06-02-2009, 09:09 PM
Four years ago, Steven Spielburg told us that video games were on the way to becoming a viable storytelling medium that could tap into a viewer's/player's emotional core, but it "wasn't there yet". Fast-forward to today, with an odd advance or two in the game industry, and he thinks that the end is almost in sight.
The man clearly has not been playing the right sort of games.
In the time intervening the discussion back then and what I read today, I have traveled into the past through the Shalebridge Cradle and found myself pushing through my own palpable fears not only to just save Garrett's skin, but to help bring peace to the spirit of an innocent girl. I felt all warm and fuzzy when the Los Angeles Chantry allowed my Tremere to finally enter the clan, a feeling kind of like Harry Potter entering Hogwarts' for the first time. I have felt sublime despair after slipping out of the Imperial Prison sewers at dusk: a murdered Emperor behind me, an unseen world before me, and the thought that cunning, relentless assassins who have succeeded at every turn so far were still at my heelsâ and the most lethal weapon then at my disposal was a goblin's head stuck on a stick.
I endured the "Snowstorm" of GTA IV: fighting my way through a small army and making my escape in a shot-up sedan, I made the delivery and found out the truth behind an acquaintance. Once it was over, I found myself pushing Niko slowly along with my controller, literally making him walk aimlessly down a street to collect his thoughts (and mine) about just what happened. Didn't even bother to retreive the car he took to get there.
I still don't hold to Spielburg's take on the stories youd find within a video game (there's always two of them, at least: the one the developer wrote, and the one that you create). If he couldn't find that in four years when so many others have, I doubt that he's been looking hard at all.
Quote:Mr Spielberg said this offered new opportunities for game development
"The video games industry has not allowed us the opportunity to cry, because we were too busy putting our adrenalin rush into the controller, or wherever we swing our arm with a Wii controller to get a result," he said.
"Because of that, there is no room for a video game to break your heart. We now have a little more room to be a little more emotional with Natal technology than we did before."
The man clearly has not been playing the right sort of games.
In the time intervening the discussion back then and what I read today, I have traveled into the past through the Shalebridge Cradle and found myself pushing through my own palpable fears not only to just save Garrett's skin, but to help bring peace to the spirit of an innocent girl. I felt all warm and fuzzy when the Los Angeles Chantry allowed my Tremere to finally enter the clan, a feeling kind of like Harry Potter entering Hogwarts' for the first time. I have felt sublime despair after slipping out of the Imperial Prison sewers at dusk: a murdered Emperor behind me, an unseen world before me, and the thought that cunning, relentless assassins who have succeeded at every turn so far were still at my heelsâ and the most lethal weapon then at my disposal was a goblin's head stuck on a stick.
I endured the "Snowstorm" of GTA IV: fighting my way through a small army and making my escape in a shot-up sedan, I made the delivery and found out the truth behind an acquaintance. Once it was over, I found myself pushing Niko slowly along with my controller, literally making him walk aimlessly down a street to collect his thoughts (and mine) about just what happened. Didn't even bother to retreive the car he took to get there.
I still don't hold to Spielburg's take on the stories youd find within a video game (there's always two of them, at least: the one the developer wrote, and the one that you create). If he couldn't find that in four years when so many others have, I doubt that he's been looking hard at all.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.