Jaffe: ’storytelling not cracked properly yet’

[richardhutnik]

Scoobes said:

richardhutnik said:

KungKras said:
You want good stories in games? How about hiring professional storytellers instead of letting the developers write stories themselves?

Storytelling is a linear activity that forces the listener/viewer/reader to stay with the storyteller/story telling device and be passive.  Games are the opposite in nature, where players create their own stories.   You would need to hire a professional storyteller who understands gaming as a medium.  And that is a particular challenge actually, because not too many exist.

This is very true, but I think that as more people grow up playing story based games like Mass Effect, Uncharted 2 and MGS that more people will go into writing whilst having a basic understanding of gameplay mechanics. As the industry evolves so too will the storytelling and the writers. Certain developers are already pushing this in games like The Witcher which is based on a world written by a popular Polish fantasy author. They had direct input from him (and according to the Making of DVDs he was pretty harsh on them!) but the game itself is pretty broad and the decisions you make effect the world and story around you. Progress is slow, but it is happening.

I think we are onto something once you can have dynamically run worlds that generate their own events, without coding everything, and it is able to be engaging for the player, and encourage replayability.  If developers, in the attempt to create story-focused games, have to code EVERY SINGLE possible outcome directly, look for development costs to continue to shoot through the roof.  You will then have a bunch of decent games hitting the bargain bin, as developers go under trying to chance this path that is increasingly becoming one of folly.