contestgamer said:
Kenryoku_Maxis said:
Games do not have a low standard for story-telling. You could say the same thing about many movies or even books, but the fact is many people put their hearts into writing for those mediums, as well as games.
The problem is games are completely different than movies or books to write for. Its one thing to write a 2 hour screenplay and make it into a movie. Its a whole other thing to write a 2 hour screenplay...and have to stretch that out to 30-60 hours, breaking up the time with gameplay, awkward cutscenes and knowing people are going to wander around exploring outside the boundaries of your story.
Having said all that, I still don't think there has been a story in a game that has been as impacting or well developed as some of the better stories in movies, television or print media. And I don't think the examples I presented are keeping the stories down. In fact, just the opposite should be the case. We should be seeing stories becoming even better BECAUSE they involve the player, exploration and direct interaction with the game world. How many people do you know who think stories in games such as Zelda, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are the 'best ever'? I'm willing to wager the majority of that comes from their enjoyment of playing the game itself and the actual meat of the 'story' is just an afterthought. Yet they identify with the story because once they're done playing the game, its what they can look back on.
What a game designer needs to do is develop a story that makes the player feel they are actually interacting and uncovering the story through their own actions, while actually having the story be something well written along the same level of some of the better books, movies and TV series out there. |
I disagree man and I'm sure many others would to...I can hardly wait to rip through the gameplay sections of MGS games to reach another cutscene with juicy story parts. I complined numerous times about the fact that you can skip cutscenes but you can't skip gameplay sections (wtf?). Gameplay is more of a chore you have to work through that makes the rewarding cutscenes all the more sweeter.
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Well, I'm sure you've heard this before, but since you're playing a game, that's why you can't skip those major gameplay areas. Perhaps you should look for an arrangement of all the scenes from a perticular MGS game and just watch them, instead of playing the actual game. Trust me, they exist. Heck, the people who made Xenogears and Final Fantasy even released DVDs of just the key scenes and FMVs collected into a movie. I'm sure you can find the same thing for MGS.
