{"id":658,"date":"2011-12-09T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/09\/story-in-games\/"},"modified":"2011-12-09T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T19:00:00","slug":"story-in-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/09\/story-in-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Story in games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Found an interesting blog post today at Rampant Games: http:\/\/rampantgames.com\/blog\/?p=3648<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t agree with lots of what is said, some of the points are valid.<\/p>\n

Story and games have a different existence together\u2026 The actions of the player usually don\u2019t modify the game world, and when they do it\u2019s in a purely binary fashion. So, the player isn\u2019t part of the story, which seems counter-intuitive in a sense that a lot of effort is put into immersing the player in the story.<\/p>\n

The conclusions Paul Spooner in the above article draws from this are too restrictive and just go into the old RPG concept of DM\/Player symbiosis, while I think there\u2019s two layers to any game: an interactive layer and a story layer\u2026 They can conflict occasionally, but its possible to create game mechanics that stop the player from interfering with the story, without seemingly restrict freedom: an example of this is a story where the player needs to be a good guy and he\u2019s out having fun murdering little children. If you attach a penalty coherent (like an alignment penalty) with the game story with the act of murdering children, the player won\u2019t do it (or if he does, he\u2019s aware that it might make his life more difficult in the long run).<\/p>\n

I think that the main issue is not story vs. interactivity, but story vs. fun\u2026 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine the above example\u2026 the story we have designed is the typical hero of the light story, where only a hero pure of heart can defeat the dark overlord of legend. To be coherent with the game story, if the player murders innocent people, he\u2019ll loose the pure heart and will be unable to stop the overlord\u2026 Both of these mechanics are easy enough to be implemented; the player retains his freedom, and the story can run its course\u2026 But is it fun? Is it fun to make the player go throughout the whole game, just to fail at the final boss, because in the beginning of the game he stole a villager\u2019s purse? It\u2019s not fun, but it is accurate in terms of both story and gameplay!<\/p>\n

You have loads of stories without happy endings in literature, movies and other forms of narrative art, but that is seldom seen in games, because it is thought (and I agree with that) that it isn\u2019t fun\u2026<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I think it\u2019s missing in the above article\u2026 other than that, it\u2019s an excellent read!<\/p>\n

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Found an interesting blog post today at Rampant Games: http:\/\/rampantgames.com\/blog\/?p=3648. While I don\u2019t agree with lots of what is said, some of the points are valid. Story and games have a different existence together\u2026 The actions of the player usually don\u2019t modify the game world, and when they do it\u2019s in a purely binary fashion. […]<\/p>\n

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