June ‘08 Round Table–Updated 07/01
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008The Round Table has been groaning under the weight of all the tasty posts laid upon it the last several months. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed, commented or even just read along. As always, everyone is free to submit posts to the Round Table. For more details on joining in, please read [...]
We Hope You Have a Pleasant Stay
Thursday, June 12th, 2008I certainly enjoyed characters in games prior to 1994 and while I appreciated the relationships they represented for my avatar, it is was not until I played System Shock that I developed my own, deeply personal, relationship with a game character. And let me assure you that it was neither pleasant nor healthy. The character [...]
Geometric Relationships
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008Josh (Mind’s Eye Josh, not Cathode Tan Josh) commented on his last RT post that he had nothing further to say about relationships and was going to go play a game that didn’t contain any, namely Geometry Wars (GW). It’s funny, because I’ve had a post about that game floating about in my head for [...]
Feet Firmly on the Ground
Friday, June 6th, 2008This is not my Round Table post, but I am going to talk about a character’s relationship to their environment. The character is Hayden Tenno. The game is Dark Sector. I rent one game a week from a local store and if it’s good, I move it up in my Gamefly queue. If it’s not, [...]
Character Matters: Sith vs. Jedi
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008I’ve railed, here and elsewhere, against the idea that focusing more on characters will strengthen the role of storytelling in video game design. I believe that it isn’t compelling characters that make or break a story (in any medium), it’s compelling character relationships. I consider this to be a critical point because focusing on character [...]
No One Cares About Your Character
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008Following along with yesterday’s reaction to Katherine and Corey’s excellent survey…
Edgar: “I’ve designed this cool character!”
Wally: “Yeah, what’s he do?”
Edgar: “He’s got more muscles than Bane, but he wears this baggy zoot suit so you’re not sure if he’s really fat or really built.”
Wally: “Okay, what’s he do?”
Edgar: “He’s a total bad-ass! His hat brim [...]