2 réponses à ce sujet

[infalible]

So I'm one of those people who - for many years - have widely believed Bioware to be the "best storyteller in gaming". Of late however I've been considering the statement: what does it actually mean? Does it mean that Bioware deserve our respect as storytellers? Does it mean that they are standing on the shoulders of giants and telling tales that we will remember as great works of art? Or does it mean that in an industry swathed in the mediocrity of the masses Bioware is just managing to present enough of a narrative for us to not dispare at the lack of creativity in a market dominated by "graphics and gameplay"?

Go to your bookcase and look at your books. I'd say that many of you have books like Harry Potter, Twilight, or books from the Discworld series. Some of you may even have classics like Moby Dick, or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, or The Count of Monte Cristo. A few may have books like The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, or The Gap Conflict. And then there are the modern classics like A Song of Ice and Fire, and The Wheel of Time. Can you say with confidence that the stories presented by Bioware even vaguely compare to those presented in the greatest (or even average) works of written fiction? I can't. I don't believe it when I say it. I find the notion to be a mockery of my sense. 

And let's look at the themes of Bioware's latest foray into mature story telling: Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 were supposed to be mature games with mature stories, and yet they shied away from nudity, they presented sexuality behind a protective vale of montages, and the use of language was shallow and pointless (as in swearing was not used to create character, but just used for the sake of swearing). They handeled none of the mature elements of the tale with anything resembling the finese of a proven author, or screen writer. They hid away from a mature narrative and instead delivered a vale of stylised violence and infrequent crudeness and branded it "mature story telling" for the sake of the marketting gimmick. Compare the maturity of Dragon Age to the maturity of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, or A Song of Ice and Fire, and you find Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 direly lacking. It's an insult to tasteful and compotent story telling to say that Dragon Age even vaguely manages to present a deep and meaningful tale, let alone a mature one.

And the same is true of all Bioware games.

So now I find myself considering this notion: Bioware ARE NOT compotent story tellers. They are the Stephenie Meyer of the gaming world. Their writers are either not very good at all or barred from actually writing with passion due to corporate interests. Bioware stories are shallow, but intelligence is used in the presentation; a well placed comic character, a drawn out relationship with another character, an infrequent flair that avoids controversy. It avoids the requirement to actually tell a compotent story, and instead cons you into thinking that these fables are worth their weight in gold.

This is just an opinion, and I'd be interested to know what others thing: Are Bioware the story tellers of the gaming industry? Are they worthy of the mantle? Or is it - at this point at least - just a drawn out and laboured marketting ploy that is easily proven false when compared with actual story telling?

No trolls plox. Actual discussion is being prompted.

[John Epler]

While there's some good discussion going on here about storytelling in an interactive medium, it's really not DA2 related, and would be better served in the Off-Topic forum.

Going to lock this. However, if you'd like me to just move it to Off-Topic, let me know via PM and I'd be more than happy to do so.

EDIT: And it's moved!

Modifié par JohnEpler, 11 juillet 2011 - 03:29 .

[John Epler]

And we seem to be experiencing some minor technical difficulties. Stand by