6 Ocak 2019 Pazar

Writing of Video Games

It is a common saying that video games have worse writing than films and books. I find this problematic as it assumes there are universal metrics of writing that can be applied across all mediums. Arguments regarding this usually follow that "good video game plots are done better with films already", which implies different mediums have (or should have) a uniform experience. Please keep in mind that when I talk about writing in video games, I assume the games where there is at least some concern about telling a story.
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Let's suppose we are doing a movie critique. We look at the film script as if its a novel, then declare the film as badly written. This is quite unfair of course. Writing in film is interwoven with acting, cinematography, the soundtrack etc. and it is only true realized during the film. Movies cannot express the opinions of characters as well as book do, but they get around this by other things. And no matter how elegantly written, an action scene will always be less immediately impactful compared to a movie. Every medium has strengths and weaknesses, some stories are better told by some mediums than others.
When it comes to video games however, this tends to get forgotten. To be fair, this isn't entirely audience's fault. With big games especially, developers and publishers are quite eager to make sure the games feel like movie. This isn't merely about how long cut scenes are. They want to emulate the glamour, the air, the pride of the large production movies, but without acknowledging the specific challenges of their medium and the medium they try to emulate at the same time.
I should stress again, this is not a "storytelling with cut scenes vs. game mechanics" debate. In my eyes, cut scenes are as much as a tool as anything can be used in a game. I think this is specifically where the strength of video game story telling lies: It is extremely versatile, it can freely borrow techniques from other medias. Even games that are praised for telling story with mechanics do the same thing. Other methods are still there, they all just blend seamlessly, sometimes even without intentionally designed such.
Yet there also lies the weakness. Without carefully mixing, video game storytelling just ends up jack of all trades and master of none. For example, video games can never be as tightly paced and structured as a movie without outright becoming one and yes this even includes so-called walking simulators, video games have inherently different pacing, writing which ignores this naturally feels half-baked as a result. So complaints about video game writing definitely hold merit in that sense.
Still, I feel the melting pot nature of games gets somewhat overlooked and is weakness is exaggerated. Of course, when a one-on-one comparison made, an element of video game likely won't hold up to its counterpart in a different medium which said element is a major strength of the medium. But just like the elements of a film is interwoven, similar is true for a video game. And interweaving is specifically the strength that brings up the unique experience of video games.
Let's consider Warcraft 3. When looked at isolation, it's plot and themes are quite old and can be even called cliché, its setting isn't very creative, its dialogue is not the best and even its cut scenes, while being very impressive especially for its time, are not very interesting in terms of animation or actual content. Yet there is a very good reason why the game still resonates so much with so many people, not because people who like it are nerds who can't appreciate "true art".
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The story of Arthas is not merely hubris and downfall. It is a story where player personally made active, you destroy the very old realm which you tries to protect with harshest methods for several hours. The betrayal Illidan goes through personally hits me because it was also my own efforts went unnoticed. The hammy dialogue, the cliché characterization, glamorous cut scenes all come together in a real-time strategy gameplay to tell an old but a striking story. An old story that is told in a way that is never told before.
So what happens when you just isolate the parts of this experience and try to make a movie about it? Warcraft movie,  where the blandness of the setting and plot comes much more forward and characters without too much personality had to speak expensive periods of time. It has the same problem that most video game movies have: It ignores the respective strengths and weaknesses of the mediums.
The same mistake is sometimes done by viewers too. "Well, of course video game movies are bad because video games have bad writing.", so the thought goes. But, no, that's not true. Warcraft 3 has a decent story that utilized the limited availability of dialogue and acting well, it overcame the challenges of RTS format. And Warcraft the movie that has many problems related to move writing.
A video game can have good or bad writing. But it has a good video game or bad video game writing, not comic-writing, not theater-writing. This is still a problem in AAA games, you can't just do novel-writing and mesh it with gameplay, you need to do video game writing, which isn't inferior to others. It has its own rules to follow and its unique experiences has to offer.
This article is written thanks to my dearest Patrons and special thanks to: Alexandra Morgan, Laura Watson and Spencer Gill.

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