Do Gamers Even Want Better Stories?
See Full ImageSo many developers and journalists - including yours truly - have been calling for better storylines, better developed characters, and more emotion in the interactive entertainment industry.
For the most part, I believe we're making good strides in that direction, although it still seems painfully obvious that the mainstream audience hasn't much interest in quality stories or memorable characters. The first question on the lips of most gamers isn't, "So, does it have a good story?" And I don't see this changing any time soon.
Not necessarily because we'll never reach another level of interactive storytelling. I believe we have enough visionaries and talented writers in this industry, who will continue to push for deeper and more intelligent scripts (Hideo Kojima, Ken Levine, David Cage, etc.). But will they ever produce games that smash sales records and dominate the charts? They'll be popular, no doubt, but they might not be able to compare to the likes of Call of Duty or blockbusters of that nature.
I think that gamers are just so used to a certain form of entertainment, one that often uses the story as a back-up, a Plan B, a side attraction. This is quite valid, in fact, as we're talking about interactive entertainment and storytelling is traditionally passive. While we're getting used to the concepts of choice and freedom these days, we're still a long way from top-notch literary works in video games. But do gamers even want that? Based on what I've seen, I'm not sure they do. The interesting part is that I think those better stories are coming...I'm just not sure how they'll be received.
Tags: video games, game stories, gamers, gaming culture
12/18/2012 9:56:47 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (32 posts)
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:45:42 PM
11 up, 3 down
pillz81
Thursday, December 20, 2012 @ 1:23:40 PM
0 up, 0 down
matt99
Thursday, December 20, 2012 @ 5:22:05 PM
0 up, 0 down
firesoul453
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 10:35:21 PM
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Another thing though, often stories get better when there is multiple games in a series; but I don't want them to ever abandon new IPs. Starting fresh might mean the game doesn't have the background and already developed character that sequels do, but it can be worth it.
1 up, 0 down
xenris
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 10:59:06 PM
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I think atmosphere needs to be there for the story to matter now. I mean psx games had good stories but less atmosphere, the atmosphere and emotion was conveyed more with the music which worked great.
I do miss some of the great stories of the old Final Fantasy games and definitely would play a new turn based final fantasy that had a great story even if it was cliched or had been done before.
I mean a game about a knight saving a princess from a dragon can be made awesome if they develop the characters right and flesh everything out.
So yes I want better stories in my games :)
6 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:48:06 PM
6 up, 3 down
BTNwarrior
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:07:12 PM
Reply
4 up, 2 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:48:57 PM
3 up, 1 down
___________
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 7:19:48 AM
it did not shy away from anything, and some of the things your forced to do are quite sickening!
the story itself is actually quite underwhelming and predictable.
4 up, 1 down
Knightzane
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:26:06 PM
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Heavy Rain had even my xbox friends playing it non-stop. They'd come over everyday just to play it some more. My girlfriend loves it too. Its clearly heavily influenced by nothing but story and i haven't heard much bad rep.
The story in FF6 has surprised me too. Who knew a pixel clown could be so diabolical and evil? Sephi is just a lil beach compaired to the awesomeness that is kefka. anyway, story is the most important thing to me. Oh and music. Gotta have awesome music to help set the mood. Heavy Rains soundtrack is on my ipod. That's how good the soundtrack is to me, and im a heavy metal/hard rock fan.
3 up, 0 down
Kaizokuman
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:30:55 PM
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0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 11:52:31 PM
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The good news is as long as gaming is popular there will always be folks like Koji and Levine and Cage to try to reach the intelligent members of gaming society that appreciate a well made story and characters.
In the mean time we just have to suffer as our once-beloved franchises abandon their character development so they can show more action.
4 up, 0 down
Axe99
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 12:12:44 AM
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Even in CoD online, there is a 'story' per se - sure, it's an unbalanced story of personal stats and what-have-you, but the addition of a personal story to CoD's online was one of the things that made CoD 4 stand out (I remember at that time people were talking about it turning shooters into RPGs, misunderstanding that there's more to RPGs than just statting up).
And I would _love_ better stories. Mass Effect 3's ending is my most disappointing moment this year - nothing to do with the gameplay, just what I thought was a poor storytelling decision at the end (which I don't expect or want them to change - it's their right to have whatever they want as an ending, just as it's my right to consider it the biggest storytelling choke since Peter Jackson had Farimir take Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath).
1 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 12:16:15 AM
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3 up, 0 down
dmiitrie
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 12:25:12 AM
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0 up, 0 down
___________
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 3:17:20 AM
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of course gamers want better stories!
theres a reason why ME, AC, MP, GOW, halo, 99.999999999% of really popular games are games that have fantastic stories!
coincidence?
2 up, 0 down
Lawless SXE
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 3:30:52 AM
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Still, nothing touches Heavy Rain, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted 2 and MGS4 for me simply because they are so well crafted with memorable characters and all that jazz.
3 up, 0 down
xenris
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 9:48:52 AM
I want more of those games...only with not terrible gameplay :D
1 up, 0 down
Beamboom
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 3:38:44 AM
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There is a reason why the movie industry can house movies like Transformers as well as Moon (one of my favourite movies recent years). Moon had never been made if all the director and distributor wanted was to beat Transformers.
2 up, 0 down
Ultimadream
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 10:15:42 AM
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But that leads me in to what I believe to be even more important than story - characters. Tekken 1 - 3 is a perfect example of characters with a presence. I urge you to look at the beautiful intro to Tekken 2 once more to see what I mean. But to follow a story you have to have characters you can engage with, if you do not like the lead character you fail to connect to them and their motives which the story is usually tied around. This is why I cannot enjoy games like Skyrim, which has a lovely setting and probably a good story - The character is transparent. The idea is that you're meant to step into the shoes of the hero, but I just cannot do that and look at a flat boring avatar.
While games like Final Fantasy have hugely compelling characters. Squall from Final Fantasy VIII takes up a huge focus of the games story. Normally I would find that off putting as it makes the other characters less developed - which is true in the case of FFVIII, but Squall's story is so good I can overlook that and it is why it remains one of my favorite games of all time.
2 up, 1 down
ethird1
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 10:59:25 AM
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And a nice story line. Muahahaha I can't believe I typed that.
EXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSIONS!!!!!!
And boobs.
End of Line.
2 up, 1 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 11:18:03 AM
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3 up, 1 down
Comic Shaman
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 2:45:16 PM
I mean, I think the picture you chose gives us a good answer to your question. No matter how you felt about the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle, it does prove that a lot of gamers care about the story of a game.
I think the larger casual "Angry Birds" crowd probably doesn't care too much about story... yet. Give 'em time, though. After the novelty of having a time-burner on your phone wears off, many will start seeking a deeper experience.
3 up, 0 down
xenris
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 3:31:34 PM
Most people now couldn't play FF9 for the story because not enough explosions are going on in between the dialogue and the dialogue might be too spread out for them.
I think mainstream gamers care, but not as much as most people who comment on your articles.
The interesting thing would be to see if a developer could make a great story with casual appealing gameplay and have it sell a lot. I think Assassins Creed story is pretty good, but I wonder if the majority of gamers buy that game to find out the ending of the story, or simply to become a bad ass assassin? I would like to see the stats on that :)
0 up, 0 down
homura
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 11:20:48 AM
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Tomb Raider! Muahahaha. ;)
1 up, 0 down
ethird1
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 3:55:19 PM
Guns? Check.
Boobs? Check.
EXPLOOOOOOSIONS!?!? Check.
We have a winner!!!!!
EXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSIONS!!!!!
End of Line.
2 up, 0 down
slugga_status
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 11:25:23 AM
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2 up, 1 down
DeathOfChaos
Friday, December 21, 2012 @ 1:04:20 AM
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0 up, 0 down
matt99
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 10:34:47 PM
I think the problem is that for a lot of people video games are just a fun way to kill an hour or two and to really enjoy a story in a game it takes much longer than that. A movie is about two hours, whereas there can be many many hours of cutscenes in a game on top of gameplay. (I think MGS4 had around 8 hours of cutscenes and Uncharted is like one big 10 hour movie).
Also most people go to TV or movies for their storytelling fixes, after all it hasn't been that long that video games have been able to tell a serious emotional story. So when people think of video games they associate mario and pac man, where there is obviously little to no story at all.