No Stone Left Unturned

CAN A GREAT STORY BE TOLD IN A GAME?

The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. -Winston Churchill

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THE QUICK ANSWER…

Trying to answer that question ten years ago, I would have said maybe. Now, with better evidence from a lengthening history of interactive gaming, the answer is yes — as long as the game designer works to integrate storytelling with gameplay.

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THE LONGER ANSWER…

A game can never be a story in and of itself anymore than a story can function as a game. They each create two very unique experiences. One is passive; the other interactive. One is where I root for the hero; the other is where I am the hero. Like the division between comedy and tragedy, at its core the thing is either a story or a game — one or the other. The builder / designer / writer decides which, and then how much of the other to add.

Some games include several hours of cutscenes, and it might be argued that these are really stories where the audience gets to work out a variety of scenes interactively. At the other extreme, there are the massive multiplayer Internet games like World of Warcraft that never end, and for this reason pretty much ignore the structure of a story and mainly use story elements to create an engaging experience for the players.

If we are going to call something a game, then it is primarily an interactive experience. And if we are going to call something a story the primary experience will be to follow a line of events approximating the ups and downs of a storytelling structure.

A game therefore can tell a story as long as the basic story structure is embedded in some form ready to be discovered and followed in a way resembling storytelling all the way to a conclusion proving the premise in a satisfying way.

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BACKGROUND

There was a time when games did not tell us stories — or at least not in the way that I have been talking about in this series. There are vague story elements in Pac Man and even Pong. As players of those games, we try to stay alive as we build up points. We identify the adversary — the ghosts, or the other Pong player — but these early games are more about prolonging the experience, staying alive, and piling up points. And that is not much like a story at all.

Simulating real life bought us closer. We could build places in Sim City and Sim Farm to see how they might work. With Sim Copter we could play out emergencies. And The Sims opened the door to interactions with other real people inside an imagined place. But simulated realism in and of itself is not a story — only a potential setting for a story — because it does not exist to prove a premise or establish the fundamental tension a protagonist fighting for a central goal. In fact, the whole point of the Sims is even less than that of PAC Man — to hang around with no real goal at all.

Early first person shooter games like Quake and Doom have goals and are populated with adversaries carrying guns who want to kill the player-character. I also see some backstory — though a bit hard to swallow — and I do get to fight for my own goals even if the reasons aren’t very deep. Like the rising tension of a story I face increasing difficulties. But unlike a good story, I really have little sense for why we’re all here. And in the end I feel more relieved than satisfied.

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WHERE WE STAND TODAY

In recent years the latest incarnations of Half Life, Halo, Doom, and a host of other third generation games have brought a deep backstory and level of complexity that draws me into these places. The main characters all have a plausible problem they must solve. The places themselves speak about the nature of the troubles they face — whether confined to a reeking space colony, a crumbling city, or a strange world that defies description. The main characters are more normal in their abilities and the goal is more about pursuing a meaningful cause than building up points.

We have reached a place where it is possible to make a game whose structure carries the player through the experience interactively while revealing an embedded story more or less the way it might be revealed if told as a story. Yet just because storytelling in games is now possible, it does not mean that every game should tell a story — only that it can be done.

For example, I enjoy Solitaire purely as game and don’t expect to see a fully developed storyline with richly defined three-dimension characters. Likewise, World of WarCraft is not trying very hard to tell a story — even though I see a ton of backstory and a fair number of story elements included. The designers of  WoW are focused on the never-ending multiplayer experience. Players of simulated golf are recreating the sense of a golf course. Sending a hedgehog into orbit with a bungee cord has the pretext of a story, but its just a fun little Flash game.

In the end, no matter how a game is instilled with storytelling elements — it is still a game. Yet unlike a generation ago, we have the resources and experience needed to create a story-like experience if we want this to happen.

So to repeat my short answer… a great story can be told in a game as long as the game designers decide to do this and work to align gameplay interaction with a classical storytelling structure.

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ONE LAST EXAMPLE

I’ve only answered a part of the question, though — indeed stories can be told inside a game. Yet I really want to know if the audience will ever see an embedded story as its most powerful and meaningful element — a story in a game felt at least as deeply as a great movie or novel. Or even something transcendent — a wholly new sort of experience because the combination of game and story.

Can a GREAT story be told?

I only had to see this once to be convinced…

At the heart of Thief: Deadly Shadows (TDS) the player is nearly stripped of all power and must rely on wits alone to navigate the evil insane asylum known as Shoalsgate Cradle. No horror movie I’ve ever experienced has instilled as much raw terror or induced such complete story immersion as the Cradle because I’m stuck in this place buried layers deep, and until I figure out the story, I can’t leave.

That is when I finally saw great storytelling as part of a game, because in the end I remember mostly what the place was all about far more than steps I took to escape.

The rest of TDS isn’t so great, and from this I realize that there is room for even better storytelling in games. But for now, if there is any doubt left as to whether or not great storytelling can be created inside a gaming world then buy a copy of TDS and work your way through the Cradle. It will be an experience you will never forget.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR HOW TO IMPROVE STORYTELLING IN GAMES

1. Instead of telling one linear story, build several multithreaded storylines that tell the same story from several perspectives — sort of like a Rashomon structure. As the player moves through the game, the story will be told no matter where the player spends his/her time. And as the player interacts with more of these threads the overall experience of the story will be deepened as it is viewed from various angles.

2. Realize how a game is still a game, and that it needs to remain a game even after a story has been built into it. Just like how a drama can be ruined if too much comedy is injected, a game will still need to retain strong gaming elements so that it’s not overwhelmed by the story content. Players want to play, and our goal is to have the story sneak up on them.

3. Give names to everyone in the place and create a backstory for them. These people (including  humanoid aliens) may never get to tell their own stories in detail, but as a game builder, you will begin to see them as deeper characters and as a result have them behave accordingly when they do show up.

4. Give everyone in the story a good reason for being there. In the past non-player characters were mostly slaves or soldiers who were there without much of a choice. But it will be much better if these characters have their own dreams and hopes as well, like pirates scheming for their share of the booty rather than pirates simply programmed to attach the player.

5. Create obstacles that are consistent with the characters and the fundemental conflict between protagonist and antagonist. If you want this to feel more like a story then there should be no more random exploding frogs and mind-numbing side-quests simply to level up. Have the antagonists and their forces resist the player and fight based on who they are and what they think and believe and want.

6. Give the player the role of the protagonist complete with a richly understood background. Let him have a girlfriend, a rundown flat, money problems, a complex family history, and other realistic distractions. Don’t just pluck your hero off the street or from some asteroid mining colony with no memory of who he is or how he got here.

7. Make everything that can happen tie into the story. Perhaps the ship is falling apart because the antagonist is a cheap bastard — not because the game builder thought it would be cool. Reeeeaaallly cool elements fit and are not just plopped at our feet.

8. Let the main character take a hit that creates a permanent disability. In order to fit the temperature of a storyline, the role-played protagonist must experience significant setbacks — not just automatically level up at the end of some pre-staged boss fight.

9. Computer controlled game characters must become much more intelligent. I know this is the hardest part in building games. But nothing about the story can hold much water if the player is the only one in the game making complex decisions. Check out what’s been written on the topic of genetic algorithms to see hope in this area.

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PARTING SHOT

If you are a storyteller and if you are committed to the storytelling experience in your game designs – it will happen. How well it happens, and whether or not you’re satisfied will depend more on your ability and willingness to root out opportunities for improvement than anything I have written in this series.

Enjoy!

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With this I conclude my series.

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