Frequently while playing video games, I like to imagine how people would react to my character's actions/choices if it were real life or even a movie. I have been trained to completely ignore any warnings about imminent danger or impending doom if I feel that is part of the main story. Unless a timer appears on screen, I know that nothing will happen until I get to the designated spot to trigger the event. So, I like to take my time, make sure I don't miss any hidden goodies, talk to everyone until their dialogue repeats, etc. This breaks the excitement and drama of the scene, but feeling like I missed something bothers me far more than not feeling as rushed as I'm supposed to. A few times I've managed to specifically ignore my need to "catch 'em all" and just rush through things to keep the feeling of the story going (generally this happens while playing any Uncharted game).
I was actually surprised when doing this impacted the story in the very beginning of Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. When you first reach your headquarters, your boss says you must get to the helicopter immediately, so I automatically go, "Screw you, I want to explore my office and talk to people first." A few minutes later you receive a message, "Where the [heck] are you? Get down to the helipad now!" I'm used to insistent warnings like that to try to get the story going, so I again ignore it. What I didn't expect was the next message, "Thanks to your screwing around, all the hostages have just been killed." Wait, what? You mean you ACTUALLY wanted me to listen to your urgent warnings? Huh, that's novel. Since it was the beginning of the game, I just restarted and actually rushed through to save the hostages. I was actually impressed they did this. I figured since they did it as part of the first mission, it was the game's way of teaching you that timing matters. Unfortunately, that's the only time in the entire game where timing really matters, which is a design flaw I'll talk about in a future post.
So here is where designer story and player story collide: In the original Mass Effect, Command Shepard is charged with finding a rogue Spectre before he can hurt any more people. "Uhhh...Commander, why are you driving the Mako around this planet when we know Saren is in a completely different system? What do you mean you're looking for other threats to the galaxy? Your mission is to stop Saren!" In Mass Effect 2, Shepard is tasked with stopping a strange threat known only as the Collectors. "Commander, shouldn't we be looking for the Collectors and not scanning this planet for Platinum? This seems like someone else's job. If we really need Platinum, can't you use your Cerberus resources to get some sent to you?" In Mass Effect 3, Shepard is trying to get as many forces as possible to stop the Reaper invasion currently happening on Earth. "Commander, I'm getting complaints from citizens on the Citadel that you keep walking up to them and just standing there staring at them while they are talking to someone else. No one will trust you if you don't stop being such a creeper."
Or take Adam Jensen (Deus Ex: Human Revolutions): "I just have to infiltrate this base, stealthily take out all the guards, save all the hostages, and then...OH MY GOODNESS! There are cardboard boxes in the corner of the room! Who knows what could be under them! I better start throwing them all around the room just to make sure there's nothing there."
Of course, I'm not the only one to notice these descrepancies between designer story and player story...
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