DoctorFinger
10-19-2009, 12:49 PM
As games have moved from a child's pastime to a full on art form everyone involved, developers, critics and consumers, have begun to realize that a game's story can be critical to it's success. What's less clear is what makes a successful story. This column will be a discussion of video game storytelling, for good and ill. Sometimes we'll be dissecting a specific title or franchise, others we'll be focusing on a particular trend or question.
First and foremost let me say that not all games need a story, and not all games are improved by their story. The Mario franchise encompasses some of the most beloved games in the history of the medium, and the sum total of their stories is: "Our Princess is in another castle." Ultimately gaming is about the experience, and sometimes that experience doesn't benefit from a structured story. Madden, Gran Turismo, Rock Band and Team Fortress all provide next to nothing in terms of story, yet are all amongst the most popular titles out there. Those games are (generally) not the focus of this feature. Instead Game Theory focuses on the other games; the ones for which story are important if not integral to the experience.
So, just what do I mean by "the story." That may seem like an odd question at first, but the answer does impact a number of things. Overall I divide the topic of game storytelling into two separate categories.
The Narrative
The who, what, when, where and why of the story. The characters, the conflict, the setting, the plot. Does it follow the classic three-act format, or is it more beholden to Freytag’s Pyramid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure)? And of course every good story has to have something unexpected happen; the shocks, the twists, the surprises. But, even the best story can be ruined by poor presentation.
The Presentation
Now that they have a story, how do the developers present it? Epic, 20-minute long cutscenes where you can lay down your controller? If gamers wanted to watch a movie, they'd watch a damn movie. A 30 page mini novel in the back of a manual? Which will never be seen, since no one reads the manual. Developers obviously don't want to go either of those routes, but finding the middle ground is tremendously difficult. You want to have enough exposition to immerse your player in the story, but not so much that they forget they're playing a game. There are other factors too. The voice acting, visual design and pacing can all add to, or detract from, the story. Do you make it lighthearted and breezy, or serious as a heart attack? Are the visuals realistic, or stylized? But most importantly, does the gameplay itself support the story?
Ultimately as a gamer, that's the most interesting story element for me: how do the story and the gameplay support one another. Obviously certain genres and play styles are more suited to some story types than others. Real time strategy works great to tell the story of a large scale conflict, but reduce the cast to a handful and the RTS style generally doesn't hold up. First person shooters are great with action, but that same frenetic pace doesn't always lend itself to overly complex or layered stories. Those are better suited to role playing games where the pace can slow down a bit. A developer needs to match the story and the style to the gameplay, whichever comes first. Obviously sometimes one precedes the other. You know that a Call of Duty game will be a first person shooter, but what sort of story will it have? Conversely you sort of know what sort of story you'll get in a Batman game, but the developers have a little more leeway in the sort of game they build around that story.
At the same time, all of the surrounding elements need to click for a story to truly be considered great. Half-Life was great, but would it have been as great if you removed the relatively low-key voice work and replaced it with the much more over the top acting in Gears of War? Would Bioshock have been as good had Rapture looked like the more generic environments of say The Force Unleashed? Would Final Fantasy be as popular if Square Enix made it as grim and gritty as Halo?
Which element is most important? That's the beauty of gaming, there's no right answer. The best games tend to have all of those elements, and even the ones which are only "good" generally do a bunch of things right.
First and foremost let me say that not all games need a story, and not all games are improved by their story. The Mario franchise encompasses some of the most beloved games in the history of the medium, and the sum total of their stories is: "Our Princess is in another castle." Ultimately gaming is about the experience, and sometimes that experience doesn't benefit from a structured story. Madden, Gran Turismo, Rock Band and Team Fortress all provide next to nothing in terms of story, yet are all amongst the most popular titles out there. Those games are (generally) not the focus of this feature. Instead Game Theory focuses on the other games; the ones for which story are important if not integral to the experience.
So, just what do I mean by "the story." That may seem like an odd question at first, but the answer does impact a number of things. Overall I divide the topic of game storytelling into two separate categories.
The Narrative
The who, what, when, where and why of the story. The characters, the conflict, the setting, the plot. Does it follow the classic three-act format, or is it more beholden to Freytag’s Pyramid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure)? And of course every good story has to have something unexpected happen; the shocks, the twists, the surprises. But, even the best story can be ruined by poor presentation.
The Presentation
Now that they have a story, how do the developers present it? Epic, 20-minute long cutscenes where you can lay down your controller? If gamers wanted to watch a movie, they'd watch a damn movie. A 30 page mini novel in the back of a manual? Which will never be seen, since no one reads the manual. Developers obviously don't want to go either of those routes, but finding the middle ground is tremendously difficult. You want to have enough exposition to immerse your player in the story, but not so much that they forget they're playing a game. There are other factors too. The voice acting, visual design and pacing can all add to, or detract from, the story. Do you make it lighthearted and breezy, or serious as a heart attack? Are the visuals realistic, or stylized? But most importantly, does the gameplay itself support the story?
Ultimately as a gamer, that's the most interesting story element for me: how do the story and the gameplay support one another. Obviously certain genres and play styles are more suited to some story types than others. Real time strategy works great to tell the story of a large scale conflict, but reduce the cast to a handful and the RTS style generally doesn't hold up. First person shooters are great with action, but that same frenetic pace doesn't always lend itself to overly complex or layered stories. Those are better suited to role playing games where the pace can slow down a bit. A developer needs to match the story and the style to the gameplay, whichever comes first. Obviously sometimes one precedes the other. You know that a Call of Duty game will be a first person shooter, but what sort of story will it have? Conversely you sort of know what sort of story you'll get in a Batman game, but the developers have a little more leeway in the sort of game they build around that story.
At the same time, all of the surrounding elements need to click for a story to truly be considered great. Half-Life was great, but would it have been as great if you removed the relatively low-key voice work and replaced it with the much more over the top acting in Gears of War? Would Bioshock have been as good had Rapture looked like the more generic environments of say The Force Unleashed? Would Final Fantasy be as popular if Square Enix made it as grim and gritty as Halo?
Which element is most important? That's the beauty of gaming, there's no right answer. The best games tend to have all of those elements, and even the ones which are only "good" generally do a bunch of things right.