Let me ask you both a question (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, July 21, 2014, 07:28 (3782 days ago) @ General Vagueness

If I can go off to the side a little here, it seems to me that, despite usually being pretty open-minded, on this (and maybe a handful of other things) you've decided what is better and that anyone who disagrees with you just doesn't know enough or hasn't really thought about it-- which puts you in good company, namely in the company of one Mr. Cody Miller.

Point taken. I forget we're not talking on XBL. I'll be more diplomatic. 343's terminals are not realistic because they do not have the characteristics of items that would be found in the world. They do not look like logs. What makes found items interesting is that that they give a glimpse of aspects of the game world through objects that don't exist for the purpose of telling a story, but advance the story regardless. Found objects are artifacts, much like an ancient cup found by an archaeologist. They can be text communication (Marathon, Halo 3), audio logs (ODST), or video (Pvt. Jenkins' video). 343's terminals would have been more realistic and much more evocative had they had a more limited point of view and let us use our imaginations. (Audio logs from Guilty Spark would have been cool!) As is, they are cinematic vignettes that would not exist in the game world. Who in the game world is the camera man for Guilty Sparks "logs"? Who operates the crane taking the tracking shots of him from different angles as he floats to the horizon? Who edits the sequences together for dramatic effect? Who scores the music for the "logs"? I could go on, but the answer is obvious. No one in the game world created them. Their visual point of view is omniscient, as they are cutscenes designed by extra-game artists to add MOAR STORY, awkwardly delivered through terminals, and no amount of loading screen animations tacked on to them changes their essential nature. They are, finally, a confused mess because they're trying to be two very different things at once.