Tag Archives for narrative
A Common Mistake
People often confuse MMOs with other types of videogames. They think an MMO is basically an open-world single-player game like Skyrim, only with more players in it. Even some of the MMO developers themselves (cough, Bioware, cough) have made this … Continue reading
Honest Lies
What do Penn & Teller have in common with speculative fiction? I’m glad you asked. Both will lie to you to entertain you, but they’ll be honest about it. P&T will come on stage with the stated intent to deceive … Continue reading
Fallback Solutions
In the late 1990s, when the CD-ROM became popular as a storage medium for games, many developers found themselves unable to exploit its large capacity in any meaningful way. Desperate to put something on there, they turned to an older, and … Continue reading
This MMO Has Story
That phrase was uttered by SWTOR developers on numerous occasions; in a serious manner at first, and later jokingly, when the person saying it felt the audience was sufficiently knowledgeable to be “in on the joke.” After all BioWare is notorious … Continue reading
I Couldn’t Help Myself
It’s like a horrible car crash in slow-motion; it’s hard to look away. Yeah, I’ve been playing the smuggler again. The separatists are apparently something like communists, complete with Mao / Obama propaganda posters, the indoctrination of the young, and a … Continue reading
10 Seconds to Trolley
With SWTOR early access quickly approaching, I was thinking about which class I’m going to play. At the top of the list was the Smuggler, modeled loosely after Han Solo from the original movies. I thought this would be the most neutral … Continue reading
We Built This City on Evil
So I was thinking about Star Wars the other day, and how ridiculous the galaxy far, far away really is, especially in the Old Republic era. The original Star Wars movies didn’t deal a lot with politics, only to the extent required … Continue reading
You Keep Using That Word…
Warning: this post contains some spoilers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. So I finished playing Deus Ex 3 the other day, and especially the final act made me think again, this time about choice and morality in games. Let’s start with … Continue reading
Secret as in Nobody Gives a Crap
When talking about secrecy in the magic community, Penn Jillette likes to use the example of an unnamed, well-known magician, and his patented trick. If you want to know how the trick is done, you can go to the website … Continue reading →
15. August 2012 by Mike
Categories: Commentary | Tags: MMOs, narrative | Comments Off