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Alan Moore famously said the whole reason Watchmen was supposedly "revolutionary" for a comic book was that it was just a normal story
He wrote it like a regular novel - beginning, middle and end, self-contained with none of the "superhero comic book universe" continuity shit https://twitter.com/perdricof/status/1272914077619294210
He wrote it like a regular novel - beginning, middle and end, self-contained with none of the "superhero comic book universe" continuity shit https://twitter.com/perdricof/status/1272914077619294210
All the stuff that comic book fans thought was such a big damn deal about Watchmen - the sense of "narrative inevitability" inexorably propelling the characters toward an apocalyptic end - is normal
It's as old as Aristotle's Poetics
It's how a normal book is written
It's as old as Aristotle's Poetics
It's how a normal book is written
Which is why he was so snarky about the fact that Watchmen won all these awards and then everyone just wanted to turn it into a regular stupid DC comic
Extend the Watchmen "universe" and show the different characters fighting each other in an ongoing continuity
Extend the Watchmen "universe" and show the different characters fighting each other in an ongoing continuity
Like, the whole *reason* Watchmen is good is that it rejects all the stuff that comic book fanboys think is uniquely fun about comic books (which is why it's become so retroactively controversial with people who hate it)
It's *not* a goofy childlike world that works like little kids playing with toys
Where the basic rules of the world are reassuringly static and this same roster of good guys and bad guys keep fighting each other in different combinations, forever
Where the basic rules of the world are reassuringly static and this same roster of good guys and bad guys keep fighting each other in different combinations, forever
It's an actual story
Beginning, middle and end
The story of superheroes in this world has an arc, it happened a certain way for specific reasons
It's not a world where "anything is possible", in fact in hindsight only one series of events ever could happen and did happen
Beginning, middle and end
The story of superheroes in this world has an arc, it happened a certain way for specific reasons
It's not a world where "anything is possible", in fact in hindsight only one series of events ever could happen and did happen
And the whole tragedy of it is that there are people who *wanted* it to be a traditional superhero universe - colorful good guys foiling the plans of bad guys, forever, with no one ever permanently winning or changing anything - and they find out that that's fucking stupid
It's that fundamental difference in what kind of world this is that makes it "gritty and realistic" and a rejection of the fantasy of comic books
The superficial shit about sex and violence has very little to do with it, which is why he was pissed that that's what people copied
The superficial shit about sex and violence has very little to do with it, which is why he was pissed that that's what people copied
Anyway when it comes to games it's the same way
Toby Fox talking about how the biggest difference Deltarune has over Undertale is no "branching paths"
There's one story, with a beginning, middle and end, and you're just along for the ride
Toby Fox talking about how the biggest difference Deltarune has over Undertale is no "branching paths"
There's one story, with a beginning, middle and end, and you're just along for the ride
And, like, that's not really that big a deal even though it sounds like it's a statement about Fate or whatever if you come to it from a game like Undertale
"That's the normal way that stories work"
"That's the normal way that stories work"
In TLoU Joel and Ellie are human beings with their own personalities who have already made most of the decisions that define who they are before the story even starts
That's normal for how a story works
That's normal for how a story works
In one sense the point of the story is letting us watch the biggest day of their lives, the moment they make the one big choice there's no coming back from
But in another sense, that choice was already made long ago, it's just a reflection of their nature
That's how this works
But in another sense, that choice was already made long ago, it's just a reflection of their nature
That's how this works
This is kind of what annoys me, because it shouldn't be that big a damn deal
It's ancient knowledge
Stories are interesting because they look like anything could happen at first and then at the end you look back and go "Yeah that's how it had to be"
It's ancient knowledge
Stories are interesting because they look like anything could happen at first and then at the end you look back and go "Yeah that's how it had to be"
I know nowadays everyone wants to subvert and problematize this shit but I'm sorry, it's true
It is 100x easier to write a satisfying ending by having just one ending you knew from the beginning was the only way the story could end and then building the story around it
It is 100x easier to write a satisfying ending by having just one ending you knew from the beginning was the only way the story could end and then building the story around it
Back in the 90s I remember arguing with people about this on interactive fiction forums
"Do you think it's possible to do a version of King Lear where you can save Cordelia by yelling at Albany's messenger RUN FASTER! RUN FASTER! from your seat
Would that make the show better"
"Do you think it's possible to do a version of King Lear where you can save Cordelia by yelling at Albany's messenger RUN FASTER! RUN FASTER! from your seat
Would that make the show better"
People getting all partisan here
"I want games to be GAMES, not just a movie where you control the characters during the fight scenes"
Yeah okay, but the whole "player choice" thing has been obvious sleight of hand for all of history and you people are never satisfied with it
"I want games to be GAMES, not just a movie where you control the characters during the fight scenes"
Yeah okay, but the whole "player choice" thing has been obvious sleight of hand for all of history and you people are never satisfied with it
Like come on
Super Mario Bros. is a game, isn't it
It doesn't have branching paths
Unless getting pissed after Mario dies and never playing it again is an "alternate ending"
Super Mario Bros. is a game, isn't it
It doesn't have branching paths
Unless getting pissed after Mario dies and never playing it again is an "alternate ending"
It's a story with one ending, Mario saves the Princess
Playing the game is just you, as the actor portraying Mario, getting in character and experiencing his painful struggle over time
But the struggle only has one possible outcome
And people kinda liked that game
Playing the game is just you, as the actor portraying Mario, getting in character and experiencing his painful struggle over time
But the struggle only has one possible outcome
And people kinda liked that game
It's funny because as a geek into text adventures/"interactive fiction" we had all these debates a full generation before the mainstream gaming world exploded over Gone Home and "walking simulators" and shit
And it's like no, obviously you don't have to be in control of anything or be able to change the outcome of anything for something to be a "real game" or for it to matter that it's a game and not a movie
It's like saying that if I can't actually touch a sculpture and break pieces off of it that there's no difference between having a physical sculpture or looking at a photo of it on a screen
Or, more directly, that it's "not really acting" to play a character by reading a script
That there's no emotional experience to be had from embodying this character if I didn't actually write the story and if I know the ending of the play can't change
That there's no emotional experience to be had from embodying this character if I didn't actually write the story and if I know the ending of the play can't change
(As someone who did improv for a long time, I am, in the long run, a fan of scripts
Scripts are good and useful and powerful things
In the end I have never had emotional experiences quite as powerful doing improv as I have when reciting memorized lines from a script)
Scripts are good and useful and powerful things
In the end I have never had emotional experiences quite as powerful doing improv as I have when reciting memorized lines from a script)
