Suggestion – How to make the game more epic

Browiseth

FierceSam wrote: »

Browiseth wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

Browiseth wrote: »

part of what i loved about my brief foray into SWTOR are the mass effect esque cinematics; the game is of course by bioware so it's not unexpected, but it enriched my experience of the story because there's actually some amount of presentation

i wouldn't expect player characters in this game to be voiced as that is a huge undertaking, but i would've loved for major scenes to be scripted in fully cinematic cutscenes with my character reacting to events unfold in a more fleshed out way

i don't agree with the whole 'don't take control away from the player during story scenes' that seems to be so valued by players and developers now. half life did this in 1998 and so many games think they can replicate the successes that game has in worldbuilding and storytelling simply by not bothering to present the story in a cinematic way, rather than going to the same effort HL did over 20 years ago now to make that method of storytelling work as well as it did

it's actually quite frustrating...

It's fair to say that ZOS could put effort into presentation and have the player character appear more involved in important moments of the story.
As long as they can maintain in-game immersion without cutscenes

i don't see how cutscenes can have a negative effect on immersion. in fact, when scripted, voiced, animated and shot well i think cutscenes can involve you in a scene so much more than just standing there watching characters animate with stock animations and poses to get a scene across

https://youtu.be/D93tSQ25dQU?t=79

i'd take a well animated cinematic cutscene like this to present an important scene in a game over any amount of standing around while things happen

Because I’m not doing anything in them. I am watching something else happen. The fundamental difference between a game and a film is that the user/viewer is the principal actor in a game, but a passive viewer in a film or cutscene. I don’t play ESO to be a passive viewer. Especially not for the denouement of a quest.

I’m not super keen on “standing around while things happen” either, that’s not what I would call immersive gaming.

So, no, my life in ESO would not be made more ‘epic’ by ZOS wasting potential development money on cinematics.

@FierceSam i think you may have missed my point my friend

in my opinion eso employs the 'standing around while things happen' method of storytelling; by which i mean, when a big story scene is happening, you are literally just standing there watching characters talk

the entire strength of the method of storytelling eso attempts to make use of- never taking control away from the player- is intended to give the player the opportunity to explore the world, see smaller details in a scene while the scene is happening

an excellent example of this is in half life 2. after the player reaches their first major goal of the game: black mesa east, a research lab, they go through a small series of scenes where the main character meets up with some old and new allies, during which control is never directly taken away from the player. while all this is happening, there are various small details such as newspaper clippings for the player to read for worldbuilding, machines and gadgets for the player to mess around with, characters going about their usual business for the player to observe...

meanwhile in eso - and by extension, a lot of games that mis use this method of story telling - the player is often heavily encouraged to watch the scene playing out anyway with little to no opportnities for input or exploration, so why not just make it a cinematic cutscene and potentially make it more interesting by crafting it in a linear manner?

i also don't particularly care about costs or taking into consideration how realistic something may be from zos's perspective. perhaps if it were my job to take such bland things to heart i would but alas i am not employed at zos and i am simply a player of video games and i want video games to be more fun than they already are to suit my personal tastes