Why are most AAA stories so... awful?

NPC009

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Aug 23, 2010
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Something Amyss said:
The major problem is, people are content to praise games that are still popcorn flicks as though they are masterpieces. I mean, people fawned over Final Fantasy VII's amazing narrative, or the depth of Red Dead Redemption's story, and they even argue story before gameplay when they excuse GTA's still shitty controls (seriously, Rockstar?). And as hilarious as "big American titties" is the 500th time you've heard it, the narratives in these games should be considered B-movies or popcorn flicks. But we, as a collective, actively praise them.
That's true. I like to be an elitist prick and blame education systems for not properly exposing students to literature, but the reason may be more simple and innocent: as a whole, we're just kind of amazed people bother telling stories in videogames that go beyond 'go shoot some aliens/save this princess/slay this dragon'.

That's probably why I'm willing to give the Final Fantasy VII praise a pass... As long as it's from 1997-1998. That game did play a big part in convincing players videogames can be used to tell stories.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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NPC009 said:
That's true. I like to be an elitist prick and blame education systems for not properly exposing students to literature, but the reason may be more simple and innocent: as a whole, we're just kind of amazed people bother telling stories in videogames that go beyond 'go shoot some aliens/save this princess/slay this dragon'.

That's probably why I'm willing to give the Final Fantasy VII praise a pass... As long as it's from 1997-1998. That game did play a big part in convincing players videogames can be used to tell stories.
Pretty much. The bar is so low that, by video game standards, these games do stick out.

Admittedly, I'm usually not playing games for the story anyway. What I enjoy about FFVII is actually the gameplay (I like the ATB system and MAteria fusion and whatnot) and not so much the graphics or the story. But even when I do enjoy the story (Red Dead), it's morein the way I enjoy a B-flick or something. The finale of RDR brought a tear to my eye, but then, so did the Doctor Who special The Time of the Doctor. And while I enjoy Doctor Who, I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece. Just something fun and enjoyable and occasionally touching.

And that's a good thing, but if Doctor Who is the height of emotions games generally reach, we're never going to see a real "Citizen Kane" of gaming.
 

Silvanus

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There are numerous reasons, but if I had to choose the biggest, I would go with risk aversion. Risk aversion to an unhealthy, irrational extent. That's one of the biggest shackles for originality and imagination in both film and gaming, driving successful companies to try to cater to all at once, and to merely emulate the successes of the past, resulting in stories boiled down to formulae until they're just painting by numbers.


Something Amyss said:
The major problem is, people are content to praise games that are still popcorn flicks as though they are masterpieces. I mean, people fawned over Final Fantasy VII's amazing narrative, or the depth of Red Dead Redemption's story, and they even argue story before gameplay when they excuse GTA's still shitty controls (seriously, Rockstar?). And as hilarious as "big American titties" is the 500th time you've heard it, the narratives in these games should be considered B-movies or popcorn flicks. But we, as a collective, actively praise them.
I wouldn't describe FFVII's story as a "popcorn flick" by a long shot for several reasons, but the biggest is that it's not straightforward. What appears at first as a story of the plucky underdogs fighting the powerful evil conglomerate shows it's something very, very different: most of these freedom fighters die in a failed mission a decent number of hours in; the conglomerate turns out to be merely one of several antagonist factions in conflict with one another, and their actions even coincide with the heroes' at several points; and even our own actions with the freedom fighters are shown as morally ambiguous, or harmful to the innocent, when Reeve calls Barret out on them.
 

Something Amyss

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Silvanus said:
I wouldn't describe FFVII's story as a "popcorn flick" by a long shot for several reasons, but the biggest is that it's not straightforward. What appears at first as a story of the plucky underdogs fighting the powerful evil conglomerate shows it's something very, very different: most of these freedom fighters die in a failed mission a decent number of hours in; the conglomerate turns out to be merely one of several antagonist factions, and their actions even coincide with the heroes' at several points; and even our own actions with the freedom fighters are shown as morally ambiguous, or harmful to the innocent, when Reeve calls Barret out on them.
That sounds about as deep as the metacommentary The Condemned tried to shoehorn into a Running Man ripoff starring Stone Cold Steve Austin.
 

Charli

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Hiring story writers is a thing. They very rarely want to acknowledge that it is a thing. And give the job to someone rather inexperienced with crafting story for the interactive medium.

Because cheap.

And as sad as it is to admit it, the flashy graphics and gameplay sell the product better. Until a well executed story puts it over the top into more than 'just okay'.
 

Silvanus

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Something Amyss said:
That sounds about as deep as the metacommentary The Condemned tried to shoehorn into a Running Man ripoff starring Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Well, I was making an argument that it wasn't straightforward, rather than that it was "deep", necessarily. It's still aiming to be rousing rather than provide some kind of exploration of the human condition (which is no bad thing).
 

someguy1231

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It's because, to put it frankly, video games are the only medium that can succeed if it has a bad story, or even no story at all. Tetris and Pac-Man are two of the most successful video game franchises of all time, and their stories solely consist of "Blocks fall down" and "Eat white dots".

What is it that video games can offer that no other medium can? Fun gameplay. Video games live and die by whether they're fun to play. I know I speak for many gamers when I say that a game could have the best story I've ever seen, but if it's not fun to play, I won't buy it. (Besides, if I only care about a game's story and don't care about the gameplay, I can just watch someone's Let's Play on Youtube)

Writing a good story is difficult in any medium, but in video games, where it's considered just another part of a large project (and an insignificant one, at that), any video game that even tries to do something more is heaped with praise for it, regardless of how well it succeeds or not. I personally consider "The Last of Us" one of the most overrated games of the generation, but some people consider it the "Citizen Kane" of video games. Its story was completely predictable to me, its characters were unlikable and trying too hard to invoke angst and the viewer's sympathy, and even its gameplay was mediocre at best.

So, what's the solution? I think the problem with most "Art video games" (for lack of a better term) is that they try to forget that they're video games. They almost seem embarrassed by it. Video games are not movies, and developers should stop trying to turn them into one. In the process, they just end up taking the "game" out of "video game". After finishing "The Last of Us", I remarked that the game felt like it was made by film producers who were rejected by the movie studios, so they made it as a game instead as a fallback. If I can get everything your "video game" has to offer by watching someone's Let's Play, then you haven't created a "video game" at all- you've just created a movie where the player can occasionally select "Go to the next scene".

Instead, integrate your game's story with the mechanics of a video game. Video games are the only medium where the player is in control, so embrace the fact that the player can meander off in the middle of your narrative. Linearity is usually despised in video games, whereas in every other medium it's pretty much required. If anyone here is familiar with "Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage", watch his video on "The Shandification of Fallout". In short, make the story fit the gameplay, rather than vice-versa.
 

Eddie the head

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Because the dude writing the story went to school for fucking programming. A lot of the time the guy writing the story in AAA games is just the guy in the office who is the best at doing that. And considering the pool of talent they're drawing form that's no one's specialty.
 

Mudman1234

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Blood Brain Barrier said:
Mudman1234 said:
Most developers would rather focus on gameplay for a videogame. Shocking, I know.
Certainly not AAA developers. Their definition of gameplay is "the means of slaying everything in sight".
Which is still gameplay, so your point is well, pointless.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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Mudman1234 said:
Blood Brain Barrier said:
Mudman1234 said:
Most developers would rather focus on gameplay for a videogame. Shocking, I know.
Certainly not AAA developers. Their definition of gameplay is "the means of slaying everything in sight".
Which is still gameplay, so your point is well, pointless.
And terrible stories are still stories. I'd expect a focus on gameplay to produce more than running around killing stuff, that's all.
 

NPC009

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Aug 23, 2010
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Eh, yeah, I never claimed Final Fantasy VII was the first or saving the world was an original idea. All I said was that I played a big part in convincing players videogames can be used to tell stories.

Final Fantasy VII was big and flashy (remember the commercials? Sephiroth surrounded by flames? that certainly caught people's attention), it was showing off relatively new hardware, it had some scenes and twists many didn't expect in a videogame (the incredibly awkward cross dressing segment, one of your party members dying), and so.

Heck, some of the big things the game did weren't even new within the series (several earlier installments killed one or more playable characters), but it was the right game at the right time and it knew how to make a lasting impression.
 

Akjosch

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There are two kinds of narratives in games:

The plots created by the developers, the "main" and "side" stories built into the game.

The stories created by the players as they explore the game's virtual spaces.

If it's the former, others wrote at length why they so often suck (to the point where I don't even bother with Bethesda's plots; my experiences and expectations of them is that they will actively detract from my enjoyment of their games).

If it's the latter ... well, they are your stories. They are only as good as you are as a story teller.

Now let me tell you about my character ...[footnote]No worries, just joking.[/footnote]
 

RJ 17

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Nov 27, 2011
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the_dramatica said:
Does anybody disagree or have some sort of cause for this? Maybe all themes would be considered awful if they where this common?
The quick answer is that studios are more concerned with creating a spectacle rather than a good story. Anyone can slap together a paint-by-numbers story to ship...but what's important is that it looks fabulous! I mean what good is having a deep, innovative narrative if you can't see individual blades of grass on the ground?
 

Gengisgame

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Feb 15, 2015
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Most games don't have very good stories, I would actually say AAA (high budget games) have much better stories on average because they make a better go at it.

Are games without high budgets really known for consistently having good stories to make the tread creators point true?