Today in the class discussion, we talked about story telling in video games. This was a very interesting discussion and it is one of the core aspects I appreciate in a game. Whether it be any of the Uncharted games, The Last of Us, or even Dishonored, all of these games do a very good job (in my opinion) of telling a compelling story that you can sometimes relate to with the characters. We discussed this idea of the “illusion of choice” which is where the player is presented with options to choose from but in the long haul, it really does not matter what you pick due to the fact that there is one universal ending that all players will experience.
Other game designers take the approach of developing multiple endings to a game that will not allow the player to see all of the content that is contained in the game like The Witcher, which I have not played but it was mentioned in the discussion. One game that I felt did a very good job of incorporating this approach was Until Dawn. Until Dawn is driven on decisions that you make for each character in quick time events. I really enjoyed this game because you essentially controlled the story and if you really did not like a certain character in the game, then you could easily influence death upon them when given the opportunity. On my first and only play through, my ending did not involve everybody in the game dying but I do know that that is a possible ending should you so choose based on the decisions that you make throughout the game. Another interesting aspect of Until Dawn are totems that are scattered throughout the game that will give you different clues based on how you have played the game up to that point. All in all, Until Dawn was a very enjoyable experience and it had a very compelling story that kept me intrigued and I felt immersed into the horror.
I just knew about Until Dawn this March during spring break.Until Dawn is very fun to play because of its great series of storylines and many horror elements in the game. This game is unique, and its success is probably unrepeatable. For most of the games, the story is a tool to connect everything together. But if the story is very appealing, not only the game will be popular, peripheral products can also provide a big value. (Since Warcraft series and some other games even have their movies now!) But generally, the story is not the most important part of the game. In my opinion, there’re two big reasons. First, most games focus more on the content instead of the story. For example, MOBA games don’t need a very detailed history or story to be successful. Second, it’s so hard to make a perfect story. Even if the game company have a great story for the game, people probably don’t like it. A bad story can totally ruin the game if the game itself is not fun to play already. Overall, a great story can make a lot of money and makes players feel impressive.(Until Dawn, many Blizzard games, etc.) A bad story, however, can ruin the game completely.
[SPOILER ALERT, Read with caution – Until Dawn]
I’ve watched play throughs of Until Dawn, and was very enthralled by the “illusion of choice” within the game. The choices you make, when first playing through the game, can be so small or insignificant at the time (like when deciding whether to keep the flare gun or give it to Matt) but later have big consequences (Matt dies if you don’t give him the flare gun). There is no way to deduced what choice could have a big apart of the story, and that adds a more realistic aspect to the “illusion of choice”.
The idea that we have choice when playing a game is a fickle concept, because as humans, we don’t like being controlled. However, when being told a story, not being in control is part of the enjoyment. I believe, subconsciously, we know we have no choice in a game, and we accept that. We can still enjoy the video game, and instead of looking at it like we have no choice, try to think of it as we choose to listen to the story.
Wait, does Until Dawn take place in some snowy woods with like a serial killer or something? I think I know what that is.
Anyway, I find that as time progresses, good developers continue to try and implement a multiplayer is games that are focused on story and vice versa, but there are very few I can think of that has done both incredibly well. Sure the story can be good, but the experience of playing story mode as a whole can sometimes be boring, and vice versa (again). For example, if you’ve played any Call of Duty game, you know how the stories can be interesting but story mode game play is monotonous. On the other side of the coin, games like Uncharted give an amazing story line and movie-esque single player game play experience, while their multiplayer just seems to exist and nothing else(in my opinion); I have Uncharted 2 and only played story instead of multiplayer because it can never find a match, takes forever to load, and just seems like I’m playing single player with no special features or mechanics. What I’m trying to say is, in my opinion, I have yet to play a game that has a single player story mode and multiplayer on par with each other; although, its getting closer and closer every year.
*one exception to my statements after writing this is GTA 5. They really got it right there.
It seems to me that companies aren’t putting out quality stories anymore and just worrying about multiplayer. While that is fine and all for hardcore online gamers; I yearn for the days were companies will focus on the story. I think the last game that did this well was “The Last of Us”.
To me, The Last of Us didn’t seem like a game. It felt like an engaged movie. At the beginning, I didn’t know what all the hype about this game was. To be fair, I haven’t played video games in a long time when this game came out. I just thought people were falling over nothing. Then one day I went to my brothers house and I saw him playing this game. Then when he left to do some errands I started playing. From that instance, I was hooked. It felt like the good old days were you could play a story for hours on end and still want more. In short, I really hope game companies start to focus on story again. To me, for a game to be great the story has to be better than the multiplayer.
Until Dawn sounds like a really interesting game. I don’t know too many games where you’re influencing the story through multiple characters. From a developer standpoint, that sounds really complex. The fact that they pulled it off well makes it all the more admirable.
Regarding the “illusion of choice”, I never really minded that myself. I never saw it being all that different than playing a game with no choices. As the long as the story is good, I’ll take it. I think one of the worst things, though, are games that have story seeming “tacked” on. One that comes to mind is Call of Duty (the more recent ones, that is). I know a lot of people who just skip the story altogether, because all they care about is the multiplayer mode. With campaigns less than 10 hours, what’s the point?