Game Stories
For this weeks task I had to read two articles on storytelling in games. For the whole semester we have mostly talked about the actual gameplay of a game but this week we focused on the importance of the games narrative. I believe that the storyline in a game is as important as everything because obviously if it has a good storyline you're gonna keep playing the game to find out what happens next. The first article was called "What Every Game Developer Needs To Know About Story" by John Sutherland. The article talks about games being a form of art just like movies and plays. Exact quotes from the article were "games aren't movies" and "movies aren't plays" however the thing movies, games and plays have in common are that they are all a form of art and have had their addicts from the very beginning. The article also talks about the two main misunderstandings surrounding game stories which are that story is dialogue and story doesn't matter however the most important thing in a games story is conflict. The same can be said about movies and TV shows for example when an important character on a TV show is killed off that can have a huge impact on how the rest of the series plays out and in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 when your playable character is killed off in "No Russian" you then have a new playable character for the rest of the game so of course conflict is the most important story element in a game. The article also shows us a basic game story structure which is described as simple but it works. The basic story structure involves a hero who's world is destroyed by an inciting incident and then a gap opens between the hero and their peaceful life, the hero takes a normal approach to fill the gap however it backfires, the hero then has to take a risk to overcome the obstacles in the way of filling the gap, the hero makes a discovery about something they didn't know and the world spirals out of control again and a second gap opens. The hero then has to take a bigger risk to overcome the second gap. This is called a reversal. Then there is another reversal opening a third gap. The hero then has to take the greatest risk to overcome the third gap leading to their goal which is usually a peaceful life. This is an example of a 3 act story structure. While this story structure is very basic it is also very helpful. Obviously following this structure could give you a head start in creating your own story setting. The second article was called "Mass Effect 2: A Case Study In The Design Of Game Narrative". The article talks about how narratives have made great advances to games over the past decade although it can be a design problem with significant cultural, economic and scholarly implications because of ongoing improvements in video games. Video game narratives are still in an early state compared to literature and cinema. In order for game developers to develop a richer narrative for the game they need to have an understanding of specific poetics of narrative within the game design medium. Mass Effect 2 was used as an example of a game with an excellent narrative by the scholarly a game that explores its environments such as wandering around the galaxy for side quests. The article talks about how the characters interactions bulk the games narrative and how the game is known for its diversity of characters such as random NPCs, minor characters you encounter during missions and members of Shepherds squad. The article also talks about how unlike most playable characters in video games Shepherd has an identity of his own rather than an identity the person playing has to create for the character. He has character traits and values that don't change depending on how the player chooses to interact with him. This way the game developers can make strong statements about the narrative world the player experiences through the eyes of Shepherd.
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