Feature: Are Stories Always Needed?

Game developers today are infatuated with the idea of cinematic storytelling. Some games, like Mass Effect, pull it off masterfully. The entire game is built around the story, and as such it works out very well. But I question if it’s a necessity for every action game to also insert a cinematic story. When games like Guitar Hero have stories added to them, clearly it’s being taken too far. The fact of the matter is that most of the time action games fail miserably at delivering even a B-rate storyline. So why are these action game developers, who clearly don’t have the storytelling chops, so focused on adding a story to their game? Does every game need a story?

In the Olden Days…

Twenty years ago, there was a clear divide in video game storytelling. If you wanted a strong story, you would play an adventure game or RPG. If, on the other hand, you wanted to jump right into the action without being bogged down, you’d play an action game that had merely a rough premise. This separation usually worked out well.

The original Super Mario Bros., for example, had almost no story. There was a premise – you needed to save the princess – and that was basically it. You quickly started the game without pages of text to read, or cut scenes to slow you down. The game maintains a constant flow of action until you either win or lose. This model is replicated in more recent Mario games. While there are additional story elements, Nintendo still makes an effort to not have the story intrude on the action.

Unfortunately, this can’t be said for other developers. Just look at some of the recent games I’ve reviewed here. The best parts of inFamous 2 are the combat and movement segments, both which are action-heavy. Why, then, is so much of the action broken up with cut scenes focusing on their generic super hero storyline? Or, for a more egregious example of failing at storytelling, look at Duke Nukem Forever.

In Duke Nukem 3D, you start out with your gun and jump right into the action. The shooting is only momentarily interrupted by brief diversions like button puzzles. Overall, though, the campaign is very much run and gun. Contrast this to the start of Duke Nukem Forever, where you spend more time in cut scenes than you do shooting aliens. While there’s not quite as many cut scenes in the latter parts of the game, they certainly are still there and certainly do slow down the action. Did this more invasive story win them regard? No, it just earned the ire of most reviewers.

Had Duke Nukem Forever followed the approach of its predecessor, it probably would have turned out better. Sure, the game would have been a couple of hours shorter, but the tradeoff would be justified. Instead of having the action bogged down with a pointless and derivative story, it would be one dead alien after another. There still would be the other serious problems I mentioned in my review, of course, but at least one major issue would have been fixed.

Building a Good Video Game Story

If a developer is intent on adding a cinematic story, then they must be dedicated to it. BioWare spends significant development resources to craft their stories. Each project has several writers, in addition to a team of artists and designers who only focus on cut scenes. As a result, they are generally able to deliver a solid storytelling experience. BioWare certainly isn’t the only developer who’s succeeded in this department. There are other developers who have succeeded because they, too, have both the talent and the resources needed to pull it off.

Unfortunately, many companies simply aren’t built this way. It’s not unheard of to have a junior designer responsible for the writing of a big-budget FPS. In these instances, millions of dollars are poured into the project, but the story is an afterthought. The staging of the cut scenes is left up to mission designers, which usually don’t have the particular skill set needed to produce compelling segments. It makes me wonder why these developers even bother with a story if they are going to invest so few resources into it. I’ve seen this happen and it’s pretty depressing.

In other instances, developers will contract a professional writer to pen the script. The problem is that most of these writers are not experienced with video game development. That means that while they may be able to provide solid dialogue and main story points, what they provide alone is not enough. You still need several capable team members to deliver your epic story. There are cases where this can work out relatively well, like the original Modern Warfare, but for every success story there are several failures. Academy award nominee John Milius wrote the script for Homefront, for example, but many reviewers still complained of the game’s story.

I wonder if a better way to utilize a professional writer would be to bring them in as a script doctor. This is done in film all the time; one person writes a draft, and another screenwriter comes in to punch up the dialogue. This practice often isn’t credited, and as such it’s difficult to discern how prevalent the practice is. A famous example that comes to mind is playwright Tom Stoppard, who ended up rewriting large portions of the dialogue in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you evaluate the dialogue of all the Indiana Jones films, it’s no surprise then that the writer of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead came up with the wittiest lines.

This process could also be applied to video games. The internal story team would be responsible for an early draft of the script, which still would have to be of reasonable quality. But later in the process, you could bring in a professional screenwriter and have them refine the dialogue and fix plot holes. This way you’re playing to the strengths of the writer. Rather than them having to be involved in unfamiliar stages of development, they would do what they know how to do best. Some studios already do this, but I think it’s a practice that should be done more often.

The Multiplayer Fix

Two months after the release of the first Modern Warfare game, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling posted some eye-opening statistics about the game. Less than 50% of players had completed the five-hour campaign. You could partially explain this statistic by the fact that it was only two months after release. More surprisingly, 30% of players hadn’t even completed the tutorial mission that takes no more than ten minutes.

Where did these players go? It’s not much of a leap to infer that these players were only playing multiplayer. This seems to be a common trend in FPS games, especially. A certain hardcore contingent doesn’t even bother with the single player component of the game. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that these players find more of a challenge in multiplayer, but I think at least part of it is that the multiplayer provides non-stop, no frills action.

But what about the players who want the non-stop action, but don’t want to play online? What about the countless games where it quickly becomes difficult to find multiplayer matches because the players have migrated back to the current Call of Duty or Halo? In these instances, there’s nowhere the action-focused gamer can go.

There’s Still Hope

I think part of the reason we see more attempts at stories in action games is a monetary one. There seemingly is an expectation now that if a AAA title doesn’t have a story, it’s not really AAA. I definitely disagree with that assessment. I think every game needs to be evaluated independently to determine whether or not it really benefits from a story. Only once it’s determined that the story is necessary and can be executed well should a development team move forward with it.

I should also be clear that I don’t have a problem with an action game having a story as long as it’s done well and doesn’t detract from the core experience. The problem is that too often, it’s done so poorly that it does much more harm than good. If you’re going to add a story, it has to be enjoyable; otherwise, you’re better off sticking with just a premise.

Feature articles appear every Wednesday on Game Canary.

Categories: Features

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