The reading Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, by Tom Bissel addresses change within video games and how these games have changed and how they affect the author. Video games have gone through a major change within recent times and have evolved from simple button mashing games with very uncomplicated themes and narrative to something much more complex. Modern technology has allowed video games to vastly improve storytelling and visuals by allowing much more content to be stored in medium; therefore, video game developers have much more creative freedom and can develop deep and interesting worlds. The technological limitations of past are consistently being surpassed and this is good news for all gamers.
Tom Bissel's writing touches on the …show more content…
because of the freedom they grant gamers, the manner in which the reward exploration and their convincing illusion of endlessness." Open world games are extremely content heavy and provide hours of entertainment with optional story or "side quests" that serve to tell alternate stories or narrative that are not critical to the main story but serve to build backstory and immerse the player. This combined with unrestricted world exploration allows the player to play as whichever way they want; furthermore, this is also emphasized by the in-game rewards for exploring and doing side-quests. The amount of optional content is vast and feels endless often being extremely time consuming or impossible to complete every single …show more content…
Mass Effect is a trilogy game set in the year 2183 in which interstellar travel is possible, first contact with intelligent alien species has been made and a council has been formed. The player takes the role of Commander Shepard and you are able to customize his appearance, his backstory and the type of soldier he will be. I began playing this series with Mass Effect 2 and this game really formed a bond between me and Commander Shepards squad mates. This is done by providing optional loyalty missions for each character that further explores their backstory and their personality traits. During my first playthrough, I did not complete half of my squad's loyalty missions and half of my squad mates died during the final mission of Mass Effect 2, so I replayed the game and completed all of the loyalty missions so they wouldn’t die and could appear in the next game. Mass Effect 3 is the finale to what the last 2 games were building up to. All the previous choices you made will somehow impact the story in the final game. The way these games take time to develop every single one of your squad mates is thanks to the advancement in technology in gaming. The writing that goes into these characters is deep and you form a bond with them even though they are not
Tom Bissel's writing touches on the …show more content…
because of the freedom they grant gamers, the manner in which the reward exploration and their convincing illusion of endlessness." Open world games are extremely content heavy and provide hours of entertainment with optional story or "side quests" that serve to tell alternate stories or narrative that are not critical to the main story but serve to build backstory and immerse the player. This combined with unrestricted world exploration allows the player to play as whichever way they want; furthermore, this is also emphasized by the in-game rewards for exploring and doing side-quests. The amount of optional content is vast and feels endless often being extremely time consuming or impossible to complete every single …show more content…
Mass Effect is a trilogy game set in the year 2183 in which interstellar travel is possible, first contact with intelligent alien species has been made and a council has been formed. The player takes the role of Commander Shepard and you are able to customize his appearance, his backstory and the type of soldier he will be. I began playing this series with Mass Effect 2 and this game really formed a bond between me and Commander Shepards squad mates. This is done by providing optional loyalty missions for each character that further explores their backstory and their personality traits. During my first playthrough, I did not complete half of my squad's loyalty missions and half of my squad mates died during the final mission of Mass Effect 2, so I replayed the game and completed all of the loyalty missions so they wouldn’t die and could appear in the next game. Mass Effect 3 is the finale to what the last 2 games were building up to. All the previous choices you made will somehow impact the story in the final game. The way these games take time to develop every single one of your squad mates is thanks to the advancement in technology in gaming. The writing that goes into these characters is deep and you form a bond with them even though they are not