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Ubisoft wants "less and less storytelling" in their games.

Which Ubisoft trend from this generation do you enjoy the most?


Results are only viewable after voting.

Iceternal

Member
In an interview for the French journal "Le Monde" , Serge Hascoët, creative director at Ubisoft for 16 years, said that they want less storytelling in their games and want to let players experience "their own story".

Kind of like emergent story telling.

They said games like Far Cry or Assassin's Creed had a lot of storytelling but that was "the usual way, the easy way" of making games and they want to end it.


http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/articl...ns-en-moins-de-narration_5031610_4408996.html


I personally think it's BS and will make it easier for me to ignore their games.

Also they should look at what CD Projekt Red does and question their choices.
 

Richie

Member
If this means more games like Rayman Legends, hit me with 'em!

Interesting sentiment on their part though, actively against the trends of most if the industry.
 

hughesta

Banned
Sounds good to me. I wanna play a game and have fun, the more time spent in unskippable cutscenes or slowly walking and talking, the better.
 

kagamin

Member
Maybe I would care more if they made better stories in the first place, not to discount how much fun I've had with their games that I've played though.
 
I would consider this a great loss if Ubisoft games actually had stories or writing worth paying attention to.

Games like Far Cry have all the plot development and dialogue of a 14 year old school English project so I'all probably survive without it.
 
Judging by the average quality of stories in Ubisoft games, I'm fine with them moving away from trying to do big AAA cinematic stories.
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
I think the whole truth is that they simply dont want to invest in single player games at all.
 
Oh, jeez. I really enjoyed Syndicate, but one of its problems is that it had a fantastic cast (plus some great villains), but had a pretty sparse story overall. I was hoping Ubisoft wasn't going to double-down on this.
 
Games like Far Cry have all the plot development and dialogue of a 14 year old school English project so I'all probably survive without it.

Would you play Far Cry without a story, though?

I mean, we all have our Far Cry stories about how we accidentally did something that set off a chain of events that led to a cassowary taking out an entire outpost or something, but is that enough to carry a whole game?

I don't really see how they can do this with AI as it is at the moment. They'd have to have NPCs who react like humans and make different choices depending on events, which leads to more NPCs making more choices and eventually that's so out of control you can't possibly program it.
 

Atomski

Member
Sounds good to me to..

I feel like I play more games these days while listening to podcasts/audiobooks.. game stories just feel like a waste of time. I just want to play have fun and be challenged.
 

Gnome

Member
Mafia III, Witcher 3 , Uncharted ...

You can't say these have bad storytelling.

For video games sure, but remove the caveat and those are all pretty mediocre.

By no means though do I think games should give up trying. The problem is a hard one to solve, as games aren't a pure storytelling medium like books, films, or tv.
 

kagamin

Member
Mafia III, Witcher 3 , Uncharted ...

You can't say these have bad storytelling.

I'd personally place KOTOR 2 above those ones but sure I agree, but of course the medium is filled with such general mediocrity in terms of story that people just feel they can dismiss all of it.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Well shit, that's bad news.

If we were talking about something like Doom, sure, but Ubi makes open world games. Take away the story and there's nothing left. "Make your own story" is bullshit.

You need a framework. At least I do. Without characters and narrative to push things along, I'm not sure I would even bother.

I'd personally place KOTOR 2 above those ones but sure I agree, but of course the medium is filled with such general mediocrity in terms of story that people just feel they can dismiss all of it.
General mediocrity? Come on. Not all stories need to be oscar winners to be engaging and fun. If you subtract the story and characters from something like Assassin's Creed 2 the whole game would just feel pointless. It's not a brilliant narrative but it's fun.
 

Iceternal

Member
He also says the next Assassin's Creed will be the first game to showcase this approach.

He also says linear games sell less these days, which is not necessarily true .
 

Rizific

Member
I'm with it. The less story getting in the way of actual gameplay, the better. I skip cutscenes and dialogue all together. And fuck devs that don't let you skip those.
 
Ubisoft stories are usually pretty weak. Not saying they don't get it right sometimes but in the majority of their games I've played I wasn't very into what was going on and just wanted to get back to the action.

Then again I still haven't touched a lot of their stuff, so maybe I'm just missing out.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
I have been caring a lot less for story in games. I want fun games, games that suck me in and make me want to play into the night. Story rarely does that for me unless I'm binge watching a netflix series.

Gran Turismo games owned my soul on the summers. Those games had no story. SF4, Marvel vs Capcom 3, and Playstation All Stars ruled my PS3 last gen, no story.
 

televator

Member
Why does it have to be such a binary choice? "Let's have story telling or lets not have it in any game ever." Sounds dumb. Where's all the "artistic integrity" defenders?
 

Tagyhag

Member
Considering this is Ubi we're talking about, I'm fine with that.

For every Child of Light or Valiant Hearts you get 10 Assassin's Creeds.
 

Madness

Member
More like they just want a Destiny, Division, and GTA Online style game where they don't have to spend a lot of time and money building an elaborate story, but just throw gamers in a virtual world and let them create and grind or do what they want etc. Not saying one way is necessarily better than the other. But it seems they don't want to invest in emotional and story heavy single player games now, just focus more on coop and multiplayer moba and online connected open world games, loaded with microtransactions and carrot/stick grinding to hook people.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I have been caring a lot less for story in games. I want fun games, games that suck me in and make me want to play into the night. Story rarely does that for me unless I'm binge watching a netflix series.

Gran Turismo games owned my soul on the summers. Those games had no story. SF4, Marvel vs Capcom 3, and Playstation All Stars ruled my PS3 last gen, no story.
Those are pure gameplay titles. That's not what UbiSoft makes.

They make open world games. That's the issue.

Considering this is Ubi we're talking about, I'm fine with that.

For every Child of Light or Valiant Hearts you get 10 Assassin's Creeds.
...and you think those games would be improved by removing all story and characters? That was never the issue.
 

dreamfall

Member
This would be the wrong direction to take for their open world titles. I think there is so much room and opportunity to create a good story in their video games. Better writers, better characterization, and a renewed focus on ensuring that the player is engaged with their stories could be a more refreshing take.
 
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