http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9231&Itemid=59

By Joe Keiser
Braid Developer Jonathan Blow thinks that games have a long, long way to go before they can elicit emotion from their storytelling, and goes off on games that aren't a good enough job.
"Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is just as robotic and lifeless a game as any first person shooter that came out in 1998. It just looks better," says Blow, as he discusses his excitement and subsequent disappointment at how Valve used its character technology. In his session, Inverting the Design Perspective, Blow states plainly that he thinks we're far away from solving the issue of emotional storytelling in games, that the problem is extremely hard to solve, and that a lot of current attempts at solving the issue are way off base. Blow thinks that to look at the problem, you have to look at games from every possible angle. Perhaps they're consumer products, in which case the design is driven by budget and market desire. Perhaps they're escapism, but what does that even mean? "It sounds like I'm babbling about nothing," says Blow. Blow thinks God of War and its ilk are "distasteful," asking why we keep making the same sort of game over and over again. He think casual games like Peggle are even more distasteful, and that they pander to the player's desire for mastery. There are many more ways to look at games, but Blow likes the idea of "games as communication," because decisions on how to relay information to the player can grow into ways to relay art and therefore emotion.

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Maybe I am not understanding what he means but  is he saying story telling in games don't invoke different emotions for players. I have to disagree with him if that is the case.  Again maybe I misunderstanding what he is trying to say but I played alot of games with great story telling.  I guess it really depends on the person as some people may feel an emotion when watching a movie or readin a book or not.  I think video games are about the same as those media maybe even more.  Really is about the writing if you want to invoke an emotion though seeing it can also have an affect.

Yeah it's all relative. Some people are extremely moved and touched by certain characters/stories while others will quickly write them off as bland and uninteresting.

However i'd definitely disagree with him when he says overall we have a long ways to go before any games can elicit emotions.

Personally, I agree with him on most points ...

Right now the best story telling in games is on a lower level than TV and Movies which (for the most part) is fairly bad; on top of this most of this "good" game story telling is done using cut-scenes which means that we're trying to put a static story into a dynamic experience. At best there are a couple of different paths that a person can see the story of a game which are (trivially) impacted by choices the player made.

Some games (like Metroid and to a lesser extent Resident Evil) have had the story told through the users exploration of the world but this (for the most part) leaves the user with a detatched sense of the story.

I've never really been moved by anything in a game like I have been in a book, or movie, or T.V. show. The storytelling does have a long way to go before it gets people to elicit emotions. I think a lot of people would say their most emotional moment in videogaming is Aerith's death in FF7, and that was 11 years ago. Please don't group me in with those people though. I think a few developers are trying to push the boundaries; Team ICO, 2K Boston, maybe Bioware(haven't played Mass Effect yet). It's a start. That tech demo Heavy Rain did a great job of invoking emotions. What ever happened to that project? Wasn't it by the Indigo Prophecy team?

playing Japanese version of Crisis Core and I have to say, it's a lot more touching that any of the garbage we see on TV now-a-day.

so I won't be trashing game's storyline anytime soon.

I agree the stories games get aren't that great but this guy really doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it games to gaming. According to him games like God of War and Peggle are a waste of space...and while neither is my personal favorite they absolutely have a place in gaming.

Basically he has a vision of making all games part of a communication experience and anything that doesn't fit into his vision should be considered worthless...to me it just sounds like he wants to be the gaming Nazi or something...

No thanks~

 That's the vibe I got, too.

If a game is trying to get an emotional response and doesn't, that's obviously a failure. And emotional responses are important in story-driven games.

However, if a game isn't story-driven and isn't trying to evoke an emotional response, who cares? Was chess a bad game because you weren't emotionally engaged with any of the pawns? He's setting up a false requirement for making a good game.

I completely disagree with this guy on all counts--Kingdom Hearts made me cry like a baby--both at the ending and at many points throughout. Kotor, Breakdown, Halo, Eternal Sonata (so far), Bioshock--hell, I even managed to sympathize with Marcus Fenix since I knew the backstory of why he was put in jail and his mixed feelings about the fighting.

And that's just the story-based games--I've developed what feels like a real emotional relationship with my Nintendogs--they take the edge off when I'm stressed, I feel bad when they run away, and they are so cute I smile whenever I see them.

So, in short, no--emotional games are already here, and have been for a long time.



However, we'll undoubtedly see leaps and bounds in this area in the next part of our lifetimes. Anyone ever watch .hack? I strongly believe that, 10-15 years from now, we'll have worlds like that. I'm not talking about MMOs, since wealready have those, but I mean games where we grow very attached to other players, or alternatively, develop heated rivalries or hate toward them. And it will be accepted and it will be just like relationships between real people.

Also, for better or for worse, I think we'll eventually (in maybe 50 years or so) we'll start to see things like Cortana from Halo or Schwarzenegger's friend's 'girlfriend' from The Sixth Day.

Thoughts?

I think the worst part was trying to use a game like Peggle to prove his point. I don't think anyone ever purchased Peggle and felt like they got the short end of the stick because of lack of emotion.

I was reading an interview he conducted with MTV during the last GDC in 06. He sounds like a dick there too. He makes a few valid points though. His game Braid, which is coming to XBLA and PC looks really interesting. It doesn't solve his bitching about storytelling, but it has a nice gameplay twist supoposedly, and won some awards. 

Maybe gamers are focusing too much on completing the game. They only read key words or bolded words. They will grab just enough information to solve a puzzle. After completing the game they only noticed the main story.

Mission/Objecttives shouldn't be read from a pauze menu. The character itself should be thinking: "Hmmm this door is locked. Maybe be there's a key on the desk." Goes searching... "Shit, I can't find it." Hears footsteps.. "Ohh noo someone is coming. Shall I hide?" Hides... "He definetly has the key. Shall I kill him, talk my way out of this or wait until he leaves?"

With this you'll emerce more with the character you are playing. The bad thing is you know what your options are. It makes the game easier. It should be mixed with some action scenes.