The Story Snob

[More Fun To Compute]

As far as games go, these days I mostly think that no story is the best story. I'm tired of having these C grade game stories shoved in my face when I just want to plaaaay. It's like if I bought a punk rock album that had 2 minute punk songs interspersed with some damp fart reading bad children's stories to me. And they mastered the disc all as one track so I can't even skip to the good stuff.

I'm perhaps the biggest story snob and find very few game stories to be up to snuff but stories are not the only thing in my life. I wish that people would stop being so obsessed with stories so I can have my games back.

 

[Lord Krunk]

When you said Sonic Unleashed, I thought maybe all the shit I've heard about it was from retarded haters. Like the ones you always see lurking around games like Halo.

But I guess there really is no love for it. Huh.

Other than that, I do agree with the 'less is more' aspect. For example, I'd rather play a game written by George Orwell (if you haven't read his stuff, he manages to cram profound amounts of detail into the tiniest of spaces) than one by, say, Charles Dickens (who was well known for drawing things out. Probably the inventor of Filler episodes, bless his soul).

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Sonic Unleashedand

Umm... you thought Sonic Unleashed, the game that brought the most annoying character that the Sonic world has ever brought upon us, had a good story?

Took until comment #40 until we got one!

Excuse me?

(Also, I was just trolling you with Sonic Unleashed. Let's see if anyone ragequits the article and comments without reading all the way through.)

In any case, brilliant article, Shamus. I could not agree more with your thoughts.

I think the problem with game developers is that they are unwilling to pay for top quality storytelling. They are willing to hire top-of-the-line artists, voice actors, musicians.....but when it comes to story, they are content with using a scribble a developer made during lunch.

Basically, if they want to convey good stories, they need to start hiring people that will make good stories. They should not be content with merely making something up as they go along.

Oh... I am a moron.

Takes a big man to admit when he's been had. And you have been had ever so gloriously. Let this be a finger waggling lession to you, young man! Always finish reading the article before challenging something it has to say.

I am sorry

 

[jmpatt]

Very well said, I completely agree. If you go to a coffee shop and order a coffee, and they bring you out a plate with a truly outstanding coffee with a side of dog feces on toast, it's really OK to complain about that. "If you didn't want a crap sandwich, you should have gone to a sandwich shop" is not an acceptable defense. If you're going to serve it, make it good or leave it off. There's nothing wrong with a good coffee by itself, nor with pac-man.

 

[Harmondale2]

I do love to get my story on

haha, the sonic unleashed bit was funny, lol

 

[Gindil]

(Also, I was just trolling you with Sonic Unleashed. Let's see if anyone ragequits the article and comments without reading all the way through.)

HAHAH! I was just about to throw a BF before that line.

You have redeemed yourself, good sir!

 

[Madshaw]

i honestly couldn't tell if the sonic thing was a troll, i have no intrest in playing it and i wads rubbish at it as a kid and never really got into it. imagine if there was a story worth its salt in there, i'd never know

 

[Irridium]

Fable 2 would be better without the main story...I haven't read any one else's comments so someone may have said that before me but anyway...

Nah, I don't remember reading anything about it. But yeah, I agree.
The whole game was fun, and the sidequests were usually unique, interesting, and funny.

Its just the main story that sucks ass. At the very least they could have swapped the roles of Lucien and Reaver.

 

[Irridium]

i honestly couldn't tell if the sonic thing was a troll, i have no intrest in playing it and i wads rubbish at it as a kid and never really got into it. imagine if there was a story worth its salt in there, i'd never know

(Also, I was just trolling you with Sonic Unleashed. Let's see if anyone ragequits the article and comments without reading all the way through.)

So... yeah.

 

[Uncompetative]

I hate Story in games.

Too many AAA titles seem to be developed not by video game designers, but by frustrated film directors.

Just take that $100,000,000 and make a movie, already.

A game is a system of rules supporting your interactive participation that may involve some challenge and/or discovery yielding a "reward".

A pre-scripted narrative limits the player's freedom of choice as it has to funnel your progress towards some well-defined plot-point.

Alternative narrative paths leading to equally cathartic multiple endings are rare.

Developers would rather you saw everything on the first play-through than give you real value for money. Lazy reviewers may be the reason.

However, I don't mind Story introducing a game's own emergent narrative as in Left4Dead, or something as simple as Robotron 64:


Inspired by his never ending quest for progress, in 2084 man perfects the Robotrons: a robot species so advanced that man is inferior to his own creation. Guided by their infallible logic, the Robotrons conclude: The human race is inefficient, and therefore must be destroyed.

You are the last hope of mankind. Due to a genetic engineering error, you possess superhuman powers. Your mission is to stop the Robotrons, and save the last human family: Mommy, Daddy, and Mikey.



Dumb, eh? But actually this is all I need in the way of a story...

The rest of the narrative I tell to myself and it is different every time I play as it is the history of my actions and the reactions of the robots.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Whenever I bang on my "this story sucks" drum I invariably get someone asking me, "Why don't you just go watch a movie if you want to see a story so bad?" Which seems to imply that you shouldn't expect good stories from games. But if you think videogame stories have to suck, then you've been playing the wrong games. KOTOR, Jade Empire, Thief, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Max Payne, Sonic Unleashed and the aforementioned Left 4 Dead all manage to deliver both engaging gameplay and a well-written story.

SONIC. UNLEASHED!?

manwhat?

Ooooh looks like he got another one!

 

[thufir85]

I'm having a hard time discerning what kind of story telling you actually like. Just to clarify, what methods tell a decent story in your opinion? Legend of Zelda's cutscenes at regular intervals maybe? or do you prefer the on-the-fly dialogue of say, Uncharted 2?

Either or really, my dislike comes in the form of people feeling that Portal, Half-Life and Left 4 Dead tell "TEH BEST STORAIZ EVAR!" considering they barely have characters, barely have dialogue and barely have plots. What they have is good storytelling, not good stories in and of themselves. I guess it's a "Just because a game doesn't have cutscenes doesn't mean it's brilliant" gut reaction.

Even then I suppose this was a mostly a misdirected rant at Multiplayer Storytelling.

I won't argue Half-Life or Portal (since I think Half-Life had good storytelling for its' time, with 2 being rather bad and not having played Portal). But Left 4 Dead has a totally different idea of storytelling I think. The idea is not that we are to follow the outbreak or get to see how it is handled or anything. The idea is that the players build their own Survival Horror story throughout the episodes being played.
When you play a game like Jade Empire you are supposed to say things like "And I totally did not see the plot twist coming! It was awesome!". When you play Left 4 Dead the idea is that you are supposed to say "And then he went down just as a wave spawned and we were three people with only handguns who had to protect the guy who was on the ground in the middle of the room! It was F-ING EPIC!"

In roleplaying terms (since I am a game master myself) it is the difference between White Wolfs Storytelling system and its' heavy focus on narrative and Dungeon crawling in a classical D&D session. One is all about telling an engaging story, the other is all about making a memorable experience.

That just sounds like a choose your own adventure book, I hate those. I feel there is no story in the L4D games. Thegame just likes to trick you into thinking that there is one.

 

[Ericb]

I hate Story in games.

I strongly recommend Planescapse:Torment for your symptoms.

Too many AAA titles seem to be developed not by video game designers, but by frustrated film directors.

Oh, God yes. Hideo Kojima and David Jaffe should read this.

A game is a system of rules supporting your interactive participation that may involve some challenge and/or discovery yielding a "reward".

Even though the concept of reward can be debated and subverted.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Experienced Points: The Story Snob

You don't have to put a story in your game, but if you do, try to make it not suck.

Read Full Article

Personally I find the major problem with video game stories is that more often than not all we get are story concepts that were never truly realized. Of course this isn't always true and some games manage it quite nicely. But the majority just have a basic idea with no follow through.

Of course occasionally that can work to the game's advantage. Crackdown had so little in the way of actual story, but as a result the tale of my Agent became my own to create. But a proper narrative would have been nice. Only time will tell if the sequel can shake things up and give us what the first didn't.

I grew up in the Atari generation, when story was something that was occasionally written in the manual but never put into the game. So any time I get a good game story it's like a sweet tasty bonus to the fun. I wish more developers would take the time to make something memorable for us to encounter between the gun fights.

 

[Cliff_m85]

SONIC UNLEASHED???? SONIC UNLEASHED??!!!! How can you say that that had a great story?????

*throws chair at Shamus*

*ragequits*

 

[Vaanderpantz]

lol didn't even catch that Sonic Unleashed bit until the note at the bottom. I believe a good story can make a good game into a great one, but a bad story won't ruin solid gameplay for me

 

[Tears of Blood]

Shamus!

I disagree!

I think the Resident Evil games have good stories. Because, for their time, I think "zombie virus" concept was pretty new, if not to be started by the Resident Evil games. I could be wrong, as I haven't researched it, but it was the first piece of media that I ever found that idea in. Dialogue was pretty bad, sure, but the story itself was pretty cool, I thought.

I think the real reason people look down on the Resident Evil games is that their ideas started getting used in other media. Other games, movies, that kind of stuff.

Even if I'm wrong, I don't think that they have atrocious story, at least.

 

[Magnalian]

Wow, I glanced right over the Sonic Unleashed comment...

 

[LordWalter]

Experienced Points: The Story Snob

You don't have to put a story in your game, but if you do, try to make it not suck.

Read Full Article

I had such a severe case of cognitive dissonance that I actually didn't even comprehend that you had said "Sonic Unleashed" until the very last paragraph.

That's....terrifying and awesome at the same time.

 

[(LK)]

First off I think 2 hours of car chaces, explosions, gunfights and sword fights with no sembalance of plot would be awsome. Other than that I agree with the article. Shoe horning a story into a game because "no game is complete without a story," is a bad idea. Some of my favorite games don't have any thing resembeling a traditional story in them. Civilization 3 and Mount & Blade being examples. Perhaps I am drawing a different conclusion from this article than the author, but there are many games today that could be greatly improved by stripping out of all story element.

Great examples of stories that can be told by games, which are impossible to accomplish in passive fiction such as writing or film.

Civ is a god game. The story is the flow of your civilization as you lead it in a given session. It's sparse, and is only as present as you make it by thinking about it.

Mount and Blade is a sandbox RPG. The game gives you a world and a malleable starting character and allows you to enact the story you wish with that character. The only railroading is the game's setting and rules themselves. How to flesh out that role and story is at one's own discretion.

Those are the sort of stories that most mass-produced games should strive to have. The kind that don't require careful, elegant writing... because most studios producing them aren't equipped to produce that kind of writing.

If more game developers stuck to creating games, and let those studios with skillful writers produce the ones with pre-made, patently present storylines, then we wouldn't always have to have our faces rubbed in writing which is as ridiculous as (and analogous to) the sight of an army whose armor was thrown together by a potter, for lack of a smith.