Irrational Games shutting down (Gaming)

by scarab , Tuesday, February 18, 2014, 14:36 (3931 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I enjoyed Bioshock the first time I played it but found the scavenging a PITA. I think I tried a second play-through but got bored with it. Didn't fancy the sound of Bioshock 2 and didn't see anything attractive about what I read of BI before it came out. I think I burnt out on the first game :-) And the story 'reveal' was about as insightful as 'revealing' that you need to breathe to live.

Mass Effect has multiple endings (all 3 of them) and most of the fans hated those. But, endings aside, the game had multiple story tracks and you had an illusion of agency in the story. Its gameplay was always weak but its obvious shortcomings didn't matter to me because I loved being in that world and I liked my companions. The draw was the story, the world, and the characters. Gameplay was just the icing on the cake. It was like being able to walk into the Star Trek universe, to captain a starship. It was more role play than gameplay but still gave me a sense of agency.

It achieved what success it had because of massive human input, dialogue writers, voice actors, story tellers. Does Levine think that he can automate that? It's easier to have responsive combat AI but responsive people? How would that work?