As a young gamer, many of the games I had the fortune of playing were ones with rich storylines and touching characters.
Who could forget the mind-blowing ending to Final Fantasy 7 or the applause-worthy conclusion to the Legacy of Kain series; a story that was so expertly crafted that even filmmakers and fiction writers were left in awe.
Nowadays, however, I feel the idea of a good storyline within a videogame has gone the way of the dinosaur. I miss the days of the engaging storyline; always waiting with bated breath for what will happen next and rarely being able to predict neither the final outcome nor the chain of events leading to it.
I can’t remember the last time a game’s storyline has left me speechless as I watched the credits roll. It would seem that clichéd plots have become standard within the industry.
Hmmm....seems legit
Watching the opening sequence to any videogame based on war or espionage quickly becomes a monotonous exercise in pointing out the all too obvious traitor within the first few minutes. After experiencing the fifth betrayal in a game that shall remain nameless, several of my friends experienced an exasperation fueled revelation powered by THC. Fed up and enraged, we shut off the system and had a transcendental and unnecessarily long discussion about how it came to this.
Why do storylines suck so hard?
One of my red eyed cohorts suggested that perhaps we have just arrived at a period where storyline simply doesn’t matter.
Perhaps, indeed.
Have we, as a community, just lost the patience required to appreciate a nice, in-depth story?
I believe the explanation is a bit more complex than it may seem.
The first and most obvious cause is the community’s obsession with multiplayer gaming. Unlike singleplayer gaming, the driving force behind the multiplayer experience is one’s interactions with other players. There is no storyline that is acting as the impetus of our actions as we blow a competitor’s head off with a sniper rifle or knock their lights out with a well placed Shoryuken.
We play for the experience and nothing else.
People play games like Call of Duty for multiplayer, is it any surprise that the game’s singleplayer story is a joke?
In similar fashion, games that are designed to be almost exclusively multiplayer have stories that fall short.
We cackled like fiends as we reminisced on our first experience with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (a terrible game for a slew of reasons I will not go into). How many times did I experience jumping with awe as my cognitive self reminded me that I was playing a title belonging to the Resident Evil franchise?
Countless.
These revelations hit my consciousness like a baseball bat whittled from the tree of disappointment. The game could have been called Zombie Clusterfuck Nation and the experience of playing would not have changed. In other words, despite it supposedly having an origin within the Resident Evil lore, the progression of the story was so awful that its place within the franchise was unrecognizable.
A failure of epic proportions
Another trend I have perceived is that many writers seem to overestimate their ability; a truer assessment would be that writer’s overestimate the need for a story with a thousand twists and turns, ultimately falling into the M. Night Shyamalan trap. In a manner almost identical to manga, many developers of action and roleplaying games seem to be so obsessed with creating multiple twists and turns that it soon becomes apparent that the developers had no idea which direction they wanted to take the story at all.
Take Devil May Cry 4 for example, who is Nero? Where did he come from? Who is the mysterious “he” that Berial refers to while talking to Nero? We are not told during the game and judging from Capcom’s new Devil May Cry reboot, we never will be.
you are not the father.....
A cancer that is particularly pervasive within franchises is the feeling that the writers involved in the development simply write to create a reason for a sequel to exist. The story has become so stale and stagnant that there really is no reason for players to care about the plot behind the gameplay.
I found myself drained after completing Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and being rewarded with yet another cliffhanger while coming no closer to the cathartic conclusion I had been hoping for. Because of this, my interest in the Assassin’s Creed story is nonexistent; any interest I may have in the title lay solely in the new gaming experience it may (or may not) provide.
sigh...
As a student of literature, I am aware I may be attributing too much importance to a good storyline. So what do you guys think? Is an engaging storyline and plot the necessary foundation to a good game or is gameplay?
While on Cloud 9, one of my newly turned philosophers posed an interesting question; if an otherwise decent game had a horrible story rounded off by an even more horrible conclusion, how bad would the taste left in your mouth be?
Consider that result.
Now imagine a game that had horrible and confounding gameplay; one with bad textures, mechanics and all the things that cause gamers to destroy their controllers. Now imagine this game had an amazing storyline, a storyline so amazing, in fact, that it was the only reason you continued to play; obsessed with discovering the story’s conclusion which was equally as amazing. What would be the taste left in your mouth as the credits rolled? Would it be more tolerable than the first scenario or worse?
Something to think about perhaps?
of course they matter
Gameplay is part of mis en scene and can tell a story all by itself if approached correctly.
The storyline of a game was originally ment to be the main reason a gamer played the game but the demands of multiplayer has caused developers to think otherwise
A good name needs to have either a good story or good gameplay I think. If you have both then it’s an awesome game. Good story is for children/teenagers and old people that have time to enjoy the story while gameplay is for people who need to work a lot and need short bursts of fun IMO.
I think you’ve got a misleading premise.
You can ask, “Do storylines matter?”, but adding the “anymore” implies that maybe the story has historically been a driving factor in gaming. Early arcade titles barely had characters, much less story. You’ve got text-based adventures and the occasional early RPG, but the vast majority of successful games up until, let’s say, the mid 90s, were devoid of any meaningful story-telling.
The games that have always had good stories still focus on narrative, RPGs (particularly eastern ones), adventure games, etc. But we’ve seen stories emerge in genres that weren’t previously known for it. Sure, a given year’s Call of Duty doesn’t hold a candle to Final Fantasy’s story, but it beats the shit out of the shooters that preceded it. Let’s see, Galaga, Contra, Goldeneye… I would say pretty much up until Half-life and then Halo: Combat Evolved, there weren’t really many shooters with stories you could get excited about. Call of Duty has epic set pieces, heroes and villains, certainly nothing short of what you’d see in a modern action movie.
Then there’s the curveballs that we didn’t have before. Batman: Arkham City ranks up there with Batman’s best showings of the decade, across any medium. Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain are ONLY story; it’s almost hard to call them games. Fight Night: Champion has fictional characters and cutscenes and the whole nine yards, even though it’s part of an established sports franchise. The original Bioshock’s gameplay only worked well when it was serving the suspense of the story.
As an average, story-telling in games has only improved over the years. If you can’t find any, you’re looking in the wrong places.
I’m inclined to agree with Chris on this one. Asking if stories matter anymore is a display of complete ignorance of games currently out on the market. Within the last few years that have been several titles that boast stories (and even game play) that completely suck you in and force you to become immersed in your character — and the story. Let’s start with Alan Wake and Heavy Rain. These two games are almost COMPLETELY story based. Alan Wake even features an interesting combat system despite your implication that story-based games cannot have fun game play.
Now let’s move to a more recent title, Skyrim. Skyrim was stories, within stories, within stories. Each and every quest chain had me begging for more, only to leave me disappointed when I finally finished that. The game play in Skyrim was phenomenal, the graphics amazing.. There was nothing in the game besides a few minor bugs that anyone could say was not great.
Conventionally MMORPGs have awful story lines and despite World of Warcrafts’ VAST improvements in the story department with Star Wars takes the cake. Star Wars is a game that started with great potential, and as you said, in the end the game play and content in the game was lacking what it needed to keep its’ vast number of subscribers satisfied. The story, however, was great. There are few games I have played with a better story. As I finished the story on my Jedi Knight, conquering Corelia and recruiting Jedi forces I had an inner feeling of excitement and joy that few games could ever compete with. The story constantly threw me for twists and turns, keeping me on my toes, begging for more to be revealed. I ate it up. It only continued when I moved to my Sith Sorcerer, enslaving people, torturing people, and just being a complete evil bastard. Few other games gave me such evil, sick, satisfaction.
Story in games matters, of course it does, but there are always games that don’t need story to survive and thrive. However, do not discredit the games that are out and coming out with phenomenal stories just because you’ve never played them.
Story is not out of business ladies and gentleman, it’s in — and it always will be.
@Chris
“Anymore” does imply previous presence but as you said, stories came into relevance in the mid-90′s I would say early 90′s with games like Zelda, Castlevania and Gaia, Either way, at the very least we have a period of almost two decades in which story was relevant, considering that most of the people here are in their twenties or barely there I feel that the title isn’t misleading at all. If anyone on here can remember 20+ years of gaming history I would be very surprised.
The fact that you seem to suggest that story driven games existed but were overshadowed by more successful games that lacked any story is a fallacy that I would love to address but as I’m sure no one is even reading this anymore I won’t even bother.
@Kevin
Never said there has never been a game made on current gen systems that had no story.
If simply naming games that have a great story was all it took to render my article invalid I wouldn’t even have wrote it.
Compare the strides the industry has made in technology and and compare it to advancements of engaging stories, there’s no comparison. Also, look at the amount of games that came out with thought provoking stories compared to all the games that are released as a whole.
The ratio is about 20 to 1, if that.
Don’t really know why you would say I’m exhibiting ignorance over the games being released currently.
“I take issue with the fact that dwarf actors are disproportionately represented in media.”
“What about that one guy from Game of Thrones?”
“Okay cool. I was wrong.”
When we’re talking about an issue that is systemic it is stupid to talk about individual cases that contradict the norm since those individual cases will never be plentiful enough to subvert the current trend.
In regards to Skyrim, yeah it had a lot of stories but I would be hard pressed to say any of them were good. The Dark Brotherhood was a joke and the College of Winterhold was about 5 seconds. The only one worth writing home about was The Civil War.
In regards to your last jab at the end, you haven’t named a game that I haven’t played, their existence doesn’t mean that storyline is important to the industry still, it just means that certain developers like story within their work.
That doesn’t make it a rule.
You say that story matters, “of course”, and then say there are titles that simply don’t need story (an issue I purposely addressed pretty early on). What happens when the majority of the populace play games that belong in this classification?
Story becomes extinct.
Either way, I was posing a question not a fact.
You have given your opinion and I appreciate it but don’t talk to me as though your providing me with a revelation when the main idea is still standing.
Yup. Zelda and Castlevania had good stories. But they were pretty basic. Zelda games are all about running from one dungeon to another, fighting bosses, saving the princess and thwarting evil. Sure, there’s some interesting characters along the way, but it’s a pretty linear progression that is repeated over and over throughout the series.
Really, it’s easy to say that about any game. You can say the AC series is JUST a bunch of cliffhangers, or that call of duty is JUST a bunch of explosions, or that Skyrim is JUST a bunch of sidequests. Or that Dragon’s Dogma is JUST a bunch of cool combat systems. None of those types of comments can do justice to a game.
But to get back to your question at hand, do storylines matter anymore?
I’m just going to list off a bunch of successful games with cool stories that came out in 2011. Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rage, LA Noire, Batman: Arkham City, Saint’s Row: The Third, Bastion, Skyrim, Portal 2, Uncharted 3, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin’s Creed: Revolution, Gears of War 3, and because I feel like this game needs to be mentioned as often as possible, Rayman Origins.
Now, try to imagine those games without their story modes. Most of them would be pretty much empty, although a couple have some meaningful multiplayer or noteworthy gameplay otherwise. And sure, Rayman doesn’t really have much of a story. But those games all did incredibly well, and for most of them the story was a main selling point. I think it’s safe to say those stories matter.
Call of Duty also sold super well. As did Madden. Just like, 20 years ago, Mario and Sonic were sure-sellers without any story-telling to speak of. There are still games with no story and plenty of games with great stories.
Again, I really don’t think there’s any shortage of good stories in games, and there probably won’t be anytime soon. And even if you don’t think the stories are good, I would say their prevalence alone proves they “matter”.
assassin’s creed: revelations*
it’s late…
I’m not very interested in a game that has no storyline. Storylines matter GREATLY to me.
One of the first games I ever truly got into was FFVII and, for me, it set the benchmark INCREDIBLY high and I’ve yet to come across anything quite like it.
Most games around these days seem to be based on war, killing zombies or any number of obscure creatures and it just isn’t that interesting to me.
I’d love to see a game where there’s plenty of action but it’s BALANCED with an amazing storyline and also something that doesn’t focus on killing demons/undead things, isn’t set in some prehistoric or medieval world and is REALISTIC. How about a story about some guy? Just an average joe, or even a girl, and you live out his or her daily life (similar to some kind of movie perhaps) and you have goals that you want to achieve then…BAM, something in the middle comes and fucks everything up on an epic scale and you have to stop, regroup and think things through before proceeding. Forget all the silly little side missions and hidden challenges, just play the story out and take it where it has to go. There may be multiple ways of achieving it but you don’t need side missions or anything to break it up.
….Failing that? Just remake FFVII with better graphics, harder gameplay and I’m in.
I feel the same way you do. I hope you’ve played Heavy Rain then. It seems about exactly what you want.