Do games need stories?

[Aluscia]

Interesting synopsis of a panel held at Stanford U.

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6089069.html

Interested in your thoughts.

[Ghryphen]

Hmm. I think they do, a ton of discussion and arguments over which empire is better and a lot quote the storyline in their arguments. There is also a lot of fan fiction that spawns from game story lines as a continuation of the story. I may not use the stories or follow them at all, but I can even see that they are important.

[Maz]

a story line is imporant, cause that wat keeps you attach to a game, it's the whole point of the game, but I also loved it when you can also play aside from the storyline also, liek GTA, it was'nt just baout doing mission, you could do stuff inbetween missions, yet thre was still a good storylin to follow

[Stang]

I agree with Gryphon and Maz. It keeps you interested in the game and then if the game continues, sequels, more is born from the storyline and keeps ya comin back.

[KitZune]

OOoo I had to stop reading that article... it's pissing me off!!!

Cutscenes and story are 90% of what I look for in a game... good gameplay and fun being about 9% and everything else falling last... I love my roleplaying games... and I love a well told story. Xenosaga is awesome, yet you have very little interaction with the game, as this article is saying. Does that make it a horrible game though? Sure there is such a thing as a good game without a story, also as they mentioned, games like Sim City and whatnot... but to come right out and tell the industry that games are detracted by having a story.... that's horrible. Some people like to be told a story... even when playing a videogame. The trick is making the story interactive. The problem that game designers are having is they can't tackle that hurdle... they think that "story" and "interactive" don't go together. That is simply NOT TRUE. They're just incapable of surmounting something that needs to be crossed. Frankly, it'll be good news for me if no one figures it out until I'm in the industry, because I already have plans for very non-linear stories. HEATHER itself is a non-linear story. Fatal Frame came close to the "non-linear" story... but missed out because they did, in the end, make sure it was linear.

That article makes me mad. That's like saying that music doesn't need choruses... or books don't need climaxes. I don't know about most of you, but I love cutscenes... whenever I play a Final Fantasy, for example, the cutscenes are like treasure, you have to unearth them. In fact, as far as I've always been concerned, the main goal of a final fantasy game was to see the end cinematic scene, to see how the story ends. Final Fantasy X remains one of the few games to make me cry... and anything that can do that is good by my means... and FFX was VERY linear... an interactive movie with a gaming aspect to it. That's what I prefer.

Another example is that I love the game Soul Calibur 2... but like most Street Fighting games it's storylines are lacking... at best. (Everyone remembers the Mortal Kombat movies) I was really disappointed to see that SC2 ends each character's game with a 3 panel slide-show and a very brief description of what they do with the Soul Edge when they win it... whoopidy do. I was hoping for some FMV like the opening cinematic... but I suppose as Laurelin has told me before. "THat would cost too much money" Personally I think it would make the game a hell of a lot more rewarding, and much more addicting.

In conclusion, I think storylines are CRUCIAL to MOST games... some are fine without it, puzzle games, sims, even fighters or FPSes sometimes... I just happen to know of one gripping storyline that got us playing a game for 12 hours straight just on saturday. I really wanted to see what happens next. Manhunt doesn't have a brilliant story, but they still made it interesting enough to not wanna put it down... THat's what Books have been doing for thousands of years. I don't think videogames really need to steer away from stories, rather invent a way to have a story flexible enough to change as the player sees fit.

[Ravok99]

You wanna see a game without a story? Load up Tribes 1 and see what happened to it. Its a baseless, 2-dimensional game that uses 3-d graphics. There is the idea that you gotta fight stuff, to win things, and maybe you need to have a fast connection to get skillz - but it no longer has anything to do with the story that brought it about.

Apply modern day use of that game as compared to the game when the original enthusiasts purchased it and breathed that *sigh* of relief! "Now THIS is a game!" I said as I took it home. "I get all this equipment that does stuff, and it was made for these guys that are exploring the universe and vying for control over resources - and I am a Trooper sent out to like, be a Medic, or maybe Jam the enemy Radar.... or like, I gotta be real Fast you know, and maybe like, Intercept people or Snipe at them to keep them away from Attacking from a certain point! OR... Hey, what's a BloodEagle? OOO that is cool! Yeah! So I am this rough and tough BloodEagle guy that wears this cool armor, and has all this History?"

Compare that to what you see now.

"Oh boy, I get about three choices. My polk-a-dot undies, a Fat Armor, or my polk-a-dot undies. Maybe I can mine-disk after 3 months of practice, or something."

So, yeah, give me a game with some stories, eh? If all I wanted to do was go trigger happy all the time, I would be a pin-ball wizard or something.

[Variable]

I wrote a page long rant on this, tried to preview it, and my browser crashed. To sum it up:

I think they're all fucktards.

[Aluscia]

Wow.... I can't believe the response! I am with Kitz... entirely... I hate games that have little to no linear story... Because, I hate to say, modern gamers are simply incapable of role-playing and producing a decent story. Multiplayer games are fun, but if you're looking for content, look somewhere else! I agree with Ravok in that sense, at least... If you're gonna go multi, KISS.
Dude that helped make Deus Ex brought up an interesting point though. His point about the future of games being in the ability for a character to make global changes as opposed to local ones is a valid one, and until we're capable of building a single-player game complicated enough to store all those variables and check-sums, or someone goes and weeds out all the dumb-asses who play MMOs and make it impossible for there to be coherent content, it will be a dream.

[KitZune]

The trick is you gotta start small. And it's about illusion of control. Multiple ways to complete something... More like, no way to complete something. Like in HEATHER (this is a specific example) Clotho is found half way down a hanging pit... There is absolutely NO intended way for the players to be able to reach her body (Which they have to do for a 100% completion score) So they have to come up with a way... When I make it into a video game I"ll just have to simply include many methods of getting there, as Laur said... a lot of variables. I don't think that precision should stop a game-maker from making precise games. Michelangelo wouldn't have simplified his paintings just to make them be cheaper and be able to produce them faster. Games just need more time put into developement.. and people need to stop being lazy about variables.

Deus Ex was a good game for that, multiple ways to solve problems, even though the story was still linear... one of my favourite games of all time and yet so linear. I like stories. I am a story writer, and I want to create videogames because of their ability to tell such an open ended story. Otherwise I'd be in school for film developement, or many book writing.

[Maz]

I look forward to cutscenes too in a game, like playing trought FF, and I agree with your example from HEATHER, I love the sidequest things you cna do durign a game, one game that comes to mind, ... I can't rememebr the game, it was on PSX, and not long after you started the game, you would talk to emma and you could could do the same story in 2 complety differents way dependign on her answer, same for characters alter on in the game, thye would only join you depedning on your actiions, which was nice, now the name was something 3, you we're in some mech/robots, and it played like final fantasy tactics

[Gambit]

A game Must have great gameplay. A game without gameplay is just interactive cinema, or an animated "choose-your-own adventure" book. Not that that can't be entertaining, but it's not what I would call a GAME.

Does a game need a storyline? Well, yes, if it has a series of missions or tasks for you to complete, it's nice to have a reason to undertake them. Without the storyline, I wouldn't have finished Starcraft, or been interested at all in its sequel Broodwar. Take Homeworld, rip out the story, and there goes the motivation.

On the other hand, what's the in-game storyline of Tribes? MOO? There's any number of games with no discernable plot that are great anyway.

So, IMO, the story is needed to push you along to the next level of the game. If you have a game that doesn't have levels or missions, you don't have to have a plot. The player will play just to see how what they've built develops and interacts with the rest of the game, whether that is a character in an RPG or a Sim-ed City or a Civilization. True, a plot can enhance or detract from these experiences, but it's not strictly necessary. Other things, like the development I mentioned, or exploration, or conquest (MOO) can take its place.

[Stang]