I believe one of the most effective way to give a game a great story is through the use of notes or diaries that provide backstory. Using these in video games allows players to understand the world they are exploring through another person’s experiences.
The Bioshock series is an excellent example of this. I enjoyed the main Bioshock story very much, but I believe that without the use of audio diaries, it would not have been as great as it was. In these diaries, the player was able to learn the backstory of many main characters as well as get a short glimpse of Rapture before the fall.
The Fallout series also does this frequently. In Fallout 3, you could find recordings of your father that provided more backstory about the project he was working on and his relations before you were born. The developers also did a great job of giving many buildings a backstory through terminal entries left by people before the bombs fell. While many of those entries do not tie into the main plot, they still add a little bit of backstory from before the war that makes the game much more intriguing.
The best part about adding story this way is that it isn’t necessary for everyone to do. If someone is more interested in gameplay than the story, they can simply ignore the audio diaries or terminal entries. To sum this post up with a question for everyone, what other ways are there to make a game with a great story?
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I agree that having an optional story is the best way to go about a game, and allowing people to choose whether or not they want to listen to the story, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best way to do it. I think it really depends on the person playing the game, when you’re just listening to a recording, you’re kind of just sitting there and not playing the game, it’s almost as if you’re just watching a movie or listening to an audio book. While this lets you have to option of skipping the story if you want, for those who want to go through, it can get kind of boring (think long cut-scenes).
The game World of Warcraft does a really good job at story telling I think. Not only is listening to the lore optional, but when you choose to listen to it, sometimes it just shows a cut-scene, but other times you actually get to play as the person in the story. For example, if they’r talking about a past event, they will let you play as a main or side character during that event (for example in a battle) and lets you partake in the battle.
I really enjoy the stories in games, so I’m OK with most formats, except for the really long cut-scenes. I prefer to play the game, rather than just sit and watch. With games like The Walking Dead, I find them a little boring because all they’re doing is telling the story, with minimal user input. If I wanted that, I would be more inclined to watch the TV series rather than play the game. I think a balance is really needed, but it’s hard to meet that balance
As we discussed in class, there are many ways to tell a story in video games, however, I agree that this is probably the best way for a game to go about doing it. I think giving the players the option to control how much of the story they really want to hear is the best way to keep players as engaged as possible. Some people are really into stories and others only care about gameplay, but most people fall somewhere in the middle which is what this system is designed for.
Other methods for telling stories, such as dialogues and cut scenes can be used to tell a story as well- but they often take some of the control away from the player. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on the context, but I know from personal experience that these can be annoying for people that are not into the story so much. I tend to be the kind of person that skips through cutscenes to get back into the game, and I know I am not alone in this. Granted, sometimes a cutscene is completely necessary and cannot and should not be avoided. Every game needs to find their balance of storytelling, and unfortunately there’s no real clear cut formula for it.