Computer game storytelling

[beccaelizabeth]

I just read a bunch of stuff about computer games, modern RPGs, and immersive storytelling. It kept comparing games to movies, and saying that 2 hours of story gets stretched over 50 hours of gameplay. Which is weird. 50 hours is clearly at least two seasons of TV. Which would get through a lot of story. Like, bazillions of story, emotion everywhere, character development, tons of story.

This is why I got frustrated when I was buying games based on one hour free test play and they turned out to be two hours long with a sequel promised but never delivered. I got one episode. I got a pilot episode. With the rough edges left on. Not cool.

This is also why I was a rubbish GM when I used to play paper RPGs, cause people burn through story fast, def faster than I could keep up or generate in front of. Trying to give them story tied to their particular characters? Kudos to those who ever manage it. Even one evening of game a week, that's a lot of stuff to invent.

I liked the story in the later Tradewinds installments, with lead characters like a single mother trying to look after demon possessed children. And I liked the balance of main quest to side quest, plus you could totally ignore side quests if you felt like it. And once you unlocked free trading you could just wander around the world a bunch, buying and selling and upgrading your ships or armies or whatever. But the story still got doled out in kind of tiny pieces.

I'm trying to imagine now enough story for fifty hours of interactive gameplay. It just comes down to writer hours. I don't know how many games even have scriptwriters the same way TV or film does, but to get a couple seasons of TV poured in, they'd need a whole writers room. There's only so many words per week a person can do.

And a game needs more than a movie because it needs to branch a few places to react to different choices. Well, I say 'needs', the game industry does not so much reckon this is a need. But ideally. Like a choose your own adventure book looks like a regular paperback size but reads like a much shorter story cause there's so many ways to branch wrong and maybe die.

Who are the Names in video game scriptwriting? Do they call it scriptwriting? I don't know.

Now I'm imagining my giant epics of doom where I get stuck mostly doing worldbuilding and wondering if that's actually helpful for a game.

... probably not, but a girl can dream...

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

The only Name in RPG game writing I can think of is Paul Dini from the Arkham franchise, but that's only because he's coming at it sideways through the DCAU.

The only other I can think of offhand is Lord British from the Ultima games, but I don't know how solid the storytelling is in those.

Beyond that I think it's by committee. I know when Skyrim was being coded Bethesda was advertising for scenario writers.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

Have you ever played Morrowind?

[aurorra.livejournal.com]

I just googled games writer and came up with this. http://blog.ubi.com/the-write-stuff-on-becoming-a-game-writer/

By comparing games to TV, you are forgetting the actual Gaming! I don't think I've ever seen a tv show where the hero spend an hour running round in silence trying to collect gold tokens from places on the map. But I do that all the time in games. It's 2 hours of plot and drama stretched over 50 hours of doing stuff. Completely different. And in some games your character develops in different directions depending on the choices you make. :)

[beccaelizabeth]

The articles I read and was responding to and would link if I could find the links were all about how horribly repetitive and boring it was to run around collecting gold tokens from places on the map or fill 50 hours with the kind of stuff usually doing in games. The article wanted more story in their story. Hence the comparison.

Personally I can play match three games for days at a stretch, so repetitive don't bother me any.

It also reckoned that character developing different based on decisions was vanishing rare and games usually steered people back into a rut. Which would be sad. but clearly easier to write.