The Story Snob
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
I'm a HUGE story snob! I've often said, "No story, no point [in my playing]!" This goes for any form of entertainment; books, movies, gaming like D&D. Action without the motivation and joy of interesting characters, plot development, and generally imaginative foreplay for my brain, is not interesting action.
Take the movies, Transformers 1 and 2 by Bay. Forget for a minute that Bay butchered a childhood icon on a multitude of levels, and focus on the "story" and "characters." As per the original, there's about a bazzinion different transformers on either side. But when they start biting the dust in all the action, do we really care? No. Looks cool. Bay can really crash a car, and make it look impressive, but we don't really care when that transformer dies. Take Optimus Prime; he died in the original series, and I CRIED for a whole day! I was lost in a sea of sorrow for this robo truck that had a depth of character my child-brain couldn't understand. He died, I cried, and the show was instantly sure to stay in my mind forever. Bay killed Optimus, and yaknow what? Don't care. There was no real character development.
(I wouldn't have minded that Transformers was focused on the humans more than the Transformers themselves, if the humans had interesting character development that made me actually care about them. Also, I'm sorry I'm going all MovieBob on you all.
I needed an example and "Megan Fox not in transformers 3" in the links below gave me what I needed.)
I was surprised when I saw Sonic Unleased. I thought, "really? It's got a story worthy of a story snobs praise? Huh. Maybe I should give it a shot." Almost had me there, mr smartypants.
Take the movies, Transformers 1 and 2 by Bay. Forget for a minute that Bay butchered a childhood icon on a multitude of levels, and focus on the "story" and "characters." As per the original, there's about a bazzinion different transformers on either side. But when they start biting the dust in all the action, do we really care? No. Looks cool. Bay can really crash a car, and make it look impressive, but we don't really care when that transformer dies. Take Optimus Prime; he died in the original series, and I CRIED for a whole day! I was lost in a sea of sorrow for this robo truck that had a depth of character my child-brain couldn't understand. He died, I cried, and the show was instantly sure to stay in my mind forever. Bay killed Optimus, and yaknow what? Don't care. There was no real character development.
(I wouldn't have minded that Transformers was focused on the humans more than the Transformers themselves, if the humans had interesting character development that made me actually care about them. Also, I'm sorry I'm going all MovieBob on you all.
I needed an example and "Megan Fox not in transformers 3" in the links below gave me what I needed.)I was surprised when I saw Sonic Unleased. I thought, "really? It's got a story worthy of a story snobs praise? Huh. Maybe I should give it a shot." Almost had me there, mr smartypants.
Takes a big man to admit when he's been had.Not G. Ivingname said:Oh... I am a moron.Tom Phoenix said:Not G. Ivingname said:Excuse me?Shamus Young said:Took until comment #40 until we got one!Not G. Ivingname said:
In any case, brilliant article, Shamus. I could not agree more with your thoughts.Shamus Young said:
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.
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. 
Not G. Ivingname said:
^ Point and laugh kids. Point and laugh.TsunamiWombat said:
Well, I'd say that that says a lot about your articles and the The Escapist community. Crushing majority of people will read your articles through before commenting. That can't be a bad thing.Shamus Young said:Took until comment #40 until we got one!
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.
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.
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).
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).
I am sorryFiria said:Takes a big man to admit when he's been had.Not G. Ivingname said:Oh... I am a moron.Tom Phoenix said:Not G. Ivingname said:Excuse me?Shamus Young said:Took until comment #40 until we got one!Not G. Ivingname said:
In any case, brilliant article, Shamus. I could not agree more with your thoughts.Shamus Young said:
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.
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.
Nah, I don't remember reading anything about it. But yeah, I agree.Da Ork said:
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.
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.
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.
