#narrative innovation

[joncronshawauthor]

What Fantasy Writers Can Learn From Mr. Bungle

In the realm of fantasy literature, where worlds are bound only by the limits of imagination, finding unique sources of inspiration is crucial. For writers looking to inject a dose of the extraordinary into their narratives, the eclectic and often surreal music of Mr. Bungle offers a treasure trove of creative cues. Known for their genre-defying soundscapes and theatrical flair, Mr. Bungle…

[sunlight-shunlight]

thinking about veilguard and bioware in general, i think we are reaching a point where people need to grapple with the inherent limits of what stories can be told in our Current Society and in AAA gaming companies.

on a labour level: mass layoffs, tons of developers leaving despite previously talking about how passionate and happy they were to be involved, not even paying severance, and crunching employees to the point of burnout. this is unfortunately pretty standard for AAA game companies.

on a cultural level: it is SO white and SO centrist-ly Canadian. i wrote up these asks outlining how. it is a repeated pattern of writing in which they go into tortured racial oppression allegories at best, while constantly peppering in a "but BOTH SIDES were wrong and made mistakes :( :( :(", in between their fictional atrocities that are clearly mirroring irl genocides and enslavement. or at worst, it's "the qunari are radical islamic borg" which has even less nuance. i personally thought, since dai came out in 2014, and a lot has changed since then about the world and in public awareness, that this would have filtered into the narrative and resulted in more satisfying and historically grounded writing. unfortunately not the case. it's shocking if you compare it to how sharp and aware and unflinching something like disco elysium is.

so what does this mean?

under these conditions, it is unavoidable that we get development by people who are rapidly cycled out of the company or demoralized into burnout. we get digestible, easy little soundbites of lore without much substance, because any complexity needs more time and coordination rather than the process of "quick, we have these assets, a lot of people involved in making them just got laid off, we need to make Something by next quarter to show the CEO". we get very little cohesion between games, despite the clear intent from dai to have so many plot points set up to follow through in a sequel, because the team and development are so chaotic that they can't hold onto a vision and complete it.

we also get this inherent caution and "conservatism" from the narrative, because on an ideological level, they're largely white people who want cops to be included in pride. so any major change to even a fictional society is Bad and Scary, and shouldn't be done without making sure that every character finger-wags appropriately at non-state violence. there is clearly not much ideological or even ethnic diversity within the leadership; or at least not enough that anyone there felt comfortable even speaking up on minor issues like the Incredibly Orientalist Isabela Outfit, let alone anything larger.

i don't personally think there's too much value in trying to analyze veilguard's plot or lore at this point. the final product is chaotically developed and does not seem to reflect the goals of the creators as set up in prior games, it's basically a ship of theseus in terms of the people and ideas involved in making it. this is sad for all of us, who were interested in the story, and attached to the characters, and were creatively fulfilled by engaging in the fandom. it's probably worse for the developers who have lost their jobs, burnt out, or feel unhappy with the game that they spent years of their life working on. it's certainly miserable as an indictment of The Industry, as well as the general societal climate of white Canadian centrism.

the solution is to create a society where people can develop games in peace and prosperity and stay on projects for longer, rather than constantly getting turfed out without severance pay. and to get some genuine leftists, poc, and indigenous people on staff who can weigh in and provide significant input, rather than a Council Of Liberal White Edmontonians every time.

in the meantime, at the very least, let's please stop preordering AAA games and supporting companies who notably abuse their employees.

[aj-lenoire]

percy are you seriously gonna fall for the same trick that you just pulled on anna?? it's been like ten minutes.

[f1-obsessed333]

[flufflecat]

Can someone explain what the narrative stakes are even supposed to be anymore in jjk. All the characters are essentially guaranteed to die, the current cast is comprised almost entirely of characters who showed up 2/3rds into the story and we're supposed to care about them for some reason, and I do not even know what the threat is supposed to be anymore. The apocalypse? Destruction of an amorphous innocent society? Like has ANYTHING been shown of "here's the regular world that apparently needs to be saved" or are we just supposed to assume "this society is just Real Life+, so you're REQUIRED to care if some guy threatens to kill all humanity, because one of those humanities may be... a child" or something. Can you spare two seconds to show anything other than some magic randos fighting, or is it just a superhero story all the time now, minus the fun. Remember when yuuji had friends.

[bandzboy]

i think whether or not you like ateez's music and concept you have admit that is pretty cool to see a group having their own identity and sticking to it and not really caring about what the masses want this industry is so saturated everyone does what everyone is doing because that's what brings them popularity and money and whatever else but having a group saying that 'this is our identity and music and we will stick to it' is quite huge nowadays and quite impressive to me that's why i just respect ateez so much, especially in that regard

[writing-turnip]

Do you ever get sucked into finding out the internal life experiences of a stranger? I wonder how interesting narratives would be if being palatable wasn’t the highest priority.

The real un-marketable version. People want the credibility of identities, want to market the biographies.

They want to sell suffering with obvious villains , smoothed down and made palatable to the milketoast readers they prioritize. To assuage guilt with stories that promise to make them better people “I’m not racist, I don’t act like THAT” while never threatening them (which isn’t how it works), discomfort is part of growth. In the end, people have no investment in the actual voices.

Always, the real experience is first sacrifice at the altar of marketability. Even the nutritional benefits of learning is stripped away in the name of making biographic junk food.

[lilflowerpot]

Hi! This isn’t Keitor related but I’m curious to see your thoughts hahajskajs. If you haven’t started playing TotK yet, (or even if you have) what are your hopes for it?

@arinrowan: Hi! How are you enjoying the new Legend of Zelda game?

anonymous: I know you are off living your best life playing tears of the kingdom but I miss you and your daily posts hope you are well and come back soon

-

So I have now finished TotK—

((and by "finished" I mean I've completed the mainline story, all shrines/lightroots/tears, nearly all the side-quests, and collected the majority of armor,,, yes, I am a completionist, are you really surprised?))

—and I am utterly //obsessed//. No spoilers to those who're still avoiding them, but the story is a damn masterpiece; yes I did cry at That Quest because it was heartwrenching goddammit, and I loved loved loved everything about the Zonai (fingers-crossed for the inevitable expansion pass to throw more ancient lore & ruins our way). New enemies? Fantastic. Return of temples & bosses? Pretty excellently done tbh. Re-hashing of the same map to give well-versed players the correct balance of new yet familiar? Absolutely stellar.

My only real disappointment (and this is me being particularly nitpicky) is that I was //really// hoping to be able to rebuild Castle Town à la the Tarry Town quest from BotW (though,, with less ugly houses please) but maybe nintendo will grace us with something of that vein in that aforementioned expansion pass! 🤞🏻

[ijsthee]

why is there never a best puzzle category in goty competitions. im leaving chants of sennaar out to dry on technicalities

[nicholasandriani]

Catching Up and Embracing the Future: Archaeology, My Role in Championing Gameful Learning, the 4R’s, and FutureProofing for 2024 and Beyond

There are many new faces among us here and I’m so grateful for your support and readership as we reach one another from all across this wonderfully delicious planet. I am so proud of all that we’ve built as writers, readers, thinkers, friends, and whatever your calling, it’s the passion, your passion, that inspires me. I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce myself to the new faces and likewise…

[marklikely]

i think as time goes on itll be easier to like the beatles as long as we keep up the trend of younger people not liking them.

[joncronshawauthor]

The Riftwar Saga: Crafting Epic Fantasy Worlds

In the well-trodden landscape of fantasy literature, Raymond Feist‘s “Riftwar” series is akin to a magical tempest – it came, it saw, and it decidedly left its mark. This wasn’t just another saga of swords and sorcery; this was an epic that tore through the fabric of the genre and stitched it back together with a twist. With its blend of traditional fantasy and bold narrative innovations,…

[hero-and-villain-world]

Innovations and Challenges in Modern Comics

I remember the first time I held a comic book in my hands. The vibrant colors, the dynamic art, and the way the story unfolded panel by panel captivated me. It wasn’t just a book; it was a portal to another world. That moment sparked my lifelong love for comics, and it’s fascinating to see how far the industry has come since then. From the early days of Rodolphe Töpffer’s Obadiah Oldbuck in…

[manmishra]

🚀 Dive into the future of data storytelling! Discover how AI and innovative tech are transforming the way we communicate insights and engage audiences. Explore the essential role of human creativity in this evolving landscape and learn how to leverage these tools for impactful narratives. Read more about it in our latest article! 🌐📊 #DataStorytelling #AI #Innovation #MarketingStrategy

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

I am BEGGING people who write narrative fiction podcasts/audio dramas to lay off the arguments. I realize that it's going to happen if characters with beef are in a tense situation. I also realize that in an audio medium, most of the storytelling is done through speech, so building and resolving tension is often going to happen through hashing out issues. I also also realize that arguments are fun to write and give you an opportunity to come up with cute quips.

HOWEVER.

You have to have conflict AND RESOLUTION in order for an argument to be satisfying. Arguments are interesting for the same reason plots are interesting: something's wrong, and the audience wants to see how it works out. But what I keep seeing are these argument loops, where:

The characters (who don't get along well) are in a tense situation.

They disagree on how to tackle the issue.

They argue.

They fail to either convince each other or find a compromise.

Someone says, "Alright, alright! Can we stop arguing? There's a real problem here!"

They focus on the problem for about thirty seconds.

They disagree on how to tackle the issue.

They start sniping at each other again.

...repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum until either a) they stumble through a solution, b) deus ex machina resolves it, or c) something worse happens that makes the argument irrelevant. And, like, it's not a huge issue if this happens once in a while. But it gets really, really exhausting to listen to after the third "Stop arguing! Let's focus on the problem!" or so, just from the sheer repetition.

It also gets really exhausting if it's toward the middle or end of the story, and the characters have spent a lot of time around each other but somehow still haven't learned how to adapt to each other's way of thinking, especially if the story clearly wants to think of the characters involved as friends, romantic partners, or allies. If these people have lived in proximity to one another for months and have ostensibly gone through some character development but are still putting crisis situations on hold for a lengthy argument based on personality conflicts, what are we even doing?

And if the argument just stops without actually resolving, why am I, the audience member, bearing witness to it? I don't want to watch people spin their tires in the mud for hours. Show me a little of that, and then skip to the part where they get a traction board and get out of the ditch. I want meaningful resolution, even if they find a different thing to disagree about next time!

This isn't a callout for any one show in particular (there were a couple that prompted this), and I'm sure it doesn't only happen in podcasts. I suspect the reason it's sticking out to me here is because I can't skim ahead in a podcast like I could in a book, and there are no visual cues to focus on like there would be in a film or TV show. But it's still frustrating.

[theomenmedia]

From the screen to your ears! Bollywood's gem, Pankaj Tripathi, co-founds Velvet

From the screen to your ears! Bollywood's gem, Pankaj Tripathi, co-founds Velvet, a groundbreaking platform for cinematic audio stories. Immerse yourself in India's rich storytelling tradition like never before!

Read the full article right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/pankaj-tripathi-joins-the-sonic-revolution-co-founds-velvet-audio-stories-platform