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Originally Posted by roofles
Lately I've been seeing articles here and there, more or less about this subject. I noticed something that stuck with me while reading them. The presence of a story in the game should not be confused with a properly constructed plot. Character development also seems to be sorely absent these days.
While RPGs do allow for much richer stories, character development is rarely there. I figure story is what they told us it was in english class, and anything that doesn't meet those requirements really isnt much of a story. Ruben mentioned hl2. The gameplay was incredible. They really have that down pat, even if it felt a bit formulaic at times. The story was a huge let down. I spent 75% of the game waiting to figure out what is going on just to jump right into the resolution of the whole conflict that was hardly built.
It seems that the standards for story within games is not the same for story within movies or books. There isn't any reason it can't be that way.
fng, do you suppose its possible that gamers aren't going for story driven games because they aren't being fed too many? I'm thinking that is a stong possibility. You're right, story driven games are out of style. I'm not sure thats the key here anymore. I don't think the story should drive the game by any means, the player should. Many of these older games forced the player to complete a certain arc of the story before advancing. It seems modern gaming needs an infusion of story intensive games driven by the players actions, not story driven games. what do you think?
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I think it's a two fold action. New game A come out that isn't very story heavy but appeals to a larger market, which in turn sends a message to game developers that people want more of game A and are willing to pay for game A. Developers reciprocate by making more of games like A. The industry, and many entertainment type industries are driven by the notion of "one hit, many imitators." So if you've got the good game one year, you'll be sure to see more games next year like it. The industry is also constantly evolving, so while WW2 FPSes are the norm right now, give it some time to run its course.
Game should be driven by players, but having a cohesive narrative alongside it is actually incredibly difficult. Lee Sheldon gives a regular seminar at the GDC about trying to put good story telling in an open environment, which is what more and more games are trying to be. Back in the days of adventure games, you could get away with something linear because it was easy to make checkpoints in the system. Nowadays, depending on your game and the player, you may not ever have a storyline emerge. And if you do, what's the best way to present the story? MMORPGs suffer from this because while they can offer content, content is not the same as story, which several companies are finding out these days.
I agree with you that story for games should be held to the same standard as for other forms of entertainment, but game makers have a significany hurdle to overcome in that they can't control primary aspects of storytelling. For example, movie makers can control their cinematography, and block their shots the way to have the most impact.
Character dev is a tricky issue in games because it only appears in many games as a "leveling up" of sorts. But what about when character development requires loss? Unless it's in a cutscene or some other hit over the head sequence, most players are going to just reload and try again. For instance, in the second Prince of Persia (The Shadow and the Flame), it is necessary for the prince to die at a certain point. Most people, when they hit that moment, reload the game. But you need to sit through the entire sequence to continue. A flaw in the story telling? Possibly, but it's much more interesting than a cutscene.
Will Wright also brought a good point with Spore and what he discovered in the creation of the Sims. People don't like to tell stories about characters in the games, they want to put themselves in the characters and tell stories about themselves. It's like, no one cares how Lara Croft won against the bad guys, because everyone's seen the cutscene and it's immutable. But people are interested in telling others about how THEY played the game and the cool thing they did on the way to beating the bad guys.