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Truths about video game stories

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Re: Truths about video game stories

#181

Post by setpatchaddress »

Tarsul wrote: post #173
bsd44 wrote: post #160

That's why I mostly play point&click adventure/rpg games and text adventures, because that genre can't really survive without a good story. I'm rarely disappointed and the games cost a fraction of what you would pay for a AAA title. Not that I don't like AAA, but every time I watch a gameplay video I get bored fairly quickly because I don't feel drawn to the game, it seems "same old, same old". Perhaps it's just me.…

I never played the Witcher but if Cyberpunk 2077 is anything to go by (same developer) I'm not surprised. At least for Cyberpunk the storytelling was not its strong part (neither were its bugs etc... but the visuals were, oh my.). I tried out Gamedec recently and that's an isometric RPG without fights. Which means reading and decisions. And of course great storytelling because without it the game would have basically…

I wouldn’t judge Witcher 3 based on Cyberpunk 2077. Very different experiences, systems, UI, everything.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#182

Post by swat535 »

aynsof wrote: post #5

I 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…

You can marginalize all stories this way because that’s the core of story writing.

There is always a villain , a protagonist and he goes through challenges to eventually defeat the villain. Finally he is a transformed man and returns home with the riches for society.

Sure there are some that deviate from the traditional plot but only very few of them succeed because to pull that off you have to be a master in story writing.

What makes a story great isn’t its uniqueness regarding the plot but having great character development, dialogue, depth and breadth of the environment, the correct use of things like midpoint, flashbacks, rising action and other devices to keep the audience engaged.

Making sure secondary characters contribute equally and help the protagonist grow is also important.

The truth is that making a great video game is an incredible effort as there needs to be a balance of everything such as great AI, graphics, etc and as I described above good story telling is already a massive undertaking.

Given the above , I’m not surprised many publishers cut corners because they are limited by time and budget

Re: Truths about video game stories

#183

Post by Hamuko »

Tarsul wrote: post #173
bsd44 wrote: post #160

That's why I mostly play point&click adventure/rpg games and text adventures, because that genre can't really survive without a good story. I'm rarely disappointed and the games cost a fraction of what you would pay for a AAA title. Not that I don't like AAA, but every time I watch a gameplay video I get bored fairly quickly because I don't feel drawn to the game, it seems "same old, same old". Perhaps it's just me.…

I never played the Witcher but if Cyberpunk 2077 is anything to go by (same developer) I'm not surprised. At least for Cyberpunk the storytelling was not its strong part (neither were its bugs etc... but the visuals were, oh my.). I tried out Gamedec recently and that's an isometric RPG without fights. Which means reading and decisions. And of course great storytelling because without it the game would have basically…

I quite enjoyed the story in Cyberpunk 2077. And there was quite a lot of lore to go with the story, so it actually felt like a lived-in world.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#184

Post by thriftwy »

shmde wrote: post #87

Here are some single player narrative/story driven games which are worth your time and money and also has decent to good storyline. The author seems way too salty over some games I think. - The Last of Us 1 & 2 ( Must play ) - RDR 1&2. ( 2 is must play ) - GTA IV - Mafia 2 - A Plague Tale: Innocence ( must play ) - Metro series. - Inside - Witcher 3 - A Way out ( needs 2 player ) - Night in the woods - Breath of the…

Star Control II and Alpha Centauri are on par with the best SF books out there. Vernor Vinge quality, I would say.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#185

Post by jjoonathan »

smoldesu wrote: post #177
platz wrote: post #175

When photography was invented, people judged it by how well it could compare to a painting, before discovering what made the medium unique. Video games are in a similar position, in which they are evaluated on 'story', which is how one evaluates movies. once we realize video games are not movies in terms of what effect they are supposed to produce, we will to be able to evaluate them on their own terms For example, m…

As John Carmack once said (I'm loosely paraphrasing here) "Stories in video games are like stories in porno: they're expected to be there, but never any good."

Well, that's definitely true of John Carmack's games...

Re: Truths about video game stories

#186

Post by Zababa »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #139
Zababa wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would personally classify interactive fiction closer to games, unless you count gamebooks in that, which I consider closer to books. There was also a movie where you get to get choices linked to Black Mirror that was popular recently, and a few people on youtube explored this by making different videos and letting you pick "what happens next". There's also the whole genre of visual novels, mostly from Japan. I'm no…

I would consider interactive fiction I’ve seen to be more like stories than games, mostly because the game mechanics part of them are often extremely thin(clicking).

Good point, I was perhaps too focused on how the story is consumed (a computer vs a book vs a screen) but that may not be the most important part.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#187

Post by dav_Oz »

Video games with its interactive possibilites possess a unique mechanic device which books or movies simply don't have. So, in a way stories in a game do not serve the same purpose.

And if you delve deep into literary theory itself; "stories" do not exist without its form. This dichotmoy is frankly quite misleading.

I personally prefer to use another vantage point for examining "video games" borrowed from the strucuralists: What is the difference (to other games)?

This quote from Viktor Shklovsky, a Russian Formalist, can be easily translated to the art form of "video games":

"And so, in order to return sensation to our limbs, in order to make us feel objects, to make a stone feel stony, man has been given the tool of art. The purpose of art, then, is to lead us to a knowledge of a thing through the organ of sight instead of recognition. By "enstranging" objects and complicating form, the device of art makes perception long and "laborious." The perceptual process in art has a purpose all its own and ought to be extended to the fullest. Art is a means of experiencing the process of creativity. The artifact itself is quite unimportant."

Re: Truths about video game stories

#189

Post by Zababa »

losvedir wrote: post #153
Zababa wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it really weird to judge a story on what it boils down to instead of on how it's delivered. Imagine you have two versions of a game. The first delivers its story by long cutscenes and a omniscient narrator. The second delivers its story with the environement and dialogues with the characters, with the playing having to piece everything together. Even if the "story" is the same, the second game has a better sto…

What the story is, and how it's told, are both important aspects to varying degrees to different people. This is the case with novels, too. For example, I love a good mindbending plot, and barely care how it's told. I can tolerate / enjoy hard scifi or fantasy with detailed magic systems, even if the writing is considered not great. To me, the Ciuxin Liu Three Body Problem series is one of the greatest of all time be…

I agree with you, what I was opposing was more the reductivist view of things like "Half life is just ...". You could do the same with the Three Body Problem series and it would absolutely fail to explain what's great about the series. First book: detective story mixed with historical events. Second book: smart guy vs other smart guy. Third book: history through the eyes of one person that was here at pivotal events.

The comment I replied to mentionned:

> 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.

I think it's wrong to separate a story between "a story" and "the details", all stories are the same if you boils them down enough.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#190

Post by DiggyJohnson »

smoldesu wrote: post #177
platz wrote: post #175

When photography was invented, people judged it by how well it could compare to a painting, before discovering what made the medium unique. Video games are in a similar position, in which they are evaluated on 'story', which is how one evaluates movies. once we realize video games are not movies in terms of what effect they are supposed to produce, we will to be able to evaluate them on their own terms For example, m…

As John Carmack once said (I'm loosely paraphrasing here) "Stories in video games are like stories in porno: they're expected to be there, but never any good."

I'm writing a book about Why We Play RuneScape, and this is especially true for the MMORPG genre. Great insight.
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