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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Jonathan Blow: "Videogames are terrible for telling stories"

exdeath said:

Spoken obviously by someone who's never played Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade Chronicles, Final Fantasy 4, The Last of Us, Ni no Kuni,  etc.

Some games like Xenogears even transcend their physical media and hardware platform.

Did you read the article?



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Mystro-Sama said:
Locknuts said:
I agree with him. Books and film are far superior. The best stories in games are the ones you discover yourself while playing such as the audio logs in System Shock/Bioshock/Dead Space or text you find lying about the place. Stories told via cutscenes are stupid and immersion-breaking.


I feel the complete opposite. What breaks the immersion is stopping to pick up those damn audiologs while standing there and listening to them or getting hit by enemies while trying to listen to it.

Immersion is not the same as storytelling. Games are good in other areas, but storytelling is behind movies and even more behind books, because game developers cannot control the story in the same way a movie director or a book author can, as the player can always decide to do something else as what was intended and breaking the storyline in that. "Oh, the world is threatened by this incredible force, so as the main character in the story I decide to do some fetch quests first to level up before facing that boss."



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StarOcean said:
Eh, same goes for books and movies in my case. For me at least, video games are the best for telling stories.

Video games can be more fun to play than watch a movie or read a book. But not because of the storytelling. It's like saying you enjoyed a joyride at an amusement park, because the storyline was so great. Entertainment has many facettes, and the interactivity of video gaming is something books and movies don't offer, still they can have the more detailed stories.



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Mnementh said:

Immersion is not the same as storytelling. Games are good in other areas, but storytelling is behind movies and even more behind books, because game developers cannot control the story in the same way a movie director or a book author can, as the player can always decide to do something else as what was intended and breaking the storyline in that. "Oh, the world is threatened by this incredible force, so as the main character in the story I decide to do some fetch quests first to level up before facing that boss."

I don't agree with this. While books and movies are unmatched when it comes to focused storytelling, games have that advantage that their worlds and characters inhabiting them can be more fleshed out and more intricate than in books and movies. Every details of the game can be fleshed out and a carrier for a part of the story. While in movies, everything has to have an impact for the limited time that detail has on screen, and in books, too much details given makes it tedious to read (see Tolkien). The potential is simply not the same. Each medium has their own strength and weaknesses. 

When it comes to video games, there are more and more good stories being told, but in general, it's not the medium that lags behind movies, but the writers and directors.



Looks like someone hasn't play Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Super Paper Mario, Mother 3, and many other great titles.



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His opinion blows.



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Mystro-Sama said:

http://www.play-mag.co.uk/interview/videogames-are-terrible-for-telling-stories-says-jonathan-blow/

________

 

I think this might be one of the dumbest things i've ever heard, and coming from a developer at that. Personally I think video games surpassed movies in story telling. Theres nothing a movie can do that a game can't.


The cut the BS translation of this so called fact  seems to me like the following

"I can't make a game with a good interactive storie so by defenition noonelse can, the fact that games as Last of Us, Uncharted, Halo, Witcher etc. excist is just an error in the matrix".

Just a developer with a Napoleon complex if you ask me



Please excuse my (probally) poor grammar

Hynad said:
Mnementh said:

Immersion is not the same as storytelling. Games are good in other areas, but storytelling is behind movies and even more behind books, because game developers cannot control the story in the same way a movie director or a book author can, as the player can always decide to do something else as what was intended and breaking the storyline in that. "Oh, the world is threatened by this incredible force, so as the main character in the story I decide to do some fetch quests first to level up before facing that boss."

I don't agree with this. While books and movies are unmatched when it comes to focused storytelling, games have that advantage that their worlds and characters inhabiting them can be more fleshed out and more intricate than in books and movies. Every details of the game can be fleshed out and a carrier for a part of the story. While in movies, everything has to have an impact for the limited time that detail has on screen, and in books, too much details given makes it tedious to read (see Tolkien). The potential is simply not the same. Each medium has their own strength and weaknesses. 

When it comes to video games, there are more and more good stories being told, but in general, it's not the medium that lags behind movies, but the writers and directors.

I talked about storytelling, you talk about world-exploration and character decription. A poem can describe excellent a person / an emotion / a scene in the world. But they don't tell stories. Because these descriptions aren't stories, they are descriptions. That doesn't mean they aren't enjoyable - many persons prefer poems over novels. But that's the point: because they focus onto something else than story. These elements you describe can create a deeper emotional attachment to a character or a world, but they are still not the story. That said: that doesn't mean these elements aren't enjoyable. So you mixing up story with world and character description, although they are something different. I agree, a game offers options for these elements other media doesn't have. But create the most artful storyline by controlling pacing is done best in a book, followed by movies.



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Video games tell stories quite well, especially with long RPGs, but obviously they're Norway near as good as as reading a book. I've read the witcher books up to the ones that have been translated and they're unbelievable you get so engrossed and the story is so deep with history on the characters and world. Then you play the game and while it's still amazing it loses that feel you have when getting engrossed in the books. In fact while I'm on the subject it's slightly dissapointing they decided to end Geralts and ciris adventure on the game.



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