Currently Online 
JuliusHackebeil said:
Hm, the Half-Life example is difficul for me. I tend to say it is gameplay, since you can walk around while somebody is talking to you. But not far and you cannot cut anybody of and you have to listen (never played it, just an assumption). So there is not much point in you still being able to walk around in the first place. You don't tell a story by walking two meters back and torth. ... Or perhaps you do - feels like a slippery slope, but you standing with your face turned away while somebody talks to you as very different from looking at that somebody. Would just be neat if that somebody reacts to your position in the room by altering what is said. I feel similary conflicted by stuff you find in the world. On the one hand, yes, this is not you telling a story through gameplay. But you experience it through gameplay. It is not a cutscene where interactivity is taken away from you. Say you cannot interact with whatever you see, but you can decide to watch it, or walk by. These are very much different modes of play. You can rush through, or you can decide to stay for a few minutes and ponder the implications of that open cage and the blody smears beside it. It is different from holding yordas hand, but on some minor level it still is story through gameplay. |
In Half-life you can indeed walk away, some characters will follow you a bit or simply stop talking, however they never alter their script.
I wouldn't call this story telling through gameplay:
That's me goofing off in Blood and Truth while the dude rattles off his script completely ignoring me. It's the same in Half-life except there you can walk away if you please. (Not everywhere, some doors magically unlock after the character finishes his monologue)
It's the same in God Of War with the head telling stories while you're in the boat. He stops when you get out and resumes the story when you set off again.
Being able to stop and ponder is an important part of games that movies don't have. Pacing is an important gameplay element but actual stoy telling through gameplay is more subtle. Papers please is a good example. It makes you do a tedious job, trying to make ends meet while putting the lives of others in your hands. Not so easy now to condemn those uncaring border agents. Putting the player through difficult choices is one way to tell a story.
True about Everquest and MMORPGs in general. I've played them for years and have very little retention of any story the game wanted to present. If the makers of the game wanted to tell a story, then they failed. Same with Elite Dangerous. These games provide the tools to make your own story, providing a blank slate as a character who you yourself give a background and bring to life in the game. Indeed totally different from a game like God of War where you live his life and learn about his past etc. Sometimes it clashes, at some point I didn't want to progress any further with TW3 since the only options the game gave me were all diametrically opposed to my ideas about Geralt from the books and how I wanted to play him. I was in deadlock for days until I decided to give up on the role play and enjoy the exploration min/maxing elements of the game. I mostly skipped.rushed through any further main quest stuff, still don't know how the main story ended despite finishing the game.
The best way to tell a story through gameplay is to simply put you in the situation. Many players dislike the slow start of heavy rain, yet the part where you are the dad just taking care of your kid after a bad divorce still resonates strongly with me. Is it game play? I think so.
Papa & Yo also manages to tell a story of an alcoholic abusive father through bright cheery game play. It is helped by a few cut scenes to drop clues, but a lot of it plays out in the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papo_%26_Yo
One of the key elements of the game is Monster, a giant that Quico discovers while navigating through the slums. Monster at first appears to be very kind and helpful. He can be made to hold down pressure plates and his belly can be used as a super-trampoline to reach rooftops. Monster has an addiction for eating frogs and if he eats one he becomes a fiery, raging beast that will damage anything around him, even Quico if he cannot get away quickly enough. The player can use a fruit to calm him.
