Dark Thoughts: No Thanks, Stephen King

In the recent months I’ve been looking over some new releases in the video game market and it’s come to my attention that a lot of developers these days seem to want to take the fun out of video games. Some even chuck the name “video game” altogether and call them “horror survival simulators” or “interactive novels”. Something like this can pretty much be compared to a kid pretending he’s smoking just to look grown up. What developers need to be reminded of is that they are making a game, not an “interactive story experience.” I’m seeing developers spending fortunes on writers to pull a story out of their ass and try to get away with weak gameplay. I like a good story as much as the next gamer but you can have drama and plot twists galore but even the biggest story fan is eventually going to ask when he’s going to get to shoot something. The developers are pretty much making an elaborate scene selection menu. What really must be said is that if you want to tell a story, write a book or film a movie. We’re gamers, we want to DO something, not sit back and watch. When gamers are having fun like they should be, they don’t much care about what the protagonist had for fucking breakfast. – Donny Grimm