GarrickW
October 10th, 2010, 04:07 AM
So I've been thinking a bit lately about how stories are told in video games (I'm a PC gamer in particular), and about the quality, immersion and enjoyment of these stories. I've not played any of the classics that are constantly referenced - like Zelda, for example - but I've been gaming since around 2003, and I've had a fair bit of experience with games since then.
I was wondering if anyone would like to discuss theirexperience with games as stories - not the gameplay or the graphics, but the tale being woven. I don't just mean stories you've enjoyed, but also stories that stuck out as being particularly corny or poor. Also, on a more general level, what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of video games as storytelling? Obviously, games don't exist purely for storytelling, so some narrative elements may suffer in favor of gameplay - but others may not, or may be enhanced.
One of my personal favourite gaming studios is Bioware (I've played their Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Jade Empire, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). These are heavily RPG games; of course most of the interactive gaming is combat, but I find Bioware games have a comparatively heavy emphasis on dialogue and storytelling. The storylines are branching, but sometimes I felt that the branching was illusional - in effect, the story remains the same regardless of how you play, with a few key points being different here and there (especially with regards to the ending).
All in all, however, I've always found Bioware games to have among the best stories I've experienced in video games, and most of them are, I find, Hollywood-quality (I enjoyed the story of Mass Effect or Dragon Age more than the story of most comparable sci-fi or fantasy films). However, as far as narrative goes, I think that Bioware sticks closest to traditional closed stories - the choices in the games aren't freedom so much as determining what kind of movie you want to watch. Another point that sticks out is that Bioware makes (comparatively) interesting characters, and obviously spend quite a bit of time developping them. I'm anxiously looking forward to their next games, and fondly remember the playthroughs I had in their previous titles (I generally only play through once or twice, though).
I compare this with games like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or Fallout 3, which seem, to me, to place less emphasis on a great story (though the Fallout 3 story is certainly enjoyable), and more emphasis on some of the narrative aspects that games, in my opinion, do better than film or books: immersion, and freedom. A lot of what you can do in Fallout 3 (to pick my preferred of the two titles) is narratively inconsequential - stealing from people or saving them from dehydration by handing over some clean water, listening to recordings from before the nuclear holocaust, listening to the radio and simply wandering the Capital Wasteland - but all the little details and inconsequential things add up to build a powerful atmosphere and a sense of really being a rag-wearing, gun-toting survivor in the post-apocalyptic 23rd Century.
That's what I like about these open-world, sandbox-games - they don't do the whole characters-and-plot story quite as well (though Fallout 3 does it well enough, I'd say), but they do something that movies and books can't do nearly as well, by creating an atmosphere and immersive world you can explore on your own terms, which makes it feel all the more real.
I could talk more about games I've played and liked, but I'd like to hear from others first - what games have you played, where the story has entertained you more than any other? What are the differences in the narratives spun by games and by books or films? What are some really, really crappy stories out there in the gaming world? :p
I was wondering if anyone would like to discuss theirexperience with games as stories - not the gameplay or the graphics, but the tale being woven. I don't just mean stories you've enjoyed, but also stories that stuck out as being particularly corny or poor. Also, on a more general level, what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of video games as storytelling? Obviously, games don't exist purely for storytelling, so some narrative elements may suffer in favor of gameplay - but others may not, or may be enhanced.
One of my personal favourite gaming studios is Bioware (I've played their Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Jade Empire, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). These are heavily RPG games; of course most of the interactive gaming is combat, but I find Bioware games have a comparatively heavy emphasis on dialogue and storytelling. The storylines are branching, but sometimes I felt that the branching was illusional - in effect, the story remains the same regardless of how you play, with a few key points being different here and there (especially with regards to the ending).
All in all, however, I've always found Bioware games to have among the best stories I've experienced in video games, and most of them are, I find, Hollywood-quality (I enjoyed the story of Mass Effect or Dragon Age more than the story of most comparable sci-fi or fantasy films). However, as far as narrative goes, I think that Bioware sticks closest to traditional closed stories - the choices in the games aren't freedom so much as determining what kind of movie you want to watch. Another point that sticks out is that Bioware makes (comparatively) interesting characters, and obviously spend quite a bit of time developping them. I'm anxiously looking forward to their next games, and fondly remember the playthroughs I had in their previous titles (I generally only play through once or twice, though).
I compare this with games like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or Fallout 3, which seem, to me, to place less emphasis on a great story (though the Fallout 3 story is certainly enjoyable), and more emphasis on some of the narrative aspects that games, in my opinion, do better than film or books: immersion, and freedom. A lot of what you can do in Fallout 3 (to pick my preferred of the two titles) is narratively inconsequential - stealing from people or saving them from dehydration by handing over some clean water, listening to recordings from before the nuclear holocaust, listening to the radio and simply wandering the Capital Wasteland - but all the little details and inconsequential things add up to build a powerful atmosphere and a sense of really being a rag-wearing, gun-toting survivor in the post-apocalyptic 23rd Century.
That's what I like about these open-world, sandbox-games - they don't do the whole characters-and-plot story quite as well (though Fallout 3 does it well enough, I'd say), but they do something that movies and books can't do nearly as well, by creating an atmosphere and immersive world you can explore on your own terms, which makes it feel all the more real.
I could talk more about games I've played and liked, but I'd like to hear from others first - what games have you played, where the story has entertained you more than any other? What are the differences in the narratives spun by games and by books or films? What are some really, really crappy stories out there in the gaming world? :p