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View Full Version : How Can Video Games Best Tell Stories?



IMPress Polly
07-31-2014, 08:59 AM
Alright, I couldn't resist posting another Game/Show episode this morning because this episode focuses on a subject that's near and dear to my heart: How can video games best tell stories? The host, Jamin Warren, makes the argument that the Dark Souls franchise has introduced us to the future of video game storytelling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-YvxPvqOmE

I think Warren's argument that, in introducing a format wherein players learn a game's backstory in bits and pieces by collecting objects and items, the Dark Souls titles have finally unearthed the most natural way for video games to tell stories. He contends that this is the most natural way for games to tell their stories (in as far as they need stories, that is, and, like Tetris, not all games do) because it's an interactive method of storytelling, where all other methods hitherto relied upon (like quick-time events, cut scenes, etc.) have instead relied on non-interactive storytelling methods borrowed from other artistic mediums like novels, comic books, theater, and films. He points out that interactivity is the basic way in which video games differ from all those other artistic mediums and argues that, therefore, an interactive method of storytelling is the most natural approach thereto for video games. Telling stories in this sort of way also makes most of a game's story optional and thus satisfies gamers who simply want to explore or fight or what have you on the one hand and gamers who want to delve deep into the storyline and discover meaning in the games the play on the other. I think he's right. Whatever you think of Dark Souls more broadly, I believe that the interactive storytelling method it introduces us to is, in fact, the most natural way for games to tell stories.

That said, I don't think this is my favorite approach to storytelling personally. That's because I'm the kind of person who strongly prefers games that tell stories with the kind of depth that a good novel or film might. Let's face it, when most of the story becomes optional in the way described above, it no longer really rises to that level. Accordingly, I prefer games that are story-driven like Final Fantasy VI or The Last of Us. Relatively linear games like these just simply afford developers the ability to tell better stories than games that revolve around player freedom. So while interactive storytelling may indeed be the most natural fit for the video game format, I think what that really and truly goes to show is that video games are, in fact, structurally inferior at storytelling when compared with certain other artistic mediums (like novels, theater, and films), considering that the games with the most powerful plots use a relatively linear play structure and tell their stories in mainly non-interactive ways. If you film-quality or novel-quality storytelling in games, you have to compromise the interactivity of the game and thus make it...not fully a game! That's okay with me. I accept that price. It's worth it to me!

kilgram
07-31-2014, 09:01 AM
Now I only play games with a good story like KOTOR, Mass Effect.

I have to play Dark Souls.