Rant: “Filmmakers”

That’s a lot of vitriol for having not played a game. I don’t understand this anger. People whine and complain for developers to do something new, and when they do, everyone complains that its’ not like they remember.

In game design, story has an inverse relationship with interactivity. More story means less interactivity. Less interactivity means less meaningful decision making by the player, less opportunity for player experimentation and exploration. However, high levels of interactivity always produce emergent narrative, i.e. the player’s individual experience becomes the “story”. A Metroid game with 2 hours of cinematics? This is a franchise whose foundation is a game that was designed to be beaten by expert players in 2 hours of gameplay, not sitting there listening to poorly written dialogue babbling out a crappy, hole-ridden, Sci-Fi Channel quality bed-time story completely devoid of plot or substance. This goes beyond a “reboot” and more like a “reinvention”, ergo a totally separate franchise. All this emphasis on story in a Metroid title actually destroys the atmosphere and character of the franchise altogether, eliminating the eerie sense of solitude, desolation, and mystery the games were always built upon until now. As a fan of METROID, I’m not enticed by this game and rather am quite turned off by the direction it has taken away from established franchise staples.

BTW, those “good hands” you’re referring to? They haven’t actually released an original title in more than five years, just rehashes and half-assed sequels, not to mention that Team Ninja is no longer under the direction of the individuals who established the studio and its reputation.

Really. Your getting worked up over the option of being able to watch the cinematics all together after you beat the game. I find it humorous that people would get worked up over an optional part of a game. Only gamers would throw a hissy fit over something that will in no way affect their enjoyment of a game. Gamers must be the biggest whiners on the planet or at least tied with comic book fanatics. The sad part is that for someone like me who enjoys them both it is impossible to find anywhere on the internet where you can get good info on those things without enduring the endless crying and whining that somebody had the audacity to create something that doesn’t meet their exact expectations. Boo Hoo.

whats making me throw up is the fact that you are hating this game for something you havnt tried.

now you see how zelda fans felt when skyward swords crappy graphics were unveiled to a disappointed audience. but they will still love it.

I wish all games with cut scenes had a theater-mode that allowed you to watch them all strung together. It’s a great idea.

I’m with the majority of these commenters on questioning where and why people are hating on this game.
I can’t tell you how many different games I play just to see certain cinematics, in-game or otherwise.
And here’s another fun fact: I still love watching SSBB’s Subspace Emissary cinematics and the other movies as well.

Oh no, I have the OPTION to watch all of the cutscenes. END OF THE UNIVERSE! If you don’t believe me, let me just remind you about how the world ended when they gave us the OPTION to have Luigi show you how to get past a level in NSMBWii. Yeah, thats right, Earth, gone.

While I’m not too terribly excited for this game (and this is coming from someone who’s been a hardcore Metroid fan for 10 years), I do think some of these complaints are going a little too far.

While I don’t necessarily agree with Jack, I can understand his concern. The announcement of a mode like this, and the fact that the game contains enough story cut-scenes to fill the run-time of a feature film, raises concerns of where the developer’s focus was on creating the game.

It leaves me mixed: 1. If it’s a “full length movie,” that makes complete sense without playing the game at all, a standalone Metroid “Movie,” that’s pretty cool – but on the other hand, why have a game at all? If you can, and DO tell the story without the player interacting, then the playable parts of the game are nearly irrelevant – and would likely have no bearing on the film, or visa versa.

It’s easy to worry that we’re just getting a direct-to-dvd movie and the tie-in-game in one package. I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see, but I can understand concerns that might arise from this kind of mode. We’ll have to wait and see.

Sorry for the double post, but I’m just clearing up that after the double space, my comment is about the post and not sterling1213’s comment

I believe most of you are missing the point here. The problem isn’t that there is a movie mode, but that there are enough cut scenes in this game to allow this mode to work seamlessly. I think that Jack, like myself, is worried that this game is going to be more like MGS4 (a constant wave of story and cut scenes), than say Super Metroid (Cut scenes? Story? What’s that mean?). Now, if they want to make a Metroid game that’s a bit heavier on the story side, I’m fine with that to an extent, but when you try to make a “cinematic” Metroid game, with the primary reason of the game’s existence being to develop Samus as a woman, then I have some serious concerns if what we’ll be seeing is truly a Metroid game. As far as I’m concerned, I really don’t care about Samus’s past, her relationships within the Galactic Federation, or her “maternal instincts”. For every Metroid game up until now, Samus as a character was irrelevant, as she played the role of a faceless avatar, content to let the player fill her role as the they explored whatever hostile, desolate, alien world Samus found herself on as of the moment. Now, I know I’m beating on a game I haven’t played yet, but from what I’ve seen, Other M seems to be less a progression of the series, than it is a spin-off/recreation of it altogether. Well, that’s my take on it at least. Feel free to pick it apart at your leisure.

I don’t mind story, or even reading in a game (as someone who has played the Paper Marios 20+ times each). But the fact that there are two whole hours cinematics is… worrying. Plus, take that with the fact that we’ve still only see maybe two or three videos of actual gameplay versus however many trailers based on the cinematics is problematic. I mean, I can honestly say this is the first time I was excited for a title and became simultaneously conflicted even a month before it came out.

I still haven’t preordered the title, and now I’m not very sure if I will so I can read some reviews. Has anyone heard a quote on gameplay hours yet?

You whine and then tell everyone else to relax? That’s classic. Perhaps you just need to go change your tampon and pull the wad out of your panties.

The first Wii game I ever played had a ‘theatre’ mode. It actually looked like and was called a ‘theatre’. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves let you rewatch all the before and after scenes from each challenge. I thought it was great.

I have never and likely won’t ever play a Metroid game but I would think more ‘options’ are better.

No?

It’s difficult to find skilled people about this issue, and you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks