Entry Level 5 - "The Tale of the Story"

First and foremost, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope it was a good day for you all. And also that New Years promises some darn good material for the water cooler Hang Out when you get back to work.

This week, I have been looking into the power of stories and plot, and what impact they have (or have not) had on the industry over the years. I shall start by saying, story is very important to me in video games. I stick by very few that lack a decent motive, or plot that keeps me playing. Sadly, the finest example I have to mind is Shatter, which even in its Arkanoid style design, managed to muster up some kind of motive. Admittedly, for the entirety of the game I saw that motive sit in the corner and cup its motivational balls in boredom, because I did not need it... WAIT! Just thought of a damn good example.

The reason I warm so easily to games with a story, is simply because they are the games that made me want to become part of the industry in the first place. Allow me to set the scene, no doubt you all have your own version of this story...

It is winter in 1997, myself and my brother have acquired what will be a landmark in video gaming, and have been playing it in turns for a good week. I am scheduled to take a trip skiing with the grandparents today, but I have other plans as I have reached the Forgotten City and am on the chase with this super-villain I am particularly keen on stopping. We are but minutes from departure and I am being ushered towards the door when all of sudden, this decides to happen.

This shook me to my very core, and anyone who ever played this game will understand. There are so few moments like this is gaming that truly shake the player, that I am confident to say this actually is the only time in gaming where someone's death actually made a difference to how we felt while playing. We have seen since then, many attempts at trying to emulate a moment of such emotional bruising that developers seem to now just throw characters in for the sake of killing them, meaning they are already seen as disposable upon introduction.

Now snap forward a few years to 2005. I am in Vancouver for the year having possibly one of the greatest years of my life and upon non-chalant suggestion, I have found a new gem in my hands. What helped, was that my canvas was blank and I had no brush to paint my expectations. Long story short, today I sit in possession of the trilogy, Pandoras box, the soundtrack, concept art and a good few days of playing through the entire story back to back. I love this game so much, that my words alone are too many to justify it. Instead, I shall allow a simple countdown to give you shallow premise of the games' incredible scope.



When discussing the idea of story in games nowadays, I do hear a lot of "Oh, I don't care about story, just put a gun in my hand and someone to kill, then blow something up and I'll be happy". This is indeed the era of games we are in. If I may, I would like to coin it the "I'll-Be-Back Era", where substance is not the key, but guns, fights, one liners, and explosions are what sells. Not a problem, even the music industry went through this phase, but it will get tired.

Stories to me help draw people into more focused groups, and allows different avenues of different tales to be told. When you look for a film to watch, to want to know what it is about, so that you can best judge your interest and how involved you could get and the very same applies to books. In games, you are able to truly become these characters, see through their eyes and live what is being written for them. Rockstar Games make me happy in this regard, as they have a style of game development that not only brings the elements of gamer and story together, but also avoids branching so far into the ridiculous that disbelief runs rife. Characters are organic, alive, and indeed believeable, making playing their games a joy to experience in new ways. I took absolutely no interest in the Wild West until I played Red Dead Redemption.

It certainly is a risk for games to spend more time on taking games to a mature and sophisticated manner. Perhaps the age of the industry still hinders the progression phase to take place, however it is inspiring to see developers taking these risks to show their bravery in the brand new and unknown. Developments like Depth Analysis' new animation technology "MotionScan" now allow games like LA Noire to reach new levels of immersion. To the curious ones, or those under a rock, this is due for release in 2011, so sooner that we might expect! 

One of the issues that arises in story based gaming however, is highlighted in a review of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I was reading Game People reviews, a site I would highly recommend if you like an alternative and sophisticated video games review. In this review around 8 paragraphs in, 'reallyquitetired' hits a superb point about how solid and well structured stories usually must sacrifice the gamers' freedom; a very, very dangerous gamble but if it is executed right it pays off big time (this is when you do not consider Role Playing Games). Fine contradictory examples like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy prove that this is not always the case, and although argument states that the time and effort put into these games cannot possible be commonplace as an economically viable process for a lot of games, may I point you towards the previous video again and think, in terms of a game, the scope has just be blown out of the water.

So what we divulge from games at the moment is that people do not want story, really. We did not care that Dom wanted to find his wife in Gears 2, we did not really care when your sister is killed in Fable 2, Aisha was not missed in Saints Row 2, and I actually forgot about Ghost in Modern Warfare 2... lot of sequels... and right now it takes a good 20 hours+ invested in a character before developers can kill them off and we get upset. I will not ruin it for anyone, but I recently spent a lot of time playing a game only to find out my character dies in the end. Not overly impressed, but it is a refreshing reminder that sometimes games do not have to go in the direction you want them to, because the path they choose can be far more effective. So I guess what I am saying is, developers should take a note from Steve Jobs' book. Do not give us what we ask for, tell us what we want/need and then sell it to us. I have heard it works wonders...

NEXT WEEK: "Why won't you come out to play?"

If you have anything you wish to share with me or indeed the readers, feel free to comment or e-mail me at twentyfiveand0@hotmail.co.uk - Don't forget to check out the What Have I Been Playing pages found on the right! OR Check out my channel at www.youtube.com/ike1luv