Those don't work for me because that stuff CAN come through in context (character relationships, etc) or is overly specific info that isn't necessary in the moment. Varric saying "we have to stop the ritual" is more comparable to, like, "if we don't find the kidnapper in 12 hours, the kid will die."
Yeah hence the "YMMV" stuff. I think it's fair to suggest it's an easy way out. But yeah fair enough with respect to Varric's urgency not quite being the same. Clearly I'm not a writer! hahaha I was too far removed from executive level discussions but I do feel there was a "it'll be 10 years"
oh yeah, of course. so much of that stuff is very ymmv. I, for one, never notice when the prop to-go coffee cups are clearly empty on shows and in movies.
Yeah I was thinking that I know people who wax about their experience to their kids all the time lmao I think that an actual terrible example would be "Suicide Squad"s "her heart is out! That's her weakness" or whatever when it had been communicated MULTUPLE TIMES during the movie that was the case
Was that the first one? I never did see that one but yeah that seems silly. Sometimes it makes me wonder if it was created in parallel when that sort of stuff happens so left hand is unaware of what the right hand is doing so covering their bases.
Maybe, who knows. It's a mess. But Varric's line is nowhere close to it. It's a tutorial level, a recap, and an introduction for new and old players. Nothing terrible with it, at least not to the point of writing an essay with it as a centerpoint imo
I do think there's a challenge of context which, even before I was in game dev, understanding that a line may not be explicitly *for me*, that is important to remember. Someone wholly neck deep in the lore of fandom and following everything so closely is a small slice of the club.
They are also often the most present, and typically also your strongest evangelizers for the word of mouth stuff.
That's true. But you need a pact of trust there. That's why I went and made that comment, because some people were assuming it was bad bc it was pc gamer and Veilguard, but also why I think it's not a good article and that it didn't pushed the interesting point ahead even if they spent words on it.
I mean, if you used your word count to point out (correctly) that it's very unlikely that the writers were the ones making those choices, and that it refers to a wider phenomenon, then why didn't you expand on the phenomenon in other games or other examples of exec meddling? Why Varric's line?
I think that while their points stands, the argument is weakened by using Veilguard as (once again, tbh) an easy target. Not that it couldn't be used as an example, of course, but if you could have gone all the way, then why are you hung up on a tutorial line, my guy? Idk I don't like it.
See, in the waxing to your kids example, I think the way that works best is if it reveals something specific about the character that's not just biographical detail. Like is this a story dad always tells and the kids are like, "yes, yes, we know, twenty WHOLE years"? Stuff like that.
Yeah! Totally. But, in the context of the convo, it's not......... disgraceful. It's just unimpressive? maybe a little bit trite. But nothing that horribly breaks immersion, I don't think
Yeah, I can see that. Allan totally said ymmv, and he's very right!