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[Deleted member 325805]

Assassin's Creed without the story is just mindless grinding of copy/paste quests and filler content. I'd rather they did away with the whole virtual reality thing, make each game a historical piece where you play the actual person and tell a great story with the pointless fluff content removed so they can focus on nailing both the story and gameplay.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Assassin's Creed without the story is just mindless grinding of copy/paste quests and filler content. I'd rather they did away with the whole virtual reality thing, make each game a historical piece where you play the actual person and tell a great story with the pointless fluff content removed so they can focus on nailing both the story and gameplay.

It's actually addressed in the article.

J’ai souvent lu ces critiques. On a l’impression que ça vient de chez nous, que nous homogénéisons tout, mais vous savez quoi ? Ce n’est pas ça. En réalité, toutes les équipes en interne et en externe se copient. Cette ressemblance dans les jeux vient de là. Mais pour le prochain Assassin’s Creed, les concepteurs ont créé un système dans lequel ce que je fais a non seulement du sens à l’instant, mais a également du sens à long terme. Mes actions vont changer le monde.

I've often read the complaints. People believe that the it comes from us, that we homogenise everything, but you know what? That's not it. In fact every internal and external team are copying each others. The in game ressemblance comes from that. But for the next Assassin's Creed, designers have created a system where what you do not only as meaning right now, but also in the long term. My actions will change the world.

 

[sonicmj1]

But many Ubi's games aren't like that at all. Are we forgetting how they evolved Ezio over a quadrilogy, or Far Cry 3's Vaas and Far Cry 2's Heart-of-Darkness inspired narrative, or how just this week Watch Dogs 2 is being praised for likable characters and the fun tone of its story and missions?

I can't read the interview because it's in French, but when I read the OP's comments Far Cry 2 was the first thing I thought of as an example of a game with less authored storytelling and more emergent storytelling.

To me, the story of Far Cry 2 was less about The Jackal and his overwrought monologues and more about the moment-to-moment choices you made in your missions and the emergent consequences that resulted. Nothing you did for either side in the bloody conflict really mattered for resolving it, and it only had meaning in your chosen character's personal efforts to grow more powerful as a mercenary exploiting each side of a civil war. Each mission you do is fairly simple, but the game's emergent systems give you a lot of control over how they play out, while ensuring that you can always be surprised.

I wouldn't mind seeing more open-world games with those kinds of goals.

 

[Falchion]

I like emergent storytelling from games like Far Cry, but it doesn't have to be an either or proposition. You can have a strong narrative and then go out into the field and create your own story through gameplay and exploration.

 

[shinobi602]

Looks like I'll be wanting less and less Ubisoft games in the future.

 

[Venom Fox]

I'm not into storytelling done through the means of lore pages, files, etc. Like the souls games, I ignore any story and play them for the excellent gameplay. I prefer a traditional story experience with cutscenes etc.

I think this will be a bad decision if they go through with it.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I imagine the next AC's story structure will be more like FC and Watch Dogs 2 where you have the freedom to take part in several mini stories that help work towards a greater goal. This sort of story style feeds into their current game design philosophy of system driven open worlds, where the world doesn't revolve around the player or their strictly react to story beats

My take on the matter. Way too much projecting ITT with the "they tell bad stories anyway" camp. They don't consistently get those BAFTA nominations for shits and giggles.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

At this point in life, I have become more selective of games, and unless you're Battlefield or Kojima, you're gonna need to have one hell of a pull to get me into a game that has "less and less storytelling". EDIT: Thanks for your take on it, Crossing, hope it's more integrated into the game, rather than just completely cut out.

Although I gotta say, I was getting pretty tired of having to read all these cool stories in files in AC games just to play a terrible story.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

I'll probably play less and less of their games then.

 

[silva1991]

I want to ignore more and more games from them.

 

[tearsintherain]

Feels like Ubisoft is at a real cross roads that is going to end badly. Between the backlash that the Division had - sold a LOT of copies, but a LOT of people were dissatisfied after 30 days (yes, I know 1.5 makes the game much better, nearly 9 months later), the lukewarm reception that Syndicate got in sales, the lack of an AC game this year, the movie coming out in a month (who knows how well it will do), and the impending takeover by Vivendi its hard not to see how a series of game stumbles doesn't leave them reeling.

Be interesting to see how well WD2 sells, along with how well For Honor and Ghost Recon are received next year. If all 3, plus the movie, are below expectations I dunno what exactly happens. On the other hand if all 3 are wildly successful what does that mean for a Vivendi takeover?

 

[Floex]

Are people really that invested in Ubisoft story-based games?

I can't think of one I've actually enjoyed. The Division was the final god-awful story-telling icing on the cake that I could muster from Ubi.

 

[Gunslinger]

To me gameplay is king. So I am all for it. As long as gameplay is really good story is not that important to me. But with that being said having an engaging story is always welcome.

 

[Messofanego]

I can't read the interview because it's in French, but when I read the OP's comments Far Cry 2 was the first thing I thought of as an example of a game with less authored storytelling and more emergent storytelling.

To me, the story of Far Cry 2 was less about The Jackal and his overwrought monologues and more about the moment-to-moment choices you made in your missions and the emergent consequences that resulted. Nothing you did for either side in the bloody conflict really mattered for resolving it, and it only had meaning in your chosen character's personal efforts to grow more powerful as a mercenary exploiting each side of a civil war. Each mission you do is fairly simple, but the game's emergent systems give you a lot of control over how they play out, while ensuring that you can always be surprised.

I wouldn't mind seeing more open-world games with those kinds of goals.

That's kind of the point with Far Cry 2, it paints a quite nihilistic view of wars and Africa where everyone is only looking out for themselves, which is fitting considering reality. Far Cry 2 is surprisingly thematically focused, which is just not found in other Ubisoft open world games' storytelling which don't seem to have a deeper meaning behind their plot and characters. Far Cry 2's storytelling is the one of the only ones out of Ubisoft's lot that resonated with me.

 

[inner-G]

Their narrative-driven games are the only ones I'm interested in

I really don't care about their games like Rayman, Child of Light, Etc.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Their narrative-driven games are the only ones I'm interested in

I really don't care about their games like Rayman, Child of Light, Etc.

Child of Light is a narrative driven RPG.

 

[Compsiox]

I'd rather make my own stories anyway. I agree with this choice. I gotta have a basic plot though please.

 

[vincenth69]

Pretty sure the guys does not really know what he is talking about.
If rumors have been true about the next AssCreed, it's supposed to be more like Witcher. And Watch Dogs 2 has plenty storytelling, just less linear. What I mean by that is that you can do the story and have multiple pass to get to the point you want in story (more or less) and have multiple story lines.
When I read the article, I feel that this is what Ubi wants to do and not just "have less storytelling". They want you to have a story and go through it, but not with the chapter-like narration AC or Far Cry had.

 

[dead souls]

Probably a good thing considering stories in most games are complete shit, and the more there is the worse it becomes.

I couldn't agree more. It's weird to see a thread title and think "Damn, Ubisoft is 100% right" but here we are.

 

[CharminUltra]

Yes, this is what I want. I'm not interested in your Hollywood reject-pile story.

 

[CopperPuppy]

My take on the matter. Way too much projecting ITT with the "they tell bad stories anyway" camp. They don't consistently get those BAFTA nominations for shits and giggles.

Your quote is honestly the direction I see this going in as well.

 

[James Scott]

I think Ubisoft is pretty terrible with story telling. They try to be edgy but it comes off as try hard with some of the most unlikable characters I've ever seen.
So this is probably a smart idea. Focus on gameplay and spend less resources on cutscenes

 

[Anth0ny]

sounds good to me. ubisoft stories are god awful and their games are full of unskippable cutscenes.

the less of those, the better.

 

[Greddleok]

That sounds good, narrative is usually the last thing I care about.

 

[And_Gignac]

This is why few take videogames seriously as a media form, or why there's still this prejudice that videogames are for nerds/manchildren/etc.

 

[TharpDaddy]

I think this is natural. The next generation of game devs will have grown up with games like Minecraft influencing them. Story isn't always necessary if the mechanics are pulled off well enough for players to have their own fun. Even something like Sea of Thieves (speculatively) seems to not be heavy story, and is instead more about the fun and experience in the world. Hell, AC4 may have been better if it had less story and just let the players go nuts with being a pirate.

 

[Fug Slanderson]

As someone who generally hates stories in games, this is good news to me.

 

[hichanbis]

In a way it's worth trying because they can't write and tell a decent story.
More realistically it's bad for them because it just means they'll go for bigger open worlds with boring gameplay.

 

[Peltz]

I haven't touched a Ubisoft game other than Rayman in nearly 10 years. The story-focus of their flagship titles always struck me as very unappealing.

 

[Palabragrís]

The games that attracted me to Ubisoft had a big emphasis on storytelling (Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed). If they were to abandon that approach to favor something without a good amount of narration -well, I'd look somewhere else for my games, then.

 

[Karak]

Looks like I'll be wanting less and less Ubisoft games in the future.

Is he the main lead of all creative direction at Ubi?

I ask because this goes directly against what others at Ubi, and some in very high positions, have discussed even with me at events.

 

[Doug Heffernan]

The best stories in Far Cry are the ones that happen organically while you are exploring.

 

[RM8]

This is why few take videogames seriously as a media form, or why there's still this prejudice that videogames are for nerds/manchildren/etc.

Because it's not inherently a narrative medium?

 

[Daft_Cat]

Emergent storytelling is exciting because it's totally unique to interactive mediums. As far as telling a story in a medium-specific way, it's something that a game can do that a movie or a book can't.

It IS worth exploring... but as far as Ubisoft is concerned, if going down that road means reducing their games to open sandboxes with no central narrative, then count me out. I get that it's expensive and resource-heavy to craft a single-player experience with something interesting to say, but there's got to be a happy middle ground.

It seems lazy to expect a meaningful and impactful story to arise naturally out of the gameplay possibilities of a game-world... Especially this early in the game when writers and designers are still exploring the interweaving possibilities of story and emergent gameplay.

 

[shinobi602]

Is he the main lead of all creative direction at Ubi?

I ask because this goes directly against what others at Ubi, and some in very high positions, have discussed even with me at events.

I don't know him personally but with what he's saying compiled with Yves consistently saying in the past that they're wanting to move more into a "games as a service" and online direction for the future is incredibly off-putting for me.

 

[semiconscious]

seriously? this was my favorite story-telling in a ubisoft game in the last while:

i'm good with more peripheral/mission-based story-telling, & less over-arching narrative...

 

[Braag]

Cutscenes cost a lot of money. So we have scattered the world with little notes from various characters which the player can find and read to get the story. Also audio logs.

 

[Valonquar]

I imagine this will help them save $10 or $20. The story in the last few Ubi games I've played were riddled with inconsistencies, tropes, and zero character development. The last few AC games had no one at all you'd have a reason to care about.

 

[Palabragrís]

I don't know him personally but with what he's saying compiled with Yves consistently saying in the past that they're wanting to move more into a "games as a service" and online direction for the future is incredibly off-putting for me.

I didn't get that.
If that's the path they're going to follow, then it's a shame, really. A decade ago Ubisoft was one of my favourite developers/publishers, but that approach would totally turn me off their games.

A shame, really.

 

[KorrZ]

Maybe it's not such a bad thing if they get bought out.

 

[Exploding8]

I think people are confusing storytelling and narrative. I actually applaud Ubisoft for wanting to take this direction. One of the greatest strengths of the medium is the ability to convey a narrative without explicit storytelling.

If you've seen Mad Max, its kind of like how Max's personality and story is portrayed extremely well without explicit dialogue. Max doesn't need to explicitly tell you what he's thinking; his actions and his body language is enough to get his personality and what he wants. That's the strength of movies as a medium compared to books. In a movie, you can convey a narrative through images and audio cues/music (i.e. not spoken dialogue) alone.

Similarly, video-games excel at providing unique narratives for players as they explore a game space. Take the original Legend of Zelda for instance; people built their own narrative through exploration of that game space, the actual explicit story being told was comparatively sparce.

This is one of the reasons I think The Last Of Us is so over rated. It does nothing to leverage the strengths of the medium in its conveyance of a narrative. You could easily adapt it into a movie or a TV series. It only gains a little bit from interactivity.

 

[vincenth69]

I don't know him personally but with what he's saying compiled with Yves consistently saying in the past that they're wanting to move more into a "games as a service" and online direction for the future is incredibly off-putting for me.

From what I read, the guy seems to say that they want to do less linear stories and not "less storytelling". They want to change the formula that Far Cry and Assassin have done for years where you have gameplay/cutscene/gameplaye/cutscene etc... He just says it very badly.
Game as a service does not mean less storytelling, just longer tail for the games with more DLC post launch, more community events etc.

 

[Cuv8]

Hascoet is like Yves Guillemot sidekick. He has a very high position at the edito, the Ubisoft section that green lights and follow every project.
He's basically in charge of what Ubisoft games will look like in the future.

 

[Kinyou]

Most of the stories in ubisoft games are pretty lackluster, but I still prefer that over the "make your own story" mantra. Usually does that not work at all for me.

 

[JeffZero]

Well, even less reason for me to buy their games, then. I game primarily for story.

 

[The Lamonster]

Not all games need stories but a lot of the types of games Ubisoft makes absolutely do need stories!

 

[shinobi602]

From what I read, the guy seems to say that they want to do less linear stories and not "less storytelling". They want to change the formula that Far Cry and Assassin have done for years where you have gameplay/cutscene/gameplaye/cutscene etc... He just says it very badly.
Game as a service does not mean less storytelling, just longer tail for the games with more DLC post launch, more community events etc.

I understand what he's saying. I love cutscenes and having stories explicitly told to me. I don't think every game needs it but a pattern I'm seeing with Ubisoft is less and less of an initiative on it.

I'm in no way saying everyone should care about the things I care about, but for me personally, it's showing. I would have really enjoyed The Division a lot more if it had an interesting campaign with cutscens, characters and unique missions, setpieces etc. With setting their games up as 'games as a service', their resources will go into story-less post launch DLC, community events, etc.

Rainbow Six: Siege threw out narrative completely, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands is pushing a heavy emphasis on co-op play and multiplayer. I see no notion of a cohesive narrative like I enjoyed in GRAW, GRAW 2 and Future Soldier. I know of other Ubisoft games in the future going down the same path and it makes me wary.

In the end, there's plenty of other games for me to play so I'm not super fussed about it. Just disappointed.

 

[Cuv8]

And also, GTA 5 is the game that dominates every playtest rating Ubisoft is doing internally. I guess their target is GTA Online and the money it's generating.

 

[OldRoutes]

But many Ubi's games aren't like that at all. Are we forgetting how they evolved Ezio over a quadrilogy, or Far Cry 3's Vaas and Far Cry 2's Heart-of-Darkness inspired narrative, or how just this week Watch Dogs 2 is being praised for likable characters and the fun tone of its story and missions?

Fair enough.. I wasn't trying to say that games with stories are un-necessary.

I think some games, or games genre at least, don't need complex narratives in them. Even if they are good stories, I understand the business decision of cutting down on building those stories when you're seeing 10% of your population playing your game's story through completion and the other 90% just using your game as a sandbox, skipping cutscenes and playing around.

I understand what he's saying. I love cutscenes and having stories explicitly told to me. I don't think every game needs it but a pattern I'm seeing with Ubisoft is less and less of an initiative on it.

I'm in no way saying everyone should care about the things I care about, but for me personally, it's showing. I would have really enjoyed The Division a lot more if it had an interesting campaign with cutscens, characters and unique missions, setpieces etc. With setting their games up as 'games as a service', their resources will go into story-less post launch DLC, community events, etc.

Rainbow Six: Siege threw out narrative completely, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands is pushing a heavy emphasis on co-op play and multiplayer. I see no notion of a cohesive narrative like I enjoyed in GRAW, GRAW 2 and Future Soldier. I know of other Ubisoft games in the future going down the same path and it makes me wary.

In the end, there's plenty of other games for me to play so I'm not super fussed about it. Just disappointed.

Interesting points, but part of me believe that Rainbow Six Siege is so good because telling a story wasn't its initial focus. I wouldn't be against Ubisoft releasing a 'campaign' add-on, though!

 

[Regiruler]

This reads to me like they're using this as an excuse to have a minimalist narrative.

I'm fine with cutting back on the story budget by a large margin, but ideally we should still have cheesy cutscenes. Of course, this is not the western way of doing things.