What makes a good game? (Part 1)
I'll admit it. I'm a video game geek. I like to play video games...a lot. My wife could easily make the argument that I play them too much. But I do have to interject that unlike many other video game geeks out there, I won't play just any game. For me to play a game it has to have some sort of unique appeal. There are certain prerequisite characteristics it needs to exhibit before it becomes worthy of my time. In general terms, these characteristics are storyline (Part 1), replay ability (Part 2), multiplayer (Part 3), and realism (Part 4). While a lot of games out there exhibit these characteristics, the mere fact they have them doesn't necessarily make them good games.
Storyline
Almost every game out there has a storyline. The quality, believability, and implementation of the storyline is vital to a game's overall quality. Game studios hire on people exclusively to write the storyline for their games. Usually though, the storyline is what comes first and the game gets designed around that. Being the cornerstone of the game necessitates that the storyline be of good quality to begin with.
What makes a good storyline? That's highly debatable. To me, a good storyline is one that draws on other good storylines for influence. Don't misunderstand me here. I don't want cookie cutter stories that are straight up copies of others. It's possible for writers to draw on other great stories for influence and still have their own unique story. One example of this is Star Wars. George Lucas' story draws on many ancient myths and legends for content. But his story is his own and isn't a rip off of any other. The reason myths and legends last is because they are good stories. In the video game industry, one of the most successful games out there does just this. Bungie studios drew heavily on other science fiction stories and mythology for the Halo storyline. The biggest draw of Halo 3, the most successful game release in history, was not the new action scenes or features, but the storyline. People wanted to know how it all ended. Halo 3 is the perfect example of how storyline can carry a game, even a first-person shooter.
Another key quality of a good storyline is that it draws the player into it and makes you feel as if you're part of the storyline. With role playing games, this is vital. When other genre games are able to do this, it's usually a highly successful story. A game that did this well was BioWare's Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic game. While the game had its issues with technology, the story was almost flawless. The player was drawn into the story and actually cared what happened to the characters. The more characters are developed, the more players know them and actually care about what happens to them.
What makes a bad storyline? There are too many ways to list, but I'll try. Not including a background to the story is probably the biggest mistake game studios make. Even if your game is a sequel, you need to bring your audience up to speed about what's going on. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 made this mistake. The player was thrown into the game with absolutely no background given. The worst mistake that can be made, besides not including a background, is relegating that background story to the game manual included with the disc. No one reads those. Another way to make a bad story is to not close out the plot of the main story arc. Players don't like cliffhangers or plot holes unless the sequel has already been promised.
Basically, what makes a storyline good or bad is the same is the same as that for movies. With video games though, it seems storyline has taken a back seat most of the time whereas in the film industry storyline is usually foremost on the producers mind.
The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames
Part 1
Storyline
Almost every game out there has a storyline. The quality, believability, and implementation of the storyline is vital to a game's overall quality. Game studios hire on people exclusively to write the storyline for their games. Usually though, the storyline is what comes first and the game gets designed around that. Being the cornerstone of the game necessitates that the storyline be of good quality to begin with.
What makes a good storyline? That's highly debatable. To me, a good storyline is one that draws on other good storylines for influence. Don't misunderstand me here. I don't want cookie cutter stories that are straight up copies of others. It's possible for writers to draw on other great stories for influence and still have their own unique story. One example of this is Star Wars. George Lucas' story draws on many ancient myths and legends for content. But his story is his own and isn't a rip off of any other. The reason myths and legends last is because they are good stories. In the video game industry, one of the most successful games out there does just this. Bungie studios drew heavily on other science fiction stories and mythology for the Halo storyline. The biggest draw of Halo 3, the most successful game release in history, was not the new action scenes or features, but the storyline. People wanted to know how it all ended. Halo 3 is the perfect example of how storyline can carry a game, even a first-person shooter.
Another key quality of a good storyline is that it draws the player into it and makes you feel as if you're part of the storyline. With role playing games, this is vital. When other genre games are able to do this, it's usually a highly successful story. A game that did this well was BioWare's Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic game. While the game had its issues with technology, the story was almost flawless. The player was drawn into the story and actually cared what happened to the characters. The more characters are developed, the more players know them and actually care about what happens to them.
What makes a bad storyline? There are too many ways to list, but I'll try. Not including a background to the story is probably the biggest mistake game studios make. Even if your game is a sequel, you need to bring your audience up to speed about what's going on. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 made this mistake. The player was thrown into the game with absolutely no background given. The worst mistake that can be made, besides not including a background, is relegating that background story to the game manual included with the disc. No one reads those. Another way to make a bad story is to not close out the plot of the main story arc. Players don't like cliffhangers or plot holes unless the sequel has already been promised.
Basically, what makes a storyline good or bad is the same is the same as that for movies. With video games though, it seems storyline has taken a back seat most of the time whereas in the film industry storyline is usually foremost on the producers mind.
The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames
Labels: Gaming, Halo 3, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
~CodeMonkey at
4/29/2008 10:50:00 AM
1 Comments:
Storyline is definitely the hallmark of the Halo franchise. The writers at Bungie are a bunch serious story geeks. And some well read S.O.Bs as well. It's amazing how often I stumble onto some piece of literature that is clearly the seed of something in Halo.
But they also have their own twist on the ideas. The zombie game has been done to death, but the plant-like nature of The Flood is fairly unique in the modern era. You'd have to go back to classic movies like Body Snatchers, Puppetmasters or the Thing. And those aren't even good analogs since they don't deal with the reanimation of corpses. The Flood take Puppetmasters another step down the road to Creepsville.
Bungie has also taken great steps to extend their story with the novels and the videos for Halo 3. And the fact that the novels have been so successful is a testimate to quality and depth of the core back story. Most novels building on the story from other media (movies, tv, etc) flounder because the original story didn't have the depth to support extension. This goes double for movie sequels. The Halo novels work well.
I have a few other ideas that I'd to expand on, but I don't want to fill up you blog. If I get a chance, I'll post them in mine. Don't hold your breath.
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