Support NeoGAF

[Lunarwhale]

Alter your expectations and accept that novels are always going to be better at this by default due to directly conveying this information. It's a silly comparison to make because it's a different medium, and one that's in its comparative infancy. Most games still struggle at the whole "aesthetic experience" aspect that written forms of art have had centuries to capture.

 

[Leafhopper]

Also in terms of books, like actual novels, they have to explain everything in excruciating detail. In video games they don't as it is a visual thing, that might be why some stuff comes off as shallow as well.

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

I wouldn't say books, honestly don't read enough of them, but for sure with TV and movies.

Reminds me of how the story in one of the most acclaimed games (uncharted ) is basically a Nicholas cage movie (national treasure)

Yup, granted I still like the plots in them, I just don't get why people raise it so high is all. I get character development out of other games to, I don't know.

 

[Atomski]

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

I think the difference is its much easier to find a book that can spark an emotional reaction in you compared to most videogame stories. Yeah you can find as much hot trash fan fiction book as you want.. but on the other hand there is some amazing writers out there as well which cant really be said for gaming.

I'm currently playing TheWitcher. The wirting is phenomenal. What are you smoking OP?

Im sure the new witcher games are good. However I could never get past the first game story wise and the gameplay ...yeah about that.

I always wanted to go through the whole series but its hard for me to also just skip games in a series. Which is dumb if I dont like story that much. Like honestly all I remember is you fight some shit then i had sex with some lady. Then um.. zzz

 

[MikeyB]

The better the narrative is, the less of a game it is.

That's not to say that stories in games aren't important. I vastly prefer well written games. But, taking control of the protagonist, having control over their actions, and heck, just being able to load a save, disrupts the narrative more than a poorly written chapter in an otherwise good book ever could.

 

[Skilletor]

You shouldn't have lower expectations for a story just because it's in a videogame.

If you put a story in your videogame and thereby are consuming my spare time, you better make sure its worth it.

I mean...I think stories are garbage in 99% of games, but I disagree. They can't tell a story in the same way that books and movies can, and it's a young medium trying to figure that out.

I give zero shits about videogame stories and that's never a reason I play or continue playing a game.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

I think a better phrasing for this is that it is a lot, lot, lot more difficult to find quality writing/engrossing narratives in a video game than it is for films and books. Whether or not it's because gaming is a younger medium compared to the other two, I can't say.

I play a lot of games, read a ton, watch of ton of films, and it feels like I strike gold a lot more with the latter two than I do with games.

I mean...I think stories are garbage in 99% of games, but I disagree. They can't tell a story in the same way that books and movies can, and it's a young medium trying to figure that out.

I give zero shits about videogame stories and that's never a reason I play or continue playing a game.

Yep. Gaming just isn't there yet.

Haha ok ill give an example

Guy likes GTAVs story which ugh.. really? Yet he also recommended me Kafka on the Shore which I adored... which has made me read more Japanese literature as well.

Your friend has excellent taste in books. Have you read anything else by Murakami?

 

[Plum]

Most developers still haven't figured out how to join together regular minute-to-minute gameplay and story.

Even some of the stories considered to be the "best" such as The Last of Us still have very clearly divide "this is story and character development" and "this is the challenging game part." It makes it so that video-games just can't surpass or even meet the standards set by similar stories in other mediums. TLoU's story will never be as good as Children of Men or The Road were (to me) because half of the game is still just killing faceless, nameless goons and I'm unable to look past that. I know "Ludonarrative dissonance" is a joke here but I truly feel that it can be an issue. In TLoU both

Spoiler

the hotel basement section where you're stuck without Ellie and the entire Winter section

are truly great examples of videogame storytelling because both you and the characters feel emotions that wouldn't be possible if it were just a scene in a film.

 

[Neoleo2143]

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

You could, except Written and acted narrative has been around for literally the dawn of mankind. There's far more material to work with in those types of media compared to games.

^On TLOU, that pretty much is my main issue with the game, the in combat "survivors" don't act like actual documented survivors.

Compare to SWAT 4, where the enemies actually have the ability to surrender and the game encourages that approach.

 

[petethepanda]

Undertale, is maybe a little too dialogue heavy based on what you're talking about, but it does tell a story that could only really work as a video game.

Undertale is definitely one of my favorite examples of a story that could really only work in this medium. The storytelling dovetails with the gameplay in the best damn ways.

 

[Spirited]

The writing of TW3 is phenomal yes, which makes it one of the exceptions, but the story itself is a typical videogame joke with a focus on contextualizing the gameplay busywork, rather than delivering a working narrative.

The bloody baron's quest was a surprisingly good story if it would've happened in a vacuum, but the context of the rest of the game ruined it, that is the search for ciri that led you there, because the overall 'deal' geralt and the baron made just doesn't make any sense outside of a videogame that's trying to keep you busy.

As I see you're using the bloody baron quest as an example for a good quest story I really hope you play the expansion hearts of stone as the quest in there might just have the best story in a game I've played so far.

Really my reply has nothing to do with the thread or your post, just want you to experience it if you(or anyone else for that matter) havn't already(I'm guessing you have but I say this anyway).

 

[dracula_x]

You could, except Written and acted narrative has been around for literally the dawn of mankind. There's far more material to work with in those types of media compared to games.

sure it is more in terms of "quantity", but the percentage is the same and the quality has dropped a lot since self-publishing

 

[Atomski]

Undertale is definitely one of my favorite examples of a story that could really only work in this medium. The storytelling dovetails with the gameplay in the best damn ways.

Yeah Undertale has been sitting on my harddrive a while I need to give it a try.

Your friend has excellent taste in books. Have you read anything else by Murakami?

Not yet, but after Kafka Im not sure I have a choice.

On the topic of TLOU no I havent played it. I kept meaning to get to it but I had to sell my ps4 when moving over seas so not sure when I will ever.

 

[Wensih]

Undertale is definitely one of my favorite examples of a story that could really only work in this medium. The storytelling dovetails with the gameplay in the best damn ways.

Outside of referencing a common video game trope and having an alternative narrative path, I don't think subversion of who is a monster theme is something that couldn't be done elsewhere. Yes, the story is unique to video games because it's referential of video game mechanics, but i don't think it's wholly unique to this medium or a story that could only be told in this medium.

I mean to a certain degree the themes presented in Undertale are a mirror to those presented in Heart of Darkness, just a little more on the nose and kid friendly.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

Those mediums are passive, have vastly more variety to choose from, and focus on the act of storytelling alone which further increases the importance of the very nuts and bolts, like the writing. They're able to touch a range of subject matter on a level that, frankly, a game will probably never be able to do justice to. Pulling double duty as both interactive plaything and storyteller means something will have to give, and with games being centered on the act of control given over to the player, it's justifiably the game/toy part that wins.

 

[Alebrije]

If you want good stories look for a book.

Games are not story focus and also game developers concern more on graphics and gmeplay elements.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

I'm currently playing TheWitcher. The wirting is phenomenal. What are you smoking OP?

The thing about the writing in the Witcher is that, while it is good (exceptional for video game writing) it relies so heavily on the style, tone, and narrative work already put forth by Sapkowski, the writer of the original novels. The complex and intriguing characters, the fully realized world with deep lore and history, the marriage of the fantastical with dark and gritty reality...the basis of all that is Sapkowski's work, not the games themselves. All the writers for The Witcher 3 had to do was take characters and a world that had already been created for them, and write additional stories for them while staying true to already developed characters and story lines. Even in that, the writing quality of Sapkowski's novels is high above anything in The Witcher 3's main game (I haven't played the DLC). CDPR's writers did a great job of generally staying true to Sapkowski's characters, but there is still a lot of nuance and substance that the game misses. If the best example of video game writing is a series where all of the hard work was done for them...that's not saying a whole heck of a lot.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

If you want good stories look for a book.

Games are not story focus and also game developers concern more on graphics and gmeplay elements.

I don't think it's too much to ask for the plot of a game to at least be passable. A lot of them are downright terrible.

 

[CharminUltra]

Yup. That's why reading and movie-watching are also hobbies of mine.

 

[Principate]

I can say exactly the same thing about movies and books.

Yeah but movies and books highs tend to be much higher. Video games are a much newer media but the stories have rarely been treated with much respect.

 

[Diprosalic]

It's not you OP it's the games.

They'll get there maybe in like 20-30 years, i'm optimistic.

 

[Matthew23]

The problem is when games try to be "cinematic" because then you get stunted gameplay for what is a z-grade movie plot, since the gameplay serves the story rather than the other way around you have no option but notice that the story, in fact, sucks.

When the gameplay is king and the story is secondary you're more likely to enjoy the story because, since it doesn't hog the spotlight, you're more forgiving about the story being bad, because in the greater scheme of things, VG writing is still pretty abysmal.

This doesn't mean you can't enjoy a game's story, im just saying that expecting literature grade quality, or even dumb blockbuster movie quality, you're just setting yourself for disappointment.

Also, have in mind, when people say "the story is good", it's always in the context of VIDEOGAMES, and by those standards. The story is good for videogame standard.

I agree with everything said here.

I like condensed fast moving stories where the details don't have to be explained down to the midichlorians. Just give me some likable characters and make things fun. Don't bog down the pace with constant cutscenes/bad dialog. Give me a basic framework and let my imagination do the rest. As stated above, it is the gameplay that carries the story.

 

[Molemitts]

I really dislike this idea that interactivity is a detriment to a story experience. That idea completely undervalues video games as an artform.

Plenty of games show how to tell a story without taking away, or limiting, the control of the player. Maybe not all of those games have exceptional stories, but video games are a young medium and it must build on its strengths and what makes it unique instead of throwing that all away.

It's also important for many games to justify elements of the gameplay with the story, even base mechanics like failure states. When you die and respawn in Dark Souls, it's because the curse of the undead is bringing you back. Pretty much every element of gameplay, that in many games you may not even think about, but can take you out of immersion just as well, are justified in Dark Souls. Same in Undertale, and many rogue like games.

 

[Q8D3vil]

W3 made me feel like that.
hopefully Mankind divided can fix that for me.

 

[Bloodporne]

The problem is when games try to be "cinematic" because then you get stunted gameplay for what is a z-grade movie plot, since the gameplay serves the story rather than the other way around you have no option but notice that the story, in fact, sucks.

When the gameplay is king and the story is secondary you're more likely to enjoy the story because, since it doesn't hog the spotlight, you're more forgiving about the story being bad, because in the greater scheme of things, VG writing is still pretty abysmal.

This doesn't mean you can't enjoy a game's story, im just saying that expecting literature grade quality, or even dumb blockbuster movie quality, you're just setting yourself for disappointment.

Also, have in mind, when people say "the story is good", it's always in the context of VIDEOGAMES, and by those standards. The story is good for videogame standard.

Nail on the head for me as well.

Whenever I've truly enjoyed a story, lore whatever in a game, it's almost been by accident and as a side product enhanced by the actual gameplay and world's atmosphere. Absolutely NEVER has it been due to endless cutscenes force-feeding me some D-grade Hollywood schlock. I have yet to play a single game marketed as 'cinematic' that didn't have a hamfisted, bullshit plot that reeked of greater film's/book's stories cobbled together from a mile away.

 

[Atomski]

I agree with everything said here.

I like condensed fast moving stories where the details don't have to be explained down to the midichlorians. Just give me some likable characters and make things fun. Don't bog down the pace with constant cutscenes/bad dialog. Give me a basic framework and let my imagination do the rest. As stated above, it is the gameplay that carries the story.

I think imagination is a key factor that helps me enjoy some games to. Like older RPGs I tended to enjoy but I think it was because I kinda imagined how I wanted the characters to be and such. Later when RPGs got a lot of cutscenes it was like no... nooooo ... your ruining it for me whyyyyy.

It was like they took that part of the game away from me. Here I want to imagine my character is all cool and shit but then a cutscene pops up and he seems like an over emotional jerk.

 

[disappeared]

OP once you realize that no other games are Silent Hill 2 it gets easier to digest their narratives.

 

[psyfi]

There's only been a handful of games with stories that have impressed me, and I've been gaming for 26 years. I can enjoy game stories, but I've yet to find one that is truly great. I prefer when games worry less about narrative, or find a way to make it fit the parameters of the medium a little more. I really loved Portal's story for example, because it fit and even enhanced the gameplay. But it's a very thing story, obviously, so I would never say it rivals books or movies. It's its own style, made suitable for the medium.

 

[PsionBolt]

Well, yeah. Most games do not tell stories well, develop characters well, or pursue interesting themes well. This becomes all the more true when you look primarily at mainstream games. But it's no big deal; unlike a novel, narrative is only one part of the whole for video games.
Despite that, though, I can't agree with those whose answer is "lower your standards". I'm perfectly happy maintaining high standards for narrative, and just seeing game stories as they are (i.e., usually quite poor). It's perfectly possible to still play games, even narrative-focused games, and appreciate them purely for the things they don't suck at. At least, I often do.

Take, for example, Danganronpa. I enjoyed that game quite a bit, even though its narrative is garbage.
Instead of the paper-thin tropes and 2edgy4me chuuni fluff, I enjoyed the game's aesthetics, mechanics, and puzzles. I would love to write a case study sometime on the difference in player response between cross examinations in Ace Attorney and nonstop debates in Danganronpa; with one or two small mechanical changes, Danganronpa presents gameplay that's 90% old in a way that makes it feel 100% new. I appreciated that a lot. It's really cool! Sure, the actual murder mysteries and their solutions don't stack up to some novels I've read, but that doesn't mean the game is worthless. On the contrary, I think it brought a lot to the table for the adventure genre. I'm glad I played Danganronpa, and I wouldn't ask for my time back.

There are other things to talk about here too (games without much traditional storytelling, games which lend themselves to the creation of personalized stories, games which actually work quite well as genre fiction, and more), but the Danganronpa angle is one that I find myself taking more and more often these days.

I think imagination is a key factor that helps me enjoy some games to. Like older RPGs I tended to enjoy but I think it was because I kinda imagined how I wanted the characters to be and such. Later when RPGs got a lot of cutscenes it was like no... nooooo ... your ruining it for me whyyyyy.

It was like they took that part of the game away from me. Here I want to imagine my character is all cool and shit but then a cutscene pops up and he seems like an over emotional jerk.

Well hey, on the plus side, those RPGs haven't gone away. Pick up an Etrian Odyssey game or a Pokemon game sometime. You'll probably enjoy it!
Or maybe even better, give tabletop gaming a try. It doesn't even have to be an RPG; personally, I find games like Magic: the Gathering great for roleplaying.

 

[Orakio Rob]

You'd probably enjoy the hell out of Inside as that's essentially as refined a spiritual successor to OotW as you're able to play these days and all with an added level of ambiguity to give you something to process and chew on afterward. Probably the best execution of playing the story in a game ever.

Yeah, I actually really enjoyed the "narrative" in Limbo, so I'll definitely get Inside soon. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Diancecht]

I feel the same.

For the past couple of years, I started to roll my eyes whenever I see stuff like these in the games' narratives:

- Explaining every detail to the player like he or she is an idiot.

- Lazy storytelling like: Oh main character has amnesia, that's good so the player can ask questions about the game world without it being so awkward, considering the fact that the character lives in that world.

- If a game sets in the future, you can explain every fucking stupid shit that's happening in your game with "Oh we found that technology." card. How am I supposed to hack this elaborate, top of the line military secret base's main server terminal? Hold up dog lemme shit out a new technology and we can say IT IS THE FUTURE, BITCH!

- Just bad baaaaad dialog. I know writing dialog is so much harder than writing story lines oh my god just get it together games. You don't have to explain to me everything, you don't have to repeat the mission objectives over and over again. And you know what gets me? Sometimes games do this "trick" where they explain stuff not to the main character but one of the side characters so we wouldn't feel like idiots. Well guess what? It's much worse like that.

- Video games are a VISIUAL MEDIUM! You don't have to tell me that my friend died, the main character doesn't have to say that "OH NO I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY KILLED HIM" while looking at his friend's lifeless body. I get it! Witcher 3 had a scene where

Spoiler

Vesemir died and Geralt was just looking at his corpse. He didn't say anything, we just got his sadness from his eyes. It was enough.

And for the people that say stories aren't as important in the games, well I can sit through a bad story in a movie if I like the director's style, world creation, pacing, action scenes or acting is good but I just can't be arsed to play this shitty game for 10s of hours if the story writers treat me like an idiot. I just finished ME: Catalyst and for the last two hours I begged the god to let it end. It was such a slog to play that game and be subjected to that nonsense story with ignominious characters and a scandal of a game world.

There are some fantastic game stories out there and saying that story isn't important is a bit of an understatement. Different aspects like gameplay and story are what make games different than other mediums and we should always try to hold onto them.

 

[Atomski]

Yeah, I actually really enjoyed the "narrative" in Limbo, so I'll definitely get Inside soon. Thanks for the tip!

Yep Limbo was fun I look forward to getting to Inside soon.

.

Ditto alot of this is the same shit that drives me insane.

 

[Teeth]

If you want some entertaining insight on what it's like to write for a video game (and why it's impossible for institutional reasons), this 10 minute free game may be enlightening:

The Writer Will Do Something

 

[eot]

Stop trying to compare the stories to other mediums and see the stories at face value.

That's how I enjoy a story (unless it's something horribly stupid that bugs me.)

Granted, I think I still do that myself when it comes to some games.

So you just lower your standards?
Personally I value my time more than that.

 

[zoukka]

Even the most acclaimed game stories are mediocre at best when compared to any other medium.

 

[petran79]

Comparing games to books would be unfair since no medium can reach the level of detail featured in books. Early computer game text adventures were the closest to books. They felt like inteactive novels actually. Some computer games also featured small novellas together with the manual. They even featured a text parser for giving commands

Today it would be better to compare them to movies, animation, comics, manga, graphic novels etc since they seem to have cut off the roots of the early adventure games

I mean look at this manual!

"For the first time you are more than a passive reader. You talk to the story, typing in full English sentences. And the story talks right back, communicating entirely in vividly descriptive pose. What's more, you can actually shape the story's course of events through you choice of actions."

Today you'd struggle to find such level of English, even in mature games. Most manuals and in-game text looks as if they were made for elementary school.

 

[JebaćBiedę]

del

 

[JimPanzer]

Haha ok ill give an example

Guy likes GTAVs story which ugh.. really? Yet he also recommended me Kafka on the Shore which I adored... which has made me read more Japanese literature as well.

If you think game narratives pale im comparison to Murakami, I don't know what will happen if you get into actually good literature. Because, let's be honest, Murakami stories are complete nonsense.

Anyway, the demand for a good story is overrated in any medium. It's not about the story, but how you present it. Most of literatures highest peaks have very light or barely any "story".

 

[Neoleo2143]

Anyway, the demand for a good story is overrated in any medium. It's not about the story, but how you present it. Most of literatures highest peaks have very light or barely any "story".

I'm not sure of that, I consider some of the highest peaks of Literature/Narrative to be the Icelandic/Viking Family Sagas Like Laxadaela and Njal. Even Lord of the Rings, the narrative that modernized many ideas from those original stories could not replace them. However, I'm guessing you're talking about story telling elements and not necessarily story. And you'd be correct on that front.

That being said, I have an article from my new favorite Blog for this.

http://exploringbelievability.blogspot.com/2013/01/stories-in-games-survey-of-quality.html

Many Narratives in Literature are far more "mundane" than Game narratives. They are more about the human experience, about social interactions. Interactions which are incredibly difficult to replicate in gameplay, if not outright inconceivable at this point in time.

Most Games do not attempt to capture the reality of a situation so much as they attempt to gain the outlook of a fantasy.

 

[Shmuppers]

The Souls games were a relief for this reason, as their stories are implicit.

 

[spliced]

Games and stories just generally don't pair well together, I mean you're violent killer in a lot of games so trying to make a story out of that is absurd.

 

[robin2]

Ive been noticing more and more that game stories just dont do anything for me. It feels really odd cause i see people show such acclaim for some games stories yet when I play them its like I am playing a different game? Like what are they seeing that I am not?

I am starting to think maybe its because I also read a lot of books. Books on the other hand make me laugh, cry, fall in love with characters and sometimes even feel depressed as shit. I feel like I can become so engrossed in a book yet videogames its like wtf this story is hot garbage... gameplay or gtfo.

The only games that story seems to entice me at all are the ones where you kinda craft your own story. Recently I have really enjoyed Rimworld and Stellaris which really dont have stories yet its like I make my own everytime I start a new game.

So anyways anyone else have this issue? How do you deal?

Same, gameplay or gtfo.
I deal by avoiding story-driven games and "cinematic" games like plague.

 

[Mascot]

I rarely have the first clue about the plot of a game I'm playing. I guess i just don't pay attention. I know character A has to get to place B to do thing C, but for what purpose? Who knows.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

I get that not many people like stories in games and that's fine, but what I don't get is how whenever the discussion comes up people start treating TV, books, and movies like every piece of media is a bastion of story telling that outclasses any given game. The most popular type of movie right now is superhero stuff, and while there are a couple really good ones that have come out, many are mediocre to downright shockingly bad. Suicide Squad just released on Friday and just about every game with a story that I paid attention in the last year was better written/more interesting/not as cringey. So have as high of standards as you want, but actually apply them to the other media instead of exclusively applying them to games to act like they don't stand a chance.

Edit: And not to mention they're just different. A game's characters that you play as and interact, the environment, and the challenge all play into how you connect to the surrounding story. You can't just take the writing in a game and hold it up to the writing in a book because that's disingenuous.

 

[udivision]

Meh, it's not so much the story but the execution.
I don't really know what a good or bad story is in the world of video games, but I can tell when you're presenting it poorly.

 

[Macleoid]

I started to type a reply comparing the best selling fiction books with the best selling video games but I'm not sure it's a meaningful comparison. There are games which work because the 'writing' aspects of character and story hook you, but then there are games where the game aspects are the interest and regardless of story etc you can get enjoyment from the interaction.

 

[hampig]

Yeah Undertale has been sitting on my harddrive a while I need to give it a try.



Not yet, but after Kafka Im not sure I have a choice.

On the topic of TLOU no I havent played it. I kept meaning to get to it but I had to sell my ps4 when moving over seas so not sure when I will ever.

You're complaining about video game stories, but it sounds like you really haven't been playing games with great stories, so that might be your problem.

If you're looking at them like you would a book, you'll be disappointed. I think games have a few advantages that people like to ignore. Some will say only the ones that use gameplay directly to tell the story are great, but games are such a wide, varied medium.

Sometimes gameplay can almost be seen as an intermission, or just a pacing tool for games. Sometimes gameplay can set and build or maintain an atmosphere that you would never be able to convey in a book or movie.

Really I look at games more as an experience than just a story. I think how each person takes that in can be very different, and result in somebody like you who doesn't get it, and somebody like me who actually enjoyed the story of MGS4.

 

[Ooccoo]

That's why I have a hard time playing JRPGs anymore. The stories are always terrible, at least in my experience. Clichés, overused tropes, bad character development, etc. Then you have stereotypes on top of the already poor writing, excessive use of poor narration techniques, plot holes, etc. I wish more care would be put into writing, but the fact is most people don't care. And I agree to an extent, as gameplay/fun will always > the rest. I'd just like to play JRPGs where I'm not the chosen/special guy/savior who meets up with dumb little kids and braindead female leads.

 

[Hektor]

I get that not many people like stories in games and that's fine, but what I don't get is how whenever the discussion comes up people start treating TV, books, and movies like every piece of media is a bastion of story telling that outclasses any given game. The most popular type of movie right now is superhero stuff, and while there are a couple really good ones that have come out, many are mediocre to downright shockingly bad. Suicide Squad just released on Friday and just about every game with a story that I paid attention in the last year was better written/more interesting/not as cringey. So have as high of standards as you want, but actually apply them to the other media instead of exclusively applying them to games to act like they don't stand a chance.

Yes, bad movie and book storys exist too - i don't think anybody argued differently - but these medias got far higher highs. Of course movies and books had a lot more time to built up a varied and exquisite library, to be critically analyzed and to be perfected in their craftsmanship, but that doesn't matter for the here and now.

Without offense, but it sounds like you're just building a strawman by saying people are exclusively applying these standards to videogames, i haven't seen anybody doing that, not in here anyways.

Edit: And not to mention they're just different. A game's characters that you play as and interact, the environment, and the challenge all play into how you connect to the surrounding story. You can't just take the writing in a game and hold it up to the writing in a book because that's disingenuous.

You're right to say that you can not compare a planescape torment to a book, due to the way the story of the former works, but most games tend to not have such a reactive, player influenced narration.

Most videogames are nothing but following the rules established by passive media, completely disregarding the interactive nature of videogames for the actual narration.

Interactivity is merely reduced to the meaningless action sequences, allowing you to control the shootbang, even tho this not only is completely irrelevant to the actual story at hand, but often even straight up works against it's own merits, the so called "ludonarrative dissonance".

It's very easy to compare the two, when most videogames are just copying, rather than trying to do their own thing.

Games and stories just generally don't pair well together, I mean you're violent killer in a lot of games so trying to make a story out of that is absurd.

If a game is about being a violent killer, you can write a story about being a violent killer.
It's all about designing a narrative that suits the game.

NuDoom did an outstanding job with that. It's not something that will be analyzed and reviewed by art critics 50 years from now, mind you, but at least it understood how a videogame narrative is supposed to work ideally.

 

[SwaggerMcDagger]

play MGSVP

 

[Baleoce]

low your expectations, each medium must be treated accordingly, of course you wouldnt get the same kind of reaction from a book than from a game.

i dont expect the quixote when playing tokyo mirage sessions

This is definitely an important part of it.