Stories in games VS stories in movies

[NoNameMcgee]

Do you think games have the potential to deliver better storytelling experiences than movies?

I think that yes, they do, because a game can be more involving. You're controlling your character(s) so it feels more like you are actually 'there' and involved in the plot and an actual part of the story rather than just watching it.

However, very few games tell great stories, and in a medium such as video games its not something that is needed and merely something that enhances the experience. Same with movies, but not as much because movies have more pressure to deliver great stories; where as games can just have a basic plot to give you various excuses to kill stuff, and then let you at it. It's always more about the gameplay. So maybe there is not enough pressure on game developers to design a great story, so most games will never realise the potential they have for brilliant storytelling techniques.

What do you guys and gals think about this subject?

 

[VitalSigns]

It is easier for a person to make an emotional connection with a character who is outside of their control rather than have an emotional burden forced onto a person. Example Dead Space did anyone really care about him finding his wife? No, because you were being forced to care about something that you couldn't relate too. In a movie you are given a sense of being the person on the outside of everything who just watches, and a truly good movie can have a story that will make you laugh,weep,be left in suspense etc. Interactivity ruins these feelings because instead of merely observing and gathering your own opinion you are forced to take on the feelings of a character and are expected to care.

 

[Harlemura]

I always thought games wouldn't have good story potential compared with movies, but your point about actually "being there" has changed my view.
I suppose you can immerse yourself more in a game, but a movie will have the advantage over the quality of the story. So it comes down to tastes, really.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

It is easier for a person to make an emotional connection with a character who is outside of their control rather than have an emotional burden forced onto a person. Example Dead Space did anyone really care about him finding his wife? No, because you were being forced to care about something that you couldn't relate too. In a movie you are given a sense of being the person on the outside of everything who just watches, and a truly good movie can have a story that will make you laugh,weep,be left in suspense etc. Interactivity ruins these feelings because instead of merely observing and gathering your own opinion you are forced to take on the feelings of a character and are expected to care.

I just can't agree with that, I like a good story in a movie but it can never compare to a similarly good story in a game for me.

 

[Soulfein]

Games do not have the potential to be better storytellers than movies. A good story in a game can often feel a lot like a railroading DM. You have one path to go down, and fuck this talking I want to kill shit.

Movies are a better medium for storytelling as that is their primary use. They can do it in far more advanced ways, and are able to tell an entirely different kind of story in addition to setting up emotional connections with people. You dont empathize with someone who's eyes your looking through.

 

[Citrus]

Example Dead Space did anyone really care about him finding his wife? No, because you were being forced to care about something that you couldn't relate too.

Well, he was a silent protagonist whose face you only see at the very beginning and end, and the story wasn't well told or important to begin with, so I think that's what the problem was there.

If anything, I think the interactivity is what would give the story in a game more weight, as it's you fighting the villain and making allies and seeing them die, etc. The problem is that it's hard to make you care in the first place, but once you do, I'd say games have the potential to tell much better stories than movies.

And hey, a lot of them already do; I cared a hell of a lot more about what happened to the characters in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time than about what happened in Transformers. Interactivity is what gives games their potential to tell great stories, in my opinion.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Games have great potential for storytelling. Few things help emotional involvement like you being in direct control of a character's actions and destiny, and experiencing the same things they do.

I wouldn't say it's a greater potential than movies, per se, but a different sort. Besides, both media have to have the proper story and relatable characters to get anywhere in storytelling, though if that fails, games still have gameplay to fall back on.

 

[Mr Sunday Night]

Movies win. Game stories are mostly set ups for you to work with. If you were watching a movie where the main character generally has no idea what they're going to do, and wanders about aimlessly looking for the next bit of story, occasionally getting killed and respawned, it wouldn't make a good story.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I think so however you cannot tell the same stories in the same way imitating movies is not the way to go plus remember movies have had far more practice and not as bound by technology.

 

[lostclause]

Writing stories for games is more difficult than for movies because you have to factor in the players, even in a linear game. You have to make the PC relatable or at least give them sufficient emotional motivation (like helping atlas find his wife in bioshock)

 

[Kyletacullar]

in-game only because most great movies with good stories were books first so I say that's cheating.

 

[jaeger138]

I know, my avatar will make me look like a major fanboy, especially because of what I'm about to say, but I'll try to be as objective as I can.

I think Metal Gear Solid 4 was better than any movie, the plot was complex and entertaining with some of the cut scenes as long as movies! I know a lot of people aren't into Kojima's directorial style, but I enjoy it. I love a story, and gameplay is extremely important, but I think the best games I've played are the ones with a plot that I can really follow and get into. Also, I like a story with a challenge, if I have to watch the movie or play the game a few times to notice something new in the plot each time, so be it! If it has the appeal to make me come back again, then it has to be doing something right.

A story is something that I love, it's not just an excuse to kill as many as I can for whatever reason the game gives me, it's something that keeps me hooked, keeps me on the edge of seat and keeps me coming back for more, whether it's to find out what happened to Snake after the end of MGS 4, to see Fight Club again just to see all the little flashes of Tyler Durden and watch it from the perspective that there's nobody there or whether it's to work out what that darn Shinra company are really up to.

 

[Drokles]

I think it all comes down to immersion. In Silent Hill you'd have to keep playing to find this guy's wife. You could leave the game alone for a few days because it was hard, creepy or etc. but you'd always return because what if his wife was actually waiting for him there in Silent Hill.

I think good motivation to keep playing is something that most games lack these days. Whether your Princess is in another castle or you're fighting the good fight in a postapocalyptic wasteland 200 years from now a good setting and story can really drive the player forward, and at times this makes it more worthwhile than watching a movie.

 

[Khazoth]

It switches from thing to thing.

For example if you have the nerve to say that Water World has a better story then Mass Effect i'm going to have to womp you one.

In the same nerve, if you had the nerve to say that Psychonauts was better then Monty Python and the Holy Grail I would also have to smack you with a blunt object.