Spec Ops: The Line, and Unreliable Narrators

Unreliable narrators in books is a catch all term for characters that are unable to accurately look at and description their environments, situations, and the other characters they interact with. Most characters could be described as this as, unless the piece is written in a third person omnipresent point of voice, you can't get an … Continue reading Spec Ops: The Line, and Unreliable Narrators →

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World

The game, for the most part, gives you pieces of myth talked about as if they had happened recently or at least in the recent past. These feats of heroism, of divine intervention are talked about with a firm belief. Now, the Greek pantheon is largely considered myth and fun stories to retell rather than … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World →

Skyrim: Favoring Chaos

In the ideal open sandbox RPG, you can do anything, go anywhere. Depending on the developers, the result of the game can favor lawfulness or chaos. For instance, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you aren't given any missions that include stealing from others; you're not even given the option of killing NPCs. For … Continue reading Skyrim: Favoring Chaos →

Games Don’t Emulate Film or Books: A Response to Ian Bogost

Ian Bogost recently had a piece published on the Atlantic titled Video Games Are Better Without Story. There, he argues that games can only attempt to perform a compelling narrative but it will never be as strong as it's media predecessors, such as written literature (books without additional media supplements) and film. The argument he attempts to persuade … Continue reading Games Don’t Emulate Film or Books: A Response to Ian Bogost →

The Lack of Female Protagonists in Games

I've only recently started to think on this in a way that's more than a passing thought, like it's something that's existed but that it was so common I never really stopped to think about it: why is there a lack of women as the central roles in story based games? The only ones that … Continue reading The Lack of Female Protagonists in Games →

Why did Fallout 4 Disappoint?

The mechanics were better, the graphics looked great, and the character customization was very responsive and creative! So why did it leave me with a bad taste in my mouth? I pre-ordered the game and bought the season pass for the DLC, spending way too much money on a game I'd end up hardly enjoying. … Continue reading Why did Fallout 4 Disappoint? →

Integral Story as DLC: A Bioware Criticism

This might not be a tactic only used by Bioware, but they’re the one that use it the most notoriously as a AAA gaming developer. The original purpose of downloadable content was to add extra content to a story and milk a little extra money out of a game that’s already been released. Some DLC … Continue reading Integral Story as DLC: A Bioware Criticism →

Making the Player Care

If someone can figure out how to make a characterless RPG, let me know. In the meantime, both the player character (customized or premade) and non-playing characters are an important aspect to role playing games, but just having characters doesn’t make a compelling story. While I’ll be straying into basic concepts also found in general story writing … Continue reading Making the Player Care →

Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games

I’ll keep saying it as long as it’s funny and relatively true: The Dragon Age series is a dating sim loosely disguised as an RPG. The big difference between it and actual dating sims is the level of story happening alongside it. Dragon Age II sticks out to me due to the callback to older story … Continue reading Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games →

A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling

In this, I’m going to talk about two games: Fire Emblem: Awakening and The Banner Saga. While a lot of the comparisons I’ll go on to make can be chalked up to being developed in an established game developing company in a well defined series that’s taken its time to find the right formula for a fun game and the other … Continue reading A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling →