I feel I don’t need to make a big argument. Because, it is self evident once you look at the facts.
People are interested in stories. Our lives are stories. People aren’t shopping for games. They are shopping for interesting stories. The game is the medium. Some people get their stories from novels, some from television, some from newspapers, others from gossip… but we all consume stories.
Why would someone want to get their story from a game? It’s a chance to experience a story in a different way. To become part of that story.
If you want to stand out from the competition, and start getting the attention you feel your games deserve, start telling stories.
Yeah I actually agree with the idea in the sense that I see the experience of playing a game as writing a story. Whether it is pac-man or a grand RPG the player is basically writing their own story as they play. Their experiences in the game. These stories are often shared with their friends “oh man I finally beat that level last night! It was so awesome. I was running along and there was crap everywhere and I just made it barely to the end. Almost died so many times.” or it takes the form of “I was exploring so-and-so area last night and behind that big rock I found there was a smaller rock. I actually was able to push it and there was a friggan hole in the ground. So I went in and…”
As far as the game itself needing to actually tell a story literally. I don’t think that is needed. The game just needs to provide a great gameplay experience and that allows the player to experience/live great moments sort of going on a magical adventure and writing their own stories as a result of playing.
Just a quick note: People are the only consumers of stories. What is this primary consumer business We’re it. My dog refuses to pay for any story and I think it only listens because it likes my voice and thinks there may be food at the end!
Some series of events are written by the game maker. These are scripted stories, like Final Fantasy. They’re closer to movies.
Other series of events are directed by the player. These are emergent stories, like what players experience in Minecraft. They’re closer to Legos.
I point this out because the approach to one is completely different from the other. If you’re making a scripted game, the player expects everything that’s in a good book or movie: interesting characters and plot. They can be complex because they’re scripted; the designer has control over them. If you’re making a sandbox game, on the other hand, the player wants better Legos. Rigid, mandatory events prevent them from playing with their Legos.
Depending on the type of game, you may not want to tell a story; instead, you may want to empower the players to create their own stories. (Every game sits on the continuum between scripted and emergent, so there will always be some amount of crossover.)
I’m not pointing out the distinction to be argumentative. The distinction is important. Every design decision impacts how much of a scripted story the player gets to experience and how much the player gets to build their own unique story.
I can shrink that a bit: a series of related events. Now you don’t have to deal with what a character is or cases of in media res that forget about the beginning part.
That’s the illusion at least. In theory the real value is in being able to explore a story from multiple angles or with different permutations of events, and people then narcissisticly presume it’s their story.
Nah, story is very much individual taste. At least half of all gamers don’t give a damn, and that includes older gamers too - we didn’t have much story on the vast majority of 8 bit games
Even “the princess has been captured”… gameplay … “you have saved the princess.”
I am not sure if people here notice that even puzzle games have little characters these days.
Even if the game just has interesting artwork and music that invokes your imagination, that is not unlike the way that classical music tells a story through different movements and compositions.
The confusing part is how to tell a story within the parameters of a game. The answer is, there are many ways. We are still learning new ones. From Journey to The Binding of Isaac, Ico and Don’t Look Back… we see stories being told in new ways. And we will continue to see new ways. Because games are young as a storytelling medium.
Not really. They want a conflict (or rather need it), and the tools to address that conflict. Once all the conflicts are resolved, be they explicit or player imagined conflicts, then the game is over. The very nature of the three act structure is driven by the rise and fall of a conflict, and it applies to conflicts in play just as much as it does to those on paper.
I don’t see why the distinction is important in the slightest. Games aren’t a timeshare between a movie and a toy set. Even if the game was created with a completely random assortment of mechanics, players would still face the same conflicts, draw solutions from the same limited pool of options, and ultimately end up with similar experiences. You can look a Nethack, the king of creating unique stories, but almost all of these stories follow the same themes of overcoming (or falling to) adversity.
The role of the designer is to understand the experiences being created, and how every aspect of a game effects the experiences.
It is just a much harder role than I think many are prepared for. Especially since we are not taught to address games as a storytelling medium, to begin with, but rather we are taught feedback and goals.
Again, this is like learning only grammar and then trying to write a novel.
It is becoming apparent to me that gameplay alone is not sufficient for meeting the demands of todays players. They want more.
I have seen interactive movies be praised as great games.
I understand the idea’s your bringing forward that all action create a story.
But I can guarantee you I don’t play DOTA2 for the story, I play DOTA2 because I love how deep and complex the gameplay systems are, I love how even after 4000 hours into the game, I can still learn something new.
Minecraft works on a similar feeling of discovery ** and atleast for me, and I’m sure a whole bunch of other people, the moment minecraft stopped being fun, was the moment you realized, you’ve discovered it all, there’s nothing new.
**I’m sure there’s a huge percentage of minecraft players who do play for that story they can generate on their own
We’re it. My dog refuses to pay for any story and I think it only listens because it likes my voice and thinks there may be food at the end! 
