Admiral Miral
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The Light of Hope

Saturos
Sep 23 2015, 07:09 PM
That'd be a good topic for Temple, actually. "What do you want to see in video games?"
Waifus
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Saturos
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heart-under-blade

My ideal game would be one where I can romance cute singing robot girls and progressively learn more about their inner psychologies and conflicts and support them as they resolve their problems.

:monrief:
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