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Article by: DavetheZombie
Once upon a time, story in video games mattered, and they mattered a lot. Video games once held captivating and creative stories, building on to our imaginations than we could ever think of. Nowadays we get nothing than bland plot filled with uninteresting, ugly characters that don't mean a thing to us. It's rare to find a good story or even one remotely interesting in the games that are being released nowadays. On average, it's either the generic space marine fighting generic alien who has come to earth to destroy humanity or the typical military soldiers sent on a mission briefly explained to the audience. There's barely any effort made in creating these stories. Hell, a 6 year old has more imagination than this. Now I believe wholeheartedly that video games are art, but when it becomes as simplified as only focused on gameplay and graphics, I feel it's moving further away from what can be considered art.
I'm just flabbergasted whenever I hear a gamer say something along the lines of "Left 4 Dead 2 has a good story". By then, I have to ask "What story?" A group of survivors fighting through a zombie apocalypse and eventually manage to survive? It's about as thrilling of a story as prince charming enduring a dangerous journey to rescue a princess. There's no background given to said characters, or even a climax to top off the action that the game is filled with. How long will it be before we tire of these cliche plotlines? What would it take to make them better?
Among one of the many things video games lack in their "stories", is character development. The humane and interesting ideal character is now a thing of the past. What we've got now are bland, consistently empty characters who simply do as they're told. Take John Marston of Red Dead Redemption. He may be a badass and the best gunslinger of the west, but he by no means has a great character. He'll do just about anything a side character asks him to, regardless if it's against his morals. Even more so, he never faces a personal struggle, something he can overcome to make him stronger. This seems to be the case with all of the characters of Rockstar games. "Realistic" as they may be, they have absolutely no character.
So what does make a good character? For this, I look to one of my favorite games, Psychonauts, which manages to pull this off pretty nicely. Razputin, the main protagonist of the story, is an energetic and brave boy who dreams of becoming a psychonaut. However, rather than making that the focus of the story, the main issue is focused on Raz dealing with his father who has discouraged Raz from being a psychic, and eventually he comes to terms with that. Tim Schafer makes it clear that Raz is indeed, a human being. I could also look toward God of War and see another humane character, Kratos. Though he's a vicious mortal, hellbent on destruction of the god who took his "everything" from him, he does it for the sole reason of revenge. But behind this revenge, is another story of the people who were most dear to Kratos and the shocking truth the gamer finds as the story progresses. We feel his loss, and his remorse for his own actions. He is not a man without faults, but he goes great lengths for the things and people he loves. This engaging, tragic tale was one of the greatest, highly praised titles on the playstation 2. God of War took a unique route of storytelling and managed to pull off one of the most interesting stories I've seen in a video game.
It seems nowadays, developers have stopped caring just as much as many gamers. All I hear anyone concerned about these days is either graphics or gameplay. Not to say they're not important, but story is just as much of a key element in a video games as those other aspects. Let's bring back the stories that we could feel alongside those characters in the game. Let us cry together, laugh together, and feel joy together.
Comments
13 years, 6 months ago
great article, Dave.
I feel the same way, it seems like a good story becomes less and less of a focus as the game industry moves along, there are exceptions, but they become less and less, compared to the games that rely only on gameplay and multiplayer, I enjoy these games less for this reason.
We see this in some of the most popular games out there right now; call of duty, halo, borderlands, world of warcraft, all these games--while being arguably great games--carry almost no substantial story or characters at all, and thats just another proof that the average consumer doesn't really care about if there's even a story connected to it at all, just as long as it's fun to play and addicting as a multiplayer experience; and I can at least remotely relate to that.
I however crave for an expansive singleplayer, thats just my kind of game, and though I think there should be a big focus on making the game well, I think the story is a important part of making the player immersed in the world, and pushing the player forward, and I also think the story could be used and told in very special ways with having you interact and play it, such as bioshock did to make a twist and almost a parody on the mindless protagonist you play in the game, making the story so much more impacting when you're actually playing though it.
I think it's a great article, on a subject most gamers doesn't even think about, much less care about; keep it up.
13 years, 6 months ago
Left4Dead2 had as much story as Super Metroid - it's all in the atmosphere and the setting.
Anyways. There are good stories, you just have to look. Consider modern day Hollywood, how the blockbusters are pretty much always trash in some way [Transformers 1 and 2 for obvious reasons, Avatar is a total cliche and overbearing].. you're get that with mainstream games - they're focused purely on entertaining the masses than being appreciated by the few.
However, do realize that games tell their story in a vastly different methods than books and movies, and often rely heavily on their atmosphere. You don't NEED a great story for every game.. in fact, as many JRPGs go to show, too much story gets in the way of having fun. Super Metroid had NO story, yet people respect it for it's thriving atmosphere and implied characterization - the same thing with the Left4Dead series. You can't just ignore that simply because there isn't a lot of people talking and/or words on the screen.
And fwiw, L4D 1 and 2 have great characters.
13 years, 6 months ago
my forum post:
I may get some flack for this but plot means shit to me. Characters are what's important. I could be playing through a game that has an amazing story, amazing back story, whatever but if the characters are just boring or uninteresting, then whats the point? On the other hand, if the story is complete crap but the characters are enjoyable, then i will have no problem seeing how things turn out. RE4 is somewhat an example of this. Story itself is pretty generic but at the same time, the characters have a humor to them that make it fun to see how they will react to one another as things go on.
No more heroes falls into this as well. The plot is simple, kill the 10 hitman above you. Simple, yet the characters get you into the story. The over the topness of them and their Real personalities show forth. It just makes the whole situation a lot more fun.
One of the reasons I love jrpgs and anime in general. Ya the stories are pretty generic but the characters have a life to them, an over the topness that lets me enjoy what im seeing, no matter how stupid it is. Excel saga pulled this off. The story took a distant step back to focus on the characters and situations and for that, I love it.
Though I will admit, I would rather a game focus more on gameplay then on its story. Why I love megaman. you don't need a story for a game to be good. Dr. Wily is causing trouble again so its up to megaman to kick his ass again. Simple and to the point. It understands what it is and doesn't try to be more then that and for that, I love it. But at the same time, though words are never expressed with the robot masters, thier characters really show. Their designs, their patterns, their names. Somehow you learn a lot about fighting the robot masters without even realizing it.
but i agree with you, the character side of things just isn't present anymore. You do get characters with 1 liners and such but its boring. Hell I like the characters in Gears of War, they may not have depth like many of you look for but they are fun in their own right and enjoyable to watch as they just try to survive. Same goes for left 4 dead. ya, no backstories for the characters but you see their personalities shine when on the brink of death and for that, i value them and want to see them make it out.
----
I still stand by these words and I still feel gameplay and characters should ALWAYS overtake the need for a good story. Good story is nice but again, story means shit if the characters aren't interesting.
13 years, 6 months ago
i dont really care i just want my damn cheevos
13 years, 6 months ago
The few games i thought that had a good storyline were Alan Wake, which resembles a stephen King novel and you cant really get better than that. Dead Space had a really good storyline, as you sympathised with issac.
Singularity, albeit a underrated game, had a great story too it, everythign fit together and everything worked, it wasn't just another uh oh we had an accident go fix it, storyline. I can't leave out bioshock either, because to be frank that game is built up on the story, i think whoever you ask about it will say the first was their fav because of the story.
13 years, 6 months ago
I love these community highlights, keep em up!
13 years, 6 months ago
A story is not as important as how you tell it.
But I will agree on that many games now are just made for entertaining people. I agree that there are games with great stories now, like GOW, and the Metal Gear series in general.
But I also think that the games that concentrate most on story are RPGs/JRPGs, idk it just seems to me that those concentrate most on the story and it's characters.