As for making the party seem bangin', I'm not sure how possible that even is with the tools they have. Those real parties you talk about are only fun because of physical intoxication, loud kinetic music, liberating bodily movement, and sexual energy palpable in the air. I don't know that you can really simulate any of those feelings with a cutscene. Even if they tried to show characters wildly dancing or the like, it would just look comical. A stone-cold sober person sitting still in a chair looking at pixels on a screen is never going to evoke the kind of exhilaration response of a real party. I don't remember ever seeing an exciting party in any video game. It's always just gonna be NPCs standing around waiting to deliver some unconvincing dialogue about how much fun they're having, isn't it?
I have to admit that is where I run up against my own limitations. The difficulty with video games is that while they are not as passive as traditional mediums such as film and literature they are still incredibly static. Everything is hovering in an animation loop awaiting player interaction. I don't have even the beginning of a solution to this. I am simply hopeful that my limitations are personal and that someone more clever than I can discover a solution to that which I can only see the deficiencies.
That is why I entrusted you my proxy plus one Snake Lady. You are far more clever than me though we share similar passions and perspectives. I haven't bothered to keep track of the times I have framed a response only to find you beat me to it. Hopefully someone out there will surprise us both
I appreciate the compliments, DS. You're in my top five around here. For some other good posts, check out Braxton, alice_ashpool, Sharp, and Niara. They're the rest of my favorites, along with you.
