#storytelling in videogames

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

I am genuinely loving the push and pull of the DATV characters various banters and relationships. Their development from general politeness (or barbed antipathy) to real connection and intimacy is moving. They're unsure, they feel each other out, they prod, but they're not going to immediately and firmly set themselves against someone they don't know and who they need to work closely with. They communicate because they must and become close because they want to and the journey is shown onscreen as opposed to being a void the player fills in.

For example, when Neve would not talk to me it was agony. The last conversation we had was her wanting to eat fried fish with Rook. Then I hurt her and it was quite a few hours later, after icing me out, that she tentatively tells Rook she wouldn't mind getting some fried fish together. I teared up. Her relationships with everyone else slowly opened up too, after that point. It was a thought out and touching development.

This is how people are. They are not constantly caustic discourse machines telling each other to kill themselves (the most devastatingly sincere moment between Anders and Fenris, by the way, taken out of context by twitter). We're softer and more sensitive than we admit to ourselves and others and we long for love, community, and connections.

Different groups are different, of course, different people are different, and the Kirkwall Crew are their own thing (traumatized haters about their softer underbelly and longings for connection), but we have foundational commonalities. I love the Kirkwall Crew most, but their writing frustrated the fuck out of me sometimes and this here is what I've been wanting from a queer found family dynamic in DA for some time. It's what they keep trying to write and for me it finally landed.

The developers may have overcompensated with DATV, and they did on a few fronts. But I can't help thinking of the criticism that the DATV characters are too nice as an online perspective. People are comfortable screaming at you here, dismissing you, or picking apart your entire character without empathy or consequence, and I do like stripping out the artifice, but that's not typically how interactions work outside this disconnected space we've all cultivated.

[katewillaert]

Distracting myself tonight with some image cleanup. If there'd been a computer game industry in 1967, this might've been an ad for the first narrative video game, featuring its Gabe Newell.

(IBM employee Bruse Montcreiff, essentially the producer of The Sumerian Game.)

[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[larunart]

Finished this video game concept a few months ago to apply to Uni, using one of my already existing stories.

I really do hope I get to work on this further in the future, even if “just” in comic form. The content is close to my heart and relates to my own experience with depression, suicide and psychosis / the schizophrenia spectrum. Maybe it could help others find more empathy within themselves for their younger past selves.

I actually got the very first spark for this story back in… 2017? 2018? It’s insane how much has changed, it really does feel like it gained a mind of its own. Jane was originally the protagonist with a whole lot more curses involved. For a hot second it was even set in a magical boarding school! Imagine that!

Game in general is inspired by Silent Hill 2, The Cat Lady and What Remains of Edith Finch. If I gave this another try I’d definitely include more fake screenshots.

Some slides (3) are missing - you can view them on my ArtStation profile :-)

[mongoliannomad84]

Mermaid Nalani's life in the quirky trailer park of Strangerville is anything but ordinary. Living incognito among the town's eclectic residents, she faces a unique challenge: her tail transformation on land is increasingly problematic. With every unexpected splash of water, her secret is on the brink of being revealed. Navigating the oddities of Strangerville while desperately trying to keep her true identity hidden, Nalani must find a way to balance her oceanic nature with her newfound terrestrial life, all while uncovering the town's many mysteries.

[kohakuhibiki]

Ok i just want to interrogate the haters: was kingdom hearts iii a flop, I mean I remember back in the day no one was able to shut up about the hype, then it came out and I never heard about it ever again.

[theindexproject]

Happy to share our Teaser for our #scifi #indie The Index Project! Been a long road but we're finally getting there. Pre-season content and stories start soon!

Psst... An #ARG (#AlternateRealityGame) is currently going on now. Also, sign up on the website and get our first issue of the COMIC BOOK FREE! https://theindex.world

[fiendishartist2]

the bar for "revolutionary" webhorror is so low. what happened

[llitchilitchi]

reminder to self I should use all the info I got on the security conference and write some spies/hackers AU

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Fun fact: if you save a reblog of a poll as a draft, tumblr refuses to let you edit it. The edit button just breaks completely.

I have not the courage to discover if it applies to posting as well.

[slechterick]

i just wanna say that, although it's not entirely unprecedented, i cannot overstate my appreciation for the fact that XC2's Torna ~ The Golden Country has a bad ending. it's so excruciatingly fitting for a story about the ravages of war and the horrors of weapons of mass destruction to feature a non-optional unapologetic and thoroughly bad ending.

we don't get to see that often enough in videogames.

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

The reasons I love the bug where Zevran can rock up in DA2 and DAI's war table mission despite the player having chosen to kill him in DAO is because I remember the unbridled glee gamers had at killing him for flirting with their male Warden.

The reason I dream of Fenris, Anders, and Isabela receiving equitable consideration and dignity in discourse is because I remember the response to their characters outside progressive bubbles.

Anders had a whole homophobic manifesto written about him and sent to DA2's head writer (who's gay btw). Gamers would be proud of handing Fenris back to his slave owner because Fenris was 'difficult'. (Of course the recently escaped slave is prickly and angry). Certain fans still enjoy telling you how they kill 'the terrorist' on every Anders post, evidently because of his actions, transparently because he's a mentally unwell queer "SJW" they feel vindicated in killing. Any mention of Isabela must also apparently include slut-shaming when promiscuity is a fine response to being a former child bride who's free of their cruel and possessive husband. Isabela fearing commitment and being sexually open is not an invitation for dehumanization. I play DA2 with the polyam mod, so I could be wrong, but I always felt Isabela and PurpleHawke were well matched there anyway.

We've come far in terms of accepting diversity in videogame storytelling, but cycles of controversy around queer romance, diversity, and sex in videogames is an old one. The difference being that the industry has mostly stopped catering to conservative and contemptuous discourse now and for that I'm glad.

[funstufffandomsandcoolpictures]

I wonder if my sense of tragedy is off... Very few things in fiction make me sad, but I feel like they aren't the things that are supposed to make you sad. And not supposed to be the only things.

Things like Rylanor yelling at Fulgrim (Rylanor's Last Stand - Stringstorm) and Thor telling Loki that they are friends (The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms) have me tearing up. I'll play a war game and then look out at the field of bodies, feeling my stomach drop.

But the dead wife, talking to your parents one last time, all that never does anything for me.

[hecho-a-mano]

ohohohohooo 👀👀 I'm looking at the leitmotifs 👀👀 I'm looking at the themes 👀👀 I'm looking

[sylvettesylph]

The issue with video games as a story medium has nothing to do with the fact that its a bad medium for stories and everything to do with the fact that gamers are fucking stupid