narcissus entity

[pitchblack]

I do not get the ending when you kill scara B king, if the mod is meant to represent an internet forum why would there be some god character stating that your actions broke reality? I mean couldn't it have been done differently, like gamespy contacting you and stating that your actions have made them mad , where they then proceed to ban you (with a nice video showing the computer trestkon was using dump to windows then log off or something?)

Perhaps im missing something or perhaps it doesent matter either way let me know and i will simply drop it.

[Moonbo]

Let's just say there are rewards for those who look really, really hard .

[pitchblack]

what is that supposed to mean?

[JC_Helios]

Play the Cassandra Project sometime.

[chris the cynic]

This is a case of the fourth wall being broken.

If you've read my thread about the fourth wall you know I don't like people missusing that term, so be assured this is a legitimate case of fourth wall breaking.

The game is coming out and saying, "You are playing a game, your actions would have broken the game, don't break the game." As such there is no reason to keep up the pretense that it is an internet forum because it is telling you that no, it isn't an internet forum, it is a game.

[pitchblack]

Although that makes sense for this game I would really like to see a time in the future when we are able to create environments of a large scale (like forum city) that have a pre built storyline but allow players to take actions (like killing scara b king) that change the story. instead of saying this is a game please dont break the game, I would think it would be awesome to be able to take over worldcorp or whatever i want. For example if i was halfway through pdx campaign and i suddenly decide i want to destabilize the city by taking out all major companies then i should be able to (and see the fallout). Although i know this would be seriously hard to do and make it harder to make stories it would (in my opinion) make for a better game. Basically in my opinion more options that arent obvious to you ( like the ability to do the above, or the ability to make your own mercenary company or even to sit out and watch the game go on without you). In the end im just saying that games dont need to go out and break the 4th wall in that type of style, just give the player more freedom ingame and when they create situations like this one simply meld it back in.

I of course am going on about this and it is of course my opinion. If it has offended anyone or is completely unreasonable or is seen as a (very bad) rant then please let me know, ill make note not to do it again.

The feedback has of course been very helpful though.

[that guy]

You are completely right. The more versatile a game is and the better it can adapt to the players actions, the better. However there comes a point in an essentially linear game where you cannot feasibly allow the player to proceed with a given course of action. Sometimes the option is just never presented to you (e.g. you can't suggest that world corp and pdx kiss and make up) and sometimes the option is presented but is impossible to execute (For example all the invulnerable pawns in deus ex that you couldn't kill because it would break the story. In TNM we decided that we wanted to avoid invulnerable pawns where it did not fit with the mythos. This meant that Scara had to be killable. However in killing Scara the player would completely break the story. Eventually we decided on the fourth wall solution because rather than an irritating and unrealistic hack to get around the problem it is a humorous (hopefully) concession that we were not able to realistically handle the event but acknowledge the players efforts. So yes ideally we would have handled it more realistically but that just wasn't possible with the resources available.

[chris the cynic]

pitchblack, I don't think you're going to find anyone here who disagrees with that. However, it only takes the most basic of calculations to reveal that allowing full freedom for every actor in the Construct would effectively require an eternity of work. The mod already took seven years, how much longer did you want it to take?

[Jonas]

And I would like to add that TNM allows the player to take several actions that change the story. That's why we have five different endings - and that's not even counting the hidden one.

Actually depending how you count it, we have 8 endings including the hidden one.

These are largely based on choices you make before reaching the final mission - generally, you'll only have 2 or 3 options for the ending when you reach the last mission.

[kdawg88]

oh come on ppl it was just an easter egg! I thought it was pretty funny.

[Jonas]

Glad you liked it

Happily most people seem to appreciate it.