Could you give some examples? I am not sure if I grasp what you are saying fully. To me, for example, Powerhouse is a good map. Plays well enough and fun can be had there. However, there are just bits of the map that are pure fluff. Rock garden is this weird bit of the map for me because it feels like it shouldn't be as 'deep' an area as it is. There are trees there, much like those in Boardwalk, whose sole function is seemingly to obstruct player's vision in some way.
I'd much prefer function over form when it comes to MP maps. Condemned does this right I feel. The easthetics change and there is a lot there visually, but the visuals never obstruct gameplay, or so it feels that way to me.
Is that a good stab at what you were saying?
Yea like you know Ok so theres like a painting you can look at it and you can enjoy that. That would be like traditional art. Then you have your grandpa who used to tell you really long stories that you hated and didn't appreciate when you were young. Then theres baseball that you were forced to play as a kid and just lost on purpose so you could get your snowcone and go back home.
Theres like ART, STORYTELLING and some PHYSICAL INTERACTION all in a video game. The only problem is with a game you don't really stare at it like a piece of art, but the artists do. You don't really sit there and listen to it but the game directors need to put all these levels and images together and tell a story. You do interact a lot with it though, like when I play I don't just walk somewhere stare at the images for awhile and move to the next part of the map. If I wanted to do that I would just go drive somewhere and look at stuff.
I do PLAY the game though and I want that part emphasized. What it looks like is almost irrelevant. H2 maps were terribly graphically inferior to H3, Reach, and H4 but we still think H2's maps were great. Thats because playability is the most important thing. How the game works.
All these "OH SHIT THATS COOL" decisions (Zero G isn't even cool Unreal Tournament and Quake did it way better) are just fluff in a game and often times at the expense of the Interactive part.
I dunno I'm rambling.
