GOD

GAMES ARE NOT MOVIES FFS

I came here for the breasts , I was tricked.

They're getting better in certain cases, but too often to they ctrl+c, ctrl+v the Hollywood formula. Fact of the matter is, games are not movies and must be thought of as such during the writing process. It might take a while, but only with such a mindset will game writing move forward.

What I'm waiting for is a headlining photo of Crackdown 2 characters with a "THESE ARE CYBORG NIGGERS" caption. God that would be funny.

READ A BOOK
READ A BOOK
READ A MOTHERFUCKING BOOK.

I think it is a priority for games as a whole to be able to stand on par with excellent film writing. Of course, I also think the entire concept of story telling in games has to be changed in order to make a better experience for the player.

Gaming can do things for plot that other mediums cannot. Look at any hardcore action film. Then watch an Alfred Hitchcock film. Two different genres of story, same medium. Games should keep/improve on its story, not forget it and just throw some pointless enemies charging towards you with no reason. Adding a motive beyond "They are there, you have a knife, no consequences" makes any game better.

I don't mind story bits in games, as long as they're skippable. Dad couldn't care less about the characters or the people or the story. He just wants to blow shit up and shoot things. Being unable to skip really hurts his enjoyment of a game. Why force it onto us? At least give us the option to return to the action.

So, if I were to make a game catered to Dad (story's all in the manual, and maybe a 15-second ending sequence like games before CUTSCENE POWER came around), people would probably bitch and decry the game...sigh.

Storylines are more like DLC and pathes. If the game is good enough or even functions better without it then it should go without. We used to be able to seprate games that should have deep storylines and games that shouldn't by genre but that's changed in recent years. For instance people used to think all RPGs should have a deep storyline but although some should like Earthbound there are some that work better simple like Pokemon. I wouldn't enjoy Earthbound nearly as much without it's excellent story telling but I wouldn't hate it if Pokemon had an EPIC WORLD SAVE storyline rather then just give you a loose despriction at first then let you make your own opinion of it. The opposite goes for platformers whereas games like Braid sell themselves on a neat story that you truly want to read. Games like Sonic... Well nuff said )=

@ Eliza Gauger

Actually I meant for the tag under the photo to be Overlord and this has breasts to be a secondary side joke if you looked at the categories. As it stands I agree it's pretty offensive to talented writer so it's gone.

well i hated mirror's edge, but still love Overlord, so she only fails in one department

@Jim Sterling

I would encourage you to write that but I think your wife may not enjoy it as much as we do XD

@Eliza Gauger

I (and probably some other people) didn't even notice that until you went all crazy on it. If you want to make a complaint on a blog try not to be rude, double post and then afterwards make a coment that was possibly even more offensive that what you were complaining about. Or you know you could just tell him privately and not be a jackass about it =(

Game designers and scripters need to understand that you can take the artistic effects of the cinema, but you don't need to also bring in the lamer aspects of it, such as cliche and the constant assumption that the viewer wants to be a passive consumer of the story.

Making a great game with great writing is a tall task. It is infinitely harder than making a 2 or 3 hour film, considering us gamers aren't happy to pay 60 bucks unless we can get at least 10 hours out of a game.

So I don't see games catching up anytime soon. Maybe one day....

She wrote Mirrors Edge? Wow, that story was absolutely horrible.

Yeah, she should definitely play Final Fantasy Tactics.

Games don't necessarily need writing, they need a narrative which can be visual. Something which makes the game unique and advances the story.

I do believe that in general game narrative is pretty bankrupt, especially in the shooter genre. It's generally either space marines, or its WWII cliche fests. I know there are exceptions, but not enough.

My own favourite is actually God of War simply because it's a kick ass game which feels epic. It doesn't matter that it boils down to killing one bad guy after another because it feels like so much more.

@Blasto

Last time I checked, this was the internet and people can say whatever the fuck they want. We had to endure your self-absorbed wall of text, I think you can endure a few seven letter words.

You know, I agree with her, but for God's sake, she's responsible for Mirror's Edge's storyline.

That's like getting paid to show up to work and take a nap.

I always have a little chuckle at the multiplayer crowd who say "Want a story? Read a book. I just wanna kill muthafuckas and by extension so should everyone else". It's because of such attitudes that gaming is looked down upon as a creative medium. Video games are sorely lacking when it comes to really good narrative and plot.

I'm honestly surprised (and shocked) at the statement regarding writers being brought in near the end of the dev process to hammer something out that fits the framework put in place by the devs. Is this something that actually goes on or an exaggeration?

@Blasto
Congratulations on completely missing the point of Eliza's comment. She was saying that such a caption would be offensive and is in the same offensiveness ballpark (I think that's where the Mets play) as the "this has breasts" tag. Also, lighten up: Don't be afraid of a word. There's nothing wrong with saying it, only using it against other people. Okay, moving on...

re: Pratchett
I agree. Most of you are being a bit reactionary to her statements. She's 100% correct. She doesn't say that gaming has no good writers, and she doesn't say that writing is always an afterthought. She's not just spouting off bullshit -- she has the experience and she knows people who also have experience. And 90-95% of games' stories are either action-movie bullshit or fluffy, cliche wankery. The BioShocks and Portals are few and far between.

re: Eliza
I agree. I love tits and joking around about sex as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's okay to NOT make a tit joke. When I look at Ms. Pratchett, I don't think "dur hur hur, tits, she's a woman and that's why she's being talked about." I actually see someone who's accomplished and whose opinion I would respect and be interested in hearing. ("Oh, the director just put that in there to get laid.") Destructoid and (especially) its community tend to be of the mindset, "If it's female, you MUST make a sexual reference." It's very small-minded and frustrating, and it's really no surprise that gamer culture is looked down upon by the general public.

I totally agree with this.

It's one thing if Tetris or a (traditional) Super Mario game doesn't have a good story (or a story at all) because who cares. But if a game is going to have a story, then it should strive to have a good story, and not the generic, derivative, unoriginal crap that a vast majority of games have these days. Pratchett is right here, and this has been a long time problem.

Everyone saying "games don't need story" or "go read a book" or whatever, can eat dicks as far as I'm concerned.

And yeah, I don't get the "huuurrrr female" comments either. Are you guys really that juvenile, or are you just pretending to be for "teh lulz"?

Also, in other words, what Sharpless said.

@ I'm OK

If you think that the word "faggot" or "jokes" such as "go make me a sandwich woman" etc. has anywhere near the history of violence, social oppression and disrespect for humanitarian ideals as "n*gg*r", then I don't know what tell you.

And my "rant" was directed at Davram who claimed that, to paraphrase, "I kin say whateva I want cuz dis are teh internets", which is not true, hence my reference to the rules. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in that I wasn't implying her statement was meant to be racist, but I simply don't believe that that word has any place in civilized discourse. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Topic re-rail!

As I said earlier, I don't mind a story as long as I can gloss over it, but that by no means means that I want to see everything under the sun with a meaningful story. If I play Peggle 2 and there are cutscenes, I'm gonna kill someone.

Do I think games need good narratives and storylines and characters we can actually care about? Oh yes. Books, movies, and everything else are meant to give us a form of entertainment and I haven't exactly seen music give us a storyline (discounting operas and the like, of course). But I don't think that it's necessary for every game. So-labeled casual games are a hit and they have nothing more than a paragraph at best for a story, and yet they're pretty popular. It's not distillation of a medium in my eyes, but some people (like me) just want to have fun.

I think there are two methods of storytelling I like. The first is the model used in Half-Life 2 (and maybe the first one, dunno) where you're immersed constantly and there are no cutscenes, just people talking and whatnot--pretty engrossing as a first-person game. The second is story-in-the-woodwork, like the Metroid Prime games. One reason why I love the Scan Visor in the series is because it allows you to learn so much about not only the wildlife and your enemies, but what's going on, what people are doing, etc. The story isn't spoodfed to you at all. And it's completely optional for the most part.

That's not to say that I hate really story-heavy RPGs or other games, but there are roles that need to be fulfilled, you know? I wouldn't expect an action flick to have a really gripping story ala...uhm...hell, let's go with Titanic as much as it pains me to mention it. Likewise, you wouldn't expect a chick flick to be light on the characters either. Come on, when was the last time you played a Mario game where the mission wasn't "Save the princess! ...again" and there was anything you could tell your friends outside of the stages?

I mean, I know there's some optional story in Galaxy (which I'm working through), but besides that. And SMRPG, that doesn't count. :3

She certainly is the expert on this, the writing in Mirror's Edge was terrible.

She should just ask her dad to write a game. THAT is something I would like to see.