Secrets of Interactive Storytelling

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Tuesday, 25 July 2006 07:00

Next Generation is running a fantastic feature written by Ernest Adams looking into interactive storytelling. The story delves into different types of narratives, strengths and weaknesses of each, and where we can go from here.

He discusses profitability and how game designers are in danger of losing proper storytelling abilities. It's a very interesting read.

For me personally, I enjoy aspects of all different types of storytelling. But more often than not I prefer the games that allow for some free-flow, but always come back to a singular storyline (he refers to as foldback). The access to side quests are nice, especially because I can pick and choose the ones I want to complete. But in the end, the outcome is the same for everyone. Very Very rarely have I gone back and played through a game at a later date, and it's usually never just to see a different ending. Metal Gear Solid is the only one that comes to mind.

Not to say that's wrong to play multiple times to see everything, but usually if I'm playing it again it's because I'm playing it at the higher difficulty level (like Call of Duty 2 or Resident Evil 4). Of course there are times when I like a totally linear or totally open story. But that's just me.

From the Article:

First, thereâ€™s too much emphasis on structure. Remember that these approaches are all about how the story is represented inside the software, in a place where the player never sees it.
Arguing about this is like taking a class on creative writing and spending the whole time studying the development of English grammar. Whether interactive storytelling does or does not work has nothing to do with the structure of the plots, but with how the player perceives it in the end - and what the player wants in the first place.
The second reason theyâ€™re wrong is because theyâ€™re assuming thereâ€™s one right way to do it. Different players want different things, and games include stories for different reasons. Stop and think for a minute about how many different kinds of non-interactive stories there are in the world. Going from the shortest to the longest, I can come up with all the following in just a minute or two: jokes, newspaper comic strips, advertising, urban legends (yes, theyâ€™re stories too), fan fiction, children's TV shows, sitcoms and satire, dramatic series, soap operas, movies, plays, genre fiction, short stories, and highbrow literature of the type written by people like Salman Rushdie.
Why would anybody think that one theory of storytelling is good enough for all of those? And for that matter, why would anybody think that one theory of interactive storytelling is good enough for all the kinds of games in the world, or, more importantly, all the kinds of players in the world?

You can read the whole thing here.

What about you? What's your favorite type of storytelling?

Comments (1) Add Comment

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written by Joe, July 26, 2006

As far as storytelling in gaming goes, Iâ€™d vote for a game like Grand Theft Auto III, a game with a loose storyline--where the player can choose to follow the story by completing a series of escalating challenges--or disregard the story entirely and drive around destroying everything. Games like this seem to have more staying power for me and hold my interest for a longer period of time because they are essentially two games in one--a longer storyline to follow and continually save your progress as you devote longer stretches of time to it, and a shoot-em-up run-em-over high octane game for when you just want to sit for five minutes and blow some shit up before you run out the door.

I was never a fan of RPGs, which are games that hold firmly to a storyline, because they tend to only dole out their action sequences in short but long-anticipated bursts. The more in-depth the storyline, the less interactive the gameplay tend to be. Many times, you can get more interactivity using your DVD remote, then you can trying to figure out which elf is carrying the wishing stone that will lead you to the fairy who has the map of the White Forest of Hope (including the secret trail through the Bog of Despair), so you can get the magic stick . . . with which to hit the baddest chicks.