1701

Yep, Paul got it right.

1702

I’m up to the part of the story involving the Resistance and the Authority and it’s pretty hard to see why I should care about this or why I’m involved. Like much of the story, its all rather flimsy in terms of reasoning and logic.

1703

It’s one of those things where I don’t really care as it is, but in an ideal world I’d certainly love for it to be good.

This is an obvious truism – we’d all like as many good things as possible. It’d be nice if they went the extra mile. It’s like the icing on the cake. But it doesn’t always work out that way. So in situations like this I think it’s best to acknowledge the failure, try to keep it from ruining the rest of the game, and add another dose of skepticism the next time they talk about story.

1704

I think it’s basically down to Carmack not shedding his preconceptions quickly enough. A while ago in this thread someone mentioned that quote of his about story in shooters being about like story in porn movies, in that no one cares.

Thing is, that’s no longer nearly as true as it used to be. id got the memo about needing to beef up and broaden the gameplay, but not about needing to do the same with the writing and the world-building.

Hopefully they will get that memo by the time they make Rage 2, because then they would really be firing on all 21st-century cylinders. Unfortunately I am not sure I would bet on it.

1705

Good point. One step at a time, at least. Personally I’m thrilled the only tedious narrative developing is about the story and world building. I don’t think that will be quite as overwhelming as comments on monster closets and dark rooms like we saw after Doom 3.

1706

I don’t think Carmack is that terribly involved w/ the creative development. The culture at id certainly doesn’t prioritize story, but as I posted earlier, I’m more than happy to lay the blame for the moribund state of id’s narrative creativity at Tim Willits’ feet. He’s been at the helm long enough to prove he just doesn’t have the chops. Now that id is owned by Zenimax, maybe some corp type can come in and take care of the unpleasant aspect of displacing him and moving someone else over to fill the role of creative director.

1707

Thanks for the answer. I don’t actually have the game yet as I’m somewhat swamped with games, but I was considering it.

1708

It’s funny how many times this needs to be restated in this thread.

1709

See, as someone who loves a good old school shooter, I could give a shit what the story or motivation is.
What is my motivation? Everything after a loading screen must die…before the next loading screen. Yep. That’s it. I do not need some artificial incentive to jump into the game style I enjoy. The enjoyment is enough for me. Enemies in my world break down into archetypes, I don’t care what they are called. Armored, fast, spooky, annoying.

And you know what… I find Rage fun as hell. I enjoy it far more than most of the melodrama bullshit that pretends to be shooters these days. I don’t want to be attached to the AI sidekick. I want to shoot things. Rage is great at the shooty bits. I’m ok with that.

1710

I’m glad that id’s failure to provide the promised story worked out for you, but for the rest of us it’s still a failure.

1711

I think all anyone’s saying is that the game’s enjoyable despite the idiotic story. But maybe if we keep harping on it in this thread, it’ll change somehow.

1712

I have no problem with arcade shooters. If the plot to Serious Sam 3 is ZOMG! ALIENS! SHOOT THEM!!!, I’m fine with that.

But if you’re going to open your game with 20 minutes of expostion, it should probably not be completely retarded. If you’re going to have characters doing stuff other than shooting things, then you should try to make that stuff interesting and not have people going WTF the whole time. In other words, if you’re not going to do something right, don’t do it.

And I give id credit for trying to expand its horizons and do something beyond an arcade shooter, but I can only shake my head at the fact that they couldn’t even get the opening hour right. I mean, whatever people hated about Doom 3, the story and exposition was at least competent and served the story and gameplay.

I mean, have we even talked about the introduction of the defibrulator yet? I’m fine with the actual mechanic, but the way it’s introduced is one of the goofiest things I’ve ever seen in a shooter.

1713

What would be nice is if people could stop trotting out, “I don’t care about the story, it’s still fun!” Yes, nobody is talking about that. It’s a (seemingly) simple point that the story that was promised and the one that was delivered are vastly different. That’s it. Full stop. It doesn’t need to be refuted.

1714

Game is a lot of fun co-op, wish there were more than 6 levels.

:)

1715

Right. I don’t think anyone is saying it ruins the game…

1716

Story? Man I couldn’t care less about the story. In an id game or any other game. I almost feel bad for developers that try so hard to give me a good story because all i ever do is press the buttons to get past the dialog so I cant get back to killing shit. I get that some people do care about the story so I do see that it’s a legit criticism. But its probably the least important aspect of any game I play.

1717

13 years ago, Valve released Half-Life, which was so unanimously embraced that it spawned the entire concept of having a “Game of the Year edition.”

The reason it did so – or at least one of the key reasons – was because people loved its story and narrative style. They loved the opening tram ride, they loved meeting the the Black Mesa staff and the little scripted events that happened throughout the game. Yeah, the combat was great, too, but the way gamers responded to all the narrative stuff changed the way the entire industry approached shooters overnight.

So for people who don’t care about story, that’s fine, but it’s time to realize you’re in the minority. Please stop telling us how story doesn’t matter to you. The gaming industry stopped making games for you over a decade ago.

1718

How would you do it better? Seems to me they took the most obvious path.

I care a great deal about story, but I didn’t really expect it from id. I expect a new engine providing astonishing graphics, and several patches and driver updates later, when standing at medium distance from the scenery outdoors, we’re there.

1719

That’s defining story in what I think is an appropriately broad way, and that’s a really important point. When games have the plot advance in a really structured way - such as through cutscenes and rigid set pieces between segments of pure action - many people rightfully don’t feel the story has much importance, especially because game narratives are rarely much to talk about in their own right. The story can feel like an interruption or breathing space before you get back to what you really want to do, blowing aliens apart or whatever.

But when the story plays out not only through pivotal moments, but also in an organic way through the world around you, gameplay and story become much less distinct. The Half-Life series is a great example of this - Black Mesa doesn’t just feel like a shooting gallery, the whole idea of a facility under attack (both from an alien incursion and military) is inescapable throughout, meaning you’re really playing the story.

A more recent example would be Human Revolution I suppose: it’s no coincidence that the rigid, set-piece, cutscene-using boss battles were the most maligned part of the game.

1720

But nobody’s refuting it. And people keep trotting out that line because other people keep trotting out the line about how bad the story is. If someone says how terrible the story is, someone else is going to say it doesn’t matter. Don’t act like one opinion is somehow superior, that’s just how this shit works. It’s dumb to even argue about it, honestly, because we all know the story’s ridiculous and bad and silly, even though they said it would not be those things.