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[Editorial] General: Games and Story - The Third Paradigm
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
As game makers, we have a very powerful storytelling tool, completely unique to our medium, that we have barely exploited. Instead of exploring the strength of interactivity in games for story, we’ve been distracted for years trying to emulate the story-telling technique of books and movies.
Read on for the rest of Mark Kern's: Games and Story - The Third Paradigm
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
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rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Steam: Neph
haha I forgot about that.
Story is the purview of the player. Let the player create his own story. Developers spend entirely too much time and money crafting story when all anyone wants is an open virtual world for them to create their own destiny.
Creating story lines inevitably leads to a game where it tells you are the "Chosen One" and a game with tens of thousands of chosen ones does not a great story make. Focus on story arches in the vein of Asheron's Call. Let the players themselves choose what, how or if they choose to assist but don't force them too.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
i remember tabula rasa's opening cinematic... it was far better story than the game. (whereas auto assault etc opening trailer had no story whatsoever)
Secret world does a good job merging fiction into an interactive story in some cases. (not all)
WoW is possibly the worst story telling since the last Naruto filler episode. Guild Wars kinda struggles along now as well...
It's a shame, since most games do have this notion as you as this 'saviour' but in an MMORPG; you're just a meat shield.... you're an upgraded NPC.
there's still to be that mix in the game cycle, even ESO (the latest MMORPG on the market) failed... it started having loads of vestiges... but at the end of the day within the story, you are just that "chosen one" without a soul. (explains why you can die all the time).
I doubt they'll let us have the tools to create our own stories to share with people (hey it's pretty much how KOTOR 2 was built; it was badly built and the story sucked but it used biowares engine and toolset... just by a third company).
In an MMO, if they ever let the players create their own stories... it would be a jumbled mess of crap and good.... and less money for them. It's why novels, manga, light novels and other form of media haven't died a death since MMORPGS came to life all those decades ago (almost two now right)
and we haven't really gone that much further... quite disappointing if you think of it like that
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Hmm... Architect in CoH many years ago? Foundry in STO since (I think) 2011? Also in Neverwinter since launch.
"if they ever let the players create their own stories" The concept is among us quite a while now...
For a moment, just for the purpose of comparison, let's contrast PNP role-playing games and single player computer RPG. I'm going to use original D&D and BioWare's implementations of those rule sets (since everyone considers them to be the epitome of computer RPG makers) as an example. And, since I'm an old fart, let's go way back in time and bring in those articles of antiquity known as books and early movies and TV (pre-reality TV days, back when actors really acted instead of relying on millions of dollars of computer-generated visual effects projected onto a blue screen).
Before TV, we had to rely on our imaginations to visualize the worlds around the characters in books. Their personalities were somewhat dictated by the authors' descriptions of the characters and the world, as were the detailing of motivations and behavior, but largely we could imagine things however we wanted. We could not, however, change the events in the story because they were written in black ink on white paper... although where there was an ending like "...and they all lived happily ever after..." we could imagine for ourselves what that meant.
Then movies and TV (all three channels worth) came around and much of our imagination was set aside and supplanted by whatever was on the boob-tube (which, back in those days, rarely actually contained boobs, unlike today). We saw what the directors of the movies and TV shows wanted us to see; we heard what they wanted us to hear; and the actors conveyed the motivations and behavior of the characters quite well for us (excluding very bad movies).
Then PNP games like D&D showed up and we were given the rights to use our imagination again. Before PNP was translated into CRPG, the players lived in a world created by a DM or GM and the story evolved as the players made choices for the characters' actions. While some players and DMs might draw pictures to help players' imaginations, mostly it was whatever individuals wanted to see and hear in their minds.
THEN we came full circle... with BioWare-style CRPG games, we were reduced to once more seeing what the directors/producers of the game wanted us to see, hearing what the sound engineers wanted us to hear, and dealing with the motivations and behaviors of the characters as built into the game.
That is, the ROLE PLAYING went out the window. Because the medium for the story -- a computer program -- is fairly inflexible, the human behind the keyboard is reduced to making a bare minimum of choices, mostly mundane choices, because the story tellers can't allow the human being to interfere with the flow of the story.
Basically, we're reduced to defining our "build", but our character build itself is constrained. Otherwise, we flow along in the game per the predefined events in the computer code, and we can only do that which the code is prepared to accommodate.
Bethesda managed to change that to a large extent with Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim (although ESO has certainly taken a major step backwards), but in general STORY IS NOT NECESSARILY A GOOD THING.
Right now, your "third paradigm" runs like this:
If A = B and B = C, then A = C
If A = B and B = D, then A IS STILL = C because the computer program, the pre-arranged dialog choices, and the voice-overs can't accommodate anything else.
If I want events dictated to me, I'll read a book. If I want to play a game, I want the freedom to make real choices; not have them made for me.
Can't help but agree. Sorry Mr. Kern, but a pretty damn cool game (Firefall) is now nothing like it was once upon a time. And the people that loved it hold you sole responsible.
"show don’t tell"
Probably the most important thing anyone creating a story (regardless of medium) can do. I wish more creators would follow that advice.
Writing is hard. It takes a different sort of talent than most game devs have. Unfortunately, their egos tell them differently.
There are hundreds of mid-list sf/fantasy authors that could write rings around what passes for writing in most games these days. Until narrative designer becomes a serious, well-paying position that attracts more talented people, the overall quality of writing in games will continue to suffer.
Playing: FFXIV, EVE
Actually the whole point of a role playing is missed,the STORY is what the players can make of their adventure in the game ,NOT what the developer lays out in a designed path to follow.
I could be wrong but i think gamer's want to enjoy their own story.I realize MANY people enjoy reading books which are someone else's story but role playing is not reading a book it is an action of playing out the role of a character.
The story inside of a MMOrpg should be realized through the game itself without having to make it point blank in your face.It should be like a NA going to live in a new Asian country,they wouldn't have someone read them a book but instead would realize the culture and way of life by living it and that is in essence what rpg players are looking for.
So waht is really missing is lively environments and ECO systems that bring the world to life.
Instead we get static NPC's with yellow markers over their head and laid out paths that have zero variation,EVERY player lives out the exact same story.
This trend we see in game design right now is just TOO easy and cost effective,i don't see it getting any better because devs are actually looking to cut even more corners instead of improving the games.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I consider Half-Life 2 one of my favorite single-player games ever.
Great article.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
Do they? You may, but some of us know more about the complexities of the studio and business politics. There is no doubt plenty of blame to go around. The creation of an MMO is one of the most complex software/hardware projects that exist. Miss any of hundreds (if not thousands...) of variables, and Bad Things happen.
I spent more than two and a half years in Firefall. I know first hand of its initial promise and potential. Thats what kept me in the game for so long. But over time, it drifted from being a shooter, with MMO elements, to being a crafting/economy focused MMO, with some shooter elements.
Its sad, but these types of things happen. Inexperienced management (all levels) production bottle necks, frequent changes in direction, and finally investor panic. Its all happened all too many times before. But as always I wish Jazz Hands and the good folks at Red5 all the best of luck.
I believe both of those are F2P games with cash shops that sell power. So the question is, are those 2 games immensely successful? and if yes, then is the success attributed to the Foundries, or something else.
Would Foundries be hugely popular in AAA MMO's, or would they be seen as just another type of daily "chore/grind"?
So is this referring to RP'ers? as in, a game shouldn't have story from devs, it should only come from the RP crowd making up things in game and on the forums?
Does this really have to be about his past ? He brings up a very good point, that doesn't really need to be turned into a mud slinging trailer park. All too often people complain about quest hubs, limited content that players consume too quickly, lack of story or just down right bad story.
All of these things fall under how the story is being told. Maybe it goes beyond what he specifically wrote about but that doesn't mean people shouldn't for once take the higher road here.
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I'm really talking about the HOW to tell a story in games rather than saying that we need more or less in any genre.
For example, in an MMO, rather than being told by some questgiver that "crystals generate power that keeps the city lit at night." I'd rather have a quest that sent me on a mission to bring the town's magical light supply online by getting the right crystal and using it in the right way on the town's lighting system.
This way I will never forget how it works and why these crystals are important to the town. If it was just quest text and then collect three crystals and turn them in, I would forget it immediately. By making me actually use the crystals and go through the motions of inserting it into the magic furnace or other device, its much more immersive and would require much less lengthy quest text (that nobody reads) to "get it."
Follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/grummz">Twitter: @Grummz<;/a>
Sadly....current MMO cword just want PVP.
If no PVP, that mmo will fail.
If no FFA PVP...it's not a sandbox....
LOL.
Good article but I worry that in the currently Ultra-Fast Paced environment of the MMORPG if this style of storytelling will actually be met with praise or if the kneejerk reaction to having to actually think about what is happening won't be to immediately run to the boards and post /fail strings ad-nauseum.
Seems to be the trend these days.
Also you guys in the first couple of responses are hardcore LOL. Brutal.
Nope, CoH had the Architect while it was a sub game (true, later it went f2p then got axed by NCsoft)
STO has the Foundry also from its sub times, but yep, it's freemium now (you can still sub if you want). Neverwinter is built as a purely f2p game. Since you can get Zen from the game, the cash shop doesn't sell "power", only time.
Being "immensely successful" is relative I think. Both are in pretty good condition. The Foundry has some part of it, naturally, but of course that's not everyone's cup of tea, it's like crafting or housing or pvp, etc. Some like it, some don't. But yep, both games are stuffed with great / good / and often pretty weak Foundry content, and Foundry is an important part of the games. At Neverwinter's launch Grakulen had a Foundry series here on mmorpg.com, you can check those videos if you want more infos.
"Would Foundries be hugely popular in AAA MMO's, or would they be seen as just another type of daily "chore/grind"?"
It can't be a chore or a grind, since it's an optional creative process... if you don't have the skills, or the idea etc. to build some new content, you can skip it entirely and still can enjoy the works of other's. Would it be hugely popular? Dunno. Modding communities are usually the most tight-knit fanbase of any game (just check NVN, or ES, or GTA), the success would depend on how much the content creators are jumping onto the game. If they pour lots of good new content into the game, the non-creator players would have an endless supply of content to enjoy.
Btw, there's no word lately of AC, and I wonder how that move will succeed on the long run. (officially backed player-run servers, with the editor tool so the admins can build anything into the world, even change the rulesets and mechanics)