<
https://freedium.cfd/https://xander51.medium.com/i-yearn-for-faster-video-game-beginnings-3a4a6bfa2c6d>
'I think that
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion unwittingly established a
terrible precedent for how to begin an open world video game. It starts with a
thirty-ish minute dungeon crawl where you learn the game's fight mechanics and
create a character, and then you emerge through a sewer door into the bright,
vast, open world for the rest of the adventure.
Every single game journalist,
Elder Scrolls fan, and casual player at the
time marveled at the design of this opening. It was so popular and beloved that
it has now infected nearly every other big video game with a weird pacing
problem. If you're playing a large single player story-based game, you can
almost count the
Oblivion beats with a boilerplate checklist. You'll be
slowly introduced to the world in a small, cordoned off area, before suddenly
being dumped into the larger scope of the story — often through a doorway that
opens to a bright scene.
Is this good design? Sometimes, maybe. It certainly was twenty years ago. But I
think its ongoing life might just be shameless copying of a "safe" trend. And
it has gone on for so long that it has picked up yers and years of bloat.
The more of these openings I've experienced, the more I've realized their
immense capacity to bore me to tears with even one small fumble of the pacing.'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
