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[Scrooge McDuck]

Good writing means that the dialogue fits the character, it means that the story doesn't crumble on itself, it means that it is interesting to hear about and the characters have good things to say. If they decide to tell you the story via exposition instead of subtle nuances why would that mean it's bad? They don't need to all follow the same patterns for story-telling to be good.

Expositions in dialogue are frowned upon because it's the easiest, laziest way to convey information. You can argue that the story itself is good, but how they convey it is also a big part of what good writing is. If you want to argue that it's a stylistic choice, then I'm curious how do you think the story is served positively by having long, heavy-handed and thematically redundant monologues at every turn.

 

[Trickster]

Blizzard. Their game have so much cheesy shit in them.

 

[Karl Hawk]

This is rather an interesting thread.

I kinda need to ask you guys this: What things that should be improved in terms of games writing?

 

[Dark_castle]

Square Enix: Specially if Nomura is involved (I'm talking about their internal Japan made games. Some of their western titles like Deus Ex good writing)

You do know Nomura has only been involved in character/monster design for most of his work right? His only writing work was in FFVI, FFVII and KH series.

 

[EGM1966]

Most of 'em? Probably quicker to think of who has consistently good writing.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Are you serious? SRIV was a masterpiece in that regard with excellent references, lines and more. SR3 was OK.

Don't worry, it's people that still think SR2 has a master class story only because its overly serious.
For me, it doesn't match anything from the actual SR2 gameplay, so I think it's mediocre at best.
SRIV in my opinion intro obliviarates the writing in the whole SR2 game.

 

[LiK]

Blizzard. They have good lore but most of the dialogue in their games is complete shit. All that money and they can't hire script doctors to elevate their storytelling further.

 

[Dick Justice]

Don't worry, it's people that still think SR2 has a master class story only because its overly serious.
For me, it doesn't match anything from the actual SR2 gameplay, so I think it's mediocre at best.
SRIV in my opinion intro obliviarates the writing in the whole SR2 game.

3 and 4 certainly make 2 look like a masterclass in storytelling, because it doesn't go full retard and strikes a balance between silly and serious, where the dramatic moments (e.g. Johnny Gat in the graveyard) are actually really dramatic and well done.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

3 and 4 certainly make 2 look like a masterclass in storytelling, because it doesn't go full retard and strikes a balance between silly and serious, where the dramatic moments (e.g. Johnny Gat in the graveyard) are actually really dramatic and well done.

And thats your opinion.
I dont think it strikes any balance whatsoever. Those scenes for me just feel flat, its your typical unimaginative shitty suburbs gang story, when the core game wants to be a completly different thing, they are basically placed in a game that needs zero drama. The "realistic" characters designs don't help that game either. Thats always what I thought when i played SR2, and I wasn't going to get SR3 because of that, but then videos of it where released and it all changed.

Maybe that story it's not for me and other people enjoy it, but as there are other sandbox games that try to go that way, Im really glad SR is doing their own thing, and laughing about it in the process.

 

[BrassDragon]

Most of 'em? Probably quicker to think of who has consistently good writing.

This is correct. I love games like no other medium but let's be realistic, even the best writing doesn't hold up next to the higher tiers of movies, stageplays and television drama.

I enjoy little snippets of brilliance when they happen but they're invariably buried in a mountain of derivative or incoherent plot.

But that's okay, that's not the strength of the medium - people don't complain about operas generally having overwrought, drawn-out storylines with flat characterisation becuase that's not really the point of the performance.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

I like the Killzone series, but the writing is consistently awful. Even Mercenary which had a more interesting angle than the others and ditched the overblown narrative still had terrible storytelling, rife with clichés and double-crosses you could spot from a mile away.

 

[Kezen]

David Cage.

This.

 

[MrCunningham]

He's not a writer. He's a game designer. The stories in his games are written by different people.

Well whoever did the writing in the Evil Within did a rather poor job.

 

[veloxStrix]

ITT: All games have bad stories.

 

[gerudoman]

Can't believe I'm the first person to mention Camelot. All its Golden Sun and Mario sport games are full of infinite and uninteresting walls of text. On top of that they're constantly asking you to give your reaction to what other person has said, which is irritating because it doesn't change the conversation at all.

 

[Condemned]

David Cage.

I dont understand the hate towards this guy.

Uncalled for imo.

 

[sublimit]

Crystal Dynamics.

It's ironic how much emphasis CD are giving to the story and characters in each Tomb Raider game ever since they got their hands on the series back in 2006 yet they can't help it but produce consistently bad stories and characters with each new entry sacrificing gameplay in order to tell their "important" shitty hollywood stories and show their character "development".

 

[syncyes]

Am I crazy in thinking Destiny's flavour text is actually alright? You know, the stuff on the Grimoire cards... I sometimes enjoy reading about the enemies and lore while having a poo.

The in-game writing, however...

"There are many tales, told throughout the City to frighten children.
Now... the children are frightened anyway."

The guy who did the flavor text was a very different guy than the people who did the main story.

 

[Currygan]

David Cage.

the one and luckly only

 

[Rolf NB]

This is rather an interesting thread.

I kinda need to ask you guys this: What things that should be improved in terms of games writing?

Less reasoning, more explosions.

 

[Akuun]

Definitely Crysis. Crysis 1 had painfully cheesy writing ("...there's something out there!!!"), Crysis 2 was an incomprehensible mess, and Crysis 3 was amazingly boring at best.

The only game in the series that actually had half-decent writing was Crysis Warhead.

 

[TheAdmiester]

Don't worry, it's people that still think SR2 has a master class story only because its overly serious.
For me, it doesn't match anything from the actual SR2 gameplay, so I think it's mediocre at best.
SRIV in my opinion intro obliviarates the writing in the whole SR2 game.

I don't think I've seen anything so wrong in my life.

 

[10k]

Sonic Team.

 

[Razorback]

"Developers that constantly feature bad writing in their games."

People mentioning TellTale Games...

Stop it, you're not being clever.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

What? Signing vocaloids, shitting on the plot of Snake Eater, and

Spoiler

loli girls in mechs where J-Pop is playing

is pretty bad.

Peace Walker literally made me feel bad for enjoying Snake Eater, because the plot alone tarnishes the greatness that game had by bridging itself to it. Granted, Peace Walker is one of the best games in the series, but that's because of how it plays. What it offers in narrative is some of Kojima's worst, only beaten by retcon haven Guns of the Patriots.

I don't think you know what a narrative is. Certainly, singling out things like one fucking song doesn't lend credence to your understanding of the word.

And also there wasn't a single loli girl in the entire game - next time you complain about the narrative of a work, you should probably make sure you actually paid attention to it.

 

[3DimensionalAperture]

Well whoever did the writing in the Evil Within did a rather poor job.

I disagree. It served its purpose in the same way a decent B movie horror film would. It's nothing remarkable, but it was equal parts entertaining and open-ended enough to force you to put some of the pieces together on your own and subject those pieces to your own interpretation.