Video Game Storytellers: The Behind The Scene Battle for Supremacy

Most gamers care about only the action they see on their gaming consoles. Little do they know that the real battle starts before any game hits the store shelves.

Ernest Adams, author of Game Design and game industry guru, identified the four major groups, clans if you will, behind the battle of the video gaming storytelling styles. They are:

• The anti-storytelling developers and gamers: They absolutely don’t want any story in their game (eg. Doom). For them, playing a video game is about meeting challenges, period.

• The pro-storytelling developers and gamers: They want to sell storytelling engines with deep characters, intricate plots, and dramatic scenery. They want to feel as if theyÂ’re inside a story.

• The narratologists: Academic theoreticians of narrative. Their stories are interesting and important if only gamers can figure them out.

• The wanna-be film directors: They make games with tons of narrative and not enough gameplay.

While all four groups of storytellers think that they are doing it right, Adams thinks all of them got it wrong. First, Adams says. they put too much emphasis on structure – inside the software – where players never see it. “Whether interactive storytelling does or does not work has nothing to do with the structure of the plots, but with how the player perceives it in the end – and what the player wants in the first place.”

Second, video game developers assume thereÂ’s one right way to do it. “Different players want different things, and games include stories for different reasons. There is no one kind of storytelling good enough for all the kinds of games in the world, or, more importantly, all the kinds of players in the world.”

Adams believes the key factor to a great video game story is how players feel about the experience. They should feel like they are contributing actions to the story as if they are interacting with the game. The bottom line: ThereÂ’s no one right way to tell a story. That depends on the game, the story, and the market. Video game developers should consider all their storytelling options and how important they are to the players.

That means you.

Most gamers care about only the action they see on their gaming consoles. Little do they know that the real battle starts before any game hits the store shelves.

Ernest Adams, author of Game Design and game industry guru, identified the four major groups, clans if you will, behind the battle of the video gaming storytelling styles. They are:

• The anti-storytelling developers and gamers: They absolutely don’t want any story in their game (eg. Doom). For them, playing a video game is about meeting challenges, period.

• The pro-storytelling developers and gamers: They want to sell storytelling engines with deep characters, intricate plots, and dramatic scenery. They want to feel as if theyÂ’re inside a story.

• The narratologists: Academic theoreticians of narrative. Their stories are interesting and important if only gamers can figure them out.

• The wanna-be film directors: They make games with tons of narrative and not enough gameplay.

While all four groups of storytellers think that they are doing it right, Adams thinks all of them got it wrong. First, Adams says. they put too much emphasis on structure – inside the software – where players never see it. “Whether interactive storytelling does or does not work has nothing to do with the structure of the plots, but with how the player perceives it in the end – and what the player wants in the first place.”

Second, video game developers assume thereÂ’s one right way to do it. “Different players want different things, and games include stories for different reasons. There is no one kind of storytelling good enough for all the kinds of games in the world, or, more importantly, all the kinds of players in the world.”

Adams believes the key factor to a great video game story is how players feel about the experience. They should feel like they are contributing actions to the story as if they are interacting with the game. The bottom line: ThereÂ’s no one right way to tell a story. That depends on the game, the story, and the market. Video game developers should consider all their storytelling options and how important they are to the players.

That means you.