Slashdot Mirror
Hollywood Reporter on Game Writing
Via GameSetWatch, a story at the Hollywood reporter site on the process of writing a videogame. From the article: "'For me, writing is like gold,' says David Perry, president of Atari's Shiny Entertainment studio. 'It saddens me a lot that many video game companies don't hire triple-A writers and that they use their game designers instead. That's why, when real writers look at video game stories, they kind of roll their eyes. But that's something that I see changing, I really do.'" This guy probably has more than a little bit to do with that.
I've shelved quite a few games due to control problems or difficulty frustrations, but I've never put down a game that was fun to play because the story was sub-par.
I have a different perspective. I enjoy FPS games, for the most part. I enjoy both the multiplayer and single player modes. Of all the FPS games out there, I think I've played all the way through two of them in my entire life. The reason for that is that game play inevitably becomes repetitive. Run and shoot and shoot and run. Gee, after about 48 hours I'm done. The two FPS games I can remember playing all the way through are the old Marathon 2 and newer Wolfenstein. Marathon 2, if you've never played it, had the single best, most developed and engaging story ever in an FPS. It was possible to beat the game without reading some of the mission information, but I don't know anyone who did that. The plot was just too interesting and the characters too fun. Whether an egotistical AI was blackmailing you into a suicide mission, or an insane AI was spewing poetry at you, it was fascinating.
Another important thing I think should be kept in mind is that game players have different tastes. Maybe you don't like plots. Maybe most current gamers don't like plots. But, maybe, just maybe, a significant portion of the population, many of whole can't stand current game offerings, really do like plots. I'll play all sorts of games, but I don't devote significant time to any game that does not have a lot of variety and story to hold my interest. Consequently, I won't pay much money for games without a good story.