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[Flare]

I thought this was too good not to share. As the title states, this is going to be about bad video games. What differentiates this from other blogs though is that it's written by a publish author and an early contributor to M&B's dialogue, Ryan A. Span , so it's quite well written in my opinion.

As a side note, I do have an ulterior motive to sharing this with you all. The author stated that if he received a certain number unique blog visits he'll pop out a new entry. Being quite taken with the writing already, here's hoping for another entry.

http://handbook.streetofeyes.com/

[magistrate101]

Looks interesting!

[MasterFancyPants]

In "characters" he forgot about making the bad guy really the good guy at the end! 

[freeformschooler]

I actually am really enjoying reading this.

[Leatra]

2C. HAIL, HERO, NOW FETCH MY SLIPPERS

     Nothing sets the mood for an epic quest, a true hero’s journey, quite like people asking the player to return their library books. Or clear the rats out of their basement. Deliver some love letters. Take out the rubbish. Cure a sick cow. No matter how important the overarching plot, how urgent the impending doom, everybody must treat the player like the world’s most heavily-armed courier service.

So true.

[Haschel]

This is a pretty entertaining read. A good portion of this stuff has been discussed to death (on this forum in particular I'm sure) but the writer is pretty good at deliver some laughs. Also I friggin' hate this gaming trope, considering it's only getting MORE popular.

A perfect plot will have the main character dwelling in a moral vacuum, repeatedly forced to choose between two (near-)equally evil options, or between selfless Messiah and total Antichrist. The very best choices require the player to sacrifice physical rewards to avoid earning ‘bad guy’ points, punish him for not playing a strictly good or bad guy, or render his decisions pointless within seconds of them being made.

A lot of the time I wish writers would just skip player choices if it's going to force me to sacrifice rewards for meaningless decisions, or forcing my character to be all good always or all bad always because I won't be getting those sweet stat/story bonuses instead of making a three dimensional character. I know I always stop and think to myself in real life "Well yeah I could condemn this guy to be executed, but will it give me a shitty ending when I'm on my deathbed?"

[BurnedToast]

That's what I hated the most about mass effect 2: you were forced to make 100% good or bad choices because of the way the morality system worked, or it locked you out of a lot of options later.

They should have just had you pick paragon or renegade at the start, and not given you the dialog choices - it would have been better all around really.

[Leatra]

That's what I hated the most about mass effect 2: you were forced to make 100% good or bad choices because of the way the morality system worked, or it locked you out of a lot of options later.

They should have just had you pick paragon or renegade at the start, and not given you the dialog choices - it would have been better all around really.

Actually I enjoyed that system and played the game twice for both options. It was very fun. Also renegade choices aren't "bad" choices. Renegade isn't actually evil.

[Neonivek]

In "characters" he forgot about making the bad guy really the good guy at the end! 

Probably because there are genuinly good games where the badguy ends up the goodguy or was so all along.

Such as *Spoiler* and *Spoiler*

[mainiac]

That's what I hated the most about mass effect 2: you were forced to make 100% good or bad choices because of the way the morality system worked, or it locked you out of a lot of options later.

They should have just had you pick paragon or renegade at the start, and not given you the dialog choices - it would have been better all around really.

Not nearly to the same extent as a lot of other games.  Having both paragon and renegade opens up new avenues to you because there are some renegade choices only available after a paragon choice and vice-versa.  The problem is that a lot of people weren't aware these choices existed because they are so conditioned by previous games.

[Ultimuh]

I actually like the paragon/renegade options in the Mass Effect franchise.
But I am abit irked when I cannot be friendly with some of the ladies without making them missunderstand my intentions.

Also in certain games I get annoyed by some chosies,
such as making the character look intellectually stupid for chosing evil, or farting rainbows when being good.

[Leatra]

Paragon - Renegade system in this game works well.



And playing renegade is more fun

[Ultimuh]

Paragon - Renegade system in this game works well.



And playing renegade is more fun

Eh, I see myself as a Paragade at times.
Paragon towards people, and Renegade when I must.

[Neonivek]

It is when games require you to follow a morality system against logic that it start to show terrible design choices.

BEST example? Infamous and Infamous 2 (apperantly, I only played the first)

Hero: "Ohh look, I can't turn this valve without getting goo on my face. Too bad I can't just turn it from a different angle, use my powers of electromagnetism to shift it, or even get more then one person to help me safely turn it"

Me: "Really... You couldn't think of any other solution?"

Better yet you HAD to be purely good or purely evil or else your bared from getting more powerful.

Then there is the beloved "Saint or Satan" choices in some games. Are you going to kill this poor begger for a few dollars of cash or are you going to give your life savings to this beggar so he can start a buisness?

[mainiac]

I really like it when I can pull a "no more mister nice guy" moment in a game.  Preferably with a Han-shoots-first type attack.