Story Telling and Video Gaming

[JJ Styles]

What God Carmack thinks though:

Plot, Narrative, Character development, Dialogue, Story telling, Social Commentary, Deep meaning. This are the elements that are now often associated with the modern video game especially in this current generation and ever ever since the dawn of time.

Video Games such as The Last of Us, The Bioshock series, The Witcher, The Metal Gear series, The Batman Arkham series, and many more have proven that they can deliver engaging stories while still delivering some top notch gameplay. The same can't be said by many other games however. Not all games are blessed with narrative gods to write their scripts, and some games with top notch gameplay are written off by critics because of a "weak story", often times being called "dumb but stupid fun" or something.

So, how important is it for you to have story and narrative to any video game especially in this current age? Is it really of that importance that you can easily get immersed in the game based on the story alone even if the gameplay is bland, or is it so important that if you realize that if a game has a bland or uninspiring story, you'd easily pass over it even with top-notch and appealing gameplay elements such as a fluid interaction system, great optimization, flawless flow of gameplay, great graphics that complement the atmosphere, blood, ultraviolence, and supermurder?

So a couple of questions to ask really:

So cite the importance of a good story for a video game according to your own perspective?
Do you think storytelling in a video game is alive, or it is slowly dying?
What genres of games you feel that story telling and narrative is at utmost importance, and vice versa, where or what genres of games where story telling is least important?

How important it is to have deep and meaningful characterizations and character development in a video game?

and who would you cite as great examples of characters and games with good stories and characterizations? (If you'd ask me, you'd bet Uranus who would I cite ^^)

and feel free to say your own sentiments about this particular "gameplay" element.

What do you feel is the future of story telling and narrative in video games? Or do you simply want for us to go back in the dark, edgy, and smexy ages were just ripping faces, shooting guns, swinging swords, and bathing ourselves in blood and guts are the only "narratives" that we only needed? (TLDR, LESS STORY TELLING, MORE F**KIN MURDERING!)

DEESCUS.

Complentary links:
Story Telling in Video games: How much is enough?
The Evolution of Story telling in video games

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I play the games FOR the story and Carmack's quote is absolute BS imo. =D
Though, I get where he comes from. It does make sense for action/shooter genre of games.

But... I started playing for the story in games and I don't plan to stop. Fortunately, weeb games will always serve story so I don't need to care about running out of games.

 

[Vendily]

For me, while story is great and a good story helps me choose between two similar games, it's not that important to me, so long that the gameplay is smooth.
My first game system was the NES and I lost almost all of the manuals to the games, which is where all the story is. So while the games might hint at a plot, I stayed for the gameplay. Like this run and gun game I had. I never had the manual to the game and it was annoying trying to teach myself controls, but my brother and I had way more fun just trying to press as far as possible in the co-op mode to bother about why we were invading military bases.
Another example is Mario Party DS, because I know for a fact it has a story. My friends and I don't play it for the story (except to unlock stuff) we played for the minigames and trying not to get hit by the guy you pissed off by stealing his star/item. Fun.

 

[Sir Codin]

Maddox made an excellent video about this subject:



One of the biggest reasons why I like Dark Souls is that it's primarily focused on being a fun game, with story being there but not shoehorned into your face. That's something I expect in most games, with the exception of pure RPGs.

 

[JJ Styles]

I actually find it funny that even though I posted that very famous quote from John Carmack regarding story in a video game, when they made Doom 3, it ended up having this overly serious story that pretty much harmed the charm that they originally made for the Doom series. Then again, I don't know what God Carmack was on when they made that game in the first place anyway. Running around with this flashlight crap, the Doom marine in that game not being a killing machine instead just acting like a muscular version of Isaac Hayes, the absence of tongue-in-cheek humor...

then again, the Marine in Doom 3 is not the Doomguy that we all know and love. He's just a marine. A scaredy cat of a Marine.

I've made my own sentiments regarding story in dialogue before, but those are something buried in other threads :( let me find them.

 

[ZetaZaku]

There's a time and place for everything. It really depends on the genre and the type of game. I don't get why people usually complain about "movie" games like Quantic Dream and Telltale games, since those are marketed as such and they are just about the story. They do reach a point where they're barely even considered games, as both companies' games are essentially interactive movies rather than adventure games, but they pretty much are something like a new genre, just like visual novels. At the same time I don't get people that complain about stories in hack and slash games, where the entire point is to kill things and have fun. I certainly didn't play DmC or any DMC for the plot and character, since the games don't offer good plot and character, but they do offer fun hack and slashing. Well, maybe the later three more than the first two.

 

[pkmin3033]

Like many things, I think the importance of story and narrative will depend on the title in question, and the reasons you're playing it. The quote provided by Carnack is extraordinarily narrow-minded and speaks of only a single demographic: the people who play for online multiplayer and not much else. Even then, it doesn't necessarily hold true as titles like Halo, which are primarily multiplayer experiences, have critically acclaimed single-player campaigns that are hugely important to the experience for a lot of people. In short, it's absolute bollocks, and he clearly has no idea what he's talking about.

I think in some cases, no matter how good the gameplay is, the game NEEDS some sort of narrative to carry it through and make it a memorable experience; it needs that reinforcement to justify the hours you're going to put into it. I enjoyed every second I spent exploring Mira in Xenoblade Chronicles X at the time, for example, but the story for the game was just so bad that I came away feeling extremely bitter, because it was utterly pointless: I didn't get anything out of it in the end. It felt like wasted time, even though it was enjoyable. There was no reason to really do anything; no reason was offered. Fun for fun's sake will only carry you so far, especially with certain types of games: it's all about the presentation, and the genre. The importance of the narrative in a title will depend upon how that title is marketed: for an RPG

In these cases, the narrative is a part of the experience; it's part of the world. Otherwise you get a miserably empty title that you're exploring just for the sake of it and, whilst that is a perfectly valid way to play the game, for some games I personally wouldn't care for it; I'd want something to explore, a reason to play. You can make the world as big as you want, if it doesn't have any depth to it then it's utterly pointless. Giving the game a story, even if it's just a set of smaller character quests, is the most effective way in which to do that.

Narrative is one of the primary tools for rewarding players for persevering and progressing through a game; the more you do, the more you learn. The more you want to learn. In any game with a narrative I think this holds true - even when it is hidden or downplayed, like it is in the Souls series, or even in stage-based titles. Even when it's as banal as it is in some of the Dynasty Warriors titles (the crossover universe titles; Gundam, Dragon Quest, Hyrule Warriors, etc spring to mind here) it's still a way of immersing the player in the experience. Narrative is a great way of encouraging exploration beyond just playing through a title too; it gives you a further reason to delve into the world, and it enhances your experience. If you don't care for it, you can skip it, but just because a game is more focused on gameplay than narrative does not mean that narrative should be omitted. The Souls games and the Metroid Prime titles have a ridiculous amount of lore you can choose to explore if you so wish. Even just the act of talking to NPCs in any game gives the world an added dimension too; it shows you how people are reacting to things; it gives perspective, even if it's unimportant. Hell, party banter or overheard dialogue can serve the same role. It makes things more relatable; it adds dimension and depth to the cast, it makes you react and it makes you take note. If you choose to pay attention to it. If you don't that's fine, but just because you don't doesn't mean it isn't a part of the experience either.

Personally, I will never accept the idea that narrative is unimportant in any game that features characters that interact with one another in it. Regardless of how that game may market itself and what you may play it for. It may not be important to you personally, and it might be shoehorned in, it might be banal information you could do without or that seemingly contributes nothing to the main narrative, it might be cringeworthy and pathetic, and you might even think it detracts from the experience. But it reinforces and enhances the overall tone of the game, expands upon the lore, and makes it a more immersive experience. The option to skip cutscenes or ignore it should be there for games that aren't marketed as story-driven, yes. But it should always be there.

 

[Sir Codin]

I would like to point out that the quote provided by Carmack is more of a descriptor of idSoft's general game design philosophy.

They're focused on making a fun game first and if a story comes later, meh. Which is precisely what game designers should be doing. I don't give a fuck about the story if the overall game is not fun to play or engaging in any way. Because otherwise it becomes more of an interactive movie than a game. I truly do believe that "I play video games for their stories" is one of the worst things anyone calling themselves a gamer could possibly say, because it encourages the cutscene problem.

 

[JJ Styles]

Omigosh, the cutscene problem. Okay hold your forks, spoons, salt canisters and shotguns people. I got something to say about this..

As far as I can tell, I have no problem with the integration of gameplay and story since as mentioned by me those delicious credible (sort of) sources that I read, we've already had games with excelsor gameplay and decent to even epic stories.. Hideo Godjima.. how could we live without you..

However, I remember MGS4 having the infamous cutscene problem were there were so many scenes in the game that could have been FAR FAR better as gameplay sections than cutscenes. We get it Godjima.. you want YOUR GAMES to be taken quite seriously with your epic directing and narrative, but some of your MGS4's cutscenes being far longer than they should for the sake of story-telling kinda triggered me a bit. And continuing with something that I definitely have even more personal experience with.. METAL GEAR RISING had so many scenes that i wished were actual gameplay elements, like that scene were Raiden fights a couple of Jet Fighter Drones... I wanted THAT to be something to partake on.. when i first saw it, i was so hyped, but it turns out.. CINEMATICS

But I don't think the issue with cutscenes should be discussed here since i think that's a different element altogether. then again, i may be wrong. Damn wrong.

Anyway, i'll provide my first sentiment. I have a feeling this thread will explode soon.

1) I love story telling in a video game, especially in an Action game as long as the "Action" is much there and the story telling is kept at a moderately decent pace. There's nothing more worse to me than having a game were many of the best scenes that could have been great and fun gameplay sections are just epic cutscenes and to compensate, we get a section that's more annoying.. MGRR, I'm looking at you though, but then, MGRR is one of my most faved games at this day in age.

2) I'll probably cite a couple of games that i believe mixes well with the meta. Hold your horses people.

3) And to those who might be thinking: I'm not against any of the games mentioned that are known for their great story telling. Just a heads up.

4) Oh and a gaming genre that i believe REALLY needs a decent story alongside great gameplay? -> REAL TIME STRATEGY GAMES. Just a heads up. I can't emphasize how a very well written story is such an important aspect in an RTS aside from the core gameplay. I'll add more to this in a next post. But believe me, if most RTS games didn't have a decent story to back them up, I wouldn't exactly play them and just play some Chess Master 4000, then again, that's turn based so i dunno what the heck I'm giggling about. But I'm dead serious on Story + Gameplay mattering so much on RTS... speaking of RTS.. i think it has already entered the "endangered species" list, which i should rant about in a different topic.

 

[Enpatsu Shakugan]

One of my favorite things about the Assassin's Creed series isn't the actual story (it's pretty convoluted, as is any franchise forced to go on forever invariably become), but its meta take on the fact it's a video game.

In the first games, you play as Desmond Miles, who is also, in a sense, playing the same video game as you are; the HUD and controls are in-universe true to Desmond. When he exits the Animus (ie, video game), the HUD vanishes and they even come up with excuses to explain the controllable camera on him.

And that is the most creative aspect of the games, by far, even without Desmond as your avatar. Stuff like that could never work in anything but a video game, and I find it very entertaining and even amusing.

I feel this is why video games have the most unique chance to explore new ways of storytelling. The medium is just so ripe with possibilities. It's not bound by the same rules of writing, visual, etc. It's a new form of storytelling, and I hope more began utilizing its potential even more.