Truths about video game stories
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Truths about video game stories
1–10 of 337 posts
Re: Truths about video game stories
#2> Good story isn't what gamers are after. Which is good, because they ain't gettin' it.
I emphatically disagree. Good story is what I'm after. Good story is what I've gotten. (Undertale, the Nier games, even Ocarina of Time has a very unique story-telling experience).
A game can tell a different type of story than a book or a movie - these stories are interactive, and involve an element of meta-narrative story-telling. What was that fight like? What was that choice like? Did the choice _feel_ meaningful? The story is told through these mechanisms rather than simply words on a page.
I very much agree that many players come to games for a carnal feeling. A release that comes from the ticking of boxes or completion of objectives, or the satisfaction from a skilled execution.
But these elements as well can contribute to a narrative experience (ex Undertale).
Really disagree with this article. Reminds me of those historical articles about movies being a worse version of the theatre and opera (which they were).
Re: Truths about video game stories
#3> Good story isn't what gamers are after. Which is good, because they ain't gettin' it. I emphatically disagree. Good story is what I'm after. Good story is what I've gotten. (Undertale, the Nier games, even Ocarina of Time has a very unique story-telling experience). A game can tell a different type of story than a book or a movie - these stories are interactive, and involve an element of meta-narrative story-tellin…
yeah I yearn for good story line, but I find myself putting up with weak ones.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#4This is quite an incredibly toxic and negative piece. There are countless games with great stories
The whole article feels like OP is upset about something behind the scenes and just had to rumble about it
Maybe it's even sarcasm, you never know nowdays
Re: Truths about video game stories
#5I remember all the press praising the original Half Life for its story. I was really surprised - it was the same story as all first person shooters going back to Doom:
Bad guys spawn across an inter-dimensional portal and start wreaking havoc. Protagonist has to kill them all, crossing the portal in the process to go destroy the alien leader.
There were some cool extra details - the G Man, the marines entering as a third force, the diversions to do things like launch a missile into space - but all of those things were additional to that same, basic story.
This author has it spot on: our standards for story telling in video games are really low.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#6Parents play video games as well as their kids. This never used to happen if we roll back to when Space Invaders was the latest and greatest.
Nowadays you can have the 50 year old dad spending his quality time in bed next to his wife blasting enemies with the teenage/student kids doing the same.
With another generation it will be the folks in retirement homes too.
With music you get stuck on the stuff you discovered and made your own. Into punk? Probably born way back in the 60s. Techno? 70s.
Will it be the same with games? The guy in the retirement home still playing World of Warcraft? Or that copy of Diablo that came out in 2003?
Story in video games therefore has to be good enough to not just last a week or a summer, but a lifetime.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#7> Good story isn't what gamers are after. Which is good, because they ain't gettin' it. I emphatically disagree. Good story is what I'm after. Good story is what I've gotten. (Undertale, the Nier games, even Ocarina of Time has a very unique story-telling experience). A game can tell a different type of story than a book or a movie - these stories are interactive, and involve an element of meta-narrative story-tellin…
yeah I yearn for good story line, but I find myself putting up with weak ones.
It's gotten to the point that I just don't buy or play new games from American or Japanese studios. It's too disappointing to pick up new releases of series that I've played for more than half my life (such as the Tales series) and find everything that made them great ripped out and replaced with consumerist trash that panders to the lowest common denominator.
China seems to be the only country that still has some original and compelling new games and stories being produced.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#8I remember all the press praising the original Half Life for its story. I was really surprised - it was the same story as all first person shooters going back to Doom: Bad guys spawn across an inter-dimensional portal and start wreaking havoc. Protagonist has to kill them all, crossing the portal in the process to go destroy the alien leader. There were some cool extra details - the G Man, the marines entering as a t…
While I think the bassic narrative skeleton of the story is important, what is equally important is the world building that comes with it.
If your game feels like traveling to an alternate dimension with vivid details and differences a lot about the story can be excused, because the player will eventually find their own story within your game.
If your story is great and the freefloating passages are dull and lifeless the story can be great but it will never a good game.
Why not both? A great gripping story in a believeable world.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#9> Good story isn't what gamers are after. Which is good, because they ain't gettin' it. I emphatically disagree. Good story is what I'm after. Good story is what I've gotten. (Undertale, the Nier games, even Ocarina of Time has a very unique story-telling experience). A game can tell a different type of story than a book or a movie - these stories are interactive, and involve an element of meta-narrative story-tellin…
Yeah: while there certainly exist people who don't care about the narrative elements of a game, that largely becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy more than anything else, as the audience and market for your products evolves to be the subset of people who like the things you build, which is not the same thing as "people in general like the things I build", and certainly the same as "everyone likes the thing I build". (A lot of software developers--and I think particularly designers--fall into this analysis trap of ignoring selection bias.)
The games that had the biggest impact on me were adventure games and role playing games that had deep stories written by people who knew how to blend intrigue and humor into an enjoyable experience of you living in the shoes of the main character. I play games without good narratives, but they have to be much better games to compensate, as a good story can make me ignore some pretty horrible mechanics. (I also play certain classes of puzzle and rhythm games where story is irrelevant, but those are a totally differently head space and don't compete for my time with other games.)
Re: Truths about video game stories
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah I yearn for good story line, but I find myself putting up with weak ones.
It's gotten to the point that I just don't buy or play new games from American or Japanese studios. It's too disappointing to pick up new releases of series that I've played for more than half my life (such as the Tales series) and find everything that made them great ripped out and replaced with consumerist trash that panders to the lowest common denominator. China seems to be the only country that still has some or…
I feel the opposite there are good story games coming from Japan still. Yakuza Like a Dragon, DQXI, Death Stranding. And FFXIV of course going stronger and stronger. Just a few from the recent years.