Narrative of video games

Last updated

In the early days of video gaming, narrative elements were minimal due to technological constraints. Games like Pong (1972) focused solely on gameplay mechanics without storytelling components. As technology advanced, developers began incorporating narratives to enhance player engagement. Text-based adventures such as Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) and Zork (1980) introduced simple fantasy narratives, laying the groundwork for storytelling in games. The evolution continued with titles like Half-Life (1998), which integrated storytelling seamlessly into gameplay without relying on traditional cutscenes, setting new standards for narrative in video games.

Contents

Overview

Stories in video games are delivered in a myriad of ways. While it is most common to deliver exposition through cutscenes, [1] games have also delivered their stories through environmental storytelling, such as in Bioshock . [2] [3] It is also common to deliver narrative through other means, such as via in-game text entries presented as journal entries or correspondences, or in audio recordings. [2] [4] [5] Narratives do not even need to be given through spoken or written word; the game Inside tells its narrative through the scenery and events the player experiences as they progress through the game without any form of language. [6]

Narratives in games are of varying significance to the experience; while an increasing number of game stories are intended as the main focus, simple stories that are only intended to serve as a justification for the gameplay have been a common approach. [2] [4] [7] Certain genres, such as adventure games and their various sub-genres, have narrative as an essential element, while others, such as real-time strategy, do not require detailed stories as a feature. [8] [7]

Some games feature a "story mode" (sometimes also called "narrative mode"), a mode that is designed to focus on the story. The application and use of the term varies; it is sometimes used to discern from other modes of gameplay that do not feature story as a significant element, [9] [10] such as its use to distinguish from the online multiplayer mode of Grand Theft Auto V , [11] or as an alternative difficulty setting which is intended to allow players to enjoy the narrative of a video game without encountering significant difficulty that may hinder their progression. [12] [13] [14]

History

Video games were first popularized with Pong . Pong was a simple virtual game of tennis in which, developer Nolan Bushnell said, the primary goal was "fun." According to Bushnell, games in that era had been so technologically challenging to produce that "it was exhausting to get the game to play without worrying about story" and as such, story was not a concern for many developers. [7] Text adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork featured simple fantasy narratives which have been compared to Dungeons & Dragons . [7]

In later years, technological advances allowed developers greater options for expressing story in a video game, which led to more expansive and ambitious narratives. [7] [2] [1] Half-Life, released in 1998, made significant innovations in how it presented its narrative, such as its choice to tell its narrative without the use of cutscene cinematics or breaking up its world into levels, and is often credited with having codified many modern storytelling conventions within the medium. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Criticism

While video game stories have received praise, [19] [20] [21] it has also been argued that video games are not an ideal medium for storytelling, and that the overall quality of narratives within video games is not equal to those in other forms. [22] [2] Writing for The Atlantic , Ian Bogost criticizes the environmental storytelling approach to narrative used in first-person games with an exploration focus, such as BioShock , Gone Home , and What Remains of Edith Finch , opining that the structure of such games, which requires players to explore environments and piece together the story through observation and discovery, offers little advantage over other storytelling mediums such as an animated film or novel. Bogost argues that the appeal of video games lies in their technical achievements, and that a game which chooses to focus on telling a story is "unambitious" and has no appeal that cannot be found in a more traditional work. [2] During a panel held at the University of Southern California, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas expressed skepticism about the quality of storytelling in video games, asserting that the interactive element of the medium infringed upon the potential impact of any story a game might try to tell, with Lucas commenting, "By its very nature there cannot be a plot in a game." [22]

In contrast, literary scholar Eric Hayot says that video games, while not directly comparable to novels or films, are an evolution of many long-enduring storytelling traditions that have been observed throughout human history. [23] [24] Hayot argues that interactivity "was a story mode for centuries, if not millennia, before the invention of the microprocessor." [24] Hayot does qualify, however, that he believes the tradition of "winning" in a video game "provides an interesting brake" on the range of stories that can be told in the medium, though he cites Undertale and The Last of Us as two examples which subvert this tradition. [24]

Some video game stories have been criticized for being conveyed in cutscenes perceived as being of excessive length which takes time away from the gameplay. [1] [25] Other critics have supported the inclusion of lower difficulty options which favor story over difficulty of play; [12] [26] for instance writer Oktay Ege Kozak, who expressed in Paste Magazine that while they enjoy playing video games for their stories, "I also suck at them" and would prefer that gameplay difficulty was not mandated in order to access a game's story. [26] Such options have been included in various titles, such as Hades (where it is called "God Mode") and Mass Effect: Andromeda . [27] [14]

John Carmack, a developer of Doom , is often quoted as having said that "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important," a quote which originated from the book Masters of Doom. [28] [29] [1] Carmack has since amended the quote to acknowledge the existence of games where story is a greater focus; however still maintained that he believes games which prioritize gameplay are the "most important". [30] [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Doom</i> (1993 video game) First-person shooter

Doom is a first-person shooter game developed and published by id Software. Released on December 10, 1993, for DOS, it is the first installment in the Doom franchise. The player assumes the role of a space marine, later unofficially referred to as Doomguy, fighting through hordes of undead humans and invading demons. The game begins on the moons of Mars and finishes in hell, with the player traversing each level to find its exit or defeat its final boss. It is an early example of 3D graphics in video games, and has enemies and objects as 2D images, a technique sometimes referred to as 2.5D graphics.

Gonzalo Frasca is a game designer and academic researcher focusing on serious and political videogames. His blog, Ludology.org, was cited by NBC News as a popular designation for academic researchers studying video games. For many years, Frasca also co-published Watercoolergames with Ian Bogost, a blog about serious games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video game genre</span> Classification assigned to video games based on their gameplay

A video game genre is an informal classification of a video game based on how it is played rather than visual or narrative elements. This is independent of setting, unlike works of fiction that are expressed through other media, such as films or books. For example, a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of where or when it takes place. A specific game's genre is open to subjective interpretation. An individual game may belong to several genres at once.

<i>Combat</i> (video game) 1977 video game

Combat is a 1977 video game by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System. In the game, two players controlling either a tank, a biplane, or a jet fire missiles at each other for two minutes and sixteen seconds. Points are scored by hitting the opponent, and the player with more points when the time runs out wins. Variations on the gameplay introduce elements such as invisible vehicles, missiles that ricochet off of walls, and different playing fields.

An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.

A narrative typically ends in one set way, but certain kinds of narrative allow for multiple endings.

<i>Basic Math</i> (video game) 1977 video game

Basic Math is an educational video game for the Atari Video Computer System. The game was developed at Atari, Inc. by Gary Palmer. The game involves a series of ten arithmetic problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. The player can edit different gameplay modes to alter how the numbers in the problem are chosen, or if their questions are timed. The game was released in 1977 as one of the earliest releases for the console.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quick time event</span> Gameplay element

In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic sequences in the game. Performing the wrong prompt, mistiming the action, or not performing any action at all results in the character's failure at their task, resulting in a death/failure animation and often an immediate game over or the loss of a life, with some games providing a lesser but significant penalty of sorts instead.

<i>Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures</i> 2008 video game

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a 2008 Lego-themed action-adventure game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts. Based on the Indiana Jones franchise and the eponymous Lego Indiana Jones toy line, it follows the events of the first three Indiana Jones films: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade. The game includes local co-op mode gameplay as well as puzzle and platformer aspects, and 84 playable characters with a variety of special abilities. As the players go through the stages, they collect the currency of Lego games known as Studs, avoid traps, assemble Lego constructions, and engage in combat. Climbing, swinging, and throwing objects as weapons were new inclusions not seen in previous Lego video games by Traveller's Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

<i>Commander Keen</i> (video game) 2001 video game

Commander Keen is a side-scrolling platform video game developed by David A. Palmer Productions and published by Activision in June 2001 for the Game Boy Color. Part of the Commander Keen series, it was released ten years after the first seven episodes in 1990–91. The game follows the titular Commander Keen, an eight-year-old child genius, as he journeys through three alien worlds to collect three plasma crystals to prevent the weapon they power, built by several enemies from previous games, from destroying the universe. The game features Keen running, jumping, and shooting through various levels while opposed by aliens, robots, and other hazards.

<i>Trauma Team</i> 2010 video game

Trauma Team is a 2010 simulation video game developed and published by Atlus for the Wii. It is the fifth and current final entry in the Trauma Center series. The narrative of Trauma Team follows six protagonists who operate in different sectors of the medical profession, and their united conflict with a virulent infection dubbed "Rosalia". The gameplay combines medical simulation with visual novel-style storytelling through motion comic cutscenes. The different storylines focus on simplified versions of surgery, emergency medicine, endoscopy, diagnosis, orthopedics and forensic medicine.

<i>Metroid: Other M</i> 2010 video game

Metroid: Other M is an action-adventure game developed by Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja and Nintendo and published by Nintendo for the Wii on August 31, 2010. It is part of the Metroid series, and takes place between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. The player controls intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran, who investigates a derelict space station with a Galactic Federation platoon, including her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich.

An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of genres. Most adventure games are designed for a single player, since the emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. Colossal Cave Adventure is identified by Rick Adams as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include Zork, King's Quest, Monkey Island, Syberia, and Myst.

<i>The Darkness II</i> 2012 first-person shooter game

The Darkness II is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Extremes and published by 2K. The game is the sequel to The Darkness (2007) and based on the comic book series published by Top Cow Productions. The player controls Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who possesses a mysterious power called "the Darkness" that grants him supernatural abilities and a pair of Demon Arms. The game features elements found in role-playing video games such as skill trees, experience, and a four-player cooperative mode. The player must rescue the soul of Jackie's dead girlfriend, which was trapped by the Darkness in Hell, and confront the Brotherhood, a group of armed cultists trying to take the Darkness away from Jackie.

The Critical Path Project is a video archive of interviews with video game designers and developers.

<i>Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land</i> 2013 video game

Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land is a video game based on the Cartoon Network series Regular Show. It was developed by WayForward Technologies and was released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS in North America on October 29, 2013; Europe on November 8, 2013; and Australia on November 12, 2013. The game was delisted from Nintendo eShop at some point between 2017 and 2019, most likely due to an expiring license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AAA (video game industry)</span> High-budget video game

In the video game industry, AAA (Triple-A) is a buzzword used to classify video games produced or distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games. In the mid-2010s, the term "AAA+" was used to describe AAA type games that generated additional revenue over time, in a similar fashion to massively multiplayer online games, by using games-as-a-service methods such as season passes and expansion packs. The similar construction "III" (Triple-I) has also been used to describe high-production-value games in the indie game industry.

<i>Celeste</i> (video game) 2018 platform game

Celeste is a 2018 platform game developed and published by indie studio Maddy Makes Games. The player controls Madeline, a young woman with anxiety and depression who aims to climb Celeste Mountain. During her climb, she encounters several characters, including Part of You, a personification of her self-doubt who attempts to stop her from climbing the mountain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cutscene</span> Sequence in a video game that is not interactive, breaking up the gameplay.

A cutscene or event scene is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the player, introduce newer models and gameplay elements, show the effects of a player's actions, create emotional connections, improve pacing or foreshadow future events.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Young, Shamus (2019-05-21). "Rage 2: Shut Up and Let me Shoot Stuff". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bogost, Ian (2017-04-25). "Video Games Are Better Without Stories". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2020-11-28. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  3. ↑ Lawardorn, Damien (2020-01-27). "The Rise, Fall, and Place of Environmental Storytelling in Games". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  4. 1 2 Leary, Kyree (2016-05-03). "A grungy machine-age videogame prioritizes storytelling over difficulty". Kill Screen - Previously. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  5. ↑ "Let's talk about video game lore". Destructoid. 2022-07-15. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  6. ↑ Sheehan, Jason (December 31, 2017). "Reading The Game: Inside". NPR . Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Byrne, Seamus. "The evolution of video game stories: from Nolan Bushnell to Blizzard Entertainment and beyond". CNET. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  8. ↑ Bronstring, Marek (12 February 2012). "What are adventure games?". Adventure Gamers. Nito Games - Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021. Adventure games focus on puzzle solving within a narrative framework, generally with few or no action elements.
  9. ↑ Good, Owen S. (2017-12-07). "2017: The year of story-driven sports video games". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  10. ↑ Maher, Cian (2022-09-03). "Goat Simulator 3: Still a silly game about being a really annoying goat". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12. Rather than being a pure sandbox that's exclusively designed to facilitate mayhem, Goat Simulator 3 has a story mode.
  11. ↑ "Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games". www.rockstargames.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-11. Current players can transfer both GTAV Story Mode progress and GTA Online characters...
  12. 1 2 Bush, Stephen (2021-06-09). "I play video games on easy mode. Here's why". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  13. ↑ Ramsey, Robert (2017-02-16). "Narrative Difficulty Returns to Mass Effect: Andromeda for Those Who Just Want Story". Push Square. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  14. 1 2 Francis, Tom (2012-03-07). "Mass Effect 3 Narrative Mode and Action Mode explained". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2018-06-22. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  15. ↑ Byrd, Matthew (2020-02-12). "Half-Life: The Forgotten Innovations of the PC Shooter". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  16. ↑ "Half-Life at 20: why it is the most important shooter ever made". The Guardian. 2018-11-21. Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  17. ↑ Robertson, Adi (2018-11-19). "Half-Life turns 20 today, and it feels more original than ever". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  18. ↑ Macgregor, Jody (2020-09-04). "Years later, Half-Life's influence is still being felt". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  19. ↑ Meikleham, Dave (2022-11-02). "The 30 best video game stories ever". gamesradar. Archived from the original on 2014-04-22. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  20. ↑ "The 25 Best Interactive Story Games". PCMAG. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  21. ↑ "The best story-driven video games to play in 2022". For The Win. 2022-05-30. Archived from the original on 2022-11-26. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  22. 1 2 Bishop, Bryan (2013-06-13). "Lucas and Spielberg on storytelling in games: 'it's not going to be Shakespeare'". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  23. ↑ Jackson, Ashawnta (2022-03-05). "Are Video Games Like Novels?". JSTOR Daily. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  24. 1 2 3 Hayot, Eric (2021). "Video Games & the Novel". Daedalus. 150 (1): 178–187. doi: 10.1162/daed_a_01841 . ISSN   0011-5266. JSTOR   48609832. S2CID   230714738.
  25. ↑ Krishna, Swapna. "Help, I'm Stuck in Cutscene Hell". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  26. 1 2 Kozak, Oktay Ege (2020-06-08). "The Case For Story Mode in Videogames". pastemagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  27. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (2020-10-06). "The genius of Hades' God Mode". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  28. ↑ "Doom Eternal review - the same orgiastic thrills with a creeping weight of story". Eurogamer.net. 2020-03-17. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  29. ↑ "GDC Austin 09: Storytelling Through Independent Games". Destructoid. 2009-09-19. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  30. ↑ John Carmack [@id_aa_carmack] (2018-08-17). "This old quote still pops up, but I caveat it today -- there are undeniably lots of games where the story is the entire point, and they can be done well. I do still hold that the most important games have been all about the play, not the story" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2019-11-14 – via Twitter.
  31. ↑ Lindbergh, Ben (2020-03-20). "'Doom: Eternal' Is Bigger, Faster, and More Badass Than Its Predecessors". The Ringer. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.