“if dialogue can be skipped in games,
then why not combat?”
I cant help but wonder if perhaps another question should be asked, that if ANY element of a game can be skipped without
effect then why is it in the game at all?
When combat is totally meaningless
wanting to skip it is not only fine, but the rational
response.*
Any time I play a game and see a
character hacked down in combat one minute, and up good as new
spouting his life story the next, my heart sinks a little. It just
seems sloppy devaluing both the gameplay and the story, and gets
progressively more jarring more strictly delineated a game places
these elements.
It just seems so limiting, I need to
see more if I ever want this to stop skipping from being a rational choice for me.
What about companion npc's who are in danger when I enter
combat? or characters who expressed themselves through actions as
well as words? Perhaps even combat paced to allow for moments of calm
where dialogue can occur.
These don't seem like they should be unreasonable hopes, there
are already great examples in both traditional narrative media (such
as films and tv) and in games themselves.
