The very
first games had no stories to them whatsoever. No plot, no characters, no
dialogue or subtitles, not even a distinctive art style. Back then, it was just
about the game. You played for the love of the game itself. Now that we have
found a way to implement interactive storytelling through digital games, almost
every game requires a backstory. Now I don’t think this is a bad thing, but do
you honestly want to know exactly why those green pigs want the bird eggs? You
just want to break their houses with your peeved off pigeons. That being said,
is a story always necessary?
Stories are
these tales of actions and events that occur by characters and we as readers of
these stories get to watch them grow. This is what makes reading a mildly
entertaining pastime. It’s even more fun when your imagination kicks in and
fills in the gaps of information books can’t provide with words alone. When you
read any of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror stories, do you imagine the beasts
described in detail? I do and they are terrifying. Games, however, provide a
ton of visual information that your brain registers, leaving nothing to the
imagination.
And yet, we
love games with a good story. It’s because even though our imaginations are not
being stimulated, our sense of immersion is spiking through the roof of our
skulls! We are experiencing a manifested form of someone else’s imagination.
When their story becomes real, we believe it is real. Real in the sense that
you can interact with it, but not real enough to break into reality. Still,
these stories make us love games as a medium for storytelling.
But when is a
story even called for? For an arcade game with high emphasis on gameplay, the
story is virtually nonexistent. What’s the story behind Tetris? No idea, but the main menu has Russian architecture and an
8-bit version of an old Russian folksong is playing during the main game, so we
can assume the world takes place in Russia. Even so, there is no plot. I would
argue Tetris has no story, but that
doesn’t make it a bad game. The endless gameplay is still fun and a story would
detract from that experience.
How about Final Fantasy? The franchise is
legendary for having stories. People love the games BECAUSE of the stories they
tell. Any Final Fantasy fan has a
favorite story, but it’s harder to point out which entry is their favorite
GAME. I personally like Final Fantasy 9’s
story and some of the gameplay offered, but if I were to analyze it, I might
find some things annoying about it such as random encounters, the same battle
theme for every single fight, a party member who is almost completely useless,
and a briefly fun trading card minigame with a side quest that can only be
finished if you happen to get the right cards. Having a story works with the
series, but sometimes the gameplay suffers.
There’s also “non-games”
or “walking simulators” that have a high emphasis on story and almost no
gameplay. Let me just pick on Walking
Dead for a moment. The story is amazing. The choices you make affect the
ultimate outcome of the game and the characters are fantastic. However,
gameplay is limited to walking around and clicking on objects or people to
speak to, then doing QTE’s during action sequences. It almost feels like an
interactive story with arbitrary minigames. I say this because it feels really
easy. The game is technically a point-and-click, but the gameplay doesn’t
engage me. Other games of the genre such as Machinarium
challenge me and have a decent story to boot. It’s even done without dialogue!
Is story
essential to making a good game? Not really. As much as I love a good story,
there is a balance to be maintained when implementing one in a game. If you
want the story to be complex, your gameplay will suffer greatly. A fun game may
have a minor story that will be forgotten after the first playthrough. The
thing is digital games are a visual medium. The most common advice for making a
story for such a medium: “Don’t tell me, show me.”
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