A guest blogger, after a bit of a hiatus. Fortunately, I already have one lined up for next month, too.
This month is Tim McDonald, and old acquaintance who is the administrator of the forums at “abandonware” giant Home of the Underdogs. He’s a writer in training (novels, even), and resident of the Isle of Man, a location I am still not convinced is real.
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I love a good story.
There’s something genuinely edifying about excellent characters traversing a carefully-planned plot which expands and builds on itself over time. Ever since I was young, I’ve been watching films and reading books just for this feeling, and the enjoyment of seeing how someone else’s magnificent creation unfolds. The problem is that I’m a gamer, at heart, and a superbly-crafted story is something not commonly found in games.
This isn’t surprising. Games are, after all, an interactive medium, and the entertainment value of the gameplay should always come first. When you consider that the type of people who tend work on games (coders, animators, sound technicians) are not primarily writers, and factor in working to what is normally an extremely tight deadline, it seems apparant that unless the story was always planned to be a major part of the game, it’s going to take second-place to the other facets of the game.
This isn’t to say that there are no games with good stories. One 2005 endeavour, Advent Rising, enlisted the aid of Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card to write the plot. The result was that, for better or worse, the story of the game was the most highly acclaimed part of what was an otherwise above-average shooter. Unfortunately, the game performed poorly when it came to sales, and the proposed sequels – to continue and complete the plot – were never made.
Possibly the most well-known and highly-acclaimed story in a game is that of Planescape: Torment, a 1999 Black Isle Studios game. This game took a somewhat unorthodox AD&D setting and the overused cliché of a character with amnesia and, using skilfully-written dialogue and well-designed characters, expounded upon themes of philosophy (such as the nature of reality), good and evil, and redemption, to create a memorable and emotional story. The game was good, but again, it was outshone by the story. This game has a somewhat happier ending, however; it sold acceptably at the time but has since become a cult classic, and is still highly sought-after now.
There’s one more game which should perhaps be related. In 2006, the long-awaited followup to the 2000 point-and-click adventure The Longest Journey was released: Dreamfall. It was released to extremely mixed reviews; some bemoaned the terrible gameplay, while others praised the rich and detailed storyline. Both are entirely accurate. The gameplay is stilted, with no thought required to solve what few puzzles there are (as opposed to several truly mind-bending puzzles in the prequel), and the inclusion of ill-advised stealth and combat sequences, presumably to appeal to the mass market. Conversely, it has perhaps the best story I’ve yet to experience in a game with production values to match; the voice-acting is largely spot-on, the graphics are sumptuous and do their job perfectly, the music is epic and fitting, and it all adds up to something that anyone who likes a good yarn can thoroughly enjoy. But is it a good *game*? Well, no. Not really. If anything, it’s a spiritual successor to the much-maligned interactive movies of the early CD-era, differing only by actually being thoroughly enjoyable by virtue of the plot.
And… that’s about it.
There are games out there with good plots, and good characters, but these three games – possibly even only the latter two – are all that springs to mind when I try to think of games with truly exceptional stories; games with plots that are special in such a way that they could almost stand alongside Catcher in the Rye or Se7en. Perhaps that, in itself, is an exaggeration; it may be that we’re quite a way before we see a plot with that level of artistic merit in a game. It’s perhaps just that the general competition in the gaming field is so poor that anything remotely special seems so much better by comparison.
It’s not all bad, certainly. Adventure games and RPGs are rife with examples of decent characterization and narratives – the long-running Final Fantasy series is famed for its sweeping and epic (yet often melodramatic) storylines, while Knights of the Old Republic 2 has a cult favourite character in the enigmatic Kreia. Moving into other genres, FPS/adventure/RPG hybrid Deus Ex managed to spin an interesting tale, and tell it well, and Psychonauts (one of my favourite games from recent years) simply cannot be faulted on script and presentation. Most amusing, perhaps, is the saga of Metal Gear Solid – a superb game, married to what many would say is an overbearing desire to tell a story in such a grand, cinematic manner, that the style actually gets in the way of the gameplay. While not so prevalent in the first game, Metal Gear Solid 2 certainly deserves this reputation.
Besides which, not all games need plots. Quake 4 needed a setting, not a story, and it did well with that. I will knife-fight anyone who tells me that Need for Speed needs a story, or that Pro Evolution Soccer would be a much better game with drama between the teams. Hell, Duke Nukem 3D would be half the game with a touching narrative, because that game is our equivalent of a Summer popcorn flick.
The problem is that we have too many popcorn flicks, and not enough genuine food for thought.
It’s possible that gaming, as a medium, is not the best way to convey a story. The quality of the three main examples given seem to indicate that gameplay suffers as a result of focus on story, and it seems reasonable that a linear story is hard to tell while still keeping the game interesting and the player involved – but this is why I think gaming could eventually succeed in this area, possibly surpassing even the established media for stories. The player is genuinely involved in the story, and in the actions taken during it. This involvement could well be the key to telling a phenomenal story in a way we have yet to see.
Obviously, this is a pipe dream, for now. To get to the level of technology and the industry maturity needed for something of this magnitude, we’ll likely have to wait at least another 10 years – probably longer, despite the exponential growth of the industry. During that time, though, I certainly won’t complain if I get another Dreamfall, and with online distribution making independant projects much more feasible for small developers, I might not have too long to wait.
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Interested in writing a guest blog so I don’t have to work so hard? Drop me a line at troy.goodfellow AT gmail DOT com and we’ll work something out.
Possibly the most well-known and highly-acclaimed story in a game is that of Planescape: Torment, a 1999 Black Isle Studios game. This game took a somewhat unorthodox AD&D setting and the overused cliché of a character with amnesia and, using skilfully-written dialogue and well-designed characters, expounded upon themes of philosophy (such as the nature of reality), good and evil, and redemption, to create a memorable and emotional story.
Sounds like a Philip K. Dick book (I just finished Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said last night – although Ubik sounds much more similar in terms of all your descriptions) which means I now have two extremely pressing reasons to pick up a copy. I still don’t know why I keep forgetting to do that.
But is it a good *game*? Well, no. Not really. If anything, it’s a spiritual successor to the much-maligned interactive movies of the early CD-era, differing only by actually being thoroughly enjoyable by virtue of the plot.
I came into this ready to hastily inform you of Ragnar Tornquist if his games were not included, but fortunately that wasn’t necessary. However, I do have one objection to make. Dreamfall may not fall into the realm of gameplay, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a game. Gameplay is only one (if the most popular) of several main cores that you can build a game on top of. Personally, I’d rather see no gameplay in Dreamfall – though there are others who’d rather have what is there made competent.
But before I get completely distracted, I’ll make my point. Dreamfall may not work in all realms of gaming, but it only works as a game. Dreamfall is far too long to work as a movie. At the same time, it desperately needs the visual and audio direction that cannot come from a book. Games are the only medium that can bring about length and depth alongside video and sound. Well perhaps a comic book could do it, but I generally read those for the funnies… (In an entirely off topic statement, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is awesome!)
There are games out there with good plots, and good characters, but these three games – possibly even only the latter two – are all that springs to mind when I try to think of games with truly exceptional stories; games with plots that are special in such a way that they could almost stand alongside Catcher in the Rye or Se7en. Perhaps that, in itself, is an exaggeration; it may be that we’re quite a way before we see a plot with that level of artistic merit in a game. It’s perhaps just that the general competition in the gaming field is so poor that anything remotely special seems so much better by comparison.
Oh I don’t think you’re exaggerating it at all. The twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia have become my third favorite fictional universe behind only Middle Earth and the Galaxy Far, Far Away. I may be unique in my love of the realm almost moreso than the characters and the story, but there are other reasons as well.
The Longest Journey was a rich and grandiose epic. Dreamfall was a thought provoking drama. The Longest Journey worked because it actually was an epic. You see so many “posing” games and films that make a pathetic stab at epic, but TLJ actually did it. It had an effective build up of mystery, a rewarding pay off, and a truly grand adventure. But furthermore – or rather first and foremost – The Longest Journey had characters. Real, legitimate characters. They could have been real people – they probably were real people that Ragnar had met. That’s how some authors do it. On the other hand, I feel that this is the area where Dreamfall had its only true downfall, which is only emphasized by April’s journey being half its real length and Kian’s journey not really appearing at all. Dreamfall had two dimensional characters. Yes, yes: Most games never even reach a single dimension with their characters. However, after The Longest Journey, where the characters had so much depth, my only true disappointment with the game is that most people seem their for the sake of the story. They’re effectively just… well, very effective plot devices. I suppose I’m comparing good to great here, but there’s a reason that Dreamfall can stand up to all other Adventures, but it can’t hold up in direct comparison to The Longest Journey. It remains the supreme achievement of serious Adventure.
Speaking of which, I’d also like to add that there are more than just the three (really four) games that you mentioned. Within the realm of Adventure, we have often had a split between serious stories and the quirky comedies with obscure & fun puzzles. In the land of consoles (well, handhelds), the Phoenix Wright series has been blurring the lines between both of them. Phoenix Wright is essentially an episodic game series, but it is released in the proper way as a full set. It is also a set of interactive murder mysteries. It combines humor with some of the twistiest, ingenius, mystery novel stories you’ll ever read. I suppose it’s essentially a comic book (or graphic novel rather – forgive me; I’m used to Bill Watterson, Bill Amend, Scott Adams, Jerry Scott, etc.) with memorable music. In fact, the only mysteries I can think of that are better were penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
On the subject of rather twisty pretzels and former CGM writers, Ken Levine has also given a few games a valid story. (he also knows when not to let it get in the way, such as in SWAT 4) Most people will probably think of System Shock 2 first (hosted on Home of the Underdogs, is it not? and the first?) but Tribes Vengeance has always been the game that stands out to me. Not only was it probably the only game I could have fully enjoyed immediately after Half-Life 2’s release (I bought it late – and I promise this is the last parenthesis in the paragraph) but it also kept me immersed in its story just as much as it kept me entertained with its unique gameplay. Tribes Vengeance was pure revenge drama, with a side topping of soap. It had so many major and effective twists that I was actually shocked – SHOCKED! – when the ending itself was quite straightforward. It is certainly one game that was effective in both gameplay and story.
It’s possible that gaming, as a medium, is not the best way to convey a story. The quality of the three main examples given seem to indicate that gameplay suffers as a result of focus on story, and it seems reasonable that a linear story is hard to tell while still keeping the game interesting and the player involved – but this is why I think gaming could eventually succeed in this area, possibly surpassing even the established media for stories. The player is genuinely involved in the story, and in the actions taken during it. This involvement could well be the key to telling a phenomenal story in a way we have yet to see.
It’s extremely minimalist (although perfected in that regard), but Half-Life 2 could have been fleshed out a little more to tell a more dramatic story. At the very least, the Half-Life series proves that games are valid cinematic mediums while in the midst of gameplay.
During that time, though, I certainly won’t complain if I get another Dreamfall, and with online distribution making independant projects much more feasible for small developers, I might not have too long to wait.
Dreamfall Chapters is coming up in a few years! =P
It’s still unknown (well really anything beyond its online & episodic nature) whether it will finish the Journey’s Crossing section of the story to make way for The Longest Journey 3, or if it will tell the Journey’s End part of the saga. However, we do know that either way, Ragnar already has fleshed out ideas for at least one prequel with Brian Westhouse, future tales of the Balance, and at least one parallel plot. He has also talked about the idea of a Longest Journey MMO from time to time, but personally I hope that one never happens. Shifting from Stark to Arcadia every 15 minutes would destroy a certain magic it possesses…
Yeah, I’m pretty much out of things to say for now. I love your article! Do you have any recommendations on things at Home of the Underdogs?
I’d strongly recommend checking out two old Looking Glass titles: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and System Shock (the first one). Both are great examples of integration of story and gameplay. There’s also Fallout, of course, with each conflict resolution altering the end-game wrap up.
I also don’t think we need huge technological advancements to present the sort of dynamic and meaningful game stories you hint at. We just need a fundamental shift in the way we approach the issue. I’m currently in the early stages of what we hope will be just such a project, the HoneyComb Engine.
I’ve had System Shock 1 for years, but I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never gotten around to getting it running.
Seeing as the topic has come up again, I’ll take the opportunity to repeat my theory that “good story” >> “no story” >> “poor story”. Of course, this doesn’t full account for emergent story either; of the most memorable gaming moments, how many are scripted/cutscenes as opposed to actual gameplay experiences? The line if sort of blurred when you consider excellent level design such as falling ship level in Jedi Knight. Consider that it’s really a fairly linear level with carefully placed “gravity wells” to simulate the effects of a ship tumbling from orbit, but the emotional effect of playing through the level is stronger than simply watching a cutscene.
Hmmm, I think I’m starting to lose focus, so I’ll warp up the comment here. Thoughts?
Alan, if you consider gameplay elements to be narrative elements and story to be the experience of participating in the narrative, then emergent story is easier to factor into the equation, if not into the overall spectrum of story. Also, those “blurry areas” are no longer blurry, but critical to the success of your game and plot.
GyRo567: The emotional impact of SS1 is much lessoned these days, sadly. I’d love to see someone completely remake it with a modern engine. However, the unfolding of plot through environmental participation was sublime.
Oh, I thrive on outdated games. It’s probably some subconscious, elitist tendency that drives me to like them, but I love a triumph of development over technological limitation. Besides, if there is one thing I’ve come to truly learn over the years, it’s this:
Artistic style makes a game graphically great. It has nothing to do with the technical aspect.
Then again, I can say that it always feels weird in Dark Forces to be running around in a WASD/Mouse control system but not having any vertical camera control…?_?…
course, this doesn’t full account for emergent story either; of the most memorable gaming moments, how many are scripted/cutscenes as opposed to actual gameplay experiences?
Until the past several years, there have not been many. However, Red Orchestra just keeps building up my cinematic stories & memorable experiences. I think it’s the sense of true survival that the game evokes which drives my mind to hold onto everything I do. There have also been a few community-driven memories from Counter-Strike, but they had little to do with the game itself.
Thanks a lot for the comments. I genuinely appreciate it. I’ll say now that you’ll have to excuse odd responses, as I’m remarkably tired. With that disclaimer, then…
GyRo567: I suspect you’re right in that Dreamfall would only work as a game (well, “interactive medium” – I still dispute the fact that it’s any good as an actual game, at least in the literal sense). In that sense, it’s definitely a success. I do wonder whether it could have worked in another medium if Tornquist had done it differently, though; if it was a case of him making the medium fit the story, or if it was the story fitting the medium right off the bat (did that make any sense?)
In defense of Dreamfall, it really was Zoe’s story, and right now she’s probably my favourite fictional character in all the world. I doubt I’m telling you anything you don’t already know, but the April and Kian sections smacked of being there solely to elaborate on the necessary plot, and nothing more. If Dreamfall is genuinely the first part of a duology, then the sequel will presumably expound more on their roles, and I’d love to be able to treat Dreamfall as just the first half of one game rather than something stand-alone. It’s odd that I’m defending it so much when I’d normally slate anything that tried that, but I guess that’s just a sign of its quality. I’m glad someone else likes it as much as I do, at least!
And yes, quite right. There are more games than I mentioned, but I was really looking more into the genuinely serious, epic stuff – as I said, things that can stand alongside the art that stands the test of time from other media. Phoenix Wright is certainly deserving of some sort of award for writing, and is a superb series, but isn’t quite what I was looking at. That’s just personal taste, though, for the same reason you’ll never see a comedy win Best Oscar. Adventures certainly manage to do comedy *superbly*, though – better than almost anything else. I’m somewhat ashamed I didn’t at least mention Phoenix Wright in there somewhere.
Tribes Vengeance is something I should get back to playing. I recall getting a little way into it, but I got sidetracked by something else at the time, and haven’t been back to it since. If the plot’s that good, then I might have to give it another look someday soon. Half-Life deserves credit for introducing cutscenes that didn’t take you out of character, certainly, and Half-Life 2 is one of the few games which genuinely felt like it had a specific director, much like… oh, I don’t know. There was a certain “feel” present in the entire game, much like when you’re watching, say, a Lynch movie, and you can tell it’s Lynch right away. HL2 is an absolute triumph in that respect. Although now that I mention it, Half-Life 2 as written and directed by David Lynch would certainly be interesting to see…
I’m glad you liked the article. As for recommendations, I can’t think of anything that particularly fits this topic (barring perhaps The Dark Eye, which takes vast inspiration from Poe), but I always recommend Dungeon Master and Sleuth. The latter is possibly my favourite coffee break game, despite pretty much requiring DOSBox to run these days, and the former is one of my favourite games of all time, though might be a bit hard to get into these days if you’ve not played it before.
Corvus: Can information on the HoneyComb Engine be found on the site linked through your name? I’m intrigued as to what this might involve, so I might see what I can find out on it, assuming the information isn’t well-hidden. I also hope you’re right on the technological advancements note, but a major shift in the industry seems almost as unlikely anytime soon. So long as there are still some things out there for me to enjoy, I won’t mind too much, though. Perhaps said HoneyComb Engine will assist with this.
Ultima Underworld is something I never got into. I have both it and Ultima Underworld 2 here, but for some reason, I never got used to the controls, and didn’t play particularly far in either. As for System Shock 1, that was one of the first games that genuinely made me feel that there were real characters involved, and evoked some bizarre feelings. It’s been said by many others, but “If you enter that room, I will kill you” in particular made me stop in shock the first time.
Alan: I quite agree with your theory. Emergent gameplay is by definition unintentional (at least in terms of story), but still causes some of the most memorable water-cooler moments in games. Silent Storm was a huge one for this, a few years back.
On a slightly off-topic note, some of my favourite games are ones with truly branching gameplay and plots. Way of the Samurai (PS2) is my oft-cited example of this. It only took a few hours to finish, but you only saw one very, very minor facet of the story in those few hours. You had to go back and play again, align yourself with a different side, and do different things, in order to see the full extent of the story. Things like that – lots of replayability within what is otherwise a short game – are special, but very rare. I actually tried using a game creation engine to make one based around the film Battle Royale a year or two back, with randomised item and character placements, but keeping the same character demeanours and general island layout. After a few playthroughs you’d know who was likely to help, who wouldn’t, and where everything was, but it would still provide a different experience based on who you ran into and when. Unfortunately, it didn’t get very far off the ground, but I’d love to see more games like that. That would almost be a mix between emergent and purely random gameplay, I suppose, but with predetermined outcomes.
Hm. Did I miss anything?
Ye gods. That turned out much longer than expected.
So my complaint really stems from the fact that many people will inevitably cite the FF7 Aeris “incident” as an powerful gameplay moment, except that it isn’t a gameplay moment at all, it’s a cutscene that occurs regardless of player involvement. In fact, it may as well be a scene in a non-interactive movie. The same applies to many “memorable moments” that people cite when they talk about the narrative impact of games. The irony is that those sorts of moment have nothing to do with the gameplay at all and instead rely on the writing/scripting. This is why a lot of the “emotion-based narrative” hype is way overrated; writers have been doing this stuff for centuries. It’s the interactive component that makes it interesting.
The reason the “blurry” area is blurry is because the realities of game development mean that narrative must be tied to scripted events in order to control the scope of player consequences. This is why you end up with the familiar inverted-hourglass shape of narrative design, maybe with a couple of larger arcs if you’re lucky. Narrative design is well understood, and there’s nothing wrong with using it. Still, the challenge is to create compelling gameplay moments, because ultimately that’s what makes or breaks the experience.
Tim: The link is to my blog, where I talk about the HoneyComb Engine plans, my ideas about Story and storytelling and generally rage against the machine. I’ll be publishing a white paper this summer which will address the underlying premise behind my approach to participatory storytelling.
In defense of Dreamfall, it really was Zoe’s story, and right now she’s probably my favourite fictional character in all the world. I doubt I’m telling you anything you don’t already know, but the April and Kian sections smacked of being there solely to elaborate on the necessary plot, and nothing more. If Dreamfall is genuinely the first part of a duology, then the sequel will presumably expound more on their roles, and I’d love to be able to treat Dreamfall as just the first half of one game rather than something stand-alone. It’s odd that I’m defending it so much when I’d normally slate anything that tried that, but I guess that’s just a sign of its quality. I’m glad someone else likes it as much as I do, at least!
Oh, it makes perfect sense. I’ve delved into the theories about Dreamfall, and we’ve all (well, all of us who are sane & rational) come to the conclusion that the happenings in Arcadia were part of the overall saga, while the events in Stark (which almost make Zoe seem like a plot device whenever she’s in Arcadia, though she fortunately does have a purpose there in the long run I think [speaking of which, there were a lot of almost cliche plot devices, but I like how Dreamfall makes unique use of almost all of them] – apologizes for too many tangents) were the only ones that related to the plot of Dreamfall itself. Quite frankly, I loved the ending, and I loved the “game” (the part that mattered – I hate the gameplay; I think it should be more like self-paced machinima if Dreamfall Chapters uses the same basic formula) but my nostalgic tendencies make me want to see more of the overall arc.
I’m so incoherent today it could make you gouge your eyes out. Apologies for all spelling errors.
I posted this elsewhere, but the chapter format of TLJ and Dreamfall could in itself be a very good indication that episodic gaming could work with the series, especially if on a weekly basis ala 24, Lost, Heroes; whatever. The problem is that I can’t see it ever being released on a weekly basis like that. If lots of content was done at once, then the releases would still likely be staggered to the same degree to mantain continuity of release. Besides this, on the offchance the whole game was done at once, there’d be little reason to release each chapter weekly – it’d make more sense to release all at once. The only real reason to do it weekly in that situation would be to let people try it out, and I just can’t see it happening, which I think is a bit of a shame.
Mind you, that all assumes it’s one chapter at a time. If it’s “genuine” episodic gaming as we’ve seen so far, it’ll likely be two or three chapters at once, and then several months of waiting for the next.
I could go on for awhile about how wonderful I think Dreamfall is, and how anyone who likes a good story should play TLJ (although perhaps with a walkthrough) and then Dreamfall, but I’m not sure this is the right place for me to launch into that diatribe again. Hopefully we won’t have to wait years for the next release, but if Dreamfall Chapters uses the same engine (as the name at least somewhat implies) then my hunger for narrative might be sated sooner than I’d hoped.
The problem with Dreamfall Chapters’ episodic release is that it’s a continuous story, and you might break the pacing if you stagger the release. If you make it even a monthly thing, you’re more likely to already be done with the game anyway, so there is indeed very little point to it.
Phoenix Wright remains my golden standard for episodic release – and it doesn’t even get published that way. Valve might qualify, but they’re only releasing expansion packs, not episodes. The name was just free PR.
That leads to another important point though. Dreamfall Chapters, like the Half-Life 2 Episodes, will work only because they are actually expansion packs with an incorrect name. There’s no real problem releasing a smaller version of a sequel, but you do have to release the full game first.
So until developers come to their senses, I suppose I’ll just keeping buying Half-Life 2 expansions, keep waiting for Dreamfall Chapters to pass judgement, keep waiting for a Sam & Max Season to be released as a single package, and keep buying Phoenix Wright games as they come out, packaged together.