Dear God Please End This Intro Thread

[JustNotFatal]

I think most of what needs to be said on this topic has been said but I'll try to condense it.
Yes, info dumps are boring and you should always show not tell in any storytelling medium.
However, any moderately complex story driven game worth it's salt will generally have some sort of intro info "dump".
There are games that do get straight into the action and I feel those are fun to play from time to time.
With that being said, in my opinion, when games do setup well, that action feels even more rewarding.
A lot of the "games" on here are actually more of a CYOA VN hence the text and lack of interactivity.
I think that's more the cause of your frustration.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

According to your definition of "interactive multimedia game", not necessarily to anyone definition of it. I don't say that being verbose is mandatory for a game, but it's not because it's a game that it can't be verbose if it make sense at this moment and/or for this game.

Ren'py games are "interactive visual novels." Yes, you can have lengthy dialogues in-game. Is it a good idea to do it frequently instead of just showing facial expressions and actions reflective of what's being described? In my experience it takes me out of the game. Just like a 20 minute sit down conversation in the middle of an action film would tend to take one out of the atmosphere of an action film. FTR I was an English/Creative writing major in undergrad and have read more than my share of lengthy fiction. But unless you're Mamet, Tarantino, Woody Allen or Shakespeare, less is more when it comes to dialogue in games or interactive novels. A typical feature film has around 1000 lines of dialogue in it. That probably works out to around 10,000 words or so.

 

[Zippity]

Is there a way for us to make it clear to the dev community that no one wants 258 text boxes when they start a new game?

I feel like nearly all of the games that I demo, I quit before I even get past the intro. If I feel a wall of text coming, I just start clicking as fast as I can. If I'm STILL spamming left click 2 minutes later, you've ruined your game and I'm done.

I don't mind a story, in fact I prefer one. A good one. A good story in a video game doesnt start with 3,000 words of exposition. This is a porn game. I literally have my dick in my hand. I appreciate that you have a story to tell me, great... tell me the story IN THE GAME if you feel the need to tell it. Not with 28 minutes of narration. That's not even good design in a normal piece of media where the audience isn't literally holding their dicks in their hands.

Imagine a movie that starts as the main character wakes up with amnesia. Then a (presumably imaginary) sexy succubus appears who immediately launches into a 48 minute long monologue of raw exposition explaining to the character and audience what's happening. Now imagine a porn that starts like that. That's what these games are.

Not everyone wants the same thing/s you do... There seems to be this disconnect, sometimes, between Erotic/Adult VN/Games and Porn Focused VN/Games... No one picks up a random Romance Novel, immediately places their dicks in their hands, or fingers on their pussies, and realistically expects there to be immediate sexual content in the first few pages of the book... But when it comes to Real Life Porn, then of course, everything needs to be sexy right away, so the company can make their money, by allowing the masses to do their business and move on...

Now, I do agree, that if the 3000 lines of text was pointless and meaningless drivel, that was either way too long winded to describe one plot point, or it could have told the same thing in 1500 lines of text and sounded better, then please go with the 1500 lines... But some developers may be focusing on the Story aspect rather then the erotic... Perhaps erotic stuff is just a small part of the project... Why hoot and holler over what they intended it to be... If you don't like it, move on to something less story focused or go watch a B-Rated porn movie, that gets to the sex stuff faster... There are so many varying styles of visual novels and games out there... Go find one you like and get busy... Ranting and raving to the general public, like it's going to change every developing product out there into exactly what you want for yourself, just isn't going to realistically change anything...

But I won't fault you for feeling like you needed to shout from the roof tops, as I'm sure in some way, it might make you feel emotionally more content now, allowing you to move on after doing so... I can empathize... But in the end, it's more an act of self indulgence then a spark for meaningful change... There are VN/Games out there for all forms of desires and basic needs... Trying to categorize them all under one column, is fool hearty...

Zip