Games Stories

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 I can't believe watching video essays about video games is what I get to do for homework every week, it's awesome. I was halfway through watching the video "Telling Stories with Systems" when I realised, hold on... I've watched this before, in fact, it's the video that got me to try out Crusader Kings 2! It's nice to know all those hours watching YouTube videos as a teenager have finally started to pay off!

This weeks topic on stories in games is one that interests me greatly as most of the time the main thing I look for when deciding to play a new game is the story, or more importantly the stories I can inside the game. One of the main reasons why I love RPGs like The Witcher 3 is that although I can complete quests and goals set for me by the developers, I can also choose how to go about them, will I be a barbarian and cut down every enemy I see? Or will I choose to talk it out with the villain? Will I be something other than a stealth archer on this playthrough of Skyrim? I will not.

The video raises some excellent points on players telling their own stories in games, for instance, I can remember the gist of what happens in Red Dead Redemption and the ending always makes me sad, but that ending is inevitable, I have no personal control over what happens to John Marston. Whereas say in XCOM every decision I make matters, so it's up to me and only me to keep all my little dudes alive to fight another day.

"What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story" by John Sutherland is a great guide to follow when crafting a games story, it notes a lot of the same story essentials taught in most writing classes, inciting incident, introducing conflict etc... Johns choice of games is very interesting he tends to stick more Action games like GTA Vice City, Deus Ex and Halo.

I had to be very careful when reading "Mass Effect 2: A Case Study in the  Design of Game Narrative" as unfortunately I have still yet to finish it, however as a fan of BioWares other choice driven game franchise Dragon Age I can appreciate a lot of the points raised by Jim Bizzocchi1 and Joshua Tanenbaum.

Items of Interest:

If your looking to create happy gaming memories that don't rely on a set narrative, and also enjoy strategy I'd highly recommend XCOM or XCOM 2, whichever is fine, they're both great.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/268500/XCOM_2/

If you like Video Essays check out this one based on one of my faavourite games by one of my favourite Youtubers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_-jyF987MQ&t=72s

Interested in making a choice that actually matters? Check out the OG Telltale Games series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure

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