SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

The problem with a game that depends on story rather than gameplay is that it also depends heavily on being able to tell a good story, and games just aren't the best medium for doing that.

But! For the sake of argument, let's assume that you manage it. If you've ever studied writing for film (which games are slightly more like than they are novels, but still at a pretty big remove), you'll almost certainly have been warned against getting too heavy into long drawn out dialogue sequences. In fact, I've been told that you should basically never have a character's dialogue in a movie or television script last longer than four lines without another character talking or somebody doing something. Given the space constraints in script format, that's about one message box in RPG Maker, maybe two.

Also, long conversations run a serious risk of turning into exposition. Exposition is one of the biggest no-nos in story telling--it's when you explain what's happening or what has happened to the audience, rather than just presenting it and letting them figure out what's going on--I noticed a definite tendency towards this in that snippet of dialogue you put up, and you need to watch out for it. Dialogue should be more of a device for revealing character than it should for revealing facts. The audience doesn't care about facts. They care about people.

Every time you write a line of dialogue, you should ask yourself "does this advance someone's character arc?" If the answer is "no", it's a definite candidate for culling, even if it reveals backstory. Even if it advances the main plot, it's probably not as worthwile as another line that does.

(Also: check out this post as an example of why lots and lots of words is bad, even if there's content behind it and the person behind it is a charming adonis, a veritable god of a man, it can be a chore to read through it all)

author=brandonabley link=topic=1005.msg14489#msg14489 date=1210002925

author=Shadowtext link=topic=1005.msg14115#msg14115 date=1209919761
Speaking of Mother 3, I hope all the true fans of Earthbound are keeping in mind that there's going to be a major procott on Earthbound on virtual console in support of the translation of Mother 3. (Starmen.net has been talking about it for months) The hope is that if enough people buy Earthbound, Nintendo will be forced to see that a translated Mother 3 would be a good investment. So if you're interested in a translated (legal) Mother 3, be sure to buy Earthbound on VC, assuming you've got a Wii, and get your friends to as well. It's really the last hope we've got left.

Jesus man I don't think Nintendo could have done better marketing themselves. I read at GW that Marcus was going to buy like 100 copies of this and gift them to everyone =\ Still I don't think that Mother 3 will ever be localized.

I think it's weird that Nintendo just wants to pretend that Earthbound never happened (by removing the Earthbound demo from SSBB I'm sure they were showing that they had no intention of putting it on VC) and I'm sure they only put Earthbound up because it was the #1 most-requested VC game in their Nintendo Power poll. It makes no sense to me because I'm pretty sure Americans would understand the humor better than Japanese people. It's sweet that Nintendo listened to fans and put it up on VC and I hope a lot of people can enjoy this classic for the first time! I don't know if I'm willing to buy this for VC and not play it just so that I can protest by giving away dollars though.

Granted it's far from a sure thing, Him, but this is basically our only chance. And if Earthbound actually does sell well, Nintendo is going to either have to be stupid or be insanely biased against Mother 3 to not localize it. I don't know why you wouldn't play Earthbound if you had it, though. Why not buy it and play it? Then you're getting something out of the money you spend AND voting with your dollars!

Also, it's not "protest." It's like....the opposite of a protest. It's contest. No, wait, that means something else. It's ANTITEST. "Hell yes, we like Ness! And we'd like to like Lucas as well, if you'd give us the chance! I realize that doesn't match the rhyme scheme or meter, but it's worth mentioning!"

...that might not fit on the signs well, but since it's a bizarro protest, we'd probably be picketing inside our own homes anyway.

Aw, man, I missed something after the credits?

Even though I'm a decently big comics geek, I've never read much Iron Man. I loved the movie, mostly because I loved Tony Stark in it, but I have no idea how true to the original character it was. If he's like that in the comics, I totally need to start reading them. It might be my favorite of the superhero comic movies I've seen.

Speaking of Mother 3, I hope all the true fans of Earthbound are keeping in mind that there's going to be a major procott on Earthbound on virtual console in support of the translation of Mother 3. (Starmen.net has been talking about it for months) The hope is that if enough people buy Earthbound, Nintendo will be forced to see that a translated Mother 3 would be a good investment. So if you're interested in a translated (legal) Mother 3, be sure to buy Earthbound on VC, assuming you've got a Wii, and get your friends to as well. It's really the last hope we've got left.

author=Tau link=topic=1005.msg13994#msg13994 date=1209842017
You know Ken I should report you for that one word post but.. the report would just go to you and you would just laugh it off haha. Ive always wanted to know what made Earthbound so great since I couldn't play it past an hour?

Earthbound is a post modern Dragon Quest clone that subverted expectations about what it meant to be a Dragon Quest clone, and ultimately just had an attitude that hadn't really been seen before or since (except maybe Mother 3, which I can't tell about since my Japanese sucks, but which seems to have the same attitude at any rate).

If it clicks with you, it clicks with you hard. It is very much a cult video game. And that cult's name is Happy Happyism. Blue, blue.