Bioware - anyone really notice something?

[Mystery Man]

All of their games have had pretty much the same type of story outline since Baldur's Gate?

Hero has no memory or a mysterious past that he/she does not know about.
super villian knows but isn't telling
you find nuggets of info all thru the game, then the final mystery is revealed and you kill the bad guy in the end.

Maybe this is why I haven't bought a game since Neverwinter Nights, and haven't finished one since BG II.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Oh darn I thought you were going to be talking about shadowrun when I saw the threads title.
Anyway yea I agree with you that the first time it's cool but it gets old really fast. In fact in my group we have a rule regarding this, only once ever can you have your character have amnesia at the beginning of the game. It's not really necessary but we have it in place cause of a couple of individuals before they got more experienced.

 

[Lobo Lurker]

It's quite logical actually. That formula makes the game easy to develop and makes it easier for the player to get into the story.

The HERO has amnesia. Great! That means that the HERO can be male or female, be named Barbarisater, Soda, Cloud'sBro, or whatever else the player wants. The Player gets to take ownership of at least a small part of the narrative. This is a good thing, even if it's a bit derivative. This also increases replayability, which is an important factor to some buyers.

The BAD guy needs to be established early on as 1) BAD, 2) having our HERO's well-being at the very bottom of his things-to-do list, & 3) having a 'carrot' for the HERO to follow.

I think it's much harder (i.e., riskier and more expensive) to come up with a creative story/narrative for the player to unearth. And my 'railroading' the player like this you are actually narrowing your potential market. That sucks as production costs go up and potential revenues go down.

Things tend to be formulaic because certain formulas just work.

 

[Mystery Man]

It's quite logical actually. That formula makes the game easy to develop and makes it easier for the player to get into the story...
**SNIP**
...Things tend to be formulaic because certain formulas just work.

I understand what you're saying and you have a point. But, 15 minutes into Jade Empire I realized I've already played this game a dozen times already and ran it back to the video rental store.

 

[shadowlight]

I understand what you're saying and you have a point. But, 15 minutes into Jade Empire I realized I've already played this game a dozen times already and ran it back to the video rental store.

That's too bad. If you only played it for 15 minutes then you missed a REALLY great game! The main story arc is what you'd expect from Bioware, but there are a lot of really fun cohort stories and somre really great smaller story arcs.

Not only that, but it's a fun action game as well, with all the different martial arts styles.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

But, 15 minutes into Jade Empire I realized I've already played this game a dozen times already and ran it back to the video rental store.

Yeah I would say you judged that book by its cover.

 

[Joshua Randall]

In what sense does Neverwinter Nights follow the hero-has-amnesia and bad-guy-knows-but-isn't-telling?

Neverwinter Nights original campaign -- you start a 1st level nobody who gets recruited by Aribeth to save the city of Neverwinter from the Wailing Death. You do not have amnesia, and the bad guy (gal) doesn't even know you exist until much later in the story.

Shadows of Undrentide -- you start as a 1st level nobody who gets recruited by the Harpers to stop a bad gal from doing bad stuff. You don't have amnesia. The bad gal knows who you are, but has no personal relationship with you.

Hordes of the Underdark -- you start as a ~15th level hero, already famous for your great deeds, who tries to save Waterdeep. You don't have amnesia. The bad gal (again... what's what all the female baddies?) does not know you personally -- this is established in the very first cutscene.

So I am confused how NWN can be tarred with the same brush as KotOR and Jade Empire.

 

[KenM]

I have noticed with the end fight in most Bioware games with the BBEG has the same formula: the BBEG is invulinable/ immune to your attacks until you find the thing or use the thing that weakens him and then you can take out the BBEG normally.

 

[trancejeremy]

There's a reason for it being used so much. If they want to involve the character into the plotline of the story (and the recent history of the world), they have to reveal that info to the player slowly. And the only real way to do so without going out of character is by having the amnesia dealie, because then the various in game characters can explain to your character what's going on. Rather than resort to a narrator or something telling you the player what's going on.

And in some cases, it's a consequence of starting out low level. In the KOTORs, since your character used to be great, they needed a reason to explain why you were 1st level. OTOH, in the Expansion for NWN (the 2nd one), they didn't need to explain why your character was nerfed, since you could import him from the 2nd adventure.

But if NWN2 is a followup to the original storyline in NWN1, and you can't import your character but play the same guy, then they will probably cripple him somehow, too.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

It can be done differently - for example, God of War does this quite well. The character knows what has happened in the past, but you as a player only learn bits and pieces as it is revealed. Fairly effective.