14 DAY TRIAL // Far Cry 3's lead writer, Jeffrey Yohalem, believes that people who play video games and developers who make them need to communicate more and challenge one another to improve the whole industry, particularly when it comes to the story of certain titles.
Far Cry 3 impressed at the beginning of the month through some stunning gameplay that combined different mechanics, from first-person shooting to developing a character like an RPG or sneaking around like in a stealth title.
The game's story, however, received some mixed opinions, with some arguing that it's filled with cliché moments and tropes, while others saw past them to observe a clever riff on the whole white man in the middle of natives.
Writer Jeffrey Yohalem has talked with the PA Report about the whole plot and how he has tried to approach tropes and criticize them by taking them to the extreme.
The whole goal, according to the developer, is to get people to engage with the game and talk about it with others and with the people who made it.
"What I’m hoping is that through talking about this game and the Internet talking about this game," he said, "is that all this stuff will come to light, and the audience will say next time, ‘We want more of this.’"
According to Yohalem, developers should give players more credit in regards to perceiving a story, while gamers shouldn't be afraid to share their desires with the studios.
"This all comes from my sense that players shouldn’t be talked down to. For me, there’s a kind of caustic relationship that’s developed between players and developers. It’s really a bad, abusive relationship, because developers say ‘Players won’t get it anyway, so we’re just going to do something that holds their hand.’"
"It doesn’t respect them, and then players say ‘I hate this,’ or ‘I hate that,’ or ‘This game sucks,’ and that hurts developers. So it’s like a cycle. It also feels like critics aren’t looking for meaning in the game, either. So it’s like all sides have just stopped listening to each other."
Do you agree with Yohalem's point of view or do you think games should deliver simple stories and just focus on great gameplay?