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Monthly Musings: Other Worlds Than These photo

Every month, members of the Destructoid community are given the opportunity to have their writings posted on the front page thanks to our Monthly Musings theme.

Good job with last month's theme, etcetera, etcetera. Your ability to pull worthwhile articles out of crappy guidance is as impressive as it is typical at this point.

This month, the topic is "Other Worlds Than These" -- extra points if you catch the reference -- focusing on those games that attempt to create believable, immersive, interesting worlds. By "world," I don't just mean huge sandboxes where every sidewalk tile is rendered down to the microscopic level, but any game that tries to create a believable backstory and context for the events in the game. 

Yeah, Grand Theft Auto counts, but so does Metal Gear Solid, with all its interconnected, decade-spanning plot lines. BioShock counts thanks to Rapture's believability, but so does something like Snatcher, which is pretty much unbelievable at every turn.

What videogame worlds mean the most to you? What is their importance to you? Do you want to live in these places, do you find them terrifying in comparison to the real world, or are they somewhere in between? What place does immersion serve in videogaming, if any? What makes a game world immersive?

All these topics are at your disposal. Hit the jump for a further clarification of the topic, and instructions on how you can get your ideas posted on the front page.

If you want a chance to have your reaction to this month's theme posted on the front page, just create a Destructoid account, and write a community blog with the title "Other Worlds Than These: blah blah blah" and the "Monthly Theme" tag selected. It's that simple.

I've been on a rather large Snatcher kick lately, which led directly to this month's theme. A game like Snatcher is -- well, I hesitate to even call it a game, really. You have no real choices to make, and the minute-to-minute gameplay just consists of looking at stuff until the next plot point appears. Still, the game remains incredibly satisfying due primarily to the strength of its game world. You can interact with a heck of a lot of stuff, and all those interactions (especially the optional ones) are clever and/or insane and/or just plain interesting. One typically doesn't play Snatcher for the plot or the gameplay, but for the game world itself.

Similarly, I wonder if that's why people like games such as Oblivion. Despite having really shallow, barely-RPG-esque gameplay and a boring story, the idea of being able to run around in a huge and consistent world might be the thing that allures people in the first place. Maybe. I'm not sure.

Either way, that's the topic. Any questions?








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39 comments | showing # 1 to 39
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BulletTrain's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:26
BulletTrain
The dark tower series is pure sex.
mourning orange's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:27
mourning orange
Roland is the fucking man, bitches!
bodybreak's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:30
bodybreak
lol@how stephen king wrote himself in. props.
Havoc Fang's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:32
Havoc Fang
Jak and Daxter games, just not the first. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines when it works is a pretty great world...

This topic may just get me to write my first blog!
Monodi's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:34
Monodi
I really have never tried the Monthly Musing thingy but maybe I'll get the hang of it
Rainbowblack's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:35
Rainbowblack
thanks bullettrain you've given me something to read once I'm done with the Kushiels dart series and Olympos. I've been meaning to read that series for years
SuitcoatAvenger's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:35
SuitcoatAvenger
Thankee Sai for the groovy topic.
Gen Eric Gui's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:44
Gen Eric Gui
Finally, a topic I can write about!
Ballistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:47
Ballistic
Childe Roland to the dark tower came...where was I, oh yes, this musing is kinda TOO good for somebody like me who can't ever decide on a single topic to write about for these things. There are SO many well done game worlds that it will be almost impossible to choose just one.
LukienAkeela's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:58
LukienAkeela
Hile Gunslingers! Sweet topic and reference Rev.
Monodi's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 13:59
Monodi
Actually I just got a great idea, I hope ScaryWomanizingPigMask doesn't beat me to it
Happy Chainsaw Man's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:05
Happy Chainsaw Man
Great reference indeed.
Huh. I might actually attempt to write one of these this month.
Jetsetlemming's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:07
Jetsetlemming
Dark Tower got SOOOO horrible by the end of the series. Book Seven might as well have been printed on toilet paper and written in shit for the quality.

Also I call Morrowind all you fuckers stay away from it I GOT DIBS.
Yuphrum's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:20
Yuphrum
Oddworld series. Pure awesome
Anthony Burch's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:46
Anthony Burch
Jetsetlemming:
I agree (apart from bits of the very very ending of book 7). I wouldn't at all have minded if Stephen King had died after the first book and left us wondering what might have been. Although I haven't read his new bullshit "revised" edition that George Lucases the fuck out of everything.
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:46
Chronic Logic
Would you want to live in a world where you kept on respawning after you were killed?
Bango Skank's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:52
Bango Skank
Yeah, I'm kinda obligated to post in here... Just might have to start a CBlog for this topic.
Joanna Mueller's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 14:52
Joanna Mueller
@ Chronic Logic not if the respawn point was right outside the final dungeon with no way back and no healing items in my inventory.
Syn's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 15:23
Syn
Damn, I've been waiting for a topic that would just hit me. And here it is. I got this shit locked down...should I choose to write...
A New Challenger's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 15:23
A New Challenger
I've had three or four games jump to mind immediately, and all but one are probably already the subject of someone else's first draft. This should prove to be fertile.
PappaDukes's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 15:25
PappaDukes
I read the Dark Tower trilogy back in the early 90s. I bought the 4th book when it was first released, but never read it. I just couldn't bring myself to ruin what the first 3 books had created for me.

But all this talk is making me want to jump back in!

Fun fact: every RPG that allows me to name the main character has been Roland ever since I read those books.
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 15:48
Aaron Mxy Yost
That series peaked at Wizard and Glass. And the special edition of The Gunslinger really only fixes some problematic continuity errors and ties it in better with the later books, the heart of the work is unblemished.
grafkhun's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 15:54
grafkhun
So can it involve cross media stuff, like that monthly musing about expanded universes a while ago, or the immersiveness (not a word right?) can only be discussed by the game itself? Anyways, I have some ideas for this one, which I'll probably never get the time to write up.
Bango Skank's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 16:00
Bango Skank
@Anthony King's revised and expanded version of The Gunslinger was hardly a "Lucas"ing. The few things he changed was renaming a town previously named "Farson" for obvious reasons and added that the reason Ellie snapped in Tull was because she was exposed to "Nineteen". That's about it.

I've got a really good idea on what to write about, but I just hope no one else beats me to it or does it better.
LukienAkeela's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 16:14
LukienAkeela
@PappaDukes - I do the same thing. In my first playthrough of FFVII Cloud was named Roland. Everything since then has been the same too.
gatorsax2010's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 16:52
gatorsax2010
I have a couple ideas. Now, for the decision... Do I go with the game I'm playing now, or the one I grew up playing?
Jetsetlemming's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 16:59
Jetsetlemming
@Anthony
The first three books, Book 2 and 3 especially, are great. The Drawing of the Three is way up there on my list of all time favorite books.
After the third one though, King dropped the series and only went back to it years later for some reason, clearly not wanting to, and just fucked it all up. When I read the description of the Crimson King as basically "angry santa claus" I wanted to find King and run him over with a van.
TriggerRedd's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 17:08
TriggerRedd
So my question is... Why does the front page's link to the monthly musing still say Expanded Universes?
Clance's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 17:15
Clance
Great topic, rev :o)

Think I'm gonna get my thinking cap on for this one.
PappaDukes's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 17:15
PappaDukes
On a side note, and I may be late to the party with this tidbit of news, but I heard that J.J. Abrams was tied to the film adaptation of The Dark Tower. I swear to heavens if he casts Zachary Quinto as the Gunslinger, I will shit shattered marbles.
ArcticFox's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 18:24
ArcticFox
@ PappaDukes

He'd be too young to play any proper version of older Roland, and too old to play the younger. George Clooney for the current Roland. Ryan Reynolds as Eddie. And of course: Vin Diesel as Walter O'Dim. Ok, maybe not Vin, that would have to be Tim Reynolds. And Geddy Lee as the Crimson King.
DanMazkin's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 19:48
DanMazkin
If anyone writes a monthly musing about Another World/Out of this World before I do, I will buy a plane ticket, hunt you down, and force you to do very bad things with a golf club, a traffic cone and a tub of vasoline.
Ballistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/04/2009 21:22
Ballistic
I really agree that the latter books 4+ are crappy. There are great parts, but overall they were a disservice to the excellence of the earlier ones. I am really anxious about how a movie adaptation could turn out especially in Abrams' hands. Besides lost, almost everything I've seen by him has made me sick. But Lost almost redeems the bad that he has done. I still think I'm guaranteed to hate anything other than the version of the book that's in my head. Also, fuck King's adapted version of the books.

And, what would anybody think of a video game version of The Gunslinger? Would that even work as a game?
draycott's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/05/2009 05:37
draycott
Three words people...

"World of Warcraft"

As for Gunslinger?
I'm only now going through book 1...
Do not kill it for me...
Killing this series is like reading Gamefaqs on how to kill the Colossi...
c_nt's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/05/2009 05:38
c_nt
After a few weeks of playing Persona 4, I woke up one rainy morning and thought to myself, "Gee, I hope this rain doesn't keep up too long, the fog will set in." It was then I saw how much the game had sucked my in to it's own reality and changed the way I go about my life.

I only wish this story was long enough to write a monthly musing on. Two sentences is not an article.
SWE3tMadness's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/05/2009 11:31
SWE3tMadness
Oh goddammit, I just finished writing one that I'm really proud of, and then it hit me that I need to write an article about Pikmin too. Well, I guess I'll just do two entries. Kind of like making up for lost time since I haven't written an article since March. o.o;
peachboy's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/05/2009 17:17
peachboy
good topic, will write.
Discarded Couch Sandwich's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/06/2009 11:51
Discarded Couch Sandwich
Damn I still need to go through the Gunslinger novels. It wasn't too long ago that I was making my way through The Talisman and Black House, i'd love to return to their world sometime soon.

Still banking on the rumored 2010 TV series of The Talisman to be good. If that thing actually sees the light of day..
Dan CiTi's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2009 00:17
Dan CiTi
I have my ideas. Now to just get them down!
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