If you didn't take the story in Gears of War very seriously, apparently it has nothing to do with the fact that its dialog was corny and the characters were little more than meathead stereotypes. No, it's your fault. You don't take game worlds seriously enough!
"One of the problems with videogamers is that they don’t take the videogame worlds very seriously," accused the Gears of War 2 creator. "It’s just like wink-wink, hey, it’s a videogame – whatever, right?"
Is it just me, or do 360-exclusive developers go on an insane rampage of stating wacky sh*t in the weeks before a game's release? Denis Dyack, Peter Molyneux and now Cliff Bleszinski have all done this, and I think this is certainly one of the silliest generalizations I've heard. The problem, I think, is not that gamers don't take virtual worlds seriously, it's that virtual worlds don't often give them much to be serious about. Try asking a Warcraft or BioShock fan how seriously they take their games.
Bleszinski also stated, rather challengingly, that if you don't care about the "emotionally engaging" plot of GoW2, you can just skip it: "If you really can’t deal with 30 seconds of dialog, if it’s really that agonizing for you, you can just hit the back button and Marcus will be like, ‘Enough!’ and you just keep going."
Now, I love me some Gears, and I really dug the story mode for the original game. I didn't take it seriously though, because I didn't think that was the point. It's a big, dumb action game with silly dialog and ridiculous rubber-faced monsters. That's not a slight, that's just what it is, and I like it. Don't expect me to write a fifteen-page thesis on Gears of War 2 when it releases tomorrow.
Contest:
10:21 AM on 11.06.2008
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C'mon jim...more news about the games, less about the people who make them.
And by that, I mean the lines of code - they commented out the story elements.
But seriously, there are games with stories you take seriously, but the Gears of War series is not one of them.
I'll sit down and write a dissertation on the alternate-timeline theories in Legend of Zelda, and try to explain the symbolism in Brawl's Subspace Emissary Mode, cry in JRPG's, and ponder the existential quandaries in Portal, but the story in Gears of War only exists to give you an excuse to blow shit up in a gritty, post-apocalyptic setting. The. End.
Now shut up and let us play the damn game in peace already.
CHAINSAW ON A GUN!
the end.
"I really wish CliffyB would speak his mind more. We never get to see the inner workings of this genius and his thoughts on the industry. Please keep talking."
U hope he doesn't stop either. He's bee proving what I've always said about him. He's an egotistical moron who think that he's some great visionary, when he's really the mIchael Bay of vidogames. Screw Plot or innovative game design, more explosions!
I know that is not what his warped rant was about, but I only pay attention to the relevant info.
Although that's an interesting tid-bit about Xbox360 developers doing wacky shit. Must be something in the water or hardware.
Bioshock, I though, was serious business. That's just how it presented itself. Dead Space (the story thus far is a little laughable and all the inconveniences that happen are way too predictable [oh snap, this just broke!...seriously? Is this ship in that bad of shape?]), but still, it was gripping enough. I still need to play Gears of War 1, but I just don't see it as utterly gripping. And why is he complaining about taking stories seriously when his latest game hasn't been officially released yet? Time will tell. Cliff is cool, but some of these little rants are just out there.
If you want people to feel attached and involved with your game, then make the world its in intriguing; Make us want to know what happens next, make us feel something for the characters involved.
Don't expect that since we like watching our character turn another character into a blood geyser by way of chainsaw gun, that magically we're gonna care if he's gonna make it home to see his wife and kids, or whatever other hackneyed crap thats shoehorned into the game plot.
Also, long rant is long.
Posts go up on Destructoid every twenty minutes. This comment is already exaggerating by two.
No two posts about Cliffy B are going up in a row, meaning that it would have to be once every forty minutes at most. This comment is now exaggerating by four.
Off the top of my head, we have had about four dedicated Cliffy B (the man whose big game launches tomorrow btw) posts in the past twenty-four hours. I cannot be bothered to do the exaggemath for that one.
The enemies screaming and coming at you moving with the wieght they do and the amazing texures..it's the vivid experience you remember long after you play, more than the cut scenes.
Look, I'm a graphics whore and can't wait for Gears 2 and needed and excuse to post..sorry
C Bizzle is acceptable though.
bullshit man...don't even say that gears of war didn't have innovative game design...cause that statement is a laughing joke. The cover system in GoW was the best ever and still is..how many games have tried to replicate this since then? I can think of a couple off the top of my head (mass effect, drakes fortune, quantum of solace...)
Meh, touche on the technical side of things.
They still need to make keyboards with a sarcasm key, sort of like a shift button.
ANyway, I'm pretty excited for GoW2.
It's good, but 1 thing doesn't make a game innovative. Gears 1 was highly overrated. It was good, but not spectacular. Gameplay was high, but everything else was average at best. The story was pathetic, and the characters were a joke. And the chainsaw gimmick was stupid. There, I said it.
Oddly enough you have games like MGS that do try to develop character and story and get bashed for being little more than and interactive movie.
So I agree that if you want your game to be taken seriously, then make it serious. At the same token people really need to look at each game as its own island and try to find the art/story/dynamic in the game.
now try playing it.
How about CliffyB tries to stop complaining and spends time penning a good story, or better yet making his game not require a full clip to kill an enemy? Or even better, how about make characters that I can relate too? Seriously, who relates to Marcus Fenix? He's your blatant meathead stereotype.. has his bandana, his soul patch, his beefy arms and football pads... seriously if his gun could just shoot Coors Light out of it then he'd fit the meathead stereotype perfectly.
I imagine you're going to get "comfortably, on a bed of puppy skulls" or something about sex with your mother as an answer to that one. Maybe both.
Image is reused from an article about GoW2 having colors in it. I figured it fit here as well. Plus I love it.
Way to shoot your own game down Cliffster.
Upcoming game release = more interviews, then game blogs (like Dtoid) with apparently nothing else better to put on the front page post whatever the most inflammatory/ridiculous part of said interview is.
It's not as if Molyneux or Bleszinski were soliciting game sites to publish their thoughts. Nor is it as if Jim was forced at gunpoint to report this "news" that he is simultaneously mocking as he posts it.
Also, Cliff wouldn't be talking so much, if the gaming media didn't give him the opportunity to do so. After all, these stories have to originate from somewhere, from someone holding a tape recorder in Cliff's face. Don't blame him, blame the media that serves as his mouthpiece.
As for Cliffy B., he's sounding more and more like some form of Bizzaro Molyneux stuck in an American Frat House. The attention is working I guess and worth a laugh. =)
Woah Woah Woah...You're making too much good sense there and not allowing yourself to have a knee jerk reaction to something. You better post a "Dude Huge == Teh Gay" post to redeem yourself in the eyes of your fellow posters.
The guy could be a communist for all I care and I would buy GoW2, because he'sa great game maker and it's going to be a great game and that's all that matters to me. Now if he was running for the office of President of the United States then I would care what came out of his mouth.
I swear the video game press just puts to much emphasis on what developers and publishers say. Sheesh!
"It's not like the story is meant to be taken <b>seriously. </b>Take one look at protagonists Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, with their impossibly bulging biceps and redwood-tree-thick physiques, and you realize that these guys are designed to appeal to the sci-fi set and the jock set, not pull at our heartstrings."
Gears of War had a beautifully designed world, there's no argument there. But the story, dialogue, character design and enemies are straight out of a brain-dead B Sci-Fi movie.
I've heard that Gears of War II's characters and story are given more depth, but I'm skeptical; the videos I've seen had the same kind of idiotic, macho banter that wouldn't have cut it in Bad Boys II.
Dude, do you know what happens when people take games seriously? Some stupid little kid runs away and get's himself MURDALATED!
While another guy just can't figure out how to work his dick and fails at surprise sex/rape.
Some fool get's caught with dozens of copies of stolen games that wouldn't come out for weeks.
Or some bitch kidnaps's her ex-online-boyfriend because he broke up with her on Secon-Life.
Another kid fakes his own kidnapping so he can buy Nintendo junk.
Maybe a guy tries to rob a store at AIDS-point.
Oh yeah, possibly this kid threatens his teacher with a knife so he could buy GTA: San Andreas.
Is any of this sounding familiar? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE TAKE GAMES SERIOUSLY?