GRIMOIRE Cards (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Monday, August 03, 2015, 00:35 (3499 days ago) @ nico

Myth had flavor text back in '97, and I'm sure it wasn't the first game to have it. ODST had audio fragments. This isn't new territory.

My point is the idea of using an ancillary device (computer, phone, tablet) as part of the story-telling experience: that's what we're not ready for, but I suspect will be in the future.

edit -- what Funk said!

I actually don't mind some material being delivered that way.

The problem is how dependent the game is on that material for it's context.

I was never a particular fan of the Halo novelizations. I thought they weren't as good at being books as Halo was at being a game, and I felt more or less satisfied by the narrative and characterization delivered by the games. The novels introduced conflicting themes and details that I found unsatisfying, extraneous, and unnecessary.

As a primary source for narrative and characterization, Destiny delivers very, very little. Where it does deliver in spades is setting.

But there's just too little else there, and I'm not convinced that this is an issue about the audience being "ready" to consume media through other sources-- the success of otherwise mediocre spinoff media (not just for Halo but many popular franchises) speaks directly to that. The question is whether or not it's advisable to supplant the primary source material with the external stuff. I'm not sold on it, and I'm not sure the problem is me.