I love story focused games and think a good story is important for games, but for some reason I can only play games from the 90s and 00s for their story, they may not all be peak literature but they're tolerable at worst Starting in the 2010s stories in games became kind of obnoxious, self aware, insincere, amateurish, fanfic-y, or just bad regardless of the size of the game or the region of origin, it feels like going from the literary classics to Wattpad slop and exceptions are so rare they make me think stories in games might never be good againHas anyone else noticed this? It feels like a vidya-only phenomenon since I haven't felt this in any other medium except Hollywood movies, but indie games also suffering from it is strange
>>744651824no, everyone knows this. it's the millennial writing syndrome, everything has to be ironic or sarcastic because they're afraid of being earnest. If you're earnest, you have to face criticism. If you're ironic, you can deflect anything.In the west, it's all downstream from Joss Whedon. There's also the fact that the "writers" in vidya have no experience at all, they don't write novels, they don't write novellas, they don't publish garbage poetry, they haven't done screenwriting or stage plays. They watch movies and play games and have no idea what they are supposed to be doing
>>744651824Just don't play western garbage. There's plenty of good games with great narratives, I was just posting in a Nine Sols thread about the lore, try it out it's a great game.
>>744651824I mean. The obnoxious, self aware, insincere part seems like more of a westoid thing. But in general yes, even Japanese games have fallen.
>>744651824>but indie games also suffering from it is strangeThere's nothing strange about that. Indie games are the first thing that I think of when I think "game that was made by someone hidden behind 20 layers of irony who spends all their time in discord servers"
Characters are written to sound like internet-addicts. Especially indie games. Did you play the FF7 remakes? The story is very over the top, what you would probably call "obnoxious." However. I will say, nothing about the main story seems ironic or insincere. There is however the very not so subtle self-awareness (le plot-protecting ghosts)
>>744653506Japanese games now suffer from being translated by millennial westoids but even the source material has declined into self-referential inbreeding. It's like every japanese game is written by the same crop of authors like isekai anime, but none from the "unique vision" crop like the many great manga and anime that are still being made regularly.
>>744653405This. I'd also recommend Black Souls and Project Moon
>>744651824you dislike the prose of modern games, not the plot, themes, or worldbuilding.
>>744656339Both actually, Dragon Age Origins for example is the last western fantasy world that felt well put together for me, its modern sequels fuck up every aspect of it, not just the prose, and its competitors like Avowed (PoE) aren't much better. It's like they all lack a strong vision.
>>744653884All the edginess is gone. Changes to the Dyne scene are illustrative. Can you imagine any modern AAA including the "Marlene want to see her mom" line? Great writing ruined because the themes weren't advertiser friendly.
>>744658531>Marlene want to see her momThat was in the OG too in some form.The hate for Dyne changes are too overblown from critics.The game has things worth criticizing more than just a random side character scene.
>>744659449>The game has things worth criticizingSuch as?
>>744659449>The game has things worth criticizing more than just a random side character scene.Why not both? Yes the ganes have bigger problems but that doesn't mean people shouldn't say they disliked how they handled Dyne (who is not a "random side character")
>>744659761You tell me.I just think that, if Dyne's Rebirth scene is worse, fine, but it seems so performative on caring about some character that nobody cared in the OG in the big picture.
>>744659926>You tell me.But you're the one who said the game has things with criticizing more than this scene. I was asking what things you were referring to.
>>744659926>fineI don't think you're fine with it being called worse at all.
Such a tiny complaint, but can't let anyone get away with it.
>>744651824Last good vidya story that will ever be made was Halo 2
>>744659449The whole murder-suicide thing was removed. It's not the same scene at all.
>>744651824I liked how a lot of games with story from the 90s and early 2000s felt like interactive Saturday morning cartoons. Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper gave me the Saturday morning cartoon vibe
>>744661025The game has bigger problems with criticizing. I won't say what they are, but it does.If you say what those bigger problems are, I will tell you that you're wrong.
>>744660903Lmao
>>744661060There are no modern cartoons that would be cool as games
Women write stories now.
>>744651824All fiction was better pre-internet. Before literally everything was archived, analyzed, categorized, and commented upon.
>>744653237>they haven't done screenwriting or stage plays.I think this is the main problem. Current writers only know fanfiction even if they are published. They know nothing about staging or blocking or the importance of showing not telling
>>744651824They started using normal TV writer credentials for hiring instead of just using whatever dev weirdos also happened to be good at storytelling, which got you a bunch of women with MFAs. It's not entirely their fault because at the same time you have most other devs devaluing storytelling at the same time and telling those MFA writers to decorate the edges of the AAA shitplot that exists only for marketing purposes instead of anyone having any gameplay-narrative ambition
>>744656339I dislike all of it, man. It's like the games I got into as a kid and teenager were made by a different species with a completely different mindset.
>>744667009Yeah, I especially feel like the expression aspect of writing was ruined by the internet and social media, it used to be like singing in the shower where you could belt out to your heart's content knowing no one is judging you, but ever since instant online comments and TV Tropes it's more like public speaking and the things people are willing to write in the first place have changed massively
>>744667009Setting aside any argument about what exactly did it I fucking loathe having to, apparently for the foreseeable future, only consume media that has been voted on by the audience. Fiction should never be the result of a democratic process. Ever.
>>744651824Tifa thread.
>>744669158Next door they're arguing about AOT's story, which if you ask me would absolutely have been infinitely better if the author hadn't let people live in his head rent free. That's how you get this preachy yet insincere vibe. NEVER pander to people who don't know what they want.
>>744669598I still think it's wild how people loved AOT's ending but piled on GOT despite both being trash
>>744671278Covid changed something, nothing gets negative reception like that anymore
>>744669502Italian thread
>>744669598Making Eren a dumbass who did what he did randomly just because there was no other choice is not something I'm going to like
>>744671278>people loved AOT's endingwhere, in the alternate dimension you came from?
>>744671278The people who "loved" AOT's ending were all either superfans who had to gaslight themselves in order to keep being fans of AOT or retarded casual watchers who had already forgotten what happened in the previous arcs and just parroted whatever cope the former group came up with.
>>744675618>>744677412I should've specified "people", only manga fans were mad and places like /a/, general audience cattle lapped it up and it enjoys high scores across all the common rating websites, whereas GOT's final season was rightfully review bombed
>>744651824I think it's the other way around. It's not that stories have become worse, it's that there are more of the bad ones. Not because writers have become worse, I mean sure a lot of them have, but moreso because there are now more wannabes. It's not just for stories either, but all craft. Think about it, two, maybe three, centuries ago, what would it take to write a book? To compose a song? To paint a picture? Compare that to what was needed 10 years ago. It's even worse now cuz AI exists. Nowadays, any halfwit can just open an app to make whatever they want. Worse, they somehow fail to understand just how shoddy their own work is and actually release it into the world. It's hilarious.It's just like what that critic guy said in Ratatouille, but reversed. A great artist can come from anywhere, but not everyone can become a great artist. Nay, not everyone should try to become a great artist. All that leads to is trash.
>>744678046>All that leads to is trash. *All that leads to is an ocean of trash.I am a failure. Kill me
>>744677646idk man. Even in places full of casuals+larpers like your average con, you could see a sharp decline in AOT content after the ending aired (both once the manga ended and then with the anime).
