{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"Rainbow Dash Network","provider_url":"http:\/\/rainbowdash.net\/","type":"link","title":"Narwhal (narwhal)'s status on Sunday, 27-Sep-15 02:07:28 UTC","author_name":"Narwhal (narwhal)","author_url":"http:\/\/rainbowdash.net\/narwhal","url":"http:\/\/rainbowdash.net\/notice\/3993133","html":"@metaltao<\/span><\/a><\/span> Oh yeah, I was talking almost exclusively about the writing and design of the game. That's what I meant about "modernizing", placing it a frame understandable by broad audiences of the time at its release. It's not an inherently wrong thing to do, if anything attempting to acknowledge and understand your audience can heighten your media, and aesthetically 2014 Thief fits in with the series alright (Victorian era magical steampunk with a tinge of gothic influence) but the game's graphics are sort of extraneous here and it's the little details that give it away. It's the character writing (or lack thereof), the need for archetypal frameworks as structural reminders instead of sharp self-critique, and oversimplified for the sake of lionizing the player level designs that set the new Thief apart from the early instalments as a "modernized without identity" work."}