Did you stop to think about the good storytelling games of the past though? There's not a lot there either in terms of ratio. If anything, writers now have a harder job these days because they can't just write off the setting or the back story. Textboxes are passive; telling not showing.Syzygy23 said:You act as though textboxes are a BAD thing.
Just because you don't like literacy in your games doesn't mean the rest of us don't.
I'm not saying that modern tech somehow made games worse, but it's allowed designers to get lazy with writing. I don't want to throw salt on a fresh wound, but just look at Mass Effect 3. Limited dialogue options (which, in the end, meant diddly squat) a lot of it was auto-dialogue at that.
As for the majority of games this console generation in terms of storytelling?
Uhhh... Saints Row the 3rd? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? Gears of War 3? X-men Destiny?
You cannot say those had "good" stories with a straight face. Those were crap at worst, excuse plots at best.
But let's keep going, we need to finally see what the ratio of crap writing to good writing in the last console generation has been. I'm just gonna work my way backwards using google and various gaming sites as sources.
Bad:
Mortal Kombat (Arguable, I guess, unless you feel a game about ripping out spines needs a good story behind it)
Thor: God of Thunder
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine (And I LIKE 40k! A missed opportunity here)
Spiderman: Edge of Time
Bulletstorm (Actually, anything with Cliffy B attached is usually a good bet for this category)
Duke Nukem Forever (obviously)
All of the Lego Games (Might file that one under 'debatable' as well)
Killzone 3
Dead Island
Fable 3
God of War 3 (No, don't try to argue this one, the entire story is about a guy screaming in rage, punching out most/all of the greek gods, and porking at least 2 others. It's a teenage male power fantasy, nothing more)
Halo Reach
Dantes Inferno
Tron Evolution
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Prototype
No More Heroes
Ok, this is taking too long. Let's just move along to the Good list. Take in mind, only games that actually improved or equaled the older games like Planescape in storytelling make it on this list.
Good:
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas (Post patch[es] at least)
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age 2 (Some might argue against this one. Personally i didn't like it, but the majority I've spoken to about it said the characterization was great)
Mass Effect 1
InFamous
InFamous 2
Bioshock
ummm... hmmm... what else... I can't think of anything else that falls into the "subjective" territory here.
Wait!
Journey.
That's all I've got. So after the final tally, we have 22 bad (and those are just the ones I included on the list before it started becoming a second job) versus 9 Good.
Wait, throw Skyrim onto "bad". Maybe Oblivion as well. So 24 bad vs. 9 Good.
Not looking very bright right now, is it?
RPGs have always been fairly strong in terms of stories, so there hasn't been a lot of change in that genre. But the other genres have all advanced in terms of storytelling. Shooters have arguably come the longest way in terms of story. (My brother and I used to play Wolfenstein 3D all the time and I never even knew there WAS a story beyond "Kill all the nazis").