Comments on: Twilight Of The Arnor Released 27 Days Ago!

By: YogSo

YogSo — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:46:25 +0000

I must say this: that Tom Francis’ piece is the best S-F short story I’ve read in a while. And I really mean it. It has it all: humor, drama, suspense, loads and loads of epicness and even a final revelation. Truly great, thanks for the link.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:24:50 +0000

I covered a bit of why stories in games can be more compelling than in other media in the first of a few pieces I’m writing on “Games for people that don’t play games”
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/loved/entry/games_for_people/

I focus on Photopia in the piece, but it’s mostly about how by giving the illusion of choice, game stories can hit harder than in film or such:

“We all know that feeling in horror films you get, as your mind starts screaming at the character “Oh for christ’s sake! Don’t go back into the house! Are you mental?!”. But we can’t control the star of the film, so they do, and end up getting trapped or killed and we cringe at their idiocy. In survival horror games, you’re the idiot.”

By: Freelancepolice

Freelancepolice — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:12:40 +0000

I don’t think so, they’re all separate loaders it appears

By: zima

zima — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:34:05 +0000

@Down Rodeo – my AthlonXP 1700 , 768MB, Radeon 8500 (yes, dx 8.1) seems to handle it rather nicely…at least when checking quickly how it runs (details below)

And I agree, great article by Tom Francis…paired with sensible approach to copy protection it convinced me to buy Galciv2 even though I wasn’t really in that sort of games…

It currently waits on the shelf for its time…but I have a question to all of you that play the game:
I realise that in sandbox mode it’s preferable to have latest expansion for all the additional features/fixes…but I’d like to start with the story driven campaign of initial game release, then go to story driven game of expanions. So my question: do improvements from latest expansion take effect when playing story driven campaign in previous releases?

By: Grandstone

Grandstone — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:08:13 +0000

Better yet, the player’s action ought to be the story. I don’t think we’re looking for game developers to write “The Dead”; we’re looking for them to find mature ways to let players do as they will, with greater freedom (and the attendant greater consequences for their actions). It seems unambitious (no offense meant) to just let the story be in the background.

I’m not sure I’m articulating what I mean. Sorry if this is incoherent.

By: El Stevo

El Stevo — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:50:02 +0000

Games don’t need great stories because story games are almost always like action films. It’s the action – what you do – that’s important. The story can just serve as a framework, providing the motivation and context for the action.

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:58:54 +0000

I’d second Darius’s comment about SMAC. That’s one of the few games where I’ve had completely different games playing as different factions. It wasn’t so much the tech tree as the narrative and the economic/unit benefits, which effectively forced you to roleplay. A Hive faction develops and plays completely differently to a Gaian one. Damn I loved that game.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:25:48 +0000

It pleased me that several people have linked to Tom’s brilliant piece.

By: Dinger

Dinger — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:57:17 +0000

The teleological notion of history has always been my problem with the Civilization series. A library before a University? Huh? And a museum?
And why can’t I get a Lysenkoism wonder?
Things don’t necessarily get better.

Stories in games? Heck, most of the stories in movies and television are trite, hackneyed and decidedly stale. Sometimes good acting or direction makes them engaging. Most novels sold today have crappy stories, and even worse writing. Some of them have elements that make them appeal to people.
For that matter, most popular music sucks too.

By: Duoae

Duoae — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:54:46 +0000

Which is an interesting question, and I completely understand it… but I think we should ask why stories which we’d turn our noses up in any other medium become oddly compelling when placed in a game.

This may just be one of the most interesting questions about gaming that I’ve heard in quite some time. Like all good and important questions, it really seems incredibly obvious when it is finally asked and one wonders why it has never been asked before.

Of course it’s been asked before… and the simple answer is: What do we have that’s better?

Seriously, the reason why we don’t accept the flotsam and jetsam of any ‘thing’ in general is because something better exists and as a result comparison is inevitably drawn to said superior ‘thing’. There are currently relatively few games on the current platforms (that’s one reason for a unified console future or full backwards compatibility) that are hailed as having good plot lines (i think it’s a better descriptor than story)…

As gaming gets more mainstream and adult oriented (not in that way) then we’ll see some stories and storytelling techniques evolve along side it – just as they did with film and literature. Of course, there’ll still be the crappy popcorn flicks (and worse) but there will be more of the great as well.

[edit] I hate the blockquote code on this commenting system :/
On a related note (to the article) there was one ‘blog/article’ that made me buy the game by Tom Francis (i think):

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=161570&site=pcg&skip=yes

By: cliffski

cliffski — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:25:26 +0000

I love this game. They should do an expansion that ONLY concentrates on adding uber l33tness to the ship battle section, which is frankly a bit pants considering how cool the ship design is. Bolting a decent graphics engine on that, and giving you some tactical control would be l33t.

By: Feet

Feet — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:14:40 +0000

The problem I have with GalCiv is I find there’s no real easily accessible feedback into how well I am doing, just generally or compared to the other races. Like, if I spam colony ships and expand as fast as possible to other planets I have no idea what that will cost me. In Civ4 over expansion = empty purse, and that’s represented by a big -30 gold per turn (or whatever) next to my total income on the main interface. I just find that information in GalCiv is harder to come by and understand.

Also no MP. Which is a damned shame.