A proof of sense

There’s a thread on Q23 discussing the possibility of Valve working on a mmorpg based on the world of Half-Life. Now what interests me isn’t directly that discussion but a comment that stusser wrote:

stusser:
Besides, valve is going in the exact opposite way. Half-life2 isn’t about immersing the player in the world. It’s about immersing the player in the narrative. That’s why they put so much work into facial gestures and movement, to aid the suspension of disbelief. It’s the kind of technology suited to handcrafted lovingly designed content meant to experienced at a discrete moment for maximum penetration, which certainly doesn’t describe a PSW.

My comment:

“In fact HL2 would be PvE.”

If you think about it and revert the perspective you could see what I mean. Instead of thinking whether Half-Life would be appropriate for a mmorpg or not, think from the perspective of the mmorpgs and the flaws or weaknesses of the PvE. Now go back to reread what susser wrote. Isn’t what he describes exactly what the PvE misses at this moment?

I think so.

This ties back with many things I wrote, my ideal separation between PvP and PvE (some references here and here) and all the other discussions about the instancing.

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