Games, then, might be less about the story and more about the experience — some alchemical combination of situation, character, dialogue. Similar parts, but different arrangement, different measurements of significance.

– c.
.-= Chuck´s last blog ..Painting With Shotguns XVIII =-.

They’re different animals, these stories and games, but they can accomplish some/a lot of the same tasks, in different ways, and using different methods to get them to perform? Something like that? Maybe?

It’s still kind of exciting to think about, from the creation side of things.

See, I don’t think what I said is contradictory. Storytelling remains passive, even if the internal world (my mind) is active. No matter how much I fantasize, no matter how many details I create in my mind, I have not changed the story. Not one whit. Lord of the Rings? Still the same story no matter what I think about it. Mass Effect? Different story every time. Even a game with “one story” (say, Grim Fandango, to go old school) changes a little bit in the playing.

To comment on the other stuff, I’ll just pull my commented response from terribleminds –

‘I think we’re going to have to disagree — or, at least, agree that we’re coming at this issue from two different angles. Mass Effect 2 is a game I liked a lot. I don’t know that it’s a story I liked a lot, though — in fact, it’s overall story is largely incomprehensible or silly, so generic I can barely commit much attention to it. And part of me wonders if that’s a necessary thing. What you describe — “Great action movie!” “Cheering and shouting!” are not the earmarks of a good story. They’re marks of a good experience. And ME2 is very much that. It’s a great experience. And it takes special crafting to come up with that level of experience. It’s a dumb story in a rich storyworld — a generic adventure amidst great characters, fascinating situations, and troubling moral quandaries.

And, to be clear, I don’t consider that a bad thing.

Now, when you talk about options — Frodo dies, Sauron wins, Eowyn falls down a well and is eaten by piranha — that’s great, and that’s part of the consideration that a *game* designer needs to think about. It’s a different toolset. Hell, it’s a different mindset.

But, but, but! Tolkien probably would’ve shot himself if he thought that’s what people wanted from his story. A well-crafted story makes all the elements as they happen critical to the piece. Frodo making it all the way is important to the story. Aragorn’s choices matter. They all matter. Everything matters. But in a story where everything is *optional* then nothing can matter, not from the creator-driven, author-described experience.

That’s a very big difference. It puts a lot of power in the player’s hands, and takes a lot of power away from the author. And *that’s okay* — but it’s an important realization on the road toward creating good game stories.’

– c.
.-= Chuck´s last blog ..Painting With Shotguns XVIII =-.