Book Publisher Wants to Improve Videogame Stories

[Therumancer]

Okay after reading this and some of the responses I had to keep myself from ripping out my hair and screaming as I slammed my head into my computer desk. I've never been the most stable person in the world, but really this has gotten a pretty strong reaction from me.

Let me be honest, writing never used to be a major problem with video games. Going back to works like "Ultima" the writing and dialogue was usually top notch and got better as technology improved. "Ultima 7" being one of the all time classics of RPG design, even seeing programs like "Exult" being created simply to keep it playable. The last Wizardry trilogy also had a lot of people talking about the storyline and trying to second guess how it was going to turn out. There are numerous other examples. Granted some of this stories (excepting Ultima) were short on exposition, but managed to convey what they needed to in their own ways.

The problem with bad writing has largely been a recent one with the arrival of the "mainstream" gamer and his search for immediate shooty gratification. Your typical gamer no longer caring much about storyline except in the most superficial sense. People who roleplay and care about the lore in a game like "World Of Warcraft" are oftentimes mocked. Heck, one of the biggest "questions" of modern gaming comes from people wondering how someone in an RPG can play a character of the opposite gender, simply because the idea of creating a persona totally seperate from your own is alien to them. The "toon" or "avatar" being seen as the extension of the person behind the character (which isn't a character, but then). That pretty much illustrates on a lot of levels how far the intellectual capabilities of the general gamer have fallen. We are no longer a bunch of "smart guys" who tend to overlap with the PnP RPG crowd and such.

This has been fine with game companies, who pretty much churn out shooter after shooter, realizing nobody cares much about the plotline. Yahtzee pretty much summarizes it with how he has "cut off" RPG reviews in the past, and complained about exposition and storylines that were beyond the extremely trivial.

Oh sure, everyone TALKS about storyline and how they would like to see it improved, but in reality a comparitive handfull of gamers really care. I've had people talk about epic storylines that were really pretty bad admittedly, but I don't think a really good story would have done much except be mocked by most of the gaming community.

The point of this ramble is that while superficially a good thing, I can't see it going anywhere because in the end the majority of gamers aren't that critical. That's part of the problem with anything going mainstream.

 

[Strategia]

YES. YES. SO MUCH YES.

*kahem* Sorry 'bout that. To rephrase the above, "This one is most pleased to receive news of such nature. It gives this one no small degree of pleasure."

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

It remains to be seen if this will have any noticeable positive effect. After all, videogames aren't books, and shouldn't be. The interactive nature of videogames means that the entire structure of the narrative needs to accommodate for the player's actions, and you can't just take a break from the action for an hour to focus on the story, or gamers will get bored. And no, I don't mean that in a "gamers have short attention spans and don't care about story"-kinda way, but you play a game, not read or watch it. Of course the way the story interacts with the gameplay and vice versa can be done in many different ways, and a good story certainly doesn't need to interfere with the gameplay. I'm going to go ahead and be optimistic about this. Just because.

 

[Lexodus]

Would be nice for a change...

 

[Kuchinawa212]

AWESOME!
Yesssss finally! People that know what they are doing writing this stuff! Not just "Grah do this"

 

[Irridium]

YES!

Hopefully now single player won't feel tacked on and rushed!

 

[Lazarus Long]

It sounds like a good idea. Then I think of Jericho. (shudder) How about just giving Steve Meretzky a job?

 

[Axolotl]

Great writing in games? We've already had that

It failed. Comercially at any rate.

The key problem with this endevor is that skills like this don't transfer, take Jericho made by a good writer for novels, had a lacklustre story for a game.

We do get exceptional stories in games but to tell them well they need to be approached from a somewhat different angle, see Bioshock and Far Cry 2 for recent examples. The approach of just takeing what works well in a book and shoehorning it into games isn't one that will get good results.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

It sounds like a good idea. Then I think of Jericho. (shudder) How about just giving Steve Meretzky a job?

True, but Clive Barker's Undying was actually really good, which made the astoundingly bad Jericho so much more disappointing. What Jericho illustrates is that involving a writer in the game design process isn't a panacea.

 

[Mordwyl]

Okay after reading this and some of the responses I had to keep myself from ripping out my hair and screaming as I slammed my head into my computer desk. I've never been the most stable person in the world, but really this has gotten a pretty strong reaction from me.

Let me be honest, writing never used to be a major problem with video games. Going back to works like "Ultima" the writing and dialogue was usually top notch and got better as technology improved. "Ultima 7" being one of the all time classics of RPG design, even seeing programs like "Exult" being created simply to keep it playable. The last Wizardry trilogy also had a lot of people talking about the storyline and trying to second guess how it was going to turn out. There are numerous other examples. Granted some of this stories (excepting Ultima) were short on exposition, but managed to convey what they needed to in their own ways.

The problem with bad writing has largely been a recent one with the arrival of the "mainstream" gamer and his search for immediate shooty gratification. Your typical gamer no longer caring much about storyline except in the most superficial sense. People who roleplay and care about the lore in a game like "World Of Warcraft" are oftentimes mocked. Heck, one of the biggest "questions" of modern gaming comes from people wondering how someone in an RPG can play a character of the opposite gender, simply because the idea of creating a persona totally seperate from your own is alien to them. The "toon" or "avatar" being seen as the extension of the person behind the character (which isn't a character, but then). That pretty much illustrates on a lot of levels how far the intellectual capabilities of the general gamer have fallen. We are no longer a bunch of "smart guys" who tend to overlap with the PnP RPG crowd and such.

This has been fine with game companies, who pretty much churn out shooter after shooter, realizing nobody cares much about the plotline. Yahtzee pretty much summarizes it with how he has "cut off" RPG reviews in the past, and complained about exposition and storylines that were beyond the extremely trivial.

Oh sure, everyone TALKS about storyline and how they would like to see it improved, but in reality a comparitive handfull of gamers really care. I've had people talk about epic storylines that were really pretty bad admittedly, but I don't think a really good story would have done much except be mocked by most of the gaming community.

The point of this ramble is that while superficially a good thing, I can't see it going anywhere because in the end the majority of gamers aren't that critical. That's part of the problem with anything going mainstream.

You said what I was going to mention, but I'll add a bit more:

Writers cannot expect a proper script will improve a game tenfold as there is still a major element they would neglect: The game itself. Most people tend to forget this but the most crucial aspect of a game is the core. You just cannot for any reason make the game work for the story but the other way round. This goes the same for the other aspects such as the mechanics, gameplay, graphics and sound. What I mean is, if you are making a game about a space pirate that travels on a living meteoric abomination you have to accommodate for it.

 

[DevTrek]

This could be good. My advice to these writers, not that they'll ever hear it or anything, is that video games excel in setting. If you can create an interesting world there's nothing like a game to let people explore and interact with it. I think most book writers care mostly about characters, rightly so even since books allow an author to detail thoughts and other nuance of a character that other media can't do as effectively. Video games are on the other end of the spectrum though. In some, or heck most all, games, the main character isn't yours. It's the player's. In some games that goes right down to if your character is male or female and what he/she looks like. With that understood, I fear that book authors will try to transfer the 'this is how the main character is' system of a novel into video games, and it won't work. Their character writing could end up giving a great addition to the characterization of staples such as shop keepers, sidekicks, mission control type supporting cast, but video games are a different type of storytelling. The main player has to be able to be wear a few different masks to take full advantage of it. Even in a game like Portal where the player is essentially on rails through each different level and the has a well defined character appearance what makes it involving and interesting is "What is Chell thinking or feeling?"

Spoiler

Is she a scared little girl who wants her mommy after GLaDOS the surrogate protector figure betrays her? Is she filled with rage at her betrayal and determined to hunt down and kill GLaDOS? Is she a true believer who feels that she just has to pass the final test to get her cake, keeping her faith the the mysterious voice even when it seems like it's against her?

These are all valid interpretations, and this ability of the player to imagine a character as they see fit are a major strength of video games. In a book the reader imagines what people,places, and events look like and are mostly told what they feel. It's opposite in a video game.

 

[dochmbi]

Shamus wrote an article about poor writing in video games back in January. Perhaps this Random House person read it?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7025-Experienced-Points-Million-Dollar-Actor-Five-Dollar-Writer

 

[Fniff]

Oh my God.

Either Yathzee is really in control of the gaming world, or I am and I hadn't realized.

Whoa.

WHOA! WHOAWHOA! This is so cool.

 

[Quad08]

Sounds like a great idea! Hope it works out, sounds like they know what they're doing

 

[Fearzone]

Gameplay first.

But other niceties like an intriguing story are welcome. Good idea Random House I hope it works.

 

[Hollock]

that's good. It's a step forwards in holding up video games to the same standards as books, and movies.

 

[qazmatoz]

This news makes me really excited, story and characters are probably the main reasons I play any video game.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Oh sure, everyone TALKS about storyline and how they would like to see it improved, but in reality a comparitive handfull of gamers really care. I've had people talk about epic storylines that were really pretty bad admittedly, but I don't think a really good story would have done much except be mocked by most of the gaming community.

The point of this ramble is that while superficially a good thing, I can't see it going anywhere because in the end the majority of gamers aren't that critical. That's part of the problem with anything going mainstream.

In other words, you insist that it's a net positive that's not worth the effort?

As one of those minority gamers who likes well-written stories, I totally fail to see the problem.

 

[Lazarus Long]

It sounds like a good idea. Then I think of Jericho. (shudder) How about just giving Steve Meretzky a job?

True, but Clive Barker's Undying was actually really good, which made the astoundingly bad Jericho so much more disappointing. What Jericho illustrates is that involving a writer in the game design process isn't a panacea.

I remember liking Undying, but it's been too long for me to recall if that was due to the writing, or solid gameplay. I'm certainly not trying to imply that putting linear fiction writers in charge of interactive stories is a kiss of death, though. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream was fantastic, if a bit unintuitive. The Infocom Hitchhiker's Guide was superb, if a bit unintuitive... wait. I might be on to something here.

I can't recall any other "real" author-driven games aside from the old Capstone Dark Half thing, which we shall not speak of again.