By playing Thief, are you saying something about yourself?. - by thelostsoul
thelostsoul on 14/9/2006 at 01:54
Why are you playing Thief, is it just because you like the game or is there more to it than that. I've played most of the latest games, Prey, Doom3, Quake4 etc, but i keep coming back to play Thief 1 and 2 Fm's. Why is that, its not for the graphics, so it must be for the format and style of gameplay. Does playing Thief actually tell you something about who you are as a person. Is it because you want to be like Garrett, or in fact you are like Garrett, or is it you want just to escape from the real world for a while. Maybe i am going a bit to deep with this, after all it's only a game, isn't it.
Thoughts?.
Garriath on 14/9/2006 at 03:07
What I love about the Thief series is really how it changed how computer games are played. Just about all the games nowadays are about violence- not necesarily a bad thing, but quite a bit of violence. Some games do a nice job of making the violence interesting; others don't. But Thief takes this 'violence' and makes it seem very crude, instead, as Constantine himself says, you're not a thief, you're an artist. There's also that the suspense you're feeling is from yourself- it's you hiding in the shadows when the enemy passes by, rather than an ugly demon waiting to scare the crap out of you.
I don't think it really has anything to do with having an 'inner thief' inside me. I just love the entire way the games are set up- you're the one in charge, you define how you play your game.
Having fascinating plots, great cutscenes, and a brilliant main character doesn't hurt either :p .
june gloom on 14/9/2006 at 03:34
i think there's a few things that draw me into thief.
having played deus ex long before i ever played thief, i find thief's gameplay a breath of fresh air- i'd been wanting a game with stealth in the way DX did it for a long time.
i love stealth, but i am very picky about my stealth games. i piss all over splinter cell, and the hitman games bore me- but i have nothing but love for metal gear and thief. i don't know, maybe something about the storylines grab me more than the others do.
another thing i like is the setting. let me say this up front: i hate fantasy. i can't stand it. especially "high" fantasy. but thief manages to give me a compelling world that combines medieval fantasy, an interesting mixture of modern and outmoded dialects, some rather modern technology (electricity and whatnot) with what ultimately is a mix between renaissance (sp? too lazy to check) and victorian architecture, with some very modern concepts here and there as well. a good example would be the first city bank and trust- very modern, if you consider "modern" to be the 1920s or so before they invented bullet-proof glass. or take life of the party: big medieval spires rising to the skies contrast with otherwise modern, flat roofs, the kind you didn't see until the rise of modern cities in the past 150 years or so. my criteria for liking something that's fantasy is if they've invented the fucking steam engine or not. in a word: steampunk.
also, i don't know, there's a bit of a voyeuristic thrill in it all too, the way you sneak into peoples' homes and can watch them go about their lives, never knowing that you're there- and if you're any good, neither do the guards. leaning forward and swiping loot while their back is turned, waiting until they leave the room then picking open that chest, etc.
another thing that's a big plus for me is aesthetics, especially anything involving light. (i've sometimes considered becoming a lighting specialist.) thief at times is very noirish, in the way that it actually defaults to darkness instead of light, rather than the other way around like other games where a lazy mapper will leave his map in fullbright rather than create shadows. one good example is the front of the cathedral, with the three big spotlights shining up the facade- which serves to highlight the almost sinisterness of the building and its contents.
nomad of the pacific on 14/9/2006 at 03:42
Quote:
Originally posted by thelostsoul:after all it's only a game, isn't it.
~s:a:n:i:t:y~ on 14/9/2006 at 09:36
Including Garret. When playing and re-playing Thief, I equate myself more with Garret's guardian angel than Garret himself, though I do not use 3rd person view.... It is rather hard to explain and I doubt I would succeed explanation anyway :p . I feel responsible for whatever harm done to Garret, and when it is done, the blame is on me, but the burden of every victory, small or big, lies on Garret's shoulders, I never consider it my job. It's like I'm bount to guard him and he, guarded, goes on with his missions safely...
Does it make any sense? :)
Poison Ivy on 14/9/2006 at 13:04
My story is somewhat different. I have no idea when it is I've started behaving all thiefsy and sneaking up on people, hiding in dark corners, etc., except that it all started pretty early in my childhood. You could even say I was naturally predisposed to Thief, because already as an infant I once nicked a pair of mismatched shoes from a store, a little folding chair, and kept nicking toys from other children when I was taken to visit them. XDDDD
Later, I never looked for anything resembling a stealth game, because I had no idea such a thing could exist. I played the regular stuff - Hexen, Betrayal at Krondor and the first Heroes in the late 90's. Eventually the games evolved, of course, and I was soon playing Black & White, Morrowind, etc.... I'm pretty much a sucker for fantasy.
And one day, early the past spring, my dad handed me a CD he bought and said, "Here, you're bound to like it." I silently agreed with him after one glance at the dark figure on the cover, surrounded by a patchwork of green light and darkness, and a shrewd-looking, jagged title - Thief: Deadly Shadows.
And like it I did. After an hour or so of playing passed, my dad had to literally pull me away from the computer so that I would start homework.
So with me, I'd say the inner thief element is pretty much there. Now I'm on a quest for the first and second Thief games... Old games, as I have found out, are terribly difficult to purchase nowadays... And it's often the old games that are the best.
Random_Taffer on 14/9/2006 at 16:13
Quote Posted by ~s:a:n:i:t:y~
Including Garret. When playing and re-playing Thief, I equate myself more with Garret's guardian angel than Garret himself, though I do not use 3rd person view.... It is rather hard to explain and I doubt I would succeed explanation anyway :p . I feel responsible for whatever harm done to Garret, and when it is done, the blame is on me, but the burden of every victory, small or big, lies on Garret's shoulders, I never consider it my job. It's like I'm bount to guard him and he, guarded, goes on with his missions safely...
Does it make any sense? :)
Absolutely. Like you're telling him what to do and where to go and if you lead him wrong it's your fault.
Ever play T1 or T2?
KurtC on 14/9/2006 at 17:37
I like this game ,cause when i played Thief TDP, for first time was somethign new for me ,i was use to play games like doom ,RE and others where u just go and kill everything u see, but Thief was different ,the stealth ,the missions ,the ambient ,the dark ,well i loved this game ,sometimes i can hear that sound when i walk alone in the night hehe, i wish i cpould play Theif TDP again ><, i cant find it anywhere.
T-Smith on 14/9/2006 at 18:40
I've said this before, but I play Thief because it's so different. The majority of other games out there are linear, loud, simple, and you've always defending yourself from enemies or attackers. For instance, in horror games, you're afraid of what is around the corner, or in the darkness.
Thief is different because in it, you ARE what's in the darkness. You're what people warn their children about, the boogie man so to speak, lurking in the shadows, watching the every move of the citizens of The City. Just imagine yourself in the position of one of those people. Walking down the streets then for a split second, you think you see something, then it's gone. Imagine how paranoid you'd be, how freaked. In other games like FEAR, you're the one who walks down the dar lane, freaking as you think you notice something in the corner of your eye. In Thief, you're what's causing the freaking.
I also play it because it's intelligent, and more than anything, fun. The game gives you a lot of freedom in how you move about, deal with objectives, the order of objectives, the tools you use. You aren't told what to do and how to do it. You're simply told what the end result has to be. You get to decide how you get there.
