How Do Stories Attach You To Games?
Somewhere around the third or forth character I created in Champions Online I realized I just really didn't care about the Qularr invasion.
There I was bouncing about with super powers in a gorgeous environment, but although the landscape was visually engrossing, try as I might I couldn't get attached to the conflicts on any visceral level. This ennui stuck with me through the progression of multiple characters and no matter what quests I was fired off towards, I just really didn't care. Go there, get this, kill these, come back. Having never played the pen and paper game I didn't know who any of the "Champions" were, didn't know any of the races, didn't really have any vested interest in the conflicts I found myself tasked with fixing. I had no connection to anything happening around me on any immersive level, and that more than anything else was why I feel melancholy about the game right now.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was one of the first RTSes I've ever played. It was on a demo CD attached to a gaming magazine I was given by a childhood friend and I played it over and over again until I finally successfully pestered my parents to buy the retail disc (I think I'm reverse-aging myself here). I have played every game in the series, even read one of the books, so when I finally bought World of Warcraft and was actually stomping around in these locations, first-hand, that I'd only seen isometrically before was a really powerful experience for me. In pre-Burning Crusade, as soon as I turned level 40 on my first character and obtained my mount, I ran all the way out to Medivh's tower to look at it, even though at that point it was a level 60+ zone that didn't have anything to do except look at the landmark. I took a plethora of snapshots of the Dark Portal, even though to get to either of those locations meant I died over and over and over for what was essentially just personal eye candy. There was no quest to turn in, no monster to kill, I just wanted to see these places that I had a nostalgic attachment to.
Similarly, even though Aion is a new game built on an original IP, and thus has no wealth of lore attached to it like WoW does, I still "care" about the story and the conflict in a way that failed to grip me as far as CO is concerned. In both WoW and Aion I read the quest text, I don't just blindly click accept (although I have to say so far that Aion kicks WoW's butt so far in terms of richness of writing-- even in the starting zones on either race I've come across a couple of quests so simple and poignant that it's startling in a genre that's usually a race to get through content as fast as you can for the endgame), something that didn't happen for me in CO.
This is something that's likely to change from person to person; I have a lot of childhood memories attached to the Warcraft franchise which is why the game is so rich to me, but people whose first exposure to Blizzard was WoW look at me funny whenever I explain the plot relevance of so and so boss fight. In terms of progression, the quests themselves (while still being leveling filler and subscription time sinks) still propel you towards doing something. This is expressly visible in Northrend, where subtle details about endgame raids are sprinkled around you as soon as you get into the zone post level 70, and you are consistently being pushed towards a goal that has been building up for ten levels of content. By the time I finally got to Yogg-Saron at the end of Ulduar, not only was I excited for the fight, I had such a physical link to the story that had been set in motion months ago-- killing the old god was not just about epeen or guild props, I needed to see him die to end that chapter of the tale.
Storytelling in MMOGs is a difficult thing. Certainly WoW has a hard time with it, and I know that the majority of people simply click through quests without looking further than the instructions they're supposed to accomplish. In a game that's based around immediate gratification-- and this is a failing of all MMOGs in my opinion-- most people opt for the quick click and don't really care about the story. Single player games get more leeway with this since they can directly control the progression experience, and players are more inclined to indulge it since they're familiar with it. The Longest Journey, for example, was one of the most beautiful video game experiences I've ever had, from start to finish, that by the time I finished the game I felt physically deflated and sad that it was over. Half Life and Half Life 2 don't have a grand, wide-sweeping plot themselves, but the story they've created is so interesting nevertheless that it makes for a compelling experience all the same. I can rattle off any number of RPGs from Fallout 1/2, System Shock 1/2, Planescape: Torment (to name just a couple), all of which deeply affected me because of their captivating plots that drove me to complete the game as much as the need for completion did.
In the end, building such a powerful storytelling experience in a MMOG is a lot harder than a single player experience: even if you take out the click-happy people who will ignore any text thrown at them, it's the juggle between creating a story that's far too specific (a problem that Aion has), or too general and thus failing to draw players in (which would be my issue with CO). I still feel that mainsteam MMOG developers drop the ball on this, but I think that has to do more with marketability than lack of understanding the problem.
In the end, the story that a game-- whether offline or on-- can weave for us is integral for the "game vs art" argument that wages around this genre. I certainly have had gaming experiences every bit as breathtaking as reading an awesome novel, and I've cherished the things I've taken away from them the same way I do after I finish the last page of a great book.
What about you guys? What games have you played that you thought had great stories, and why did they resonate with you well after you stopped playing?
mixvio
Posted to Miscellany on 7 October 2009
· Comments (12)
Other stuff like this: engrossing, memorable, opinion, plots, question, stories
Well, you've hit the nail on the head for pretty much all new-IP MMOs. Even though I've been a huge Star Wars fan since the first movie came out (reverse-aging, indeed!), when I tried playing Galaxies, I realized there wasn't a lot of Star Wars in it other than the settings and some of the characters. Otherwise it was exactly the way you describe your experience with Champs Online.
No attachment = canceled subscription.
I don't have much experience with MMOs, but Warcraft was my first RTS experience as well and I very much have wanted to play World of Warcraft to delve deeper into the game's world. I think that's also why there have been so many people asking for a Starcraft MMO after WoW. If only it weren't for those monthly fees.
For me the greatest moments in videogame storytelling come from when the actual gameplay supports the game's events.
A great example is the under appreciated game Contact for the DS. In Contact the story puts you, the player, as a character in the game. On the top screen is a professor and on the bottom screen is the lead protagonist who works for him. When the lead protagonist goes out into the game's many environments the professor talks to the player as the intermediary between the two characters, and then it is the player's job to direct the lead protagonist based on the professor's suggestions while also relaying information from the protagonist back to the professor. This is supported by the gameplay where you never have direct control over the protagonist. Instead you tap on the screen and he'll make his way toward where you tapped, reacting to enemies and the environment on his own along the way.
I guess it's just me. But I don't see any big difference in the quest content from wow, to aion, to champs. Galaxies I could see the argument for since there was so very little of it, but even that seemed star wars(ie) to me.
WoW interested me because I had really enjoyed the stroyline set forth in WC3 (technically WC1 and 2, but WoW flows almost seemlessly out of WC3). If it wasn't for WC3 I might not even have started WoW.
While I will agree that Aion has much more text behind it than CO, I lack the initial interest in it that I had for WoW. As such, I tend to regard it as walls of text and want to get on with the game. Somewhat odd, since story is actually my number one reason for gaming. But there you have it.
That being said, I decided to give up on Aion after the beta. Currently I am still playing CO, because I like the change in setting from WoW and because of the great customisation of character's powers.
The only game that instantly came into my mind was Jade Empire. The graphics wowed my socks off, great voice acting and the gay-love storyline just topped it off. The story though was what absorbed me into the game. It made me get over the long loading times and easy deaths early on. So yes storylines matter to me.
I think the reason you engage in the stories of Aion and WoW is that both of these MMOs feature PLAYERS as the ANTAGONISTS-- you are split down two sides. With live players as the antagonists, you are free to write the story as you'd like-- who's to stop a forbidden love triangle between you, your Elyos guild leader, and the strange Asmodian who hides you from his warlike compatriots?
By the way, what server are you? On Azphel the elyos are destroying the asmodians, thanks to the presence of a few important cross-mmo guilds. My names Luco on that server.
Nick:
I'm on Nezekan, since that's the "Australian" server and has a high concentration of people playing during the same time of day as I am.
@ Nick: But surely it's the same with CO. You can just imagine a romance between your character and any imaginary other character or their nemesis or even an NPC for that matter.
The fact that you can't socialise with the other faction in those other MMORPGs puts it all in the realm of fanfiction.
This is one of my favorite gaming related topics! As someone who consumes mostly RPGs/adventures and the like, I put story and characters above all else when I play such games. If they can't draw me in, why should I care about helping them save the world/universe/cheerleader/etc? I'm a huge reader and writer, so quality tales will always win me over more than graphics, company name, music, gameplay, and other such factors. (In other game genres they aren't quite as important as I know they're not the main point of them.)A lot of people see me as old-fashioned and stubborn for this, but I'd rather be old than a graphics whore.
Anyways, the games that come to mind the most when asked what storylines I liked best are definitely Xenogears/Xenosaga, which I hold in the highest regard possible. No other game, as much as I may love it, has come close to the depth or maturity or details of their universe. The amount of love and research put into them blows me away with every replay. Their morals and values are a cut above all the thousands of other games I've played in my life. I'm not sure if it's because you can feel the love the creators had emanating from every corner or if it's the well-researched aspects or if it's just the fact I loves me some good fantasy/sci-fi or even the fact serious stories win me over more than comedic ones, but they really hit me in a way very few other things have in any form of media. They made me re-evaluate myself as a human being and I feel I'm much better off in life since playing them.
I know most people hate these games for a variety of reasons and I know they encountered a lot of developmental problems and will probably never be finished properly, but they'll be forever cherished by me. What we got was utterly amazing in my eyes and I throughly recommend them to anyone looking for a real good, in-depth story.
Stories are just not at the forefront anymore. When making a game was an 8 person team affair, they were. When 200 people are required to make a game, plot falls to wayside, replaced by features that consistently sell. A few pop out--Lost Odyssey, maybe-- but they all are labors of love/financial disasters.
Nexus: It's not the same. Yes, I went away with a flight of fancy, but giving the players things to do vs another player makes it SO exciting. The political aspects of Lineage 2 MADE the game for me--the social aspects controlled the gameplay. If you can make the social aspect of a game affect the structure of the game WORLD, i.e., more people on your side to take the fortress, then a plot is born.
MIxvio: Yeah, we lost an old guildmate from lineage 2 to the aussie server too. Of course, keep in mind that playing on off time can be a big advantage, especially on Aion, where fortress open at arbitrary hours.
Hm, maybe it's just how high you rank the social aspect of a game (which admittedly for most people with MMORPGs is rather high) to begin with.
Personally I'm not playing MMORPGs for the social aspect, rather in contrast with my story-driven interest in single player games I prefer to play them for gameplay and customisation.
Maybe that has to do with why I feel unrestricted by the lack of PC opponents.
I see them more as single player games with a multiplayer option and it's not as if the lack of opposing player characters in a single player game has ever kept anyone from writing fanfiction.
FFXI has a very engrossing and entertaining storyline for all the missionlines
Rise of Zilart
Chains of Promathia (Especially)
Treasures of Aht Urghan (Good)
Wings of the Goddess (Excellent)
Also the mini-expansions were just missions lines with good rewards
A Crystaline Prophecy
A Moogle Kupo d'Etat
The stories drag you and never let you go... I'm sure FFXIV will have the same stellar storytelling and maybe even better as some will be voice acted.