A Couple Of Game Writing Presentations
Bless Gamasutra for their summaries of presentations. I read a couple today that are worth noting, the first for its flaws and the second for its insight.
Mark Terrano argues that games aren’t like other media and shouldn’t be compared with them. Apples to oranges, cats to dogs, the stuff that collects under your big toenail and whatever that is in your bellybutton. Then he says that game writers should use many of the same tools are writers in those other genres. For example, game writers should look to movies for how to control pacing. Terrano stores about looking to other media, especially movies for answers, which proves he’s wrong about his first point.
He’s also wrong when he says that gamers classify games differently. A shooter is a shooter is a game where you shoot people no matter what the setting. I personally know several people who will play any Fantasy-themed game, but won’t play the equivalent SF title. Just look at the MMO space for examples of this. If you remember when Anarchy Online came out, you probably heard friends say, “I just can’t get into it. I keep thinking that if it were Fantasy I’d be into it.”
Alexis Nolent gets it all right, mainly by staying with the tried and true: Writers, he says, be flexible; drop the ego and don’t cling to any ideas. Write to your audience. Keep the storyline consistent, and the characters distinctive. Dialog reigns so supreme that the writer should be in studio during voice recording to make changes on the fly (sometimes is read well on the page but doesn’t work when spoken).
Nolent also correctly presages the death of cinematics and use of more scripted events.
I’ll be looking for more of Nolent’s work in the future.
Mark Terrano argues that games aren’t like other media and shouldn’t be compared with them. Apples to oranges, cats to dogs, the stuff that collects under your big toenail and whatever that is in your bellybutton. Then he says that game writers should use many of the same tools are writers in those other genres. For example, game writers should look to movies for how to control pacing. Terrano stores about looking to other media, especially movies for answers, which proves he’s wrong about his first point.
He’s also wrong when he says that gamers classify games differently. A shooter is a shooter is a game where you shoot people no matter what the setting. I personally know several people who will play any Fantasy-themed game, but won’t play the equivalent SF title. Just look at the MMO space for examples of this. If you remember when Anarchy Online came out, you probably heard friends say, “I just can’t get into it. I keep thinking that if it were Fantasy I’d be into it.”
Alexis Nolent gets it all right, mainly by staying with the tried and true: Writers, he says, be flexible; drop the ego and don’t cling to any ideas. Write to your audience. Keep the storyline consistent, and the characters distinctive. Dialog reigns so supreme that the writer should be in studio during voice recording to make changes on the fly (sometimes is read well on the page but doesn’t work when spoken).
Nolent also correctly presages the death of cinematics and use of more scripted events.
I’ll be looking for more of Nolent’s work in the future.
posted by Christopher A. Dellario at 9:38 PM
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