and then of course the ending ties it all together, as an ending must! But the emphasis is in the middle part!
I admit I've not played enough New Vegas to be sure of this comparison, but BG3 also kinda falls into what I'm talking about here. BG3's ending is fine, but the emphasis is definitely on the character stories that happen inside of it. The ending is far less important than the end of X person's arc.
Skyrim or many other open worlds are an example. No one particularly seems to care about the dragon prophecy story in Skyrim, they just enjoy the quests and the character development. Dragons distract from that, if anything, so why put so much focus there instead of on the parts players enjoy?
I'm not advocating we make games bad. But to pull a direct comparison from TV, look at how shows like Star Trek are set up. Each episode is its own story, and we don't care as much about the full season arc. There might be a season arc, it might even be very very good! But the focus is the episode.
God. Yeah. So many reasons for us to be focusing on shorter story experiences! 5-10 hours is the most anyone's gunna hold in their head clearly. Needs more time than film cause there's more dead air as we run around and play, but definitely not 75-150 hours!!
Ha! Yeah, cause then you have to define what "the best" even means, lol. But yeah, I do like asking big questions. Fun to tease my brain with impossible things 😅
Sorta like an episodic TV show. Season finale doesn't matter as much as the individual stories along the way.
Agreed there. I think what my original question boils down to is that the ending just be slightly less emphasized than the lead up to it. Basically those smaller climaxes you mention being where the deep commentary happens, and then the ending just ties it up and thanks you for your time.
You're not wrong! I think ultimately the art must lead, but I'm wondering if we just don't know the best way to work within this artform yet. I'm less concerned with public opinion and more with the trend. If 75% of people never finish, maybe that's a sign something needs to change.
Ico is an excellent example. It and Shadow of the Colossus are among my favorite game stories and I've long been trying to figure out how they did what they did!!