Watch Daniel Floyd’s video on Videogames and Storytelling.
What is the role of story in games?
Stories actively connect the player with the game; they provide a reason to continue playing and also assist in emerging the player in the experience. There have been a fair few times I’ve taken up the controls of a new game, played it for a while and have become utterly bored with the mechanics (whether they are bad or just repetitive) but have continued playing simply because the story was quite interesting.
Not only does a good story create emotional ties between the game’s protagonists and the player themselves but it also gives them a goal of sorts; to find out what happens next. One example of this was Assassin’s Creed; I was pretty appalled with the repetitiveness of the game play but was so bound up the story I sat waiting to find out what new twists and plot developments would arise. I started to care about Altier and what was to become of him, which is why I kept playing.
Is it really possible to make a game tell a meaningful story?
Definitely. Two of my favourite story based games are Planescape Torment (which has also been turned into a book by a fan) and Bioshock. These two told stories in very different ways, but with similar starts. Protagonist awakes in world he doesn’t recognise, doesn’t remember his past and continues onwards to discover. Bioshock on one hand is a discovery of what happened to Rapture, and what your future will become, whereas, Planescape Torment was about the discovery of your past lives. Both of these games I found incredibly engaging with some excellent voice acting, interesting visuals and fantastic plot twists that have embedded themselves in my mind along side that of some of my favourite movies and books.
How do the constraints of narrative mesh with the freedom of play?
With great difficulty, a lot of linear games require you to play out the game in a certain way with little room for self expression. I feel these would be the easiest to write for; you play out the story rather than create it, much like Prince of Persia: Sands of time, where the game is actually the prince retelling what has happened to him. When the player is given no narrative effecting choices, or choices of little consequence, there is little or no room for the gamer to alter or change the outcome of the story, thus the game really only has to have a singular plot line.
Making moral or story effecting choices becomes much like a “choose you own adventure” kind of book where the choices you make directly effect the outcome of the story. I imagine these would be quite difficult to write for because it requires many smaller story components to mesh properly together in order to form a conhesive narrative.
Read Ernest Adams article on Sandbox Storytelling. Do you agree?
I agree with he idea that sandbox storytelling would make quite an interesting environment for the player to create their own story and play out the game in a way they want to, but I believe it is quite dependant on the tools you give the player and the area you give them to play in. I think that it would be quite hard to get the depth that the a linear story telling provides by having a combination of player-dependent and player-independent events. There needs to be a balance, if the player-independent events are too leading it just feels like a linear game with side quests.
Posted on 19/09/2010
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