This seems like a somewhat adequate time to ask for storytelling advice. I'm willing to embrace the exhortation to do the storytelling right, without reservation, but how do people actually develop good, or great, skills at it?
Truths about video game stories
91–100 of 337 posts
Re: Truths about video game stories
#92I think the author is absolutely right that the standard for "good story" in games is incredibly low. Games are an immature medium that got catapulted into the mainstream on its other strengths (as challenge/sport/attractive gizmo) and not as art.
Unfortunately most of the current audience for games (particularly the vocal part) are people that were attracted by these aspects. I was definitely attracted by the technical feat/ingenious gizmo aspect. If you look at the way games have traditionally been reviewed, you can see that this aspect is incredibly important. These people tend to get upset at articles like this and overreact by claiming that the art aspects of their favourite games are better than they actually are.
That said, there are still the green shoots of an incredible artistic medium here and there. I am always on the lookout for things, however crude/I'm-14-and-this-is-deep they are, if they could only have been done in games.
Uncharted is a decent action adventure, probably as good as something like Jurassic World, but it could have been done in film.
Something like Journey, Her Story, Brothers etc, have aspects that could only have been done in games. They make (fairly crude) artistic points, in an intrinsically interactive way.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?"
Yes. My parents (and almost everyone in our village) were killed by baddies hired by someone for some political reason, I was recognized as a lame illiterate nobody and was only reluctantly accepted to serve under a master of regional importance, who is pursuing his own political goals (and has a special connection to me through something) and making the most of the difficult situation of the kingdom. I was sent on s…
Is it just me or it really sound completely standard plus backstories for side characters? I mean, the story can be well executed without it being super original. But what you described here is one of super standard fantasy plots.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#94I guess 'The Lord of the Rings' is a bad story then? After all it is exactly the kind of story this person is complaining about...
It was a good story at the time; it created a genre and is indirectly responsible for many, many great works. If it was created today, it’d be a generic high fantasy work.
It would be generic high fantasy work maybe because it literally defined all the codes of this genre.
Blame everyone else who came after Tolkien.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 cou…
Self-deprecating is the opposite of the article. The article “self”-deprecated others in the industry on their behalves. Of course he has the right to comment on whatever he likes to. I’m not suggesting that anyone should take away his freedom of speech. I was merely criticizing the quality of his criticism.
But you ended up taking offense on a single sentence where he says his own writing is not good enough for cheap fantasy novel.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Stories in opera are worse than in novels. Good opera is usually paired with woefully poor story. The whole point of the story is to provide basic context to the songs. Consider Turandot. The story is bad to the point of being objectionable, and whatever is left verges on gibber. And yet, without it, a song like Ho una casa nell'Honan is lessened because there has to be at least some reason to care about why this guy…
But that's the point. What makes a story good for one medium makes it bad for other. So it's not fair to compare them abstracting from the medium.
You can still have better and worse stories withing given medium, and you can compare them between media if you insist, but you have to separate the inherent trade-offs from real quality differences.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#97Nothing beats The Last of Us story for me (it’s why it became PlayStation game of the decade). The Last of Us Part II spoils you even further, there isn’t anything else close to the level of detail and story telling that Naugthy Dog has done here. “It’s a rollercoaster thrill ride which lasts like 20 hours and leaves you scarred for the rest of your days. 10/10” FYI HBO and creators of Chernobyl have picked up The La…
Yes last of us is amazing to watch.
But the game never starts. Your basically navigating cut scenes on rails.
Same can be said for cod campaigns and Titanfall. Hell titanfall 1 was multi-player only and it still has a story spawning Apex Legends
Re: Truths about video game stories
#98I 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…
As opposed to what? The average superhero story that Hollywood has been milking for 20 years now?
Compare videogames not to great literature but to popular culture.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Well to me it's toxic when it opens with the achievements (being successful in the business for 27 years) then shits on the whole industry and their own customers (treat your own players as idiots) in a holier than thou attitude. Just very bitter.
Well I am also from the game industry and that is how we actually treat players.
Most important players are are called "whales". They have money and no self control. The industry is always targeting them. We spend sometimes months looking at numbers just to increase the spending margin of those players, usually 90% of players are "idiots" because they don't spent more than necessary.
And we focus on the other 10% that have diminished mental capacity for self control or other issues that would hinder their self control. If they are not addicted to our product, they will get addicted to a competitors product anyway.
Re: Truths about video game stories
#100I'm surprised this article has no mention of things like visual novels which are generally considered video games, but pretty much work just like novels.
Also, Trails in the Sky (and the trails series in general) have a pretty solid story.