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I think people too often forget that video games as an avenue for storytelling is actually a fairly recent thing in the full analysis of its history. John Carmack (one of the co-creators of the original Doom) once said: “… story in a video game is like story in a porn movie. You assume it’s there somewhere in the background but it’s not primarily why you watch it…”
I never thought Halo had a great story - I thought it was boring at best; but it was most definitely fun playing when it originally came out. And when it spawned off Rooster Teeth and the creation of Red vs. Blue, its capacity for storytelling expanded into other areas.
Childhood favorites of mine like MK2 on the Sega Genesis were iconic for the blood and violence every physically energetic young boy could exact on his opponent. Steve Ritchie had one of the greatest in-game voices ever performed for a video game. He was actually a legend in the pinball scene who once said he regretted playing the voice of Shao Kahn; because he would go to pinball events and conferences and nobody in the Q&A ever wanted to ask him about pinball stuff; fans of his came because they always wanted to ask him about the voice of Shao Kahn. I think overtime he came to accept it with a smile and just go with the flow.
Oh, great. We're now at the age where we have to explain who John Carmack is.
As a zoomer, I'm more familiar with him via this quote than I am with his games. Though I have played a little bit of DOOM.
How does a zoomer choose a Star Control reference for a username?
It's a classic video game that is still very playable today vis-a-vis graphics and can be obtained for free from Steam as Ur-Quan Masters, I don't find it particularly surprising.
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How did I only just now realize that the Mortal Kombat voice is also the Black Knight voice.
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