Game Musings: You don't need to play a game to judge only its story.

[LordTheNightKnight]

Alic0004 said:

The idea that the generation of kids (my generation) who found games like Final Fantasy VI and later Baldur's Gate to be incredible and novel storytelling experiences would have loved the stories just as much if the games had simply been videotaped and released on VHS is pretty funny to me.

(I know you're not saying this, but I think the implications of what you're saying can pretty easily lead to this kind of absurdity if you're not careful.)

 

And by the way, the whole point of a story will always be the way it makes you feel, and inextricably, what it makes you think -- and feeling, like you've said, is completely tied to the medium the story is told within.  No storyteller on earth would worry about plot holes, awkward lines, or grammer, if ignoring these things meant they could pen a story that inspires the world or makes them and their characters immortal.  Those ideas (plot consistancy, tone, etc.) are just basic guidelines for how to craft a story that sparks people's imaginations.  You're analyzing the tools and skipping the experience.

    Not that there's anything wrong with just analyzing the tools, as long you don't somehow fool yourself into thinking you're talking about the overall experience of the story along the way.

1. Well there was the Shenmue DVD putting all the major cut scenes of the first game. But otherwise, a lot of these are a matter of pacing, so just putting them in another medium would require careful adaptation.

2. But the best storytellers did think about those, or at least made sure to avoid them. But letting them pass if they felt it would help the story is understandable, but the problem is that too many of those turn a plot into an idot plot.

3. I didn't claim I was discussing the overall experience of a story. I'm discussing why a story can still be judged without having to play a game with that story directly. The reason being that the story will not be better or worse if I do. In short, the tools will not change if I am playing the game or not.