When we talk about video games we often talk about the same things: gameplay, length, graphics, difficulty, multiplayer and online capabilities, how well it will sell, and who will buy it. But how often do we talk about the game’s story? How often do we discuss the effectiveness and purpose of its narrative?
In this GameSpot AU feature we look at game narratives, and ask the question: are video games an effective storytelling medium? To find out we talk to game theorists, scriptwriters, and developers from studios including Remedy, Quantic Dream and 2K Games, as well as the leading man of adventure games, Tim Schafer.
How do you tell a good story? If you’re human, it comes naturally. The innate ability to recount our experiences and use imagination to experiment without taking risks is an evolutionary trait that humanity shares across all cultures as a way to educate, entertain, and preserve ourselves for future generations. We tell stories through words, music, art, and dance; we record them on paper, paint them on canvas, and capture them on film. And now, thanks to video games, we can interact with them. When we play a game we are not merely passive observers; we become active participants in the story as it unfolds.
But while there’s no doubt video games tell stories, the nature of their interactivity raises the question of their potential to do this effectively. Comparisons to other storytelling media like film and literature are inevitable but essentially useless--each medium has its own advantage over others, and can do what no other can in accordance with its abilities. But some critics suggest that because games are interactive, their main focus should be gameplay, not story. Others believe that video games can, and do, successfully marry gameplay and story to become an effective storytelling medium. So who is right?
The interactivity hurdle
Earlier this year producer of Square Enix's Star Ocean: The Last Hope Yoshinori Yamagishi told Computer and Video Games Magazine that video games could only advance as a storytelling medium by overcoming the challenges of interactivity.
“It is more of a challenge to produce a game in order to tell a story. In TV, film and theatre, the creator has control over how he gives the story to the viewer--it's easier to control the emotions and feelings expected from the viewer,” Yamagishi told CVG.
“In [a game developer's] case we always have to think about how players might react to each depiction of a character or storyline, and that's the part we can't predict. But if we manage to get over this hurdle, then I regard video games as a greater medium to provide people with deep emotional and exciting experiences.”
Yamagishi is not alone in his view. Many video game theorists now believe that the interactivity of games stop them from being an effective storytelling medium. Much of the theory surrounding this topic explores how well video games master the relationship between story and the interactive element in games--gameplay. Denis Dutton, professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand and co-founder of the renowned website Arts & Letters Daily, spent some time with Grand Theft Auto and BioShock to get a sense of how stories in games develop and work alongside gameplay.
“There’s a deep division between the concept of a story as it has come down through tradition and the concept of a story as it is in video games,” Dutton said. “Games do not have the story structure we see in Greek plays, Shakespearean tragedies, or even soap operas on afternoon TV. They are, at their very heart, games and not stories.”
According to Dutton, all stories have predetermined outcomes, whether it be Homer’s Odyssey, Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four or a joke told over a beer. When it comes to video games, however, the story element is little more than “window dressing”; the narrative is built around the characters and gameplay.
“The interactivity of games is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Of course it is fun to get your hands into a storyline and move it around as you would like. But what would happen if you could enter into your favourite film and do the same? That’s not how traditional narratives work.”
Video games may not work as traditional narratives, but they incorporate all the basic elements of storytelling, including the eternal human interests that are played over and over again in all stories across all media and cultures: love, family life, threats and dangers, exploration and adventure, mortality and death. Like other stories, video game narratives are a powerful expression of the human imagination--witty, entertaining, and complex stories.
“The difference is, of course, that video games combine these traditional elements with interactivity,” Dutton said. “I continue to resist the idea that this can be done easily or effectively. Video games are a new form of make-believe, that’s for certain, but I don’t think I’m ready to call them a new form of storytelling, and beyond that, an effective medium to tell stories. It’s clear to me that Grand Theft Auto and BioShock have more in common with a tea party for teddy bears than they do with the plays of Shakespeare.”
According to Dutton, the only way for video games to overcome the challenges of interactivity and become an effective storytelling medium is to successfully marry both story and gameplay in their development.
“Other storytelling mediums draw us into the inner lives of other people. Video games must learn to do the same. We as players must become completely absorbed in the fate and lives of the fictional characters on screen. It remains to be seen whether game developers can achieve this.”
The question of whether video games can be an effective storytelling medium has also interested academics, who have been debating the topic for years. Two schools of thought currently exist on the matter: ludology and narratology. The former argues that the focus of video games is, and should be, gameplay; the latter argues that video games can, and should be, a storytelling medium, and should be studied in the same way as other storytelling mediums.
Jesper Juul is a video game researcher at the Singapore-MIT Game Lab in Massachusetts, USA. He has been studying video games for the past 10 years, dedicating a large chunk of his early work to video games and narratives. Although his theories fit into the ludology school of thought, Juul also argues that video games can be both narratives and a set of rules at the same time.
“The game versus story problem really comes down to the obvious: stories don’t let users do things (only interpret) while games let users do things. Stories are fixed, designed experiences; games let players change things,” Juul said.
“I used to think that gameplay was necessarily more important than story, but I have come to accept that some gamers see things differently. When we play games we often switch between seeing the game as a set of rules, like collecting 10 stars to complete the level, and seeing the game as fiction, like recognising that Mario’s girlfriend has been kidnapped.” Click on the Next Page link to see the rest of the feature!
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