Story Collectibles & Method (Gaming)

by EffortlessFury , Saturday, January 29, 2022, 14:26 (1027 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

Cody Miller: There is lore… tons of it I'm sure. But in the most boring format. Collectables. Audio logs. I just can't. Who wants to chase down this shit when you could tell the story with sound and picture?

To comment on this a bit, actually...all of these elements of presentation serve their own purposes with their own pros and cons. Video Games are unique in that they can leverage every aspect of every sub-medium in any way.

Dialogue and written word serve mostly the same purpose, except dialogue involves another person to have a conversation with. Documents found around The Oldest House have the potential to house (lol) more knowledge than the few NPCs that are around to speak to. They can also be more detailed than what a person might relay in casual conversation.

As for visuals, I'd argue they often pose more questions than answers. Often times, environmental storytelling merely implies answers to questions rather than answer them outright. So, too, do many of the documents in Control; they're not entirely forthright either. However, what questions and answers text/dialogue can pose are distinct from the ones that visuals can pose.

They all serve their own purposes in the context of the game and story you are telling. It's about execution, and Control nails it when it comes to collectibles.