As with anything, when it comes to the gaming industry, there’s tons to complain about. Casual games, for instance. Or monstrous price tags. Just choose your poison.
But the biggest problem, by far, is that they’re too damn long. In this fast-paced culture, who has time for 20 hours (and upwards) of gameplay? We can’t even find time to cook our own food anymore, let alone churning through whole days playing video games.
Game Design, Gears of War, Jobs, Metal Gear Solid
Sam Lake is the lead writer behind Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake. His scripts helped propel the Max Payne series to positive reviews, and his writings will be equally essential to this new title’s success.
But it’s rare for developers to prioritize the role of a writer like this. Frequently sidelined as an afterthought, writers — also known as narrative designers, depending on your opinion — hardly ever work as closely with a development team as Mr. Lake does.
Rather than marginalizing writers, more developers should take Remedy’s approach and embrace them. We’ve seen the success of story-driven games like Metal Gear Solid. Narrative designers make games come alive, and we simply can’t afford to treat them like dirt anymore.
Gamer Culture, Gaming Videos, Offbeat Videos
Watching the trailer for Alan Wake, I nearly forgot the footage was for a game.
It’s certainly a far cry from earlier trailers, and this isn’t the only recent video game to take a more cinematic approach in its presentation. It’s good to see quality trailers for equally quality games.
Let’s just hope they’re marketed as seriously when they’re finally released, as this could bring a lot more hardcore gamers to the table.
