Its really more meant for writing in more action-oriented games as opposed to VNs, (since whatever your position on the art/writing balance in VNs, I don't think a VN player will ever be accused of "not noticing good writing") but there were some good points there, so I thought I'd share it here.
Browsed through the articles, and here are some initial thoughts:
- Must play half Life 2
- The number one reason writing isn't taken more seriously in gaming is that writing doesn't translate into dollars. - very true in the mainstream games, though less so in RPGs and especially VNs - though low VN sales in the english speaking world might just buttress the point.
- Narrowness of the writers own fields of interest - I think this truly would impact a work. But unless you intentionally set out to create "cutting edge" art, its really hard to avoid. Its not so much as write what you know as write what you LIKE. At least for me - otherwise it becomes much less fun to write.
- The more choices/freedom you give a player, the more the level of difficulty of your writing task increases - and it increases exponentially (when branch gives birth to branch, which leads to another... and by now you're using events that are thrice removed form what would have happened in the main path)
- It really does help to have someone else read/ go through your work. I think all writers have blind spots... But you need to find a reader who (a) can be critical (b) is different enough from you he wont share your blind spots (c) is similar enough that the story you want to make is something he'd appreciate
- Really need to play God of War
- "There is no time allotted for testing the story, once it's in the game" - such a simple idea, and yet, I just realized it when I read it. It makes all those plot holes in games suddenly more understandable.
