Sometimes, all a gamer wants to do is to sit on the couch with a bag of Doritos on their left and a Mountain Dew on their right. They want to get lost in a mind numbing, shoot ’em up zombie game. Other times, it feels wonderful to get immersed in the narrative of an open-world video game, being a character in a different world, making the choices you would like to make [IRL] but can’t.
Narrative in games [mainly video games] is often necessary and not necessary. It entirely depends on the type of player and the type of game that they want to play. Games have evolved over the years, from simple games such as Pong and Tetris with minimal narrative involved, to games like What Remains of Edith Finch — a first-person narrative adventure video game. In the game, you follow Edith Finch as she explores the history of her family and tries to figure out why she is the last Finch left alive. You are in control of the on screen player but really only maneuver around an old home and collect items to put the story into place. The graphics and cinematography really are what pull the game together and help connect the dots of what happened to the Finch family. What Remains of Edith Finch picks up the baton and designs a different race for it. At stake is not whether a game can tell a good story or even a better story than books or films or television. Rather, what it looks like when a game uses the materials of games to make those materials visible, operable, and beautiful (Bogost, 2017). While each story is ultimately about death, it is wonderful how full of life each and every tale is. Even something as heart wrenching as the death of a child is presented with such exuberant creativity and magic. While experiencing the final moments of their lives is unquestionably tragic, they way they embrace it and welcome whatever might come next filled each story with light (Sliva, 2017).
With games like What Remains of Edith Finch and many other RPGs (role playing games) the setting and environment makes and is much of the narrative. In DOOM, BioShock, and almost every other first-person game ever made, the emptiness of the environment becomes essential to its operation. 3D games are settings as much as experiences — perhaps even more so. And the Finch estate is a remarkable setting, imagined and executed in intricate detail (Bogost, 2017). Because of the major role setting and environment play in video games this aspect of the industry has skyrocketed.
Graphics and design are the spotlight of the video game industry casting a shadow over narrative and plot. Each year it seems a new Call of Duty or Halo game comes out and the only thing that seems to have changed is the games graphics, credit that should also be given to the television makers. Some games however do take narrative in their games very serious. What started this trend? One answer could be cinema envy. The game industry has long dreamed of overtaking Hollywood to become the “medium of the 21st century” (Bogost, 2017).
While the evolution of games and narrative writing in games is growing at a record pace, there has almost always been some sort of premise or storyline to games. Even before cinematography and graphics in games, there was a way to tell a story. Take Clue for instance — the classic murder-mystery board game originally published in England in the 1940’s. Clue is the ultimate narrative game, where players determine who murdered the game’s victim, where the crime took place, and which weapon was used. Each player assumes the first-person role of one of the six suspects, and attempts to deduce the correct answer by strategically entering rooms of a mansion and collecting clues about the circumstances of the murder from the other players. Each time the game is played the storyline changes, and becomes easier or more difficult depending on the amount of players.
If a game is supposed to have a good story, it tends to not have very complicated gameplay. And if a game is all gameplay then it tends to not have a very strong story. Tim Kallman (2017) has a good point illuminating that games DO NOT need a story, “video games are merely just a tool for us to visit an alternate reality, one that’s more ideal than our own. If you want a story, go read a book, watch a sitcom and laugh with the track, just don’t complain about video games.” Do you agree?
References
Bogost, I. (2017, April 25). Video Games Are Better Without Stories. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/
Kallman, T. (2017, September 13). Do Games Need a Story? Retrieved from https://www.gamerdemonelite.com/articles/do-games-need-a-story/
Sliva, M. (2017, April 26). What Remains of Edith Finch Review. Retrieved from http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04/26/what-remains-of-edith-finch-review
