58 réponses à ce sujet

[Elhanan]

It definitely is more corridorlike but I still like the eeriness, wading through zombies, the paranoid mage etc.

What corridors? One could always step into the water....

[Andreas Amell]

I still believe a real 'open world' game should not have a driven narrative as in both Dragon Age and the Witcher series. The latter is obviously story driven because you can only play an established character who must resolve the main goal of the game. Dragon Age gave more leeway on the choice of character construction but they still needed to finish the game to its conclusion. A real 'open world' should not end but allow players to keep exploring the world as it changes over time until it reaches a point where the player is satisfied with certain developments.

[c0bra951]

I posted this (unintentionally) in another thread.  Here is where it really belongs:

 

Whenever this subject pops up, I feel compelled to oppose it.  Return to linearity is a step backward.  The only good way is forward.  Open worlds should improve, and give us more ways to create our own story as we play.  Books and movies should remain the media of choice for rigid, linear storylines.  Games provide a flexibility potential which has only improved with technology and developer experience.  Exploiting it fully will provide new excitement in the medium, and differentiate it fully from its passive counterparts.

 

In any event, I'm here to combat the belief that return to linearity is some sort of consensus.  No, it isn't.  I appreciate DAI for exactly what it is, even if imperfect.  I hope to see its promise furthered in future DA games.

[Darkly Tranquil]

Open worlds are one of the most over-rated trends in game design. They are an ill fit for narrative driven games and in most cases simply result in devs producing large amounts of meaningless filler content to make all the otherwise empty open space do something. Dragon Age is a story and character driven franchise and diluting those strengths in favour of open worlds simply because they are popular in Skyrim and GTA is dumb and diminishes the quality of their games. DAI may look nice with it's pretty open word zones, but it's story and pacing are a mess as a result of its lack of structure and it's a poorer game for it. Bioware should play to their strengths and stop trying to emulate others.

[FKA_Servo]

Regardless of what anyone may think about it, I have a hard time characterizing GTA as anything but a story driven game.

 

Besides, from everything that I can see (keeping in mind I haven't played it yet), TW3 looks to be open world in the same sense as DAI at the very least. More so, from what I can see. The general consensus seems to be that story and pacing haven't suffered for it.

 

I'm not commenting further on the pacing of DAI other than yeah, it IS a mess. I just don't think the world design is necessarily to blame for it.

[MaxQuartiroli]

The general consensus seems to be that story and pacing haven't suffered for it.

 

I'm not commenting further on the pacing of DAI other than yeah, it IS a mess. I just don't think the world design is necessarily to blame for it.

 

I am playing TW3 now and If I have to speak for myself it's not for the story pacing. I don't feel any sense of urgence while I am playing my Geralt. I mean, I am looking for a person, which could be in great danger and instead of hurrying I am spending a lot of time with extra-stuff, hunting monsters, playing cards with peasants and so on. In my opinion this is the problem of any open world and TW3 isn't any better. What makes that game superior to this one is the huge amount of cutscenes and interactions for secondary quests. Where in DA:I you have a piece of paper found on the ground in TW3 you have a full dialogue with someone.

[Heimdall]

I don't think narrative focus and open world can't work together.

 

I actually think that conceptually DAI had it right, using more linear narrative areas to control story advancement, but areas with strong central narratives like Crestwood also worked well.

 

I also liked that we had multiple regions instead of just one, otherwise I'd fear the Elder Scrolls effect where the world is supposed to reflect a whole country despite being tiny.

[Kage]

Open worlds are one of the most over-rated trends in game design. They are an ill fit for narrative driven games and in most cases simply result in devs producing large amounts of meaningless filler content to make all the otherwise empty open space do something. Dragon Age is a story and character driven franchise and diluting those strengths in favour of open worlds simply because they are popular in Skyrim and GTA is dumb and diminishes the quality of their games. DAI may look nice with it's pretty open word zones, but it's story and pacing are a mess as a result of its lack of structure and it's a poorer game for it. Bioware should play to their strengths and stop trying to emulate others.

 

Wow really well exposed, I completely agree with you!

 

Regardless of what anyone may think about it, I have a hard time characterizing GTA as anything but a story driven game.

 

Besides, from everything that I can see (keeping in mind I haven't played it yet), TW3 looks to be open world in the same sense as DAI at the very least. More so, from what I can see. The general consensus seems to be that story and pacing haven't suffered for it.

 

I'm not commenting further on the pacing of DAI other than yeah, it IS a mess. I just don't think the world design is necessarily to blame for it.

 

The thing about the witcher 3, is that it seems they have invested double the time than in DAI, since it has double the content easily.

This might be because development in Poland is cheaper than in US, or maybe other reason, I dont know...

[Torgette]

The thing about the witcher 3, is that it seems they have invested double the time than in DAI, since it has double the content easily.

This might be because development in Poland is cheaper than in US, or maybe other reason, I dont know...

 

You know how devs describe being in crunch mode for a year or more? The story coming out of CDPR was basically that for 3 straight years, and that's with 250 people too. Yes, the game is heavily time-based as far as content goes.

 

I still believe a real 'open world' game should not have a driven narrative as in both Dragon Age and the Witcher series. The latter is obviously story driven because you can only play an established character who must resolve the main goal of the game. Dragon Age gave more leeway on the choice of character construction but they still needed to finish the game to its conclusion. A real 'open world' should not end but allow players to keep exploring the world as it changes over time until it reaches a point where the player is satisfied with certain developments.

 

I think the biggest problem with open world narrative-driven games is that open world games by their very nature are meant to eat your time. Part of the fun of games like GTA isn't just doing missions it's having fun wasting time and not having a sense of urgency - something that is often overbearing in narrative-driven games. The only way around this is to design the story to not have urgency, ie: TW3 being about finding Ciri who is always 2 weeks ahead of Geralt and never where you look. There's something called a "Wild Hunt" but they never seem to bother Geralt or anybody else most of the time, there's no end-of-the-world crisis and the war is at a standstill. Everything is sort of in pause mode while you look for this girl. DAI on the flip side very much has the end-of-the-world scenario but to make sense has Coryfish slow as molasses with his plans and constantly disarmed so you're not feeling rushed to do the main missions.

 

Neither really has that whole "having fun wasting time" aspect though, and both run with stories that lack urgency but TW3 does have a more compatible story. Still, it begs the question of "why change the story for the sake of an open world if the open world isn't that satisfying?". TW2 wasn't open world but was pretty satisfying, Mass Effect games aren't open world but are pretty fun too. It's nice when things just work out but I don't know if the effort is really worth it - though DAI still had some good ideas that would've worked better if fleshed out.