Author Topic: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?  (Read 1422 times)

dreama1

Would you agree game story narrative is inferior or has been retarded/stunted compared to the film industry or books in it's current state?

As much as I love some stories in video games it might well be true, but to be fair engrossing stories is relatively new for video games.

Maybe only till the 90's has it started to show some depth. It hasn't had over a century to craft and mould like the film industry, and millenniums like books have had. Which is probably why books are often better than their movie counter parts even if each medium offers perks to enhance the experience of story telling, (Music,moving pictures, gameplay*, Art*, first person prospective simulated* etc..)

Just one example.

The metal gear solid series, Kojima has been criticised for being a terrible writer not that it makes the games bad or anything.



Re: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2019, 01:07:16 am »
"Inferior"? I wouldn't say that.  Sure, games generally wouldn't be able to compete with Oscar worthy movies, but we've had good stuff with cinematic driven games like Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, etc...The reason I don't think games can quite hit the same levels as movies usually, because it's a problem of pacing.  You have to work in hours of gameplay amid telling the story and that is a very different experience compared to a 2 hour movie.  On the other hand, games can have far more adventurous and standout stories than a movie would ever have.  No studio would green light the multi-part Final Fantasy 7 movie, or the wacky comedy fantasy Brutal Legend film.  I think that's the kind of stuff where games standout compared to movies.

dreama1

Re: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2019, 01:40:06 am »
"Inferior"? I wouldn't say that.  Sure, games generally wouldn't be able to compete with Oscar worthy movies, but we've had good stuff with cinematic driven games like Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, etc...The reason I don't think games can quite hit the same levels as movies usually, because it's a problem of pacing.  You have to work in hours of gameplay amid telling the story and that is a very different experience compared to a 2 hour movie.  On the other hand, games can have far more adventurous and standout stories than a movie would ever have.  No studio would green light the multi-part Final Fantasy 7 movie, or the wacky comedy fantasy Brutal Legend film.  I think that's the kind of stuff where games standout compared to movies.

Well it makes up for it in immersion. Forgot to mention Silent hill as a good story narrative combined with it's immersion that the game format offers. But mentioning Oscar worthy is interesting does the game format have anything close to it? (not rhetorical question)

(Also the late Alan wake, the resident evil franchise,  the Quantum dream games etc.. are some good examples)

The thing is a lot games just tend to photocopy the film culture rather than making their own original story. Nothing wrong with taking inspiration of course but letting it carry is not good. That's why I used the term retarded/stunted.



Re: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2019, 12:37:20 pm »
Hardly, I play lots of Visual Novels and JRPGs that have fantastic stories. I can think of far more games I found emotionally impactful than I can movies. I don't think it's fair to compare the worst stories in games to the best of movies. It's just disingenuous.

If anything I've long grown very tired of the movie industry. I see less than 1 movie in theaters a year (The last movie I saw in a theater was Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. That was in June of 2017.) and only buy a couple each year. Often the movies I buy/rent are anime or from the black and white era(Noir especially). I'm so sick of all the super hero movies, reboots, bad horror jump scares and bad "family" movies that plague theaters.

I'm not saying one can't like movies, but Video games can be just as good or even better on a case by case basis. It's too difficult to generalize.

Re: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2019, 07:22:11 pm »
Hardly, I play lots of Visual Novels and JRPGs that have fantastic stories. I can think of far more games I found emotionally impactful than I can movies. I don't think it's fair to compare the worst stories in games to the best of movies. It's just disingenuous.

(....)I'm not saying one can't like movies, but Video games can be just as good or even better on a case by case basis. It's too difficult to generalize.

Agreed. While game design has evolved to include more 'cinematic' features over time, games have long been taking cues from books and movies. I can't remember if it was Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden (or maybe both), but things like cutscenes, visual aids, and narrative have played significant roles in game design in one way or another.

At the same time, however, it's a medium that has it's own advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious advantage is interactivity- players can become invested in characters and worlds in a way that films and books just can't reproduce, because they lack the interactive element. It can create feelings and moments that the other mediums lack- imagine COD's "No Russian" mission without the interactivity. I probably could have sat and watched that in a movie, but it's a completely different experience to put a controller in someone's hand and tell them to perform the deeds themselves. One other good example is the ending of Arkham Knight- no spoilers, but the feelings and experience that last little bit creates just couldn't be reproduced by reading a comic, book, or movie.

There's a lot more to be said about it, but I think Baileykun is particularly right about something. There's a lot of great games with really powerful stories - if you're looking for suggestions for game experiences that might change your view , I'm sure plenty of people could offer up suggestions. :)

Full disclosure- I'm also a visual novel fan and like when a good story moves things along haha.

Warmsignal

Re: Would you agree game story narrative is inferior to the film industry?
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2019, 01:13:42 am »
Inferior to the film industry? That's not saying very much.