I am a gamer.
At my very core, and inside my very being lives the heart of a gamer. I find the medium to be so fresh and new and full of potential. Think about it; what other medium of story telling allows the audience to not only take part interactively in the piece of art itself, but to in fact shape and change the message, in order to more deeply identify with that message.
As a gamer, I am fairly well immersed into the culture of gaming. And as such, am often involved in meaningless debates about "the greatest game of all time", or "Which game offered the most to the world of gaming", and here's what I've come to realize after some introspective thinking:
There have been no (or at least very few) classic games, speaking from a strictly story-telling perspective. There are plenty of games whose game play mechanics have changed the industry, but there have been very VERY few games whose story lines could stand up to those in the film and literary mediums. What video game could even attempt to match Catch 22, or the Seven Samurai, or Watchmen.
WHY?! I realize the medium is new, very very new, under 40 years essentially. And I know that soon (hopefully VERY soon) the games will come, but as of right now, I purchase a game for $70, and have come to expect 1 hour of story telling (often through cinematics) to every 19 hours of meaningless action. Often very fun action, but I feel as though the game-makers consider the story to be a necessary evil, and I wonder if I should settle for simple escapism in my gaming. Should I not demand something more?
Lets look at it this way:
Filmmakers spend months editing their films so that each and every moment an audience is watching, the story is moving forward. Films last 2 hours, but all of it matters.
Comic books blend words and images in ways that allow each panel to be a key factor in the story.
Why then do I spend HOURS fighting carbon copy NPCs in every game I play, to get to a 10 minute video filling the gap to the next arena full of thugs. Its like Buying a Spiderman book, and having 90% of it as pictures of him fighting bad guys, followed by 2 pages of prose. Its a bad use of the medium.
I feel that I would be MUCH more willing to pay the $70 if each and every moment I was playing, my actions were affecting story elements, and I felt as though I was carrying the emotional weight of the character I was embodying, even if it meant that games dropped in length.
I can't wait for the day that I finish a game, and am in tears as the credits roll.
Bioshock looks like what I imagine sex feels like.
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2 comments:
"ts like Buying a Spiderman book, and having 90% of it as pictures of him fighting bad guys, followed by 2 pages of prose"
Ahem, 90's comics. That aside, the medium IS new. Give it time to flourish. On the other hand, perhaps games were not meant to tell stories. Perhaps they are meant to be played. Perhaps you expect too much.
But I do hope what you express comes to pass. I have moved away from games because they became a blur of repetitive gameplay mechanics. I would love more story. but are gamers interested? Most gamers, I feel, just want to ollie in the 16th reiteration of the Tony Hawk franchise. It's like anything else these days: It's disposable and makes a ton of bank.
I agree with you my friend. However, it is not the aim of game developers at this time to make fantastically story driven games. they want to sell action, violence and gloss. Personally it would be unreal to play a game that really was completely engrossing and lengthy that made you feel in complete control. Perhaps the closest we have got is "Elder Scrolls" or "Knights of the Old Republic" with their "free to choose" gameplay. But of course there hasnt been a truly detailed and flawless game out there. I wonder what developer is daring enough to create such a title?
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