My pet peeve is games starting with a big disconnected lore dump. A disembodied voice explaining the global politics of the Zandariel Kingdom and your place in it or whatever. Drop the player into the world. Let them intuit the lore and worldbuilding through characters, action, and the environment.
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M assively
E xtra
N odding in agreement.
I prefer games like Skyrim and Dragon Age Inquisition (my first DA game) that just drop you in and let you work it out as you go.
Computer RPGs are bad at being novels and movies.
They're amazing at leaving little bread crumbs so I can figure it out over the course of 20-2000 hours (not a typo).
I quite liked using a bow in VR, but it didn't really grab me.
Are there more... self-contained games you could recommend to help me get a taste for the genre? Or is the sprawl of the sandbox the point?
DA and ME games aren't that long really, unless you want them to be, there are just a lot of them 😅
I'll give Greedfall a look, thanks! 😀
It's even more complex in games, I'd imagine! The beginning is a balance of storytelling and tutorial. Huge respect to game devs who work to steady both
https://youtube.com/shorts/N8KUeah00eI?si=CBhwcxwIFCfiB1dH
I'll admit I'm saving a lot of the exposition in my own plot heavy urban fantasy game for later in the plot? I want players to be invested first.
I wanna give people who are naturally inclined to explore a reward, but you genuinely aren't missing out on the main plot if you don't get them.
Could you imagine if this opened with a scroll of text or a disembodied Bugenhagen explaining Midgar, Shinra, and the global politics of Gaia? Ew.