[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtqRXQGW1aw[/media]
Pretty spot on. Saving the world happens so often now I'm pretty tired of it.
tbh I liked Luke Cage because of how much it as a personal story involved the world around him in a way that didn't make it all about that world
We need way more games that can accomplish that, but it seems that's reserved mostly to TV
And then there is season three of Agents of Shield and they wanted to be as grand as huge as they possible could. Yep.
[editline]12th November 2017[/editline]
Tale of Two brothers has a pretty amazing ability to do that thinking about it actually
It's not necessarily about saving the world in particular so much as narrative scale. It's much, much easier for me to connect with a tiny stakes personal story than it is to connect with some super important high stakes story. If you do want a save the world thing then the best ones will interweave the tiny stakes personal story into the super important high stakes story to make the super important one [I]sort of[/I] analogous with the more emotional grounded one.
Like he said, it's telling that I care more about the individual stories of Tali or Wrex in Mass Effect and that both of their stories directly tie into world saving which makes me much more emotionally invested in the world saving. So you can do it, but I think it's essential you ground it in something much more personal.
I feel like this is mostly a game problem. It certainly happens in movies and the rest, it's the reason most people prefer Spiderman: Homecoming over most Avengers films. But it feels much more common in gaming.
I do like how shit that happens in Witcher 3 is almost an aside to everything else
Saving the world is just another contract depending on your perspective
This is why I adore the film Dredd. He's not saving the world, he's fighting his way through a single apartment complex. It's just a standard assignment gone a bit nuts. After it's done and somebody asks him what happened, he just says, "Drug bust." It's just another day for him and that makes it feel more badass.
I have to agree with the video. The trope is overused and ineffective in both RPG games where you're supposed to have narrative freedom and non-RPG games where you don't get narrative freedom.
Its an often-used example but an entirely fitting one, in Fallout New Vegas the story is great in part because there is no set narrative you have to follow, which is perfect for an RPG. You get to choose to support the democratic NCR, be a piece of shit and support the Legion, go for the ostensibly "[I]save humanity[/I]" option by supporting House, or just say fuck it and kill everyone in your lust for power and declare yourself local ruler.
I often find myself quite engaged in the story of RTS games I think because so less often the "save the world" trope makes up the story, more often being a case of choose your side in some struggle. In games like Supreme Commander and various Command&Conquer games you get to choose to fight for whoever's cause you like and when you're done look at how things could have been different by playing other campaigns.
I liked the original Mass Effect trilogy despite even the shitty ending. I just groan thinking about the plot of Mass Effect Andromeda, which is the embodiment of everything wrong with the trope. Its a fucking parody of itself. Faceless evil aliens with unknown motives that want to kill or assimilate everything. [I]Again. [/I] Honestly I struggle to believe that so much time and effort was put into a story-centric game where the story was so awful, confused, shallow and rehashed. Utterly throws anything interesting that could happen with the vast and open idea of colonising a new galaxy into the bin.
A world isn't worth saving if you can't relate to it
[QUOTE=Kabstrac;52882770]I think Deus Ex games have done the high stakes storytelling petty well[/QUOTE]
Even the modern versions are pretty solid in this department tbh (well, HR at least). Jensen doesn't start off trying to save the world, he just happens to end up uncovering a massive fucking conspiracy and tries to stop it. He doesn't actually save the world, he just dents the progress of the conspirators a bit. Sending the world tumbling down a different path of a bad time.
I don't mind "save the world" plots too much, as long as it makes sense for the game. If a game presents itself as an interesting story about interpersonal or societal relationships, weird mind happenings, etc. then devolves into "save the world tho" it really sucks me out of it.
I will never not be mad about Halo 5s marketting swindle. That radio play was so good
[QUOTE=J!NX;52882780]I do like how shit that happens in Witcher 3 is almost an aside to everything else
Saving the world is just another contract depending on your perspective[/QUOTE]
What makes it even more interesting is how the world is presented, you see horrors of war, non human pogroms, political intrigue, generally lots of messed up stuff. But yet saving world is not even our cause. The story is being told from a perspective of Geralt who's just a lowly Witcher trying to live his life, who doesn't want to become involved but choices force him to give up his neutrality. I'm sure it would be different from Ciri's perspective, most likely more adventurous and wild.
[QUOTE=Kabstrac;52884502]Dredd is such an underrated movie. Instant modern classic, up there with Fury Road in my books[/QUOTE]
It's a shame that the CG lets it down a little bit in a place or two. If it was a little more visually seamless it'd be a perfect movie.
[QUOTE=AtomicSans;52882787]This is why I adore the film Dredd. He's not saving the world, he's fighting his way through a single apartment complex. It's just a standard assignment gone a bit nuts. After it's done and somebody asks him what happened, he just says, "Drug bust." It's just another day for him and that makes it feel more badass.[/QUOTE]
The crazy thing is that the complex has a city worth of people and that's just one of many out there
[QUOTE=hexpunK;52882913]Even the modern versions are pretty solid in this department tbh (well, HR at least). Jensen doesn't start off trying to save the world, he just happens to end up uncovering a massive fucking conspiracy and tries to stop it. He doesn't actually save the world, he just dents the progress of the conspirators a bit. Sending the world tumbling down a different path of a bad time.
I don't mind "save the world" plots too much, as long as it makes sense for the game. If a game presents itself as an interesting story about interpersonal or societal relationships, weird mind happenings, etc. then devolves into "save the world tho" it really sucks me out of it.[/QUOTE]
done right though a switch to just saving the world can be pretty refreshing. A Song of Ice and Fire for example is 99% about personal turmoil, so it's really satisfying to read that 1% of a character actually doing something huge and unambiguously heroic.
i think a good example of that in games is Darkest Dungeon. your characters are dirtbags and their personal failings actually have gameplay ramifications, so when they do something rad you start feeling like they're actually capable of saving the world instead of just getting bad rolls and killing everyone.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
