That’s what basically stories to games are.
At the GDC 08, Ken Levine creative director on Bioshock told the audience something that would not please everyone:
“The bad news for storytellers is that nobody cares about your stupid story”
It’s still a point that hurts a lot of people but it’s totally true, even if we see a lot of game to movie conversions. It’s not for their stupid stories, it’s for the money. Because without interaction, Doom or Dead or Alive are just awful, plain bad stories.
In Edge’s Death Of The Author article Clint Hocking sums it up pretty well when comparing storytelling in games and other medias:
“[..] I’d rather play a game and then read a book than play a game with a story that isn’t as good as a book – particularly when it’s wrecked by the difference between what I’m doing and what I’m told is actually happening. I’d rather have two distinct experiences than one that feels like a bastard child.”
Storytelling is as old as the humanity. It works well on linear medias (books movies comics, thousand years of polishing) and doesn’t with non-linear medias such as games.
So is it really important in the interactive media?
I think that it’s not. Games stories are good for one thing: setting up the world.
SW theme + live setting: massive WIN. Of course Vader is on bass.
I asked myself why Monkey Island or Grim Fandango was so much good memories despite the fact of being adventure games, heavily storytelling focused. It’s not because of their stories, it’s because of their themes and world settings. Look at the story of Monkey Island:
“The game starts off with the main character Guybrush Threepwood stating "I want to be a pirate!" To do so, he must prove himself to three old pirate captains. During the perilous pirate trials, he meets the beautiful governor Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, unaware that the ghost pirate LeChuck also has his eyes on her. When Elaine is kidnapped, Guybrush procures crew and ship to track LeChuck down, defeat him and rescue his love”
It’s sort of a super cheap story you encountered in other medias millions of time. This is not really what stayed in my mind after playing it. What stays is the setting of evolving between Caribbean islands day and night. What stays is the humorous overall setting. What stays is hanging around doing my thing and trying to solve puzzles in this crazy world, mix of old golden age of piracy and contemporary US culture.
Same for Grim Fandango. But crazier.
And I really feel that a lot of games with “stories” are just appealing to people the same way those two games did on me. The fantasy setting of WoW appeals to people, the social interaction appeals to people. The story comes at the end. It could almost been removed (though hardcore people read all that quests shit), it’s not crucial to the quality of the game.
The Fantasy setting is strong because it relies on the roots of storytelling:
“Fantasy games have one unique feature that has not yet been duplicated in other genres: they are approachable and easily understood by the player base. If you say a game is “fantasy,” then you know it’s going to be roughly based on medieval technology, with some magic, probably some elves, and monsters to slay. This is because fantasy games are based on legends and fables that we’ve been telling/reading to our children for hundreds of years. Fantasy stories are part of our culture, and just about everyone has been exposed to them. Because of this, fantasy games are easily understood by the player base.”
That’s why SF is a niche for nerds (don’t take it personally, I prefer science to supernatural stuff in a medieval world). That’s why Eve is Eve. I mean, empty (300,000 accounts compared to 11 millions in WoW).
The same with Final Fantasy and japanese RPGs. Stupid and boring stories, outstanding and unique world settings (character design is a big part of it) that makes you want to dig and dive into it, thanks to the complex and deep RPG game system. Story is the cherry on the cake. And most of the time it stinks.
Anyway the thing is, these world settings are terribly missing the point that we are FREE to have any world setting we want. The recent Brutal Legend is a good example.
And believe me if you haven’t read One Piece, this picture is pretty normal.
I always think about mangas and animated movies as a crazy source of world settings. They always have something particular, a twist you didn’t see anywhere. Just thinking about FLCL or Mind Game and I have sparkles in my eyes figuring out something playable in that sort of… Mmh, maybe they are too crazy.
Instead we go the safe path providing classic, over-used settings trying to be as cool as the next action movie. Is that all we can do?
I’m sure it’s not.