RPG Vault: Stargate Worlds Diary #4
Chris Klug, Creative Director for Stargate Worlds, continues his chat about the power of choice in a new dev diary on RPG Vault. In it he deconstructs a mission from Earth & Beyond wherein the player must listen to his conscience -- and make an important choice.
Chris says that to successfully deconstruct the mission it is imperative that we understand what emotion the writer wanted for his audience. At the heart of any well written story... be it anything, is this: a creator manipulating the audience to feel something. Sure, it happens all the times in books, movies and television shows... but how often does that happen in a video game? When was the last time you actually felt something - something with emotional complexity, not the adrenaline rush you get from fragging 17 people in a row - during a video game? For me it was playing Bioshock. More specifically, when was the last time you felt a true emotional response during an MMO?
Morality and player's conscious have been a hot button topic of late. In his weekly column, Building a Better MMOusetrap, our own Dave Moss talks about morality in video games. In fact, he asks: can there really be moral choices in an online world? From a purely creative standpoint all of this "esoteric" thinking is fascinating. I'm glad to see that these philosophical questions are being asked because they will have to be answered if video games are to evolve to the next level, one that requires a true moralistic choice to be made. Check out Chris' fascinating article (which includes three brand new pieces of SGW concept art), peruse Dave's article then let us know what you think.
