The story of games

[Number45]

Ambiguous thread titles for the win!

This isn't yet another thread about the origin of the hobby that we love, but more about the specific story of games and how I'm not sure I like the way they're being delivered.

To give the discussion some context, I've been discussing Dead Space in a few places - specifically the universe that's fleshed out from sources other than the game itself and, to be honest, that annoys me. Quite a lot.

I try when possible to keep myself out of the hype cycle for games (I will watch footage to get an idea of what it looks like and how it plays, but I don't read reviews and seldom read previews either) and it occurred to me that in the case of Dead Space I would be missing out on a huge amount of material that really fills you in on the situation that you discover on the Ishimura and without question adds depth to the experience.

My concern is, why I should I be expected to read viral marketing and separate lore related videos in order to get this information? The game itself should tell me everything I need to know but I now get the impression that I'd be missing out if I didn't go looking for this external content.

The best example I can think of recently is how it's handled in Metroid Prime and the scanning. It's completely unobtrusive within the game to such an extent that, if you don't want to, you can ignore all but the essential scans - but if you read through everything you get accounts from all sides of the conflict on what has happened, why it was happening and what the eventual consequences are.

Perhaps I'm being hard on Dead Space specifically (It's what made me think of this, which is why I'm using it as an example - I'm sure there are many other worse offenders out there) as I understand it might have a video log system similar to that in Doom 3, but my underlying concern is that I need to go to media outside of what I'm paying for to get the most from my games.

Thoughts? Am I alone?

[abigsmurf]

Viral marketing isn't as effective as it once was, people are far too good detectives to be caught entirely by surprise.

I liked the Metroid prime 1 & 2 method of scanning to get story. You really felt isolated and alone, always arriving some point after something went wrong or a civilisation collapsed. In MP3 the cutscenes spoilt this somewhat.

Silent Hill 2 is a great example of being rewarded through little touches and optional messages. There are constant hints about the story and what Silent Hill actually is for the characters.

Another brilliant example is The World Ends With You. Completing the main game you get the impression that

->Open Spoiler<-

Neku is having a really bad time and has got in the middle of infighting between a bunch of petty people manipulating the population for their own goals

However when you complete all the after story you learn

->Open Spoiler<-

that, aside from the hot secretary, there aren't really any evil characters in the game, they're all doing what they think is best. Everything bad that is done to Neku is done because he was chosen as the big bosses' avatar and when things get worse, such as Shiki not being freed and being used as 'payment' is because she couldn't actually be freed from the game at that point. Even the game itself isn't meant as a sadistic form of entertainment but to get the truely inspired, talented people a chance to share their talents with the world.

However you should NEVER have to go outside of a game to get the full story *cough*.hack*cough* and you should get rewarded with enough story to piece together what happened. To me suplemental material that isn't a game, shouldn't be canon.

[MattyD]

Things like these comics and videos and all the rest of it are marketing aimed at people like us who are big fans of games and 'new' media generally but see through the advertising. They are paid for out of the marketing spend, because getting people interested and hooked in before the game even comes out makes them much more likely to buy it on release day without waiting to hear for opinions, review scores etc. That kind of effect is something no amount of traditional ad spending would achieve.

Another reason I think is particularly relevant to a company like EA who like to court the mainstream, is that sadly a lot of people don't even finish games and care even less about the story. It's much better from their perspective to present the story in other ways to those who are interested than to bog the game down with story elements which might make the ADHD-addled casual gamer lose interest.

I don't think this kind of marketing will become the norm though - only a company like EA could possibly fund it and still hope to make a profit. Most games will continue just the same way they do now. This kind of novel marketing is also giving us access to some really great entertainment - the entire game of Bionic Commando: Rearmed was initially commissioned as a marketing tool for the forthcoming next-gen title, as was the rather good comic they're giving away on their website. I've been enjoying the Dead Space animated comics a lot as well and they were free!

Another way of looking at this problem is: would you rather games had stories so rich they spill out into other media, or go back to the old days where the story was the paragraph they wrote on the back of the box?

[Stormtec]

People say the same thing about Halo, although using it as a positive argument going for the game. People rave about its fleshed out world, backstory and characters (most of which seems to take place outside of the 3 games).

Though I suppose that's less about marketing and more about, uh... lack of story focus in the games?

And this kind of marketing we're seeing with Dead Space isn't too bad. I mean, sure is a damned sight more interesting than trailers, I reckon.

[Eight Rooks]

I don't think you should never, ever have to go outside the game - I think it's perfectly valid to sneak some really interesting little detail into viral media, other forms of creative media, whatever. On the other hand I do agree you can take it much, much too far, and the .hack series is probably the worst case around of someone flogging the concept to death and beyond - one big reason I could never get into it was I felt no one series (games, manga, anime, anything) was giving me enough to properly appreciate the basic concept, let alone fully flesh things out.

[Stormtec]

I don't think you should never, ever have to go outside the game - I think it's perfectly valid to sneak some really interesting little detail into viral media, other forms of creative media, whatever. On the other hand I do agree you can take it much, much too far, and the .hack series is probably the worst case around of someone flogging the concept to death and beyond - one big reason I could never get into it was I felt no one series (games, manga, anime, anything) was giving me enough to properly appreciate the basic concept, let alone fully flesh things out.

Well, regarding the first run of .hack games (I've not played GU or any of them other tones that came out later), the OVAs were bundled with the games, so at least it wasn't like you had to buy it separately, at least. Those were really the only ones with a more direct link into the .hack games they came with. The actual anime series, the manga (and I believe the GU games as well), are more like separate events along a timeline with vague references to future/past happenings in the same universe.

I agree that I don't think you should ever have to go outside the game itself to fill in the story, but in most cases you don't really have to. The only time that I think you truly have to is when there are glaring ommisions that cause the plot to become hard to follow and/or diminish the enjoyment of the game. And I think I've yet to come across a game that does that.

[Concrete donkey]

I have no problem in spin off media like books or anime set in the same world as long as it doesnt take away from the main game, of which I haven't encountered yet. In the same way you don't have to watch Stargate Atlantis to enjoy SG1 or vice versa, you might have additional but pointless understanding if you do watch both.

As for .hack, I was into the .hack/sign series long before the games came out and don't feel owning the games, books and anime are necessary to enjoy one of them.

I have seen it go wrong the other way round, with the Matrix Reloaded film. It felt to me that part of the script was ripped out of the script to make the game (and possibly the first animatrix cartoon) and found this kind of crossover of media not to my liking. Have yet to feel this way with the game being the centerpiece though.

[Number45]

Another way of looking at this problem is: would you rather games had stories so rich they spill out into other media, or go back to the old days where the story was the paragraph they wrote on the back of the box?

Of course I'm happy that this would generally indicate better stories for these games, but I still feel that these should be delivered within the boxed product itself.

I agree that I don't think you should ever have to go outside the game itself to fill in the story, but in most cases you don't really have to. The only time that I think you truly have to is when there are glaring ommisions that cause the plot to become hard to follow and/or diminish the enjoyment of the game. And I think I've yet to come across a game that does that.

This is a good point. It might actually be an interesting exercise to revisit this thread once I've played and completed Dead Space. The reason it prompted this thread is because the back story that we're being treated to as a part of the comics has really grabbed me to the point that I'd like it to be a part of the game itself (Maybe even a separate game covering that period), it may well turn out that the game does cover this in detail and I'm fussing over nothing.

[Spatial]

I think it's new territory for games as they're becoming more complex in their narrative.

I've really enjoyed the Dead Space animations and I'm looking forward to the final part when they get around to releasing it. That said, I'll be interested to see how it pans out in game - I didn't realise they were going to reveal so much in terms of the monsters origin (admittedly some way in to the episodes) and while I think Dead Space is going to support a separate storyline, I do wonder if the edge had been taken off it somewhat.

Then again I don't think there's any real twists given away as it seems to have been all generico-Aliens territory for the most part (and a well done attempt at that). Unlike the DVD / Blu-ray release which looked a bit more full on.

Like Number45 it'll be interesting to look back on them after playing the game and seeing if they did actually break some of the mystery or intrigue.

In general terms I don't have a problem with game plots being teased or explored in other mediums because often they support it. I think it's testament to the medium and the people working in it that they create such rich and detailed worlds.

But it has to be done right.

Heavenly Sword's animated shorts, for all the visual splendour, were a mess in terms of plot and implementation. They didn't even go to the effort of getting the same guy to do the voice of Nariko's father.

And another that sticks in my mind is Dark Sector - it had the most awful attempt at a comic tie-in I've ever seen. It might have been given away free but the thing was virtually unreadable.