Story in games.
Okay, so recently I got into a discussion about plots in games.
I'm going to practically write an essay about this so warning: Wall of text.
We need to consider three points first.
Point one. Do games NEED a plot?
We can answer this by questioning what a game is. Does monopoly have a story? Snakes and ladders? Pacman? Of course not. The idea of these games having a story is absurd. Infact, any game would work well without a story. If Call of Duty just dropped you into shooting people in what seems to be a war it'd still be just as fun right?
Point two. So why do games have plots?
The simple answer is, it adds more to the game. But why? How?
It's easier to understand this if we split the game market in two.
- Those who give a flying fuck about plot
- Those who just see it as a waste of time
Indeed, sometimes plot makes a game worse, sometimes it makes it horrible and actually makes the possibility's smaller (if you create a game where it states in the plot there are no longer any ants, there goes that giant ant boss you had planned, people are going to complain)
But in many cases plot has made a game brilliant, or better.
Many people I know played ODST just for the little audio logs you find.
OMFG Samus was a girl all along!?!
Point three. how plot is presented
Now I used the two examples above for a very specific reason, and we'll see why.
There are generally four ways plot is presented in games.
I'll bullet these.
---- Method one: Book school of thinking, present it in text, via story. Write it inside game world.
---- Method two: Film school of thinking, present it in long cut-scenes.
---- Method three: Present it outside the game world (if the game was based of out game media, like an anime or a film this doesn't count, the other way, however does - Think of the Halo books)
---- Method four: Present it in game, so the player is PLAYING the plot, and not reading or watching it.
It's generally my belief that plot in games is ruined by methods one to three. It's like going to a movie and the movie being text scrolling across the screen the entire time.
To show an example of this, play the game in the link below and perhaps you'll understand. That game is a brilliant example of how it should be done.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/GregoryWeir/looming
Please discuss below, feel free to disagree, I've never been known for arguing here or vbgore because I don't believe in doing that, especially on Spodi's website. I'd prefer criticism to be thought out, presented in an understandable manner, free from obscenities or insults and backed up by evidence.
I'll update this post as we discuss more things and hopefully we can help alot of people with their games.
I think a story line helps entertain people and is a cog in the huge machine of game play. A gear doesn't really do anything by itself, but if it fits the job it helps run the other parts of the game more smoothly.
So if you want people to have good experiences with your game (which can attract their friends), you should try to have a decent plot.
For me it's the plot, and characters that are the most fun things in games.
Take Bioshock, or Red Dead Redemption. Both great games, but would they be even half as good if they didn't have such awesome stories and characters?
And Fire Emblem. That would just be a crappy little strategy game, but with the story line, and each of the units having their own personalities and plot threads it makes it infinitly more playable. Also having each unit as an individual character it makes it so much more meaning ful when they die.
The story is the biggest element of the imerssion experience. It's what pulls you into the game, and it's the characters that make you care why these people are doing what they're doing.
A game doesn't need a plot. But I think a truly great game does.
I'm agree that some games do not need any plot at all.
But a plot can change the game experience, for example:
- Deux ex.
- Half life.
Those games changed the experience, Shooters changed a lot after that - you had a purpose beyond cleaning the maps -.
Besides if a game has a plot it must be excellent - or at least be considered good by the target audience -.
What would happen to: Metal Gear, FF7, Splinter Cell. if its plots weren't Excellent.
An example to me of an excelent game with poor plot is "The Temple of elemental Evil".
- Sorry if my english is not perfect -
I think you're pretty much on the money. I personally find the plots to be a good contribution when it falls inline with this. Not to say that I like "mystery games", but its just like a movie or book - if I can pretty much figure out the rest without reading/watching, or it is just uninteresting, why bother?
Two points that I want to make are that, first off, plots in online RPGs are probably one of the more difficult places to add good plots since you get double-screwed. The world is persistent, which makes it incredibly difficult for obvious reasons. Then, its also multiplayer, which makes makes it even harder since you can't just throw people into the "main focus". If you have an evil scientist trying to take over the world, and someone kills him, what do you do? You either obey the storyline and make a massive shift in the world forever because one person did one thing (in which case you are paying a ton to design basically for one person), or you break the storyline and just respawn him anyways. Of course, people try to explain it with crap like "he ran away at the last second", or "this is his twin brother / clone who is identical in every way", but that is just crap.
The other point is that, while I don't know what others think, I don't find a storyline a good way to draw people in. That is not to say it isn't important - that is not the case at all. I have played some games over again JUST for their storyline. I have so little patience for games, but somehow managed to make it through FF7 a second time recently just for the storyline (well okay... and to play with materia). But I have never heard how great a game's storyline is then go, "oooo, I want to play THAT!" It is almost always a factor (even if just a minor one) when people rate the game, so you may indirectly attract people like that, but you will have to find other ways to get people to come to your game in the first place.