Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Will you tell me a story --
please?
BY WAGNER JAMES AU
(05/16/00)
Where did Au get his information on the plots of the games at E3? Did he sneak into the corporate headquarters of each game developer, steal a copy of their games and then read through the plot? The average plot preview at E3 was as long as the average blurb on the back of a novel -- and would show just as little of the plot of the real thing.
I think Au has also vastly overestimated how much gamers want plot. Some people have said, "I hated that game -- you had to click the mouse so many times to get [through the plot and] into the action." I personally want to hear a good story, but others honestly resent having their fragfest spoiled by narration.
-- Evan James
While it's true that we haven't seen much of what Halo's story is going to be, I think I can say with pretty much confidence that Halo will have a story, and that it will be more complex than just about any computer game in the last couple of years. The reason I say this is that Halo is set in the same universe, and in fact, the same time, as another game created by Bungie Software, Marathon. Marathon was an FPS in a science fiction setting, and pretty much the only way the story was developed was through textual computer terminals that you would interface with. But what a story it was! Pages and pages have been devoted to trying to puzzle out all the things that were going on. If one goes to Marathon story and just spends a couple of hours reading, they might begin to grasp how huge it was. And as I said before, Halo is set in this world, and already we are starting to see ties to the Marathon story.
-- Francis Arant
Knowing what's up
down there
BY CARMEN WINANT
(05/17/00)
Carmen Winant need not feel she has failed her mother. As she grows and sheds the insecurities natural to her age, the intelligent, articulate teenager she is today will turn into a young adult free of ignorance and prejudice.
Yes, Carmen, indeed some day "vagina" will not be a dirty word, and some day people of both sexes will have a level of maturity higher than what you find in boys your age today. Believe it. It's just going to take a lot of people like you and your folks.
-- Walt Roberts
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