Morning Discussion

Last month I re-watched The Wire, arguably one of the best television shows ever created. This month, I've set my sights on another "personal favorite" series, Six Feet Under.

There's something about the characters and stories crafted by Academy Award-Winning scribe Alan Ball that made me fall in love with the series when it began in 2001. Watching it again only reminds me how incredible the entire series was.

There's a lot of discussion about the maturity and intelligence of video game stories. Some titles do stand out for having fantastic writing--BioShock and Portal come to mind--but in more cases than I'd like to remember, the story comes down to, "Here's a reason to go shoot those people/aliens/zombies in the face. Now go do it, because you're totally badass."

My hope is that, since technology is so advanced, studios will focus as much attention on crafting a good and unique story (Read: Not copying Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc.) as they do when developing a title's art.

We're getting there, though. I mean, have you ever read the fiction behind "Barbie's Horse Adventures"? It's haunting.

What video game stories stick out in your mind?

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 4, 2010 5:02 AM

    Minecraft Survival MP Server

    To connect to the Shacknews East Survival MP server, use the following IP/Port string when prompted at the multiplayer screen:

    74.83.233.187:25566

    Happy Hunting everyone!

    • reply
      August 4, 2010 5:32 AM

      Nooooooooo... server crash?

    • reply
      August 4, 2010 6:25 AM

      Trying to join but getting a black screen and it doesn't seem to be loading :(

      • reply
        August 4, 2010 6:38 AM

        Make sure there are no spaces at all in the IP.

    • reply
      August 4, 2010 6:38 AM

      Ok I'm in but it needs a restart, bad!

      • reply
        August 4, 2010 6:42 AM

        I crashed, so now when I connect it won't load any of the chunks around the spawn in time and I just fall to my death over and over.

        • reply
          August 4, 2010 6:44 AM

          yah, just keep respawning. that happened to me then i was back in

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          August 4, 2010 7:34 AM

          Have you tried typing /home?

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