Most Important Story In A Videogame-Updated

Fallout 3 Producer Ashley Cheng takes the stand:

Ash: Latest GameInformer (April 2008) magazine has a great op-ed by Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer on my current project, Fallout 3.

Couple quotes from the piece that I liked:

Emil: When I was a kid growing up in South Boston, the trashcans in our backyard were dragged to the curb for pickup, every week, by a homeless man named Vinnie Trashki. Yeah, I know. “Trashki.” Bitter irony or cruel nickname?
…creating fiction for a video game poses one very distinct challenge – you’ve got to accept that the whole of your writing – characters, narrative, everything – is simply not as important as the gameplay…

Ash: I firmly believe the most important story in a video game is the one the player is telling to himself as he plays the game. Its one of the reasons why open ended sandbox games like the Sims games, Grant Theft Auto, and our own Elder Scrolls series are so awesome. No one experiences them the same way.

Spotted at his blog.

Update: Some new quotes from Emil, courtesy of the Bethesda Blog:

If we accept that all video game characters fall under one of three literary classifications — prototype, archetype, and stereotype — it’s easy to see the appeal of the archetype. This is the established, easily-understandable character model. The badass space marine or seductive sorceress. The prototype, while imaginative and interesting, is too easily viewed as ‘weird,’ and that means inaccessible. The stereotype? Overused, oversimplified, and more often than naught, offensive.

There Are No Free Lunches

Image JMSNews

Questions from Blinzer on the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 forum:

You’re working on it[a new community interview]? As in ‘pushing the powers that be to okay the next one’ or as in ‘collecting questions from the board for FAQ #2’?

And how come whenever I ask nicely for free stuff for fanpages I hear crickets?

And the reply by Matt “Gstaff” Grandstaff was:

When it’s time to collect questions, that would be something I’d want the community to partake in. While I think I could compile questions that you guys want answered, I don’t want to do it alone. When I have more details, I’ll let you guys know.

If you’ve got suggestions for “free stuff,” feel free to let me know…PMs are usually best so it doesnt get lost among other messages.

I’m never going to get new stuff directly from Bethsoft, Blinzer, not going to happen. For the rest yeah, it’s time for new info, pictures and videos.