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Comment by firtoz | Hacker News Reader

Horizon zero dawn has great writing and storytelling too

I have some mixed feelings. I thoroughly loved and was heavily invested in horizon zero dawn. But I don't know if I would describe it as great writing. Many of the characters were pretty one-dimensional and forgettable. Aloy herself is just another chosen one story. The antagonists are by and large cartoonish in their manner. I do want to emphasize I really enjoyed the game and felt the way it was laid out to be way more enjoyable than, say, Skyrim.

I don't know about the Witcher 3: it basically opened with softcore porn and I was immediately too turned off to continue with it. Several people who are huge fans of it later told me the wank bank material is pretty much an essential part of the Witcher experience, so I filed it away as a similar cache of any number of romance books on Amazon. Which, to be clear, makes a ton of money, isn't easy to pull off consistently as a product, etc etc. I just don't know if I would consider it great literature.

Like an average HBO series, then. Open with a bunch of sex, maybe tell a good story after (with, occasionally, more sex, sometimes with plot mixed into it).

I also don't think "average HBO series" and "excellent writing" are in the same significance though, don't you agree? [Unless you're saying that HBO productions are so consistently good that their average series is excellent?] That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying they're bad. I just have mixed feelings if they should be considered "excellent".

Oh, no, lots of them aren’t great. A few are (The Wire…) and some more are at least pretty good.

[edit] also I think there are a lot of different definitions of “good” in this thread. The average HBO show probably does have better writing than 99% of narrative-presenting video games.

The average HBO series might be just a tiny bit better than the average show in general, but the exceptional HBO series are truly exceptional.

Regarding HZD: Have you gone around and read the little notes and the tidbits spread around the world? Those told the real story much better than the characters.

Personally I don't give games much credit for having decent writing in little tidbits spread around the world that you collect like busywork.

If you can't tell me the story well in the actual engine then I don't really care to count it.

But I also do think this might explain a lot about people's different opinions on videogame writing. The people who run around getting 100% of the lore tidbits and piece it together will often think the writing is much better than the people who are just trying to experience it through gameplay

While I'm also not a huge fan of this way of writing, it works very well as a supporting device for me. You have a lot of room there for world building, and the people interested in it read or listen to all the scraps and everyone else can skip them if they don't care.

Games can put a lot of world building into optional areas or pieces of content that e.g. would never fit into a movie or even a TV series.

Yes, I've read the little notes and tidbits. But trivia is not a story. If your defining, plot-pushing characters are cardboard, no amount of trivia will make up for this, for me.

W3 sex scenes could be optional for sure (maybe there is a mod to make them so).

There are some very interesting characters and lore tho that make it worth it.

Agreed, some of the best in any game I’ve played.

The Last of Us and Witcher 3 also have excellent writing.

Piling on the H:ZD love. Sequel ain’t awful, either.

Kentucky Route Zero is maybe the most literary game I’ve played, if that makes sense. Damn good.

Disco Elysium is pretty literary.

Try Betrayal at Krondor (1993).

Interesting example, considering it was written by an actual novelist, who also published the novel for the game: "Krondor: The Betrayal"

Raymond E Feist became one of my favorite fantasy authors for a long time because of Betrayal at Krondor

I just understood that this game is not 20 but 30 years old. Oh man...

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