Narratives - The things I love most about games

nThe area of readings that we've looked at for the past two weeks have been to do with the stories in games and the story of the hero within the game - this is good for me as this is the part of games that I love the most. When some people buy games they think 'How's the online?', 'What's the gameplay like?', 'What achievements does it have?'; when I buy games I think 'What's the story of the game?' and 'What's the single player like?' - so looking at these readings I found to be quite a joy.

The first reading was 'What every game developer needs to know about story' by John Sutherland who covers the whole story within a game and the second was 'Into the woods: A practical guide to the hero's journey' by Bob Bates which focus more on the character/s in the story. As I'm gonna talk about both these things in detail (as it interests me) I'm gotta separate the articles so it's easier to see where one starts and the other ends.

------
So in the first article, the main point the writer mentions is that 'Story is conflict' which is true - no matter how big or small, or what style (an external battle or internal emotional conflict) there is always conflict in a story. He breaks this down into 3 types:- internal conflict, interpersonal conflict and external conflict. Internal conflict is about mental conflict, interpersonal is conflict between people, and external is conflict between physical things (2 countries destroying each other) - the writer then goes on to say that, for the most part, these types of conflict seperate themselves depending on the media.

By this, he means that conflict happens in stories but depending on how the story is told changes which one arises. For example, a story in a book will heavily feature internal conflict as the book details the story in first or third person, talking about the character's thoughts and feelings. In a play, the conflict is interpersonal, the watcher of the play sees the conflict through the characters on stage talking to one another. And finally, external occurs in movies and games, the story unfolds before our eyes and we watch it happen and is shown thorugh the act of seeing people fight each other. This is not to say films can't feature internal conflict, etc, it just means that these are the most common ways of splitting conflict.

Stories in games in my opinion do mostly focus on the external conflict, however, I feel that the genre and type of game also affects the conflict. For example, take a shooting game or a fighting game, most of the time people buy these games for competition with other plays and the gameplay, not the story - it is there and focus on external conflict between the combatants but as it is not the focus there doesn't need to be more than this. On the other hand, if you take an RPG, where story is more central to the flow of the game, there are more types of conflict as the characters take more to the stage and we see their interactions with each other and hear more about their lives and internal conflicts.

He also mentions other things in his article, he says that the actions of a character define him in the story and that it is down to the writer to create a character that the player can empathise with. He also goes on to say that dialogue is needed to contribute towards this, however, as I have said, the amount needed varies with the genre and style of game.

The final noteworthy part of this article is what he considers to be 'the classic story structure'. The writer breaks the strucute of stories into the following points:-

• Protagonist
• Inciting incident that triggers conflict
• Gap opens between hero and normal life
• Hero tries normal actions to overcome gap and fails
• Hero begins to venture out and take risks to try and overcome gap
• Reversal happens that triggers something new that the hero has to overcome
• Hero takes a greater risk to overcome new gap
• This cycle repeats until the hero resolves the conflict

I both agree and disagree with this summary - I don't think it boils down to being that simple and not all points are necessary for a story but I agree that the beginning and end ultimately start and end in the same way in most game stories; normal ,conflict, (middle), resolution.
----
The second article I preferred somewhat as character development occurs more in RPGs and similar genres of game than others, so as I love these games the most it is more appealing. Anyway, the main point that the writer makes in this article (initially) is that stories are linked to myths - the stories told reflect good and bad moral decisions (as made by the characters) and the player plays the game to see and reaffirm these myths. He then goes on to state, what he believes the key steps are in creating the hero's journey.

The myth thing was interesting but not entirely accurate in my books - I agree that games show good and bad aspects of people and the choices that they make, but I don't agree that people play them to reaffirm this or that they get influenced at all by the games they play (it CAN happen but not often). There are things that are put in a story to get the player thinking about actions in real life but they don't guide us or anything and that isn't their purpose or why we play them - we play them for fun and because we enjoy them.

The steps that the writer outlines for the journey are as follows, 2 of which I will go into detail on as they are the most crucial part of this article in my opinion:-

• Step 1 - Pick your premise (theme, myth)
• Step 2 - Create your hero - match hero to premise*
• Step 3 - Create a villain*
• Step 4 - Show hero's regular world
• Step 5 - Disrupt hero's world
• Step 6 - Enter the mythological woods
• Step 7 - Confront the evil one
• Step 8 - Aquire the prize
• Step 9 - The hero's return

Steps 2 and 3 are the ones I wish to draw attention to as they appear most relevant to this article which focuses more on the hero than the story. The writer breaks down what he considers the key traits of the hero and villain to be (they don't need all these traits, but these are the most common ones that appear), the reason why I want to highlight these is that I think most of them are not perfectly correct or are just wrong.

I'll put next to each trait my thoughts on it. First is the hero's:-

• The Hero has courage -> Not always the case, sometimes the hero develops it in the game or gets by on dumb luck or just plain curiosity.
• The Hero is clear and resourceful -> This shouldn't be a trait, the hero can do what they want and sometime be the complete opposite of this.
• The Hero has a 'special' talent -> Again, not a trait; it sometimes adds to the story if the Hero is just an ordinary person that is driven to greatness.
• The Hero is an outlaw who lives by his own laws -> Kind of understand this one, but still...
• The Hero is good at what he or she does for a living -> What if the Hero has no job?
• The Hero is a Protagonist (leader) -> This one is just obvious...
• The Hero has been wounded -> This one makes sense, it can often be a drive and/or motivation.
• The Hero is motivated by idealism -> Comes up, but not necessarily true - the hero can be selfish but still ultimately be good.
• The Hero is sexually potent -> Um...no...

Finally, the villains traits:-

• Traits similar to the Hero -> This makes sense, the villain is often similar to the hero but better and on the opposite side.
• May be full of hubris (Pride, arrogance) -> Very often the case, can see where this comes from.
• May be an outlaw -> Again, often the case; a rebel against society.
• Traits dissimilar to the Hero -> Also makes sense, the villain can often be so unlike the hero that they contrast and conflict.
• Motivated by greed, avarice, lust for power, vanity and narcissism -> Similar to pride and arrogance, it happens a lot and makes sense.
• Never acts out of idealism, but may have an evil cause that they believe in -> Strongly disagree with this, if it had said 'Most of the time' I'd agree but as it is says never it is wrong. The villain can be a villain simply because he is on the other side of a conflict - both sides may have a just cause or just be fighting because they can, it depends on the viewpoint.
• Is often cruel -> Same as motivations.
• May win by luck -> Disagree here too, the villain is often better than the hero's and gets overcome due to the hero's actions - luck doesn't enter it...
• Is not forgiving -> Same as motivations.
• Might quit -> It can happen but I disagree, normally the villain tries to the end or ends up reforming themselves... they never just quit... not really...
• May whine and grovel, unlike hero -> Only disagree with 'unlike Hero'; hero's can whine if they wish...
• May not be stoical -> Can see this, the villain often doesn't show pleasure or pain, but it also works if they do.
• May not be loyal -> More often than not this is true.
• Usually not physically superior, sidekicks can be though -> VERY STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH THIS! The villain is normally more powerful than the Hero and the Hero struggles to overcome them as a result, sometimes the sidekick is more powerful and the main villain is weak I admit but normally if that is the case the villain will somehow empower themselves or reveal themselves to be more powerful than they let on... A weak villain? Psh...
• No special birth or destiny, though they may claim one -> Disagree, sometimes the birth or destiny causes them to be villainous...

So there we go, what allegedly makes up a hero and a villain and the hero's journey...
----
I love stories, if I could write well and I didn't love video games as much as I do I would probably be better suited to being an author than a designer; my sketches aren't brilliant pieces of art, I can't code, I can't use digital drawing software but the one thing I can do is think up stories.

Stories are why I love the games that I do (half the time at least) - most of the games that I buy and play are RPGs because of their beautifully thought out stories, histories, worlds and characters, I also enjoy playing through these stories though which is why I prefer games to films (they last longer too, a film is over after 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours but a game can span 40 hours).

I also play games that don't have much story and they are fun too, but normally for different reasons and I never like them as much my RPGs. A game that has epic cutscenes full of emotion, feelings, and action, that convey the reality of a world that actually isn't real - they are the games that truely work; obviously they have to function as playable games too, but games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid and Dragon Age have shown that cutscenes and story are just as important and gripping as any gameplay mechanic. Below are some videos of some of the best game cutscenes ever made, purely because they are gripping and envoke an emotional connection to the player...









The stories I think of are inspired by games I play and due to my love for games I make games up, thinking of the characters, the plot, everything about it - it's why I do games design. I have 4 completely full sketch pads of an RPG series of games that I have thought of the stories for from start to finish and I am currently working on the 5th - I also have ideas for another 4 in my head and, in all honestly, I have had them in my head for the past 4 years, I stopped thinking of more than this because... I had too basically.

Now these games may never get made, I obviously want them to but I know that in the games industry I will most likely work on other people's projects rather than my own but I don't care. I will always create and have the ideas of stories, especially as more and more nowadays games are coming out with a focus on on-line multilayer gaming.

The story in games are taken for granted, they need work to grip players but when done right it can connect more with people than any movie could and make for more of an experience than any gameplay mechanic could...

Anyway, 'til next time - that's all folks!