Podcast Questions!

A little late but I'll leave this here for another podcast :) I've seen a lot of Nintendo Switch gamers claim to be picking up a lot more indie games to play on the go that they have otherwise ignored on their other systems. If we were to see Sony & Microsoft go in a similar handheld route after seeing the success of the Switch, do you think we could see a revolution of sorts for indie games and developers?

My question is about dialogue in games. I recently played the first episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm and thought the dialogue was absolutely dreadful. I feel like a lot of story-driven games want to give players the opportunity to chose - Life is Strange is just one example - and therefor force a conflict at random points to give more player agency. It's like all the NPC's around you becomes unable to do or say anything, because you - the player - has to be the one to make the choice. So often the choice is not in service of the story but in service of forcing another choice on the player. I feel that dialogue in games is still hopelessly behind dialogue in movies and somehow we have just accepted that to be the case. We don't criticize bad dialogue in games the same way we would a movie. Do you agree with that statement and do you agree with the fact that choices in games is often included at the expense of good dialogue? All the best and keep up the good work.

Question for everyone: What role should random NPC's play in video games? What games have you guys played where you actually felt an incentive to talk to all of the NPC's instead of walking right past them?

Are you able to think of 1 or more games that you'd liken to the "greats" of literature that will stand the test of time for potentially hundreds of years? Something that could have a real and lasting impact on humanity that is celebrated and played and even studied far into the future. If nothing like that exists, why do you think that is and do you think it can be?

I've put the long form of my general question/topic for you all in discord (balance of fantastical vs real) but specifically for Games as lit - Why do you do what you do and how did you start? What do you wish you had the time for?

ChocolateRob