Home Gaming Video Games: a storytelling craft that still needs to be mastered

Video Games: a storytelling craft that still needs to be mastered

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Games these days employ writers to oversee their entire world, history and characters. In effect, the writers could have a huge amount of control over the playground, the experience in which players engage. That’s a huge responsibility!

Of course, not every game has a team of writers assigned to it. Many AAA games achieve amazing sales with hardly any real writing. Let’s be honest, the longest lasting narrative of a video game is about a stereotypical Italian plumber saving his girlfriend from a dragon… thing.

But why is this? Why do many games that have terrible narrative or even atmosphere, gain critical and commercial acclaim? What makes other games like Bioshock 1 such a detailed, moving experience while Infinite left something missing in the profound sense? I believe we can find the answer by drawing parallels to another similar art form and their creators – film and their directors.

Bioshock

Films – looks aren’t everything!

If you look at something like Transformers – it’s entertaining to a lot of people. The visuals are stunning, the scenes are action packed and there’re enough explosions to make Michael Bay wet himself. However, what does it actually say? The truth is, nothing. The film barely explores the human condition or reflects upon how we live beyond our fascination of Megan Fox’s cleavage.

While Transformers is an easy target, you can observe the same trend in respected film makers. For example, Steven Spielberg is a master of the craft of filmmaking, but not necessarily of the art of it– some of his films often lack depth because of this fact. Of course this can be applied to more than just films.

Musical taste or musical mush?

Many people, myself included, tend to dislike new age music. Now it could be due to the auto-tuned voices, lack of perceived talent or even personal taste in its truest form. However, I’d like to highlight one particular trait that seems to be common with new, mainstream music when compared to older eras.

Newer songs seem to have nothing really to say! I’m not saying all songs from our era are like this, but the vast majority of the songs on the radio have nothing of meaning to say – they’re all about the beat, the music itself. You can assign any meaning you like to the song – but that’s more a reflection of yourself than the song, and quite frankly, mental masturbation. Something like Steve Vai’s Whispering a Prayer actually exposes the artist’s passion for the craft and you can sense the narrative of the song and its purpose. Comparing that to some DJ playing an algorithm that’s been designed to be musical crack to the ear is an insult to musicians everywhere.

So what does this have to do with games?

mario

My point is that games suffer from the same fate in this day and age. With so many advancements today, games have the ability to really push art – reflections and observations of humanity – to new standards, new ways of getting the message across and experiencing something unique.

We’ve mastered the craft of game making, but are nowhere near mastering the art.

Why? Because uninspired, poorly crafted games sell. Because people like it – they like comfortable, predictable toys. If you look at something like Pokémon or Mario Bros, they’ve created an entire business model around it.

All 46 iterations of Pokémon have essentially the same story rehashed over and over. The original story itself was one of growth, rite of passage and even the notion that one unlikely, unassuming person can make a difference through hard work. But this has now been done 46 times… 46 times! You’d think that after producing a cash-cow like Pokemon, GameFreak would be able to hire a writer or two to make the game a little different besides giving you the option to change your gender and creating a few more fire-earth-water pigdragons.

Mario has a basic premise of platforming, beating up walking mushrooms, jumping on tortoises and defeating dino-dragonsauruses. If anything, the innovation comes packaged into the gameplay with some minor graphical advancements – and these innovations are simply packaged as just additional control inputs rather than meaningful mental decisions or considerations. In essence, it seems to me that Mario games are all about the how rather than the why. The player is never expected to experience something new, consider something different or be challenged in a way that deviates from the original formula.

uncharted

I admit I may be slightly (read: extremely) biased when it comes to platformers in general, but something a little more sophisticated like the Uncharted series which provides more complex characters and situations is a direction I would like to see gaming heading towards. The writing, characterization and evolution of the character of Nathan Drake alone is enough to see the subtle potential of writing in games. The gameplay itself can even accomplish this task – Journey showed us that you don’t need dialogue or a straightforward plot to provide an interesting narrative, evocative experiences and a game that can proudly stand up to other mediums such as film or music.

The problem with the mechanics are all in place, they’re seen as fun to many people around the world and they up the prettiness with every new game that consumers gobble up. Just like Transformers and Lil Wayne they have no real message, no reflection upon humanity or any real observation, and absolutely no thought or writing that seriously resonates with people on a deeper level, and thus do very little for the medium to be taken seriously as an art.

Is this really such a bad thing?

The truth is, I don’t know.

While I personally dislike that these companies and series are wasting their potential, without them gaming would never be where it is today. Popular culture is a beast that must be satisfied before anything is taken seriously – and these games may be a price we’ve had to play for gaming to take its place next to film and literature.

Certain games that previously pushed the boundaries of lore and atmosphere have now settled for generic ‘Hollywood stories’ to appease the market rather than taking risks and seeing where it ends up – I’m looking at you, Starcraft and Diablo. It may be a shame that the changing popularity of games has affected the future of these games and where they could have gone, the mindless clones of the Call of Duty franchise have made games a viable industry to invest in, which has opened the door for many smaller developers to gain funding, and broaden the horizons of what games are capable of.

I guess time will tell – consumers may start requiring more from a game than just cute mechanics and pretty visuals to be satisfied, which will in turn pave the road for innovation. It happened with the horror film genre when it went down the path of gore – quick stimulation and shock for fast results, until people got used to it and it faded into obscurity. Perhaps when people start getting bored of the same old trope over and over, and we start being more critical of games, gaming will evolve to take its place next to literature and film. Until then, it seems we’ll keep putting coins into the time bomb.

Last Updated: September 23, 2015

66 Comments

  1. Commander JJ of the Normandy

    September 23, 2015 at 15:43

    The problem is that “AAA” games mostly only produce top quality visuals and gameplay, but are bland in the story. There are a lot of beautifully written and executed games that are examples of pure artworks, but they’re overlooked because they don’t have huge marketing budgets.
    I say give me that incredible experience that leaves me silent for a moment after the credits start rolling instead of trying to awe me with graphics.
    What these big companies forget is that the graphics is the tool, not the product.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      September 23, 2015 at 15:49

      I’m tempted to give the big AAA’s a bit of slack in that area because I think the writers would like to push things a bit further, but the stories get sanitised a bit for mass-market appeal and to avoid controversies that could affect sales. Just look at the crap they got for the DX digital apartheid tag line.

      Reply

      • James Anderton

        September 23, 2015 at 15:54

        There is a difference between ‘marketing’ and ‘narrative’. I’m fairly sure knowing how DX:HR was written, there is a case to be made for the ‘mechanical apartheid’ marketing.

        But we have no context. We don’t know the story, so all people do is make a judgement call at face value.

        Reply

      • Commander JJ of the Normandy

        September 23, 2015 at 15:54

        Very true. So it’s not about the writers then, it’s about the publishers and often also the media.
        Pretty much what happens when they make a movie from a book…by shredding the book before using it to base the story on.
        Except for Ubi and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, where they just forgot that there is a book.

        Reply

  2. James Anderton

    September 23, 2015 at 15:45

    I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain.

    Reply

    • RinceThat

      September 23, 2015 at 16:11

      mmmm… Duke Nukem writer ?

      Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    September 23, 2015 at 15:46

    I’ve found games that have the best narratives (where I’ve expected one) are the ones that involve the writers of said narratives in the game’s development early – the story is the driver of the game play, it’s the reason you’re playing the game. And it takes time and skill to write a good story – it’s not something that can just be slapped together by any old person at the last minute.

    Reply

    • Commander JJ of the Normandy

      September 23, 2015 at 15:49

      I agree. A game built around a story, not the other way around.

      Reply

      • RinceThat

        September 23, 2015 at 16:12

        Even Tetris had a Narrative, got to get the Russian space program up and running 🙂

        Reply

        • Commander JJ of the Normandy

          September 23, 2015 at 16:14

          LOL
          Only they never got that straight bar.

          Reply

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 16:16

            Best ending ever… in the late 80s 🙂

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:17

            Best…..ever

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:17

            Russia’s so homophobic I’m surprised Tetris doesn’t only have straight bars.

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:17

            LOL

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 16:17

            Some were bent

  4. RinceThat

    September 23, 2015 at 15:54

    Limbo wins.

    Reply

    • Commander JJ of the Normandy

      September 23, 2015 at 15:55

      Transistor wins.

      Reply

      • RinceThat

        September 23, 2015 at 15:55

        Flower

        Reply

        • Commander JJ of the Normandy

          September 23, 2015 at 15:56

          Face

          Reply

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 15:56

            Flow

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 15:56

            BLOW JOBS!

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 15:57

            Journey

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 15:59

            Skellige.

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 15:57

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 15:59

            lol My point is all the parts come to an ATMOSPHERIC whole.

            Atmosphere is what tells a story

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:01

            Agreed. And Limbo was awesome. Transistor was just BETTER! 😀
            Witcher 3 is one of the few open world games that really had a change of atmosphere depending on where you are.

          • Rock789

            September 23, 2015 at 16:59

            Valiant Hearts: The Great War… I rest my case. 😉 🙂

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 25, 2015 at 07:00

            Hmmm. Yes. I think transistor beats Valiants for me only the gameplay department, otherwise Valiant Hearts truly is a gem.

          • Rock789

            September 25, 2015 at 07:29

            Oh definitely – many games have better gameplay than Valiant Hearts… But very few will ever beat that story. The FEELS…! I mean, onions – damn it, stupid people cutting onions around me. **sniff**

          • Rock789

            September 25, 2015 at 07:32

            P.S. Haven’t tried Transistor yet… **hides from the JJ beating**
            But I do have it (got it free on PSN) and plan on playing it in the near future. The only problem is that, with most games now seemingly becoming open-world, their length is going up exponentially. Not a bad problem to have, but when game time is limited (due to other commitments) they really start adding up… SO glad I don’t have a backlog counter – it’d probably be in the weeks / months by now! o_O

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 25, 2015 at 07:52

            Haha. You’re forgiven. I’ve only started Mass Effect 2 last week. So I’m even worse than you. Though only marginally so 😉
            Transistor is a rather short game, but the music, visuals and story makes it worth it. I think I completed the game in two or three sittings.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 19:10

            Spec Ops – white phosphorus – everyone who’s played the game knows what I’m talking about.

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:00

            Well… I admit! I didn’t see that one coming XD

          • RinceThat

            September 23, 2015 at 16:01

            Thats what she said… beat you Trev

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:02

            That’s not what she said.

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:05

            Is that what he said?! O.O

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:08

            That’s sexist!

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:10

            No that just me not knowing what going on XD

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:13

            Me neither, that’s why I just shout out random things. It makes me look involved.

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:14

            It’s an art you’ve clearly perfected.

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:15

            I have to agree with that

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:16

            I’ve got everyone fooled!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 23, 2015 at 16:01

          • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

            September 23, 2015 at 16:01

            That just came out of nowhere

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:05

            Yeah… to tell the truth I totally set myself up for that one without realising it XD

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:05

            Join the club. I’m a master at doing that 😉

          • DragonSpirit009

            September 23, 2015 at 16:10

            Same here… I get the trophy daily at work for stuff like that!

  5. Steffmeister

    September 23, 2015 at 15:56

    They way I ‘consume’ games, changed with age. I used to skip cutscenes to get to the gameplay. Now the games that stick with me are the ones with a strong story. The ending of games like Walking dead (Season 1) and The Last of Us still resonate with me.

    Reply

    • Commander JJ of the Normandy

      September 23, 2015 at 15:58

      Same here.
      When you finish a game and you just have to sit for a moment in silence, taking it in, then you know it was a good game.

      Reply

      • RinceThat

        September 23, 2015 at 16:09

        A pity Konami never got the memo that a good story requires a beginning, a middle and AN END 😛

        Reply

        • Commander JJ of the Normandy

          September 23, 2015 at 16:13

          Hehehe

          Reply

    • RinceThat

      September 23, 2015 at 16:06

      The 20 minute intro to TLOU was better than the first 20 minutes of a Hollywood film like I am Legend.

      It totally set the tone.

      Reply

  6. The Sten

    September 23, 2015 at 16:18

    Let it like it is Maddox….

    Reply

    • RinceThat

      September 23, 2015 at 16:19

      better than Twilight

      Reply

    • RinceThat

      September 23, 2015 at 16:23

      I dont get this dudes gripe. The only reason why Final Fantasy became a cult hit was because during its time in the 90s the reward was to be presented with a crazy beautiful CGI cut scene on a tiny Philips CD. Thats why we played the game… I think

      Narrative is very important and I will never skip cut scenes the same way I dont watch a film only once, unless I have to watch it before dying over and over.

      Reply

  7. Brady miaau

    September 23, 2015 at 16:19

    Remember the old choose your own adventure books?

    I want my game play to be like that. Just with much better plots. And some nice gameplay elements. But, it is the games where I formed an emotional connection with the game, or a character or whatever, that I keep on returning to.

    Reply

    • RinceThat

      September 23, 2015 at 16:29

      The founders of Bioware grew up on choose your own adventure books. They played an influential role in the creation of Mass Effect. DAM I will never forget 2007. That game blew my mind.

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        September 23, 2015 at 16:33

        that is interesting. Hmom.

        And Baldurs gate, to a far more limited degree, I think.

        Reply

        • RinceThat

          September 23, 2015 at 16:35

          They were also D&D fanatics while studying to become Doctors.

          Reply

          • Commander JJ of the Normandy

            September 23, 2015 at 16:38

            Well, now all I want to do is get home and continue playing ME2. (only around four hours in now)

          • Brady miaau

            September 23, 2015 at 16:39

            I get that. AD$D is awesome. AND reading the books by people like Douglas Niles and so forth, the Forgotten Realms was the world THEY created over years of playing together. Wow.

  8. RinceThat

    September 23, 2015 at 16:28

    Talking about Narrative, has anybody played Until Dawn yet?

    Reply

    • Commander JJ of the Normandy

      September 23, 2015 at 16:30

      Looks pretty cool, watched a few vids. But no pc version, so the vids are all I have

      Reply

      • RinceThat

        September 23, 2015 at 16:31

        It seems to be sleeper hit. Might give it a try.

        Reply

  9. Jack Sonanita

    September 24, 2015 at 08:29

    Superb online work from house and make five thousand dollars a month.I made seven thousand dollars a month from the comfort of my house.5

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    Reply

  10. konfab

    September 24, 2015 at 12:01

    “What makes other games like Bioshock 1 such a detailed, moving experience while Infinite left something missing in the profound sense?”

    Well into the trash this goes.

    Here is a movie for those who disagree with the author.

    Reply

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