N'Gai Croal
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Apr 9, 2008 09:00 AM
Rodin's "The Thinker." Courtesy of innoxiuss; edited by Level Up
The Idea: Who is this Adam Maxwell guy, and why the f--- is he saying that writers don't matter in videogames?
The Thinkers: Zach Schiff-Abrams
The Source: The Cut Scene
The Quote (from Zach Schiff-Abrams): As
a film producer I have drawn and quartered many a writer so usually I
leap at the chance to jump on any bandwagon that is founded on lynching
the writing community. Unfortunately this retard doesn't know his ass
from his elbow, so here's my 15 cents:
"When a writer sits
down to build a story, they are usually building a plot." Here's what's
inherently wrong with this moron's argument. Ask any self-respecting
writer (and every f---ing last one of them motherf---ers are
self-respecting) what they do when they sit down to build a story and
they'll tell you the first thing (and the most important thing) they do
is create characters. In fact, most good stories in any medium usually
come from a landscape where the writer almost obsessively focuses on
creating and developing characters in a vacuum that doesn't rely on any
plot. There are no good f---ing plots, there are only interesting
characters that inform a plot...
What I have been arguing
for years upon years is that videogames desperately need more writing.
And now we're finally at a level technologically speaking where we can
actually integrate the creation of character into the very fabric of
the gameplay experience. You still argue? You think GTA is a successful
franchise? Think how much more successful it would actually be if
Alvin Sargent or Jonathan Lethem was taking seriously the creation of
character in that world? Then you wouldn't have Fritzy writing about
how videogames are challenging movies for the media dollar, then my
nerdy friends, then there wouldn't be any more movies.
Instead
you have this dweeb and unfortunately way too many of his kind running
the videogame industry that think in way too small of a box.
The Reaction:
We've been following Maxwell's blog since last year, which means we not
only read his original post, but the two other posts he wrote on the
subject here and here.
The challenge with his series of posts on his topic is that the, ah,
writing was not always as clear as it should have been.
To read the rest of today's installment of "The Big Idea," click here.
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