video game narrative.

[Gman707]

I have just read an interview, in a video game magazine, with ubisoft game designer, clint hocking regarding the role of narrative in video games. he was very much of the oppinion that all narrative story telling should be stricken from video games and left to the movies (worryingly, the magazine's collumnist seemed to agree with him!). I dont know about you but the story of a video game is far more important than flshy graphics or being able to roam pointlessly wherever you wish. the two worst phrases ever to hit the video games market are "sandbox" and "emergent play". I dont want to go scrabbling around some huge, lifeless and utterly generic city, looking for something i can make up my own story about. I want to know if this character i have developed an attachment to, and whom i have begun to care about, survives whatever task or ordeal he is faced with. I want a cast of likable characters i can get to know and be interesed in, not some pointy eared avatar i can use to pretend i'm something i'm not.

It seems there are a large number of western developers that share clints views and this worries me a bit. I enjoy a good video game story. My favorite moments in gaming have all been cut sceens (The death of aries, dante getting impailed on a sword for the first time, lara croft cheakily shooting out the cammera at the end of tomb raider two.....) or story based moments and i dont want to see these moments dissapear. Am I the only one who still plays games for thier stories or do the rest of the game buying public feel the same?

[Browniemc]

You just described the reason why I don't buy most games, strangely enough they're mostly western games. These days where everything is copy and paste a good story can make a game outstand others. I feel like most games are unfinished, rushed and identical as any other game in its genre.

I think since gaming has become a mainstream market it's purely based on profit, there are few game developers who deliver a good solid game these days. Ah well, blame the media.

[Dante2014]

I think that they are better working together in equal measure rather than either being omitted in favour of the other.

Videogames have the appeal of being a game, and thats what gives them the advantage over movies, in that they can create deeper empathy with the character, allow you to see things better from their point rather than having to compensate, they can also allow a story to go on for far longer, on the grounds that they are entertaining in other aspects. This, however is dependant on the game itself, some tend to slack on the story so that they can create a faster paced game with that being the appeal, whilst others, typically RPGs rely on story.

However, the flipside of this, is when a game has too many movies, then it becomes that, a movie which "allows" you to play it once and a while, this was the major flaw in the likes of MGS4, it made the assumption that it had your interest from the moment it started and never stopped to realise that you, as a player was just listening to what it had to say, and there is no fun in that...

So, narrative should not be stricken, only bad narrative, but it also depends on the game itself.

[Gman707]

I agree that certain games can take it too far. it was kind of fun in MGS2 that thee cut sceens went on and on! it was a parody of it's self but 3 and 4 went too far. cut sceens need to be used sparingly and should be dramatic. things like Squall and Co. sliding down the cables from balam garden, Hworang skidding form his bike at devil Jin's feet or irvine mutating into a squid monster. these are all dramatic events that make you want to dive into the actual game play. Narative can be hakneyed and uninteresting, just as it can be in movies but that is what sepperates a good game (or film) from a bad one.