You're wrong about SHadows of Doubt. If you play long enough and/or play on a smaller map. The cases start to intertwine with each other. Look at Insym's recent series, where an entire floor of a certain apartmen building were like a murder cult or something, and 2 killings in the same apartment created a search for a ghost killer. Neither of those scenarios would have happened in a more traditional detective game.

What is the game in 2:07

Comparing Rimworld to Dwarf fortress is like comparing imitation crabmeat to a royal lobster.

You missed a chance to say Nostalgia is our LINK to the past!

This is the entire reason why nintendo switch sports failed as a sequel. Fans wanted another gane where every design element works together to create a simple, fun experience. They wanted something new.

5:44. I didn't do any of that😐. I randomly found it by just wandering around and exploring every nook and cranny. It was pretty helpful in the first boss fight. I'm just now starting to get the hang of using the map and manual

I think Fire Emblem is also a good example of the games writing their own stories, with elements like randomized stats growths and perma death for all characters except the main character and some of the newer games giving more freedom for creating character builds and their romantic/platonic relationships

“Emergent storytelling is still very much in its infancy” tell me you’ve never considered the story implications of chess without telling me you’ve never considered the story implications of chess, emergent storytelling in games is older than your grandfather noob

This is a really good take on emergent stories, you need just enough details to be interesting, and then you throw it to the player

Gaslighting yourself to see a narative that doesn't exist. Make up your own narrative, you are awesome no one could make a better story than you.🤡

As someone who has played magic survivor but not vanpire survivors, I can confirm that is sure is

Absolutely top-tier script, as always! Awesome video!

I feel like everything said about Rimworld could be said about Dwarf Fortress haha

This type of emergent narrative is why I’m addicted to football manager

can someone tell me what game was used in the intro for the 'nature' element?

I cant play any games with turn based combat. Its just ZERO fun to me. Which sucks cuz theres alot where the story looks great

Then came Bloodborne

Writing a book is an emergent narrative

Like Candy crush.

My favorite personal story from Stelaris is this: We were a pacifistic republic. While our relationship with our neighbors were shaky at first, they never soured so much as to cause conflict. Life was good, and so it was for many, many years. A golden age of science and expansion. Unfortunately this lack of conflict left us ill prepared for what was about to come. We were negligent, and had disbanded our navy long ago. Then they came, beings of plasma from another dimension who came to hunt us. The Unbidden emerged from a rift in our core worlds. Our home was doomed, and we scraped together all the resources we had to claim a territory as far away as we could manage. One lone colony ship escaped to the edge of the galaxy and established itself on a hostile rock where our people only knew agony. But we survived. We watched as the Unbidden fed on our once neighbors, only slowing down once another hunting party came to compete with them. We bid our time and kept scraping the bottom of the barrel, until finally. We established a habitat. Finally our people could once more breathe fresh somewhat fresh air. But while our researchers theorised on how to pull our people out of their grave, we noticed the Unbidden coming closer. Once more we scraped together all we could to establish a second habitat on another edge of the galaxy. Fortunately for us, they never managed to reach the doomed colony. The fallen empires had finally decided to step in, and managed to contain the hunters. Somewhat. Decades passed, and it was finally time for our scientists plans to come to fruition. We scraped and we scraped, and managed to scrounge up enough resources for our rebirth project. And in that farthest corner of our emergency escape, construction began. It was slow going, agonisingly slow. But we had gotten used to being patient. And then, finally, it was finished. Our ringworld. Or as I would come to learn, our first ringworld. Our once doomed populace was booming as the war for the galaxy stormed on. And for the first time in over 300 years, warship production started up. It was time to reclaim our home...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this problem. And I really enjoyed this video a lot!

Honestly though, although it doesn't come out a ton in the gameplay, I do find it interesting how Genshin did the elemental system in terms of character writing, with the commonalities between people of the same element-they play on some classic connotations (like fire characters tending to be more extroverted and enthusiastic) but also taking other angles to add to it (fire characters are motivated by family, or at least have family that is really important to them for better or worse, kind of like this "hearth" fire aspect, someone who fights to protect). My favorite example might be water-they introduce this concept of "the ability of water is to take any shape" and run with it, basically just leaning into the "liquid" to make those characters into chameleons of a sort. They have deliberately crafted personas and put a lot of care into putting up a front, masking any weaknesses. It could be something humorous like the teenaged author going to great lengths to hide the fact that he has terrible handwriting, or it could be the leader figures trying to look noble and wise and whatnot. And then the biggest one would be the archon (the god of water) who (SPOILERS) is really a clone of sorts who has no godly power at all but is forced to keep up this ruse and pretend for hundreds of years in order to fool the higher, more powerful gods who are threatening to incinerate their entire nation. So yeah, saying that to say, I think there's a lot of potential in just leaning into every connotation we have with these elements or states of matter or whatever. How can that meaning change with different uses, and different environments? Plants are all about life and growth, sure, but also, fungus eats on dead things-maybe you can use that (or maybe someone already has and I don't know!). So, like, you don't have to subvert their meanings entirely, just...add on to it, you know?

The story would have been better if Agent actually cared about his former leader dying. But the fact that he didn't wasn't tragic, it just showed the lack of actual narrative in these games. I'll stick to prewritten stories thanks.

Classic. That's such a Static thing to do.

Ah, Emergent Storytelling, the pinnacle of Analog and Digital Gaming.

Minecraft John's story starts with him taking his dad, Wayne Drake's place as C.C.P.S gatekeeper because his dad impregnated three women and failed to pay child support he was exiled from the facility. There he met his best friend and average 4chan user, Terraria Frank. However, when security in the underground facility became automated, he and Terraria Frank decided to become scouts instead of gatekeepers, going on wacky adventures for the C.C.P.S I made all of this because one of my dwellers in fallout shelter made way more children than I needed and I exiled him out of frustration.

How in the world did you not mention dwarf fortress yet.

11:08 "Revachol is basically a dump". As are 95% of communist countries and regimes all over the world. Historically and present day. Consistently. Anyone see a connecting factor? Just some weird coincidence? The underlying message of this game is an incredibly naive and foolish. If that ideology is ever taken seriously, very few would have the freedom to send time playing video games anymore. Value your freedom kids, while you still have it. And TALK to people who've lived through it. There isn't any changing human nature, and idealism sadly leads to its opposite.

Growth is what matters. Being weak is fine and so is being bad ass but none of that matters if you aren't feeling like you aren't growing.

Elden ring was the best direction I seen open world it rewarded exploration rather than just be eye candy you get sick of after awhile. Botw and totk are the most ubisoft like open world ever with the towers and I hated it.

I find this very interesting :) In TTRPG space we have a great many "Modern" designs that focus on emergent narratives supported by highly procedural mechanics since the early 2000s : old examples are The Pool, The Shadow of Yesterday and Trollbabe, while more recent examples can be Apocalypse World and its many descendants (from Monsterhearts to Fantasy World, to Brindelwood Bay, and so many more). And of course all the GM-Less games. It's a pity that, mostly because of how the market / product category works, all the mainstream publishers prefer to focus on "Trad" designs (like D&D, Cyberpunk, Cthulhu, Vampire, etc) which rely on a GM to do a ton of preparation, with all the pros and cons that that entails (especially the endless stream of supplemental content they allow for... which is much less appealing in emergent storytelling, when the best "content" is the one emerging procedurally at the table).

750 mods and my save is fucked can i usw your modpack instead?

16:56 what game is this?

I totally hated the orcs coming back after death in Shadow of Mordor, so I just made sure to decapitate every special orc so they'd never come back. If I ever died, I'd immediately hunt down and decapitate the orc who got credit for the kill before doing anything else. That meant I never had any rivals, and I never had to deal with the extra long dialogue of rivals or people coming back from the dead interrupting the gameplay. There was however no escaping the annoying introductions on first encountering special orcs or the ever growing list of immunities they had to core combat mechanics slowing down the game. You ever notice that everyone who talks about the game only talks about the Nemesis system? That's because the story of the game is lackluster and predictable, and the gameplay is pretty bland. Nobody ever seems to remember that though because they're all going on about the Nemesis system that apparently everyone but me loved.

ur coping

Ah, Stellaris. If only it's devs could get their act together and make that game work on a basic level.

Ukrainian relief charity? Yeah that money will pass through their corrupt government and make it right to those in need....

Good video 📸

I feel like the secret sauce is making the world a character in its own right. Part of what makes Rimworld so compelling is its Firefly-inspired setting where humans simply never solved the FTL problem, so colonized planets can't communicate with or control each other. It makes it feel like it's impossible for you to ever see the big picture or become an invincible "chosen one" because the universe is just too big, there's always something bigger out there that could kick your little sand castle.

Actually, you can snipe all the targets from the water tower, you just need to start from the west bridge or tower itself to have enough time to kill them fast, then hide in the crate down the ladder until the guards go away. Also, knock out the two guards on the roof leading to it.

I'd feel you'd like Rule the Waves series games. I mean, your "characters" are ships you design, but, as a naval history nerd, it's really the only other game I've played to give me the same emergent storytelling feeling of Rimworld. Maybe early ARK:SE is up there too, for private server multiplayer clan drama.

wait what is pokyman

It's all fun and games but as far as I remember, Shadow of mordor orcs' system is patented. Beware stealing ideas from big companies, they're stingy like that. For the very few who'll go as far as release a game here, cover your ass, don't get nintendo'd. Beyond that, the key lesson I hear is the same as how to balance random loot around scarcity to rythm between droughts and abundance, building the whole system on human psychology and biases. We remember the high highs, but the low lows not so much and it creates a contrast we're more prone to pick up on without realizing it. (it's literally the same as how casinos work.) It's kinda funny to see the same logics at play between totally different topics. I'd say, compared to storytelling which has been 'deciphered' with the hero's journey being one instance of formula to write a story ; little by little we're uncovering a similar formula for video games.

I absolutely agree that playing games is a lot more fun if you roleplay. Anyone can make the most advantageous decisions for an optimal playthrough, especially if you don't restrict yourself from looking things up. But roleplaying gives you a more unique experience that's tailored for your character. Including games like the Bethesda Fallout games. And previous Fallouts. And most other roleplaying games. One place where Rimworld succeeds and Baldur's Gate 3 fails is the way the former is built for dealing with problems in an interesting way, while the latter is built for solving problems in interesting ways. It doesn't sound like there's much of a difference, but dealing with a problem doesn't necessarily mean you solve it. Success or failure, Rimworld goes on like it always does, and you'll get a story out of it regardless, but BG3 often just cuts out when you fail to accomplish something, making you miss out on things. That encourages to save scumming, since the story to be told if you fail is much shorter than if you succeed. If anything, Rimworld, much like Dorf Fortress, is more fun if you lose on occasion. BG3 can be fun even if you lose, but it'll almost always be less fun compared to succeeding. So in that sense, Rimworld is actually closer to a real DnD experience than BG3.

Finally got power to play it and immiedielty went back to this video. Damn what a ride.

I just want to shoutout Space Station 13 for a second. It has a ton of the systems you mentioned that do encourage emergent storytelling, but also the fact that it's a multiplayer RPG gives a lot of those disparate elements something to unify them.

Oh hey I've been no-lifing Rim World the past few weeks and yeah great stories to tell

I would like to play rimworld again as it was fantastic, though I slightly broke my own fun due to making it too easy - and that it was always too centered around combat that after several different playthroughs it did feel a bit samey. though the same thing happened with CK3 loved my first few runs. I've also just loved playing games that I can attach stories/ meaning too - I used to love in TA:kingdoms the simple stats that single characters got for kills would level them up and i'd start to make up my own stories for them, esp if the characters were generally weaker units.

Great video! Another flame-based healer support is Millio, from League!

There are so many titles I want to add to your list of examples for different reasons, but the most important would probably be Piranha Bytes RPG's for their basic reactivity. All the way back in the original Gothic, it were the simple things - like the NPC's getting worried when you'd enter their house or draw a weapon in the middle of the street - that made all the difference in the immersiveness department. For a more modern example, RDR2 seems to be following a similar philosophy. Yet sadly, the fact that so many AAA RPG's still ignore those basics (even while obviously having the resources to implement the systems if they wanted to) kind of hints that it might be more of a conscious decision to dumb things down and cater to people who don't care about deeper immersion and storytelling