Truths about video game stories • Hacker News Board

Re: Truths about video game stories

#61

Post by Toutouxc » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:26 AM UTC

ChrisKnott wrote: post #51

Toutouxc wrote: post #47

How exactly are Raiders of the Lost Ark or Breaking Bad storylines better than those of the first Mafia, The Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Half-Life 2 + episodes? And I'm not even mentioning artistic pieces like What Remains of Edith Finch or Life is Strange. There are quests in The Witcher 3 you could make a movie from (Bloody Baron).

Are you really suggesting Uncharted 4 has as good a story as Breaking Bad?

Well Breaking Bad is a series and Uncharted 4 is a pretty short, intense ride, so it's a little apples to oranges comparison, but if I compare the first season of Breaking Bad (the only one I've seen) to Uncharted 4, which are both a few hours worth of entertainment, I don't remember the storyline of Breaking Bad being any more intricate or innovative, I mean, terminal patient does questionable things with an unlikely sidekick with expected results.

Of course I may be entirely wrong, it's been some time, but I remember both leaving a similar impression on me.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#62

Post by worrycue » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:27 AM UTC

nosianu wrote: post #26

I have not played any computer game in over more than a decade, but I played a lot earlier. Anyway, what I did for a while - not recently due to a lack of good targets - is watch Youtube "playthrough no commentary" videos (and with story-less gameplay parts heavily cut out). That's usually 4-6 hours of game movie . The Last of Us was good, but the very top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play compl…

> top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play completely - was Horizon Zero Dawn

I watched people play it to the end - mostly. I played it when it came out on PC - never completed it; the combat didn’t work for me.

Personally I think it has a cool sci-fi premise but that’s it. I found the characters … stiff, shallow, and pretty cliché. Aloy is yet another messianic player character that we have seen a billion times. Apart from the enigmatic main villain - which is yet another well worn trope - all the side characters feel pretty 2 dimensional.

I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity.

I don’t know why exactly the “diversity” in modern stories bug me so much but I never had a problem with Star Trek. Maybe it’s the egalitarian in me, modern stories seem to have an emphasis on differentiating people by their ethnicity and background while Star Trek promoted the view that all people regardless of ethnicity or background be treated as peers - where you stand on your own merits as an individual.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#63

Post by yobert » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:27 AM UTC

I feel like the author has missed some important games, like Star Control 2 and Final Fantasy 7.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#64

Post by rootlocus » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC

jsiepkes wrote: post #20

haunter wrote: post #4

This 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

> This is quite an incredibly toxic and negative piece The author might have a negative take on things and you might not like the article but to brand the article as "incredibly toxic" is a bit of a hyperbole.

The title is "Sx truths", meaning there's no room for argument, interpretation or nuance. It's not his opinion, they're not observations, they are truths. That sets the tone for a strongly opinionated point of view, that ultimately failed to provide suficient proof for most of its examples, making it a rant.

And rants are fine, but trying to present it as the profound observations of a veteran with 20 something years of wisdom that shits on everyone's favourites without many arguments ("The Last of Us [...] having a story as good as a medium-quality zombie movie" is not an argument) comes of as toxic.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#65

Post by EdwardDiego » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:31 AM UTC

Toutouxc wrote: post #47

How exactly are Raiders of the Lost Ark or Breaking Bad storylines better than those of the first Mafia, The Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Half-Life 2 + episodes? And I'm not even mentioning artistic pieces like What Remains of Edith Finch or Life is Strange. There are quests in The Witcher 3 you could make a movie from (Bloody Baron).

There was a story to Kingdom Come: Deliverance that went beyond "my parents were killed by baddies, and luckily I was recognised as a badass because of the plot, now I'm going to become more of a badass, and kill all the Cumans?"

Re: Truths about video game stories

#66

Post by ycombinete » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:33 AM UTC

DeathArrow wrote: post #14

Another 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.

I like the John Carmack quote:

"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."

Re: Truths about video game stories

#67

Post by watwut » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:35 AM UTC

powersnail wrote: post #53

watwut wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's quite plainly saying, that he's mediocre, but because everyone else is bad, he's great. Why is this bad thing to say? If he thinks this is true, then it is OK to say it. And earning money making games is actual achievement - most indie game makers are in financial loss and that is it. Someone who make small profit is exactly people who can say the above.

Because not everyone else is bad? It's not like he's the only one writing stories for games that make a profit. I mean it's fine to like your own achievement. Nothing wrong with that. But he's certainly not successful enough to be so cocky as to detract everyone else's work (and again, he did so without much evidence or elaboration).

Yes he is successful enough to definitely have right to voice opinion on industry state or criticise it. We are talking about notoriously difficult market to succeed in.It would be absurd to expect him to be only one who ever earned profit in order to comment on quality of stories - both his own and other peoples.

And frankly, playing a game once is enough to give you right to criticism that game story. Playing a couple of popular games gives you right to comment on popular games stories.

"I am not too good and I am still succeeding because bar in this aspect is low" is incredibly fair thing to say. It might be too self depreciating for some people's taste, but we should not require everyone to brag and exaggerate own skills each time they want to comment on something.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#68

Post by marvinvz » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:39 AM UTC

worrycue wrote: post #62

nosianu wrote: post #26

I have not played any computer game in over more than a decade, but I played a lot earlier. Anyway, what I did for a while - not recently due to a lack of good targets - is watch Youtube "playthrough no commentary" videos (and with story-less gameplay parts heavily cut out). That's usually 4-6 hours of game movie . The Last of Us was good, but the very top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play compl…

> top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play completely - was Horizon Zero Dawn I watched people play it to the end - mostly. I played it when it came out on PC - never completed it; the combat didn’t work for me. Personally I think it has a cool sci-fi premise but that’s it. I found the characters … stiff, shallow, and pretty cliché. Aloy is yet another messianic player character that we have seen a…

While I agree on your general point about "diversity" in games I'm pretty sure HZD was before that topic became an issue.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#69

Post by EdwardDiego » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:41 AM UTC

imbnwa wrote: post #16

I wanna know what quality of zombie movie this guy is watching that The Last of Us is somehow beneath them. The only zombie movie worth a damn this century is 28 Days Later. The Last of Us Part II was an even more amazing story, I literally was saying NO at the penultimate scene on the beach. The franchise is so well done HBO is adapting it.

I'm one of those weirdos who thinks 28 Weeks Later was artistic genius, and that's a hill I'm willing to die on - all those people dying to save an asymptomatic carrier because he's a kid?

Entirely plausible and tragic.

Re: Truths about video game stories

#70

Post by ajuc » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 9:41 AM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #40

I think the author is right that games generally have poor, or poorly executed stories, and even great stories need to be squeezed into the game play box (e.g. his "ends with bang"-trope.) But I also feel like the author misunderstands how the medium can elevate a story: "Old mans Journey" was critized for having too simple puzzles, but it is not a puzzle game. It's a story, where a few simple puzzles gives you time…

Yes. It's like saying stories in opera are worse than in novels because dialogues in opera aren't realistic and the story is too short :)

You have to play to the strengths of the medium. The less defined the story is the more freedom players have. It's a design tradeoff that makes stories in games different, and they should be judged based on these different media constraints.