Jonathan Blow, on page 92, says that any dumb ass can write a story for a game, and based on a lot of games that are out there, a lot of dumb asses do. However, narrative and story is just a small part of what is most important about the game: play. A lot of game designers are focuses so much on story that they substitute good game play for a good background story. Bissell argues that "game designers are focusing ont he wrong provider of meaning, and no one is challenging them to do otherwise.
Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect both have morality systems engrained into them, in that you have to pick between different moral dilemmas throughout the entirety of the game, and this is something that is a unique feature to these games that is not present in a lot of other games. These are games that you want to replay over and over again because the ending is different every time, just like poetry.
Sophistry- a way of arguing whatever you want to argue. A really complicated way of arguing that is self-focused and all-together wrong. I don't really understand the way Laura explained it, like what the hell does it actually mean? Now, sophisticated means fairly well-educated and high cultured. To me, sophistication means something that not a lot of people in popular American culture strive for, especially with the existence of Jersey Shore, Lady Gaga, and WWF wrestling (seriously, people still think that it's real?). I consider myself sophisticated though, because I take my education seriously and do everything that I can to convey a strong persona of respect and genuineness.
More explanation does not mean better narrative. Good stories know how much they can leave out and still get the story across. It takes a lot of artistry to hit that sweet spot where a lot is left out, but the consumer still feels smart for figuring it out. It's a matter of the contrast between gameplay and cut scenes.
Bioshock overview by Kevin:
This is the first time you meet Sander Coen.
Bioshock Notes:
Bioshock notes
· PC games at the point of dying before Bioshock came out
o Trailer came out and changed that
o Originally made for PC, then for Xbox, the PS3
· Story/gameplay
o Takes place in underwater city called rapture
o Builder of city doesn’t like rules or limitations
o Builds it underwater since that’s the only place he could do it
o Main character, Jack, crashes plane into ocean and is taken to what’s left of rapture
§ Riot broke out a year before and everything’s different
o Little sisters are protected by big daddies and have an adam that give you more power
§ Two options with little sisters
· Harvest
o Take out the slug in the little sister and use it for power or adam
o Also means to kill
o Slug means atom
· Rescue
o Breaks them out of their spell and they turn back into normal little girls
o Get a little bit of adam, but get perks later if you save enough of them
o Objective is to get out, and you use the little sisters to gain power to do so
o Meet Sander Coen, who sends spider splicers to test you, then invites you in when you kill them
§ Turns out to be really crazy
§ The artist of rapture who made all the plays and stuff
§ Madness grew slowly but surely after the fall of rapture
o Tenanbaum made the little sisters and gives Jack the power to rescue and save them after realizing her mistake
· Background
o Around 1953, scientists made adam which gave people extraordinary powers
o Made available to everyone in Rapture
o Became like a drug
§ Hallucinations
§ The more you have the more you can do
§ Blood craze focused around Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontane
· Ryan
o Made the city
o Started Ryan Industries which made all the adams
· Fontane
o Helped the poor people of Rapture rise up
§ Underground war between the two
§ Fontane dies, and Ryan takes control of Fontane’s company
o Protect the little sisters at all costs
o “A man chooses, a slave obeys”
§ Jack is really a slave of Ryan who is activated by the phrase “would you kindly”
§ Ryan says that he started a self destruction sequence, but by the time you get to him, he explains that you were built in Rapture, are actually 3 though you look like you’re 30, and that you’ve been commanded to do anything based on the phrase would you kindly
§ Ryan makes you kill him
§ Find pictures of everyone, including you, and others that have been brainwashed
§ Frank Fontane is really Atlas, who has been commanding Jack the whole time to get Rapture under his own control
§ Fontane says the word that kills you, but you find a cure for it
o Ending
§ Good
· Save all the little sisters and they all grow up, get married, with families
· Jack dies old with all of them around him
§ Bad
· Jack takes control of Rapture for himself
· Destroys the submarine the brings people in and out
o Uniqueness
§ Mix narrative and gaming
§ Don’t know anything until you experience it
§ Meet people and listen to/watch tapes to explain the back story
o Sequel
§ Try to explain why you’re back in Rapture
§ Sophia Lamb is the new narrator, takes over the city once Ryan is gone
§ Takes place 10 years after first one
§ Play as a Big Daddy
§ Made it so you can duel wield the gun and the plasma
§ New brute splicers to fight
§ Have to protect little sisters, but Sophia sends her big daddies to fight you, and the big sister
· We’re all family
· A cult that she starts and that you try to take care of
o April Lamb is the key to everything
o Try to save her the whole time
o Everything’s based on her
o Infinite
§ Took the game from being a series to being a franchise
§ Takes place in colonized city in the sky called Columbia
§ Takes place before original Bioshock
§ Try to save Elizabeth, the star of Infinite
§ Find out about corruption that occurs
§ Comes out in 2012:
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