Apples and Oranges

[shadesofmauve]

There's a post in masseffect about Bethesda versus Bioware. There are some interesting things to discuss there, even if it's silly on its face. I dislike choosing a favorite one of anything, on the principle that variety is the spice of life and sometimes one is just Not In That Mood. The two game companies do different things well, and that's great. They cater to different moods.

For those who don't spend hours on video games, the differences can be summarized thusly: Bioware tells stories in which the player controls the main member of an ensemble cast. The stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and while there are slightly different ways to reach The Final Epic Conclusion, and several ways the Epic Conclusion can go down, It Will Happen. Bethesda creates a giant, and I mean giant, world, in which there happens to be a Main Quest which people almost always ignore. Everything is open-ended -- no begginning/middle/end here. There are many more people in their world, but they're not as fleshed out, and any personality in the player-character must be provided in the head of the player.

I explained it over there by saying that Bioware's games make want to write character-driven fiction*. Bethesda's make me think of writing a travelogue.

Incidentally, I finally realized why all the characters I make in bethesda games are feckless. Running off to explore the giant world is most of the fun; usually this results in ignoring the main quest. Which means, basically, that right at the beginning of the game my PC heard the Dying Emporer Himself say "Find my heir immediately, our world depends on it!" and she went "Yeah, sure, whatever old dude, Imma go in the opposite direction. Hey! I found a horse!"

It's like my sidequest icon only ever-so-much-more-so.

PS: At least one commenter suggested that those who find Bethesda's games insufficiently immersive are lacking in creativity. I scoff at this. The voices in my head are present even when I'm playing civilization, as I imagine just exactly what kind of hell I, the Mighty God-Emperor, am giving those annoying advisors. I occasionally ascribe human motivations to the blocks in tetris. Creating characters is not a problem for me.**


*Which happens to be my preference when reading, which explains why I have a slight preference for their stuff.

**Er, I suppose someone would call that a problem, actually...

Comments

[mariye.livejournal.com]

That is the best description ever of the difference.

It's also why I like Bioware games a bit more, even though I've played Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. I like an appealing main storyline. I actually got bored in New Vegas at one point because I didn't care about the main storyline and got tired of traveling to reach sidequests.

[shadesofmauve]

Thanks. :) It's been coming up quite a bit, and I keep trying to find ways to summarize the huge difference in feel.

I've never finished the main quest on a bethesda game, and I always quite because I get bored. I can't say they're boring games -- I get a LOT of enjoyment out of them up to that point. But they aren't gripping, and they don't have the finale/pay-off, which means the over-all taste they leave after I quit is more 'shrug' and less 'holy shit I just drove a mako through a mass relay'.

[mariye.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's exactly why I haven't been excited about Skyrim and I've put off playing the copy of Oblivion I bought from Goodwill. I just know I'll eventually get to the point where it'll all seem so anticlimactic and pointless, and feel like I should finish a third renegade playthrough of Mass Effect 2 before ME3 instead.