The Fantasy Entertainment Empire

In November, I was sitting in front of his TV in Allen in New York, and in the TV screen before him, under the white steam, the game interface of "Steam Dawn" has been slowly opened.

He is a game fan, and his favorite game in his life is the previous work of Dimension Entertainment, "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2".

When "Taiwu 2" was released, he played that game for the first time. At that time, he had just graduated from high school, originally there was an opportunity to travel, but he chose the game.

After playing, he has no regrets at all.

What about traveling, can "Taiwu 2" be fun?

After this game, he has a liking for the ancient country of China. After going to university, he even went to Chang'an, China, and felt very good.

Later, when Dimension Entertainment was preparing for the film script activity of "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2", his archive was selected and became the archive of the last filming.

At that time, he was very happy and crazy. When the movie was released, he called friends and found a lot of people to watch it.

This sense of accomplishment is simply overwhelming.

Originally, after playing Taiwu Picture Scroll 2, he was already a fan of Dimension Entertainment. This time, he became a loyal fan of them.

In this way, when Dimension Entertainment launches a new work, that is, "Steam Daming", of course he will buy it!

And I don’t know if I buy it myself, but also people buy it everywhere in Amway.

However, it is difficult to say how good his Amway is.

Whenever he talks about this work with other players who also play games, the other party always makes a very surprised expression, saying that he has been looking forward to this work for a long time.

Ellen didn't think there was a particularly big accident.

In the past nearly half a year, as the launch date of "Steam Daming" is getting closer and closer, they can always see publicity about this work in various places.

On TV, they can always see the advertisement of this work; while shopping on the road, they can also see the eye-catching ambition of "Steam Daming" in many iconic places; on various websites, there are many advertisements. .

In addition to these publicity that can be directly advertised to a large audience, you can always see the name of "Steam Daming" on social media, on some professional game websites, and the media.

Players are probably not very professional propaganda practitioners. In their feelings, this work seems to be everywhere, and it is very hot.

Herd mentality is a very common and very common psychological phenomenon. In this circle, when everyone shows a sense of anticipation for a game work, many people who might not be cold about it will choose to at least try it.

Anyway, in short, Allen is very proud of being able to play this game for the first time, become the first player, and purchase the most high-end collector's edition game.

He took out his phone and took a few photos, and hurriedly posted them on his social media account. He immediately couldn't wait to enter the game state.

...

The beginning of the game is a teaching level.

The design of this teaching level is still very interesting. From here, Allen probably learned the outline of the operation of "Steam Daming", also understood the gameplay and upgrade system of the game, and at the same time understood what the story was about.

The protagonist is a member of Jinyiwei. In Allen's understanding, this is a spy organization directly under the Central Government of the Ming Dynasty, but it is somewhat different from the spy organization in the usual impression.

And his first task was a job of robbing his home, arresting a court official who was dismissed from his post.

The teaching level is not long, and in the second half, you can basically move freely.

However, this story made Allen, who was just starting to play the game and still in a state of excitement, seemed to be poured cold water.

Because the story is cruel.

The protagonist of the Jinyiwei, it seems that he is not playing a positive role. Among the information revealed in the story, the minister who was ransacked and imprisoned does not seem to be a bad person. What the protagonist has to do is also cruel. The minister's daughter, that cute little girl, is to be sent to the Jiaofang Division-in Allen's understanding, this is like an official brothel.

It's so fucking, at least it makes Alan not very beautiful.

But in the game, the mood of the protagonist is obviously also struggling.

At the end of the teaching level, he had a chance to let the girl go.

However, here is a choice.

In the previous publicity, Allen understood that this work of Dimension Entertainment, they called "the line of freedom", which is also a huge selling point of the game.

The so-called line *** is a game mode that directly opposes the ‘sandbox game’ and the ‘open world’.

There are many masterpieces of open world game works. The famous "GTA" series, "The Elder Scrolls", including the "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2" before Dimension Entertainment, are all open worlds with eight classics.

The biggest selling point of this game is that it creates a virtual world for players to explore freely. Players can do what they want in this world, with a high degree of freedom of exploration.

The line *** is based on a main storyline, one by one, and the gameplay is designed to let players pass and tell a story. Among the masterpieces are the "Uncharted Waters" series and the "The Last of Us" (The Last of Us) series. Strictly speaking, "God of War 4" is also a linear plot.

Some people may think that God of War is a semi-open world game, but it is not. God of War 4 is a typical linear narrative game from beginning to end.

It has a linear law, that is, the plot from A to B is unchanged, and the monsters in the middle and the process of fighting are also unchanged. It just adds some side plots between A and B. But the great thing about Santa Monica is that you don't need to play it, because it won't affect your plot experience.

And if you don't hit the back place, then the new map will obviously not be able to go.

The two types of games and the game experience when played are of course completely different.

Dimension Entertainment’s "Steam Ming" is a serious thread. Players are in such a main story at the beginning of the game, starting from the teaching level, and there are basically not too many exploration elements.

A game is a behavior or activity performed in a clearly defined time and space. It is carried out in accordance with the rules of spontaneous acceptance. Once accepted, this rule is absolutely binding. The purpose of the game lies in the game behavior itself. It is accompanied by feelings of tension and joy different from everyday life.

This is the same as playing chess, that is, during the game, the chess pieces fall on the board, the carts are running rampant, and the horses move to the sun. If someone puts a chess piece on the outside of the chessboard, or walks blindly, your response must be to pick up the chessboard and pat the brain-dead head vigorously.

For video games, linear, sandbox, and open world are actually a combination of the "time", "space" and "rules" of the game, but the proportions of the three are different, creating different styles.

If we divide these three types in a simple and rude manner, what pays attention to "time" and "rules" is the line ***, and what pays attention to "space" and "rules" is the open world, and pay attention to "space" and "time". This is the so-called sandbox game.

Line*** As the name implies, you play this game as if you are walking along a line. Although there are occasional forks, there is always only one road that leads to the end.

This type of game is the typical template of the earliest electronic games. Whether it is a bird's-eye view or a horizontal version, an action game or an RPG, it is always inevitable to defeat the BOSS and ultimately save the world.

Of course, it does not mean that a single routine is not good. In fact, it is precisely because of this traditional and simple structure that the line has produced countless classics. In addition, this type of game has a long history, so in the childhood memories of almost all gamers, there will be a line ***.

The line *** mode itself is actually a very stable and mature game system, which can be said to have become perfect. But it is precisely because of perfection that makes it difficult for current games to make major innovations based on the line *** model.

Although later, with the release of "Dragon Age", the game has multiple endings, which enriches the player experience.

However, with the improvement of players’ game IQ and the endless emergence of game products, the final line *** still fell into an awkward position: that is, most games, when the player gets it, they can probably guess the game mode, the player It's hard to get amazing feelings in the process of playing. In this case, a line *** inevitably makes players feel bound and unfree.

As I said at the beginning, the line has only "time" and "rules". Players can choose to do things at different times, but in the end, what you have to do is still that, and you cannot avoid it or change it.

In fact, in terms of gameplay, there are no shortcomings in line ***, because even in a single mode, as human beings, we still have countless stories to tell. In fact, most of the stories throughout the ages have been the same, but there are still generations of people who enjoy it.

The story, this kind of thing itself is the most attractive. And for generations of game designers, they can also play games in online ***. Innovation in gameplay, heightened visual effects...

If the open world is like a designer set up a stage for players to let players play on it, then line*** is like a beautiful stage play, with directors and actors, and players enter this In the plot, personal experience.

It's hard to tell, that model is better.

But the banner of Dimension Entertainment in making this "Steam Ming" is that they want to play the line of *** mode.

This is actually what Allen, as a player, is most looking forward to before playing this game.

Dimension Entertainment: "This is a completely free line. There are countless endings here."

The so-called completely free line ***, pay attention to the concept of the general gameplay like line ***, the game process is going forward step by step, the player will not have too many opportunities to explore freely, but immersed in In the main storyline of the game, an ending will be played.

But the manifestation of ‘freedom’ lies in the fact that players can do almost everything they want in this linear plot.

This seems to be in direct conflict with the definition of linear narrative, but it is not.

The most important ‘selling point’ in "Steam Daming" is the butterfly effect. At the moment, in this story line, the protagonist can only act according to the development of the story, but how to act and what the purpose is is determined by the player himself. At the same time, every decision will change the next plot, forming the so-called ‘butterfly effect’, which affects the entire game world.

In the past, there were some works that used this selling point for publicity. For example, "Until Dawn" is a promotion based on this selling point. It is called the ‘butterfly effect’, every decision will affect the ending, and the game has hundreds of different endings.

Actually, even though this game is a high-quality product, it is well-made and can be rendered with a thrilling and terrifying atmosphere. As an interactive movie game, it must be qualified. However, what they did with the so-called ‘butterfly effect’ was quite disappointing.

The so-called choice has different endings ~www.NovelMTL.com~ In the final analysis, it is just a game with multiple endings. The so-called hundreds of different endings, but in such a short game flow, different people survived or died. It is roughly divided into three categories: all death endings, normal endings (some people died and some people did not die), and all surviving endings.

But "Steam Daming" is a completely different game.

What is the real butterfly effect? After you make a decision, it is very likely that the flow of the entire game will be different.

Moreover, this kind of decision is not like in some games, it is just an option. Sometimes, the player's operations in the game, the way of playing, and the experience of these things will become the key factors that trigger a certain plot process.

Take Allen's play experience, for example, at the end of the teaching level, he couldn't bear it and chose to release the minister's daughter in private. As a result, during the operation, her skills were not good enough and she was discovered by her colleagues. Then the girl was not only caught back, but he was also accused of a crime on his head, saying that he had something to do with the political case and was thrown in. Go inside the edict.

He thought he had a failed ending, but he didn't realize it.