We interrupt the constant stream of dorking to bring you a semi-intelligent art discussion.
One of my goals in life, or at least, one of the more difficult ones I'll have a shot at reaching, is to work as a story/scenario writer for a video game company. I've always been fond of game-related storytelling, whether it be something as vast and complex as Xenosaga or Final Fantasy Tactics, or as simple as the paragraphs of text in the Ikaruga instruction manual. Simply put, I'm more often than not attracted to video games that contain some form of narrative element, or even some form of character or personality. Even something as non-narrative intensive as Guitar Hero is more appealing to me than something like DDR because the game features characters that are archetypical parodies of rock musicians, whereas the DDR characters (or at least, the characters that were present before the series presentation transitioned to a background video montage format) were more or less just a random batch of character designs that had little to nothing in relation to the song list.
The same goes for fighting games. There's no fighting game more technically precise and complex than the Virtua Fighter series, but the characters have about as much depth as Paris Hilton. Even long-time coverboy Akira is more or less just Street Fighter's Ryu made 3D, but without any of the story hooks that made Ryu an interesting character in spite of his blandness. I appreciate the high level of skill required to really excel at VF, but the characters are so bland that it's very hard to maintain my interest in the games for too long. (Granted, I'll probably end up playing the 360 version of VF5, but that's more or less because of the general lack of titles on the system that truly interest me at the moment.)
That's not to say that Virtua Fighter couldn't become more interesting. The Metroid series managed to transition over time from a fairly straight-forward "space bounty hunter vs. space pirates" game into a more complex and detailed universe well after the shock of learning Samus's true gender had worn off. Her defining character trait went from "Dude, Samus is a chick!" to a full-on character history with side characters, rivalries, and one of the more peculiar mothering relationships in video games. It also doesn't hurt that, after numerous games in which her physical appearance changed about as often as Dr. Who, she finally has what appears to be her "canon" character design as introduced in Metroid: Zero Mission, making her more identifiable to the audience in general.
Of course, none of this should suggest that every video game needs a narrative to be compelling. Tetris is a puzzle game featuring falling blocks. There's really no need for a story there. Blocks fall, you line them up and make them vanish, repeat as necessary. I suppose one could construct a surrealist narrative in which the blocks ponder their existences, asking great questions such as why they fall, only to vanish when joined in natural harmony. Actually, I could probably find something resembling that right now if I did a quick Google search, but pondering the prospective results frightens me.
And let's not even get started on epic poetry inspired by the Madden NFL series.
Getting back on track, a topic related to video game narratives in general is the way in which they're told within the course of the game. In the early days, as narratives started become more complex than "guy in overalls chasing the ape that kidnapped his girlfriend," most game narratives were expressed through speechless boxes of text, and while this technique is still used in games today, the ability of expressing narratives has grown to include more cinematic options such as full motion video cutscenes and voice acting. The opinions on each style varies, but I personally don't believe that there is any one "right" way to tell a story, so long as the story is told in a manner appropriate to the game. Xenosaga was given a lot of criticism for having lengthy non-interactive cutscenes, but that was the method that the designers selected to express the narrative, and the sequences were of generally high quality. Those that argue that a game should never break away from the gameplay to deliver lines of dialogue or tell portions of the story miss out on a lot of experiences because of their desire for something resembling "pure gaming", wherein the entire story is told without interrupting the interactive aspect of the game. However, this focus is a rather extreme one, and it's far to narrow to include a large number of narrative-driven games that consistently break the flow of gameplay for the sake of the story. It's just not possible for every game to be like Half-Life.
If game designers have a story that they wish to tell, it's best that they choose whatever form of gameplay and narrative design that they feel is best, rather than confine themselves to some sort of ideal. If that means half-hour long cutscenes explaining what the heck a Zohar is or participating in a series of minigames to dress the heroic male protagonist in drag, so be it. There isn't any singular ideal for any genre, nor should there be.
So for those of you that play video games, what are some of your favorite stories, and what made them so interesting? Was it the characters, the level of detail, or maybe just the game's general attitude?
The same goes for fighting games. There's no fighting game more technically precise and complex than the Virtua Fighter series, but the characters have about as much depth as Paris Hilton. Even long-time coverboy Akira is more or less just Street Fighter's Ryu made 3D, but without any of the story hooks that made Ryu an interesting character in spite of his blandness. I appreciate the high level of skill required to really excel at VF, but the characters are so bland that it's very hard to maintain my interest in the games for too long. (Granted, I'll probably end up playing the 360 version of VF5, but that's more or less because of the general lack of titles on the system that truly interest me at the moment.)
That's not to say that Virtua Fighter couldn't become more interesting. The Metroid series managed to transition over time from a fairly straight-forward "space bounty hunter vs. space pirates" game into a more complex and detailed universe well after the shock of learning Samus's true gender had worn off. Her defining character trait went from "Dude, Samus is a chick!" to a full-on character history with side characters, rivalries, and one of the more peculiar mothering relationships in video games. It also doesn't hurt that, after numerous games in which her physical appearance changed about as often as Dr. Who, she finally has what appears to be her "canon" character design as introduced in Metroid: Zero Mission, making her more identifiable to the audience in general.
Of course, none of this should suggest that every video game needs a narrative to be compelling. Tetris is a puzzle game featuring falling blocks. There's really no need for a story there. Blocks fall, you line them up and make them vanish, repeat as necessary. I suppose one could construct a surrealist narrative in which the blocks ponder their existences, asking great questions such as why they fall, only to vanish when joined in natural harmony. Actually, I could probably find something resembling that right now if I did a quick Google search, but pondering the prospective results frightens me.
And let's not even get started on epic poetry inspired by the Madden NFL series.
Getting back on track, a topic related to video game narratives in general is the way in which they're told within the course of the game. In the early days, as narratives started become more complex than "guy in overalls chasing the ape that kidnapped his girlfriend," most game narratives were expressed through speechless boxes of text, and while this technique is still used in games today, the ability of expressing narratives has grown to include more cinematic options such as full motion video cutscenes and voice acting. The opinions on each style varies, but I personally don't believe that there is any one "right" way to tell a story, so long as the story is told in a manner appropriate to the game. Xenosaga was given a lot of criticism for having lengthy non-interactive cutscenes, but that was the method that the designers selected to express the narrative, and the sequences were of generally high quality. Those that argue that a game should never break away from the gameplay to deliver lines of dialogue or tell portions of the story miss out on a lot of experiences because of their desire for something resembling "pure gaming", wherein the entire story is told without interrupting the interactive aspect of the game. However, this focus is a rather extreme one, and it's far to narrow to include a large number of narrative-driven games that consistently break the flow of gameplay for the sake of the story. It's just not possible for every game to be like Half-Life.
If game designers have a story that they wish to tell, it's best that they choose whatever form of gameplay and narrative design that they feel is best, rather than confine themselves to some sort of ideal. If that means half-hour long cutscenes explaining what the heck a Zohar is or participating in a series of minigames to dress the heroic male protagonist in drag, so be it. There isn't any singular ideal for any genre, nor should there be.
So for those of you that play video games, what are some of your favorite stories, and what made them so interesting? Was it the characters, the level of detail, or maybe just the game's general attitude?