Molloy wrote:What I don't like about the Bethesda emergent style of game is it can be a little bit like giving you a big box of grey lego and saying 'go make your own fun'. Yes, you'll probably have a couple of cool things happen but most of the situations you're going to create will be dull. You can keep the dog in Fallout 3 but are you as richly involved with him as the dog in Fable 2 where the entire game has been designed around him?
It's hard to actually program a dog in the style of Fallout 3's gameplay that is constantly interesting to interact with. But ultimately it can have far more impact than a Fable 2's dog, which is actually compromised by it's story. I can't remember anyone that prefers Fable 2's dog, even though Dogmeat (that's what it's called in Fallout) is designed pretty limited. The dog in Fable 2 can't die unless the story demands it (from what I remember) and it's forced unto you from the very beginning. Why would a player care about it?
If a game has a 10 different endings it’s not necessarily going to be more entertaining. Most of the endings would be boring or wouldn’t make sense in the context of what you’ve been spending the game doing. I think passive and active parts of the game need to interact with each other and the more successfully this is done the more the ratio can be tipped in favour of the active.
That would be a good development, but ultimately developers should start on the hard work of actually programming interesting rules and mechanics that will remain interesting for the player. Ultimately they should ditch story whenever they can. That's a lot more work than sticking with a story with effective set pieces (which they are the first time, after that the player sees through them immediately). And, as I said before, it will only get harder.
I'm repeating myself, so I'm leaving it at this. But before I go: here's an interesting quote from this link I came across today.
Eskil Steenberg wrote:Making games is a little like being a fashion designer. Fashion is not about making beautiful clothing, Its about making beautiful people. A successful designer is not the one who is in the center, but some one who makes the wearer the center. The story isn't yours, its the players. Can a game communicate emotions? yes, but its not the designer who should communicate through the game, its the player who should communicate with the game. It should be your story not mine.