Why don't American video game developers make games with awesome storylines

[CaptJohnSheridan]

settings, and memorable characters? If you look at games that are pushing this medium at least in the area of storytelling like Horizon Zero Dawn, Life is Strange, Zelda Breathe of the Wild, The Witcher, and Mass Effect is that they are not developed in America. Horizon in the Netherlands, Life is Strange in France, Zelda in Japan, The Witcher in Poland, and Mass Effect in Canada.

Why aren't there any games like that developed in America? Are there not enough Americans becoming game developers? Are American game developers less risk averse? Are American video game writers less creative?

Would you like to see Disney or Microsoft open a game studio based on pushing the storytelling aspects of video games? Disney did make movies aimed at an older audience and and even an M rated video game called Turok under the Touchstone label. If they are going to make games I would hope they would choose a cooler and more memorable name.

Is the game industry too crowded for another Bioware or CD Projekt Red?

 

[Zhukov]

I take issue with your examples.

HZD was cool and all and I enjoyed its story, but it wasn't "pushing the medium" a fucking inch. It was a stock standard video game story.

LiS was... at least distinctive I guess, but if what they did counts as "pushing the medium" then Telltale games are also "pushing the medium" and those guys are based in America.

Breath of the Wild was a stock standard video game story.

The Witcher games are stock standard video game stories, although the third one boasts better than average execution.

Mass Effect lost its story medal with the ending of ME3, and flushed it down the toilet with Andromeda. Hell, some poor tasteless souls will tell you it started sucking with ME2 or was always bad.

Is the game industry too crowded for another Bioware or CD Projekt Red?

It's not a matter of crowding.

Most developers simply don't have the skill to tell a good story.

Most publishers don't give a shit about story because they don't need a good story to sell games.

 

[CritialGaming]

I don't think it's that American devs are less creative. I think it boils down to American business practices. Big publishers don't want creative, they want a guarantee on their money. So that ends up happening is you don't get good games in America, you get iterative games. Battlefields, Call of Duty's, sports games, it's all the same game with a different coat of paint. But that is because these games sell and are very low-risk investments for the publishers.

Blizzard used to be great at story. Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo 1 and 2, even WoW had some good stories. But then Activision bought the company and it slowly became a cash cow. No need for story, just make games. The simpler the better. Notice how Blizzard went from making great stories to making Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3's shit. Then they just said, "fuck it" to story and made Hearthstone, Heroes of the storm, and Overwatch.

I just don't think American companies are willing to put in the effort nor the time to release a big story=based game. I mean look how much time and money Square is dumping into Kingdom Hearts 3 for fuck's sake. No American Publisher would let any game sit in the oven for 10+ years.

 

[CritialGaming]

I take issue with your examples.

HZD was cool and all and I enjoyed its story, but it wasn't "pushing the medium" a fucking inch. It was a stock standard video game story.

LiS was... at least distinctive I guess, but if what they did counts as "pushing the medium" then Telltale games are also "pushing the medium" and those guys are based in America.

Breath of the Wild was a stock standard video game story.

The Witcher games are stock standard video game stories, although the third one boasts better than average execution.

Mass Effect lost its story medal with the ending of ME3, and flushed it down the toilet with Andromeda. Some poor tasteless souls will tell you it started sucking with ME2 or was always bad.

Is the game industry too crowded for another Bioware or CD Projekt Red?

It's not a matter of crowding.

Most developers simply don't have the skill to tell a good story.

Most publishers don't give a shit about story because they don't need a good story to sell games.

I take issue with your issue.

Those stories are pushing the medium. In one way or another they DO push the medium.

HZD: Was it a fairly standard story? Yes if you only look at bullet points. But it is an unique twist on the post apocalyptic story, with a non-sexualized female protagonist. Aloy herself pushes the medium.

The Witcher: These push the medium as well. If not for the story exactly, for the bar setting quality of the writing. The Witcher games have flat out some of the best dialog, and quest set up in any game ever made.

Zelda: Well Zelda is shit. But story was never Zelda's thing. Gameplay is.

Mass Effect: These games did kind of push the medium as well. The first two did at least. It is a shame that the third one couldn't hold up, but the first two games had great stories. WE wont count Andromedia because clearly that was a throw away game above anything else.

Look if you break down any story, you are ever only going to see about seven different stories in total. So you can't just blindly call everything "standard" because everything can be broken up by a basic standard. What you have to look at is the journey. The progression that the player takes through these stories, because that is what makes them unique.

 

[Avnger]

settings, and memorable characters? If you look at games that are pushing this medium at least in the area of storytelling like Horizon Zero Dawn, Life is Strange, Zelda Breathe of the Wild, The Witcher, and Mass Effect is that they are not developed in America. Horizon in the Netherlands, Life is Strange in France, Zelda in Japan, The Witcher in Poland, and Mass Effect in Canada.

Why aren't there any games like that developed in America? Are there not enough Americans becoming game developers? Are American game developers less risk averse? Are American video game writers less creative?

Would you like to see Disney or Microsoft open a game studio based on pushing the storytelling aspects of video games? Disney did make movies aimed at an older audience and and even an M rated video game called Turok under the Touchstone label. If they are going to make games I would hope they would choose a cooler and more memorable name.

Is the game industry too crowded for another Bioware or CD Projekt Red?

Halo (only 1-3 exist in my mind) had a hell of a story for the new IP.

 

[CaitSeith]

I blame American publishers who think gamers aren't able to follow any story but the simplistic ones. Besides that, studios tend to treat the story as something separate, which leads to compromising the story, the gameplay or both.

 

[Roguebubble]

So are just we ignoring Naughty Dog? Obsidian? Irrational Studios? Crystal Dynamics? Or indie developers like Telltale? Toby Fox? Supergiant Game? thatgamecompany? Stoic? Night School Studio? Campo Santo? Harebrained?

Seems to me that there are plenty of American developers that make games with awesome stories.

 

[Majestic_Manatee]

Storytelling can be acceptable enough depending on where you look. However their sense of humour, mainstream music, food quality regulation, equal access to affordable quality healthcare, education, prison rehabilitation free from private enterprise, separation of church and state, internet providers not lobbying government for their continued monopoly and general distribution of wealth leave a lot to be desired.

 

[TheFinish]

Really? So Pillars of Eternity, or the bevy of [good] Telltale Games, or Transistor/Bastion, or The Banner Saga, or a whole host of other games with great stories from companies based in the US suddenly don't count? And this isn't even taking into account much older games like Monkey Island (or, really, any of the superb Lucasarts/Sierra point and click adventure games), since I infer you mostly mean in the present.

And while I haven't played Breath of the Wild or Horizon, I have played LiS, Mass Effect and The Witcher. None of them have exemplary stories that "push the medium". They're all generally good, elevated to great by their characters (except Mass Effect, which I never cared for past the first one), but none of them really stand up to things like "I Have no Mouth and I must Scream" or "Grim Fandango".

 

[Pseudonym]

Zelda: breath of the wild skillfully pushed storytelling away from any sort of depht, detail, charactar and uniqueness. It certainly didn't have an awesome storyline or memorable charactars. The setting was passable but nothing new. Some story threads were barely fleshed out and the rest of them weren't fleshed out at all.

So are just we ignoring Naughty Dog? Obsidian? Irrational Studios? Crystal Dynamics? Or indie developers like Telltale? Toby Fox? Supergiant Game? thatgamecompany? Stoic? Night School Studio? Campo Santo? Harebrained?

Seems to me that there are plenty of American developers that make games with awesome stories.

Well yeah, but the OP hasn't played their games which means they don't exist.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I sorta agree to some degree at least in the RPG realm as the JRPG is more focused on story than the WRPG (just watch the Extra Credits video). Presently, I wouldn't be surprised if non-American publishers are more open to publishing/funding games with story as the core element. Would EA or Activision have ever thought to publish Life is Strange like SquareEnix did? However, I wouldn't say that really anyone is pushing storytelling in video games because the industry lacks good writers, that's the biggest problem with the medium right now. The fact that Uncharted 4 won best narrative last year says everything; Indiana Jones has a far better narrative and wasn't even considered to have the best narrative in movies and that was over 30 years ago. Gaming in the present can't even do better than an Indiana Jones movie is pretty sad. The game industry regardless of geographical region needs to "git gud" at writing first and foremost.

Lastly, John Gonzalez from Obsidian wrote the story for Horizon so does that count as American written?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This seems like an exercise in confirmation bias.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I don't think it's that American devs are less creative. I think it boils down to American business practices. Big publishers don't want creative, they want a guarantee on their money. So that ends up happening is you don't get good games in America, you get iterative games. Battlefields, Call of Duty's, sports games, it's all the same game with a different coat of paint. But that is because these games sell and are very low-risk investments for the publishers.

Blizzard used to be great at story. Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo 1 and 2, even WoW had some good stories. But then Activision bought the company and it slowly became a cash cow. No need for story, just make games. The simpler the better. Notice how Blizzard went from making great stories to making Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3's shit. Then they just said, "fuck it" to story and made Hearthstone, Heroes of the storm, and Overwatch.

I just don't think American companies are willing to put in the effort nor the time to release a big story=based game. I mean look how much time and money Square is dumping into Kingdom Hearts 3 for fuck's sake. No American Publisher would let any game sit in the oven for 10+ years.

exactly this. fuck all about games, this is about an investment in money, all the games they make can be sold yearly and/or with lots of easy to pump out DLC/microtransactions and shit.


sure I'd love more story based games, but until they physically come out, not much I can do about it besides buy the ones that do come out, regardless of country of origin.

 

[CaptJohnSheridan]

When you think of it, a lot of American culture in general seems pretty trivial, immature and perhaps even disposable in some cases, as the almighty dollar is increasingly king. Won't get into why this is as that would go severely off-topic, but as with most things there are exceptions. Good stories can be found but the point is pretty subjective to begin with.

 

[Hawki]

This seems like confirmation bias. I mean, here's some American developers that, within the scope of personal experience, have made, to quote, "awesome" storylines:

-Westwood/EA Los Angeles (Command & Conquer)
-Visceral Games (Dead Space)
-Bungie (Halo, Marathon)
-Epic Games/The Coalition (Gears of War)
-Valve (Half-Life)
-Blizzard (Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo)
-Rare (Perfect Dark)
-Insomniac Games (Resistance)
-Telltale Games (pretty much anything since The Walking Dead, to an extent - more a watcher than a player)

There's lots of nitty gritty I could get into with each of these examples, and of course, a "good storyline" is going to vary from person to person, but I don't think any one area of the world has a monopoly over story quality. To be honest, I don't even really care. A good story can come from any direction.

I don't think it's that American devs are less creative. I think it boils down to American business practices. Big publishers don't want creative, they want a guarantee on their money. So that ends up happening is you don't get good games in America, you get iterative games. Battlefields, Call of Duty's, sports games, it's all the same game with a different coat of paint. But that is because these games sell and are very low-risk investments for the publishers.

That's not exclusive to the US. From Japan, we have a cycle of releases with the Warriors series for instance. Pokemon is also extremely iterative, not straying from core concepts.

Blizzard used to be great at story. Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo 1 and 2, even WoW had some good stories. But then Activision bought the company and it slowly became a cash cow. No need for story, just make games. The simpler the better. Notice how Blizzard went from making great stories to making Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3's shit. Then they just said, "fuck it" to story and made Hearthstone, Heroes of the storm, and Overwatch.

Well, disagree. I'd put StarCraft II above any story Blizzard's done. Diablo III has its flaws, but the stories of D1 and D2 are pretty pathetic, to the extent that saying D1 has a "story" is like saying there's lettuce in a hamburger (technically true, but irrelevant to the overall experience). Even with stuff like Heroes and Overwatch, it's not really accurate to say they have story in the traditional sense (in as much that a story will follow a set sequence of events), even with them, there's still effort in background material to give a sense of worldbuilding (far more in Overwatch than HotS though).

No American Publisher would let any game sit in the oven for 10+ years.

Duke Nukem Forever comes to mind. ;p

But it is an unique twist on the post apocalyptic story, with a non-sexualized female protagonist. Aloy herself pushes the medium.

How? I think by this point in time, non-sexualized female protagonists aren't rare per se.

Zelda: Well Zelda is shit. But story was never Zelda's thing. Gameplay is.

-Ocarina of Time
-Majora's Mask
-The Wind Waker
-Twilight Princess
-The Minnish Cap
-Phantom Hourglass

To some extent or another, all of those games have a fair amount of focus on story. Just the ones I'm familiar with though, as opposed to, say, A Link to the Past or A Link Between Worlds, and even the latter's story is okay, if nothing special. You're right in that gameplay is the primary focus of the Zelda series, but as of Ocarina of Time, it's made progression in narrative as well.

Halo (only 1-3 exist in my mind) had a hell of a story for the new IP.

If we factor in the EU, sure. If not...well, even then, Halo's story is pretty decent. That said, if we're judging the Bungie entries on story, I'd say Reach still takes top billing. As I've said many times, I'd have been happy for the series to end with Reach, narrative-wise. Though Bungie still had misteps narratively with ODST, and Halo Wars and Halo 5 were still good entries (the less said about Halo 4 the better)

 

[Kerg3927]

I don't think it's that American devs are less creative. I think it boils down to American business practices. Big publishers don't want creative, they want a guarantee on their money. So that ends up happening is you don't get good games in America, you get iterative games. Battlefields, Call of Duty's, sports games, it's all the same game with a different coat of paint. But that is because these games sell and are very low-risk investments for the publishers.

Blizzard used to be great at story. Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo 1 and 2, even WoW had some good stories. But then Activision bought the company and it slowly became a cash cow. No need for story, just make games. The simpler the better. Notice how Blizzard went from making great stories to making Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3's shit. Then they just said, "fuck it" to story and made Hearthstone, Heroes of the storm, and Overwatch.

I just don't think American companies are willing to put in the effort nor the time to release a big story=based game. I mean look how much time and money Square is dumping into Kingdom Hearts 3 for fuck's sake. No American Publisher would let any game sit in the oven for 10+ years.

I think you hit the nail on the head, but I don't think what you're describing is specifically an American thing. Others have pointed out plenty of smaller American companies that are doing good things with story.

Making a game with a new and fresh and creative storyline is risky. Smaller companies have to take chances. They have to be creative so they stand out and get noticed.

Larger companies with big brand names are already in the spotlight, so they don't need to take as many chances. Plus there is a lot more money at stake and more pressure from big money shareholders looking over their shoulders. So they tend to shy away from risk and make safe games. They know it's going to sell as long as the gameplay is fun because of their brand name and marketing budget. And besides, the majority of gamers are dumb as bricks and don't care about story anyway... fun gameplay, brand name. and marketing will reel those gamers in, and as long as you get those people to buy it, nothing else really matters.

Safe and risk-averse stifles creativity.

 

[CritialGaming]

I think you hit the nail on the head, but I don't think what you're describing is specifically an American thing. Others have pointed out plenty of smaller American companies that are doing good things with story.

Making a game with a new and fresh and creative storyline is risky. Smaller companies have to take chances. They have to be creative so they stand out and get noticed.

Larger companies with big brand names are already in the spotlight, so they don't need to take as many chances. Plus there is a lot more money at stake and more pressure from big money shareholders looking over their shoulders. So they tend to shy away from risk and make safe games. They know it's going to sell as long as the gameplay is fun because of their brand name and marketing budget. And besides, the majority of gamers are dumb as bricks and don't care about story anyway... fun gameplay, brand name. and marketing will reel those gamers in, and as long as you get those people to buy it, nothing else really matters.

Safe and risk-averse stifles creativity.

Yes but that was exactly my point. Yes SMALL American developers are still telling stories. But that's because they haven't be swallowed up by the big publishers and thereby swallowed up by big business. The core of the American AAA-gaming scene has lost the focus of story. Sure there are games that have stories, absolutely. But they are not on the same caliber as other developers around the world. I mean look at Halo 5. Halo used to have a pretty unique and interesting story, but then Halo 5 was just arbitruary and stupid. Gears of War 4 was the same thing.

Both Halo 5 and GoW 4 were really cool games, that played well. But it was obvious and they pushed the narrative to the back burner.

This seems like confirmation bias. I mean, here's some American developers that, within the scope of personal experience, have made, to quote, "awesome" storylines:

-Westwood/EA Los Angeles (Command & Conquer)
-Visceral Games (Dead Space)
-Bungie (Halo, Marathon)
-Epic Games/The Coalition (Gears of War)
-Valve (Half-Life)
-Blizzard (Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo)
-Rare (Perfect Dark)
-Insomniac Games (Resistance)
-Telltale Games (pretty much anything since The Walking Dead, to an extent - more a watcher than a player)

Yes but this is a question about why American games don't care about story ANYMORE. Sure Command and Conquer, but when was the last one of those?

Bungie did the original Halo trilogy which was good, but then Halo 4 and 5 came out and the stories there were weak to say the least. Bungie's last game was Destiny and we all know how that story turned out.

Gear of War was always kind of "meh" to me in the story department and the last game was the "Mehest of the Meh".

Value!? Okay again in recent memory. Half-Life hasn't had a game in how long? I guess you could argue Portal 2, but even then that's what 7 years ago now?

Blizzard, well you can read what I said in my last post about how I feel about Blizzard's story-telling lately.

Rare and Insomniac, again are responsible for games that are over 10 years old. The argument isn't about have American developers ever cared about story, it's about the fact that they do not care anymore about story.

Telltale is....very hit or miss. It doesn't really help that nothing they do is really a game to me. They make movies with quick time events in them. Telltale has a ever grow catalog of "games" but they are ALWAYS the same formula, and they aren't always good. I don't really count them. Plus aren't they Canadian?

 

[DoPo]

Yes but this is a question about why American games don't care about story ANYMORE.

Can you define "anymore"? Because there have been big name story focus games produced in the USA for...well, ever. Just from last year, I can point at Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - sure, there were some shenanigans with it and what I understand is a pretty forced online mode, but it is still a story focused game from a big publisher. Well, Eidos is actually Canadian based, but still. There is also Uncharted 4 which came out last year - I admit, I've not actually played any games from the series, but my understanding is that it's story focused.

 

[CritialGaming]

Yes but this is a question about why American games don't care about story ANYMORE.

Can you define "anymore"? Because there have been big name story focus games produced in the USA for...well, ever. Just from last year, I can point at Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - sure, there were some shenanigans with it and what I understand is a pretty forced online mode, but it is still a story focused game from a big publisher. Well, Eidos is actually Canadian based, but still. There is also Uncharted 4 which came out last year - I admit, I've not actually played any games from the series, but my understanding is that it's story focused.

Naughty Dog is probably the biggest exception to what we are saying here. And while they are valid to point out, I would argue that it just goes to show how terrible other American companies have become regarding story content in their games. Naughty Dog is in fact a good example and proof that story still does matter to a lot of gamers. And yet it begs the question, why don't other American developers can as much?

Of course you'll still get stories from the indie market, and a few exceptions. But look around the industry and look at where we are getting our stories from. It isn't from America. It's from everywhere else. Canada, Sweden, Japan, Korea, France, etc. It's as if America has shifted so far over to just making money off games, that nothing else matters.

Which is a shame because these big story games do make huge money and they often set off franchises that can be used over and over again. Look at the hype for Kingdom Hearts 3, it has been 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 and people STILL are frantic for that game.