Arashi08 wrote...
paxxton wrote...
Arashi08 wrote...
sooo...all this talk of Leviathan and the way it views it's thralls got me thinking...
Do you think it is possible to create a story whereby there is a certain sentient culture that uses another sentient culture as their livestock, but doesn't consider this species inferior to their own, nor do they consider themselves superior to their "cattle," and STILL make a convincing, well thought out, and overall GOOD story?
Of course. Just read the news. 
The news isn't a story, the news is commentary on an event. imo a "story" is a fictional work that relies on a premise and themes, which are illustrated by an event and incidents in the setting the story takes place. We have names for alot of things we call "stories" today, but we only have one for the real use of the word "story." You might also call it fiction, but to me "fiction" is just one aspect that makes a story.
I personally feel that we, as a "modern" culture, have forgotten what it means to actually tell a story and tell it well, why else would there be so much crap in the media that had no substance?
Again, this is all my opinion, just making that clear...
I think we just forgot how many crappy stories there used to be. The single most important lesson I learned from years of studying history and hanging out with history majors and reenactors is that yes, the present sucks, but the past sucked at least twice as much. It's quite a sobering thought.
Think about all the ****ty reality TV you see nowadays. How much of that will actually be remembered by your children? How much of it will YOU remember in twenty years? The "golden age of television" had tons of crap game shows, variety programs, and just plain morely written crap that nobody remembers because they don't WANT to remember.
Try watching TCM during the morning and early afternoon, when they play all the movies people forgot. You will see lots of overblown melodrama, every film will use PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT for exposition, and the camera will be so immobile that the director is essentially filming a theater performance.
You should watch the film
Midnight in Paris; it addresses this very issue and is VERY entertaining if you have a working knowledge of early twentieth century writers and artists. It may be my favorite Woody Allen film.
To bring this back into the topic of Mass Effect, even though we got stuck with a crappy ending and all kinds of problems in the storytelling methods of the third game, the games themselves pushed the expectations of storytelling in video games to another level. The huge fan outcry against Final Fantasy XIII's totally linear story and gameplay would not have happened ten years ago before games like Mass Effect. The execution may not have been perfect by any means, but Mass Effect pushed the boundaries and showed gamers what COULD be achieved.
I never felt as attached to a character in ANY medium as I do to my Shepard, and many appear to agree. That BioWare drew in the audience to such an extent that they would revolt so emphatically and universally because of the game ending is unprecedented. Even if Mass Effect and BioWare end up being lost causes, the rest of the industry has an opening to take over and do it right. While player agency and choice have already become watchwords in the RPG genre, we can already see the development of increased player interaction in other genres as well.
I'm excited for the future of storytelling in the game industry for these very reasons. I've been going back and forth for many years on which direction I should take my creative efforts, and seeing the storytelling potential in Mass Effect made it crystal clear that storytelling in gaming has a bright future, one that I hope to help create personally. If and when I get the chance to make my own game on the scale of Mass Effect, I will definitely put the lessons learned from the experience into play.
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