"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." -John D. Carmack (Co- Founder of id software)
The above quote by the former Technical director of id software summarizes the complex dependent relationship between stories and game (focus on game-play here).
A player does not pickup Tetris and wonders what the origin of these blocks might be, where are they coming from or how what feelings is inspired in them as they vanish together (as they form a complete layer), all the player (mostly) cares about is racking up a new score and the satisfying game-play feel of the layers vanishing.
However, these questions do strike a sense of wonder and just might be the key (combination of narration as a tool to highlight game-play) for maximizing a player's engagement.
GAMES - A UNIQUE MEDIUM OF NARRATION?
As a game designer, I used to believe that story in games need to be minimal. A game is inherently derived from the feeling of 'play' (I still believe that, but have fondly grown to the appreciate the ever-growing abstraction of 'play' and 'fun').
Story in many cases would render the game-play completely rail-roaded , which is basically hand-holding the players through certain decisions of the game without any choice (will get into an in-depth definition of this in a later post).
For example: Why am I being forced to rescue the princess in Mario. What if I don't want to? Where is my choice? Something I would not wonder in Tetris because it never presented me with a premise. In fact, in most games we do not question this much and just progress for the sake of progressing, to get to the fun-part...which is the "game-play".This is something that led me to feel that stories take away my sense of imagination from the game, forcing a set narrative and choices onto me....
But then, I played BIOSHOCK.
*WARNING. Spoilers Ahead. If you haven't played the game yet. Please go check it out.*
During one of my dazed college lectures, I remember we had this one guest speaker telling us about narratives in games. Like most college students, I don't remember much about the lectures, but one thing he said stuck to me like glue:
"If you want to make a game on something, think first...can this be told through a movie, a book or even a new-media installation? If the answer is yes, don't make a game on it"
I did not think much about it then, mostly concluding...this is why the Hitman and the Assassin's Creed movies probably didn't do much good, because games inherently are not great tools for narration, but Bioshock changed it all for me.
Three words. It took just three words for me to realize how the tables can be turned onto me as a player.
"Would you kindly." I had already fallen for their clever plot-trap. This made me realize it was not me progressing through the plot, rather the plot progressing through me. The game has very well utilized the semi-mindless approach to game stories as exhibited by many players and used this "apathy" (towards the game narrative) against and for them at the same time, creating a plot twist that both baffles the player for not paying attention to the story and also proving game storytelling to be a unique medium of its own.
This twist is something that could not have such a huge impact from any other media. Yes, you can read the same plot in a book, or watch a movie about Rapture...but the feeling of you being duped by the game, it actually having outplayed you is just priceless and unrepeatable in any medium (to this extent), yes the feeling loses its impact on subsequent runs, but what we are focusing on is the first time this is revealed to you.
So, what I have been trying to say in this article is that games as a medium for story telling is highly effective in its own regard. Giving an impact which cannot be recreated via any other media. Currently it is being explored extensively, mostly due to the birth and burst of experimental indie games (Thank God!) Bioshock is an example of the many ways plot contributes heavily to a game becoming one of its core pillars and hinges. Games like:
Lisa: The painful
Spec Ops: The line
Doki Doki Fanclub
and many many many more!
I would definitely love to explore deeper into this topic, but that's a post for another time.
If you liked this post, have any doubts or would love to further discuss/debate on the topic, feel free to reach out to any of the writers on the website.
You can reach out to me via IG : ace5160 (posting game design summaries and artworks).
GG. Cheers!