I'm really surprised that out of 276 comments, only one comment mentions that this is Jeff Vogel. I have enjoyed playing Jeff's games in the past, I think his games are beautiful. He's amazing as a game maker with all of his experience.
Truths about video game stories
291–300 of 337 posts
Re: Truths about video game stories
#292Many video games have very poor or bare plots, but amazing settings. In fact, I'm not sure that video games are actually good vehicles for plots. Video games are interactive, but all good plots require careful pacing and timing in order to be successful. It's possible to force this in a game, but the more you do, the more the game becomes an interactive movie. A great example would be Dark Souls: incredible setting,…
> not sure that video games are actually good vehicles for plots. Video games are interactive, but all good plots require careful pacing and timing in order to be successful. Video games are a great medium for plots! You just have to allow the plot to fail, and let the player take it on tangents. Games that go "uhh you died that's not canon let's rewind" are just shitty games.
> Games that go "uhh you died that's not canon let's rewind" are just shitty games.
That would be overwhelming majority of them. And overwhelming majority of players don't mind this aspect or even actively like it.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for posting this comment, I searched for sources on this topic after reading it and was very surprised to see corroboration. Here’s a quote and few links for those interested: In the US in 2019, a high % of adults reported reading a book recently https://www.markinblog.com/book-sales-statistics/ …who is reading in the US? In October of 2019, over 80% of adults, age 18 to 29, have read at least one book in the…
Did they count only paper books? I read on average one book each month, but all are digital. Overall I agree with the idea, people for sure haven't stopped reading books. But I'm not that sure about the paper ones.
I don't believe average person actually reads a book a month. There might be outliers who read a lot or something. It likely counts in bought and never read books. But most adults will openly tell you they finished last book five years ago and attempted to read one last year.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wolfestein or doom. The thing is, half life allowed exactly zero choice. So anything where you can go back or have a choice between opening left or right door is better in terms of player agency. In terms of showing rather then telling via text, almost anything has that aspect. Half life had very good graphics for the time. That is where it shined.
Half-Life has a bunch of player/story choices. Most of them small and inconsequential, I'll grant you, like the microwave incident, but Half-Life even ends on a meaningul story player choice - whether to accept the job proposal. Wolfenstein and Doom have literally zero story choices of any kind. Not even inconsequential ones! Clearly, Half-Life has superior story telling to Wolfenstein or Doom. Not by much, can be ar…
Half life is going through exactly determined road with no option to turn left or right. There were token decisions, but that is it, they were just covers.
In wolfesrwin, you could at least go back and had choice between left or right doors. Half life had only way to go - forward. It was like sitting on train moving on railroad.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overall sales might be up but are those sales making the head fatter, the tail fatter, or the tail longer ? For any individual writer without sales in the head, increased sales only matter if the tail gets fatter. They don't individually make any more money if it gets longer (more books by more writers).
As long as the writers are making enough money to produce their best output, the ideal situation is as long a tail as possible. The greater the variety of author, the greater the variety of books.
But that's the core issue. A long tail is good for Amazon and theoretically good for readers. It's not really helpful for writers. Any in the long tail are unlikely to ever pay back an advance and actually make money off sales let alone be making enough to produce their best output.
So total unit sales being up doesn't necessarily counter that statement "no one reads books anymore". Unit sales being "up" has a lot of qualifiers.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#296As I get older (40 y/o) I'm noticing that my video game taste is migrating from dont-think-just-shoot FPS towards well written RPGs (but still with some action, and not turn based rpg). Might be interesting to know i f this happens with everyone...
I'll get back to turn based RPGs once the industry stops going bonkers with random encounter frequency (or ditches random encounters altogether). It's ridiculous how The Last Sovereign, a lewd game made with RPG Maker is one of the few turn based games that got story and turn-based combat right.
TLS is just that good. But even it has some problems with combat, namely the over-reliance on hard-hitting enemies, so by the time you get your own stronghold your fights are all about juggling rez and nuke skills, or at least I couldn't make a party that could tank or cc well.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
What point and click/text adventures do you play?
This list is from my Steam library, however I haven't yet played all of them: - Deponia - The Detail - State of Mind - Black Mirror II - The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav - Disturbed - Earthshine - Edge of Reality - Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes - Fighting Fantasy Classics - The Forest of Doom - Jericho's Prophecies - Memoria - Mirt. Tales of the Cold Land - Scarlet Hollow - Episode 1 - Agatha Christie - The ABC Mur…
If the parent want a few more suggestions:
- Primordia
- Strangeland
- MachinariumRe: Truths about video game stories
#298Here 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…
Where is World of Warcraft in all of this :(
Arguably one of the largest story worlds of all. Almost endless lore and a game which resolves around story telling.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
This list is from my Steam library, however I haven't yet played all of them: - Deponia - The Detail - State of Mind - Black Mirror II - The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav - Disturbed - Earthshine - Edge of Reality - Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes - Fighting Fantasy Classics - The Forest of Doom - Jericho's Prophecies - Memoria - Mirt. Tales of the Cold Land - Scarlet Hollow - Episode 1 - Agatha Christie - The ABC Mur…
If the parent want a few more suggestions: - Primordia - Strangeland - Machinarium
Excellent, thank you! I've already played Machinarium and absolutely loved it but I've wishlisted the other two. Great suggestions!
Re: Truths about video game stories
#300Another truth is that you don't need a good story to achieve success. There are many successful games with no good story or no story at all.
The problem is that "games" is one word, but we really have two core types of game.
Some games focus on mechanical skills or rules akin to a sport or boardgame, others are an interactive narrative experience. This interactive experience can further be broken down into games that tell you what is happening (cinema), and games that let you make your own story (tabletop RPG).
So while there is a lot of crossover and blurred lines, of these types of game, only one type really needs a well written or scripted story to achieve its goals. We have many successful games with no story due to this, but other games wouldn't have succeeded without one.