Something that has continually irritated me over the more recent years is how the gaming press and even we as gamers, seem to just accept that games have mediocre storytelling. You hear things like, "it has a great story.....at least for a game anyway", or, "games still haven't reached the level of storytelling that film enjoys".
Well I'm sorry, but that sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.
I've noticed that many times people like to judge stories on their ability to evoke emotion. The problem is that emotional reaction in film tends to stem more from the quality of the acting rather than that of the story. This creates a problem for games because film (and your imagination) have the luxury of foregoing graphics in favor of real life. Even books, which have no actors or graphics, have the luxury of working off of your imagination, which is a very powerful instrument when it comes to immersing yourself into a good tale. It's easier for a person to relate to, or become emotionally involved with a story when it's real people.
The funny thing is that games are capable of evoking emotions like laughter, anger, frustration (with the story elements, not the game), happiness, etc., as well. So wouldn't that make them superior to film stories, since they have more hurdles to cross in getting you emotionally involved? It seems though that to many people, a game story that can make you cry is the "holy grail" of sorts. But why? Why do we put so much stake in this one emotion? Is it because it's a physical reaction to the story? And what exactly is it in a story that makes a person cry? After talking with my wife about this, she said that she thinks that the things that make her cry in a film are a combination of good story and good acting. She feels that there has to be a balance of both for the faucets to come on.
Games take storytelling further than books or film are capable of because they are interactive, often giving you the opportunity to mold your own tale. That's why I love playing so many genres of games, they each have unique ways of telling their stories. Some games relay the story through the eyes of the protagonist while others use cutscenes. Some use in-engine cutscenes while others use full CG. Hell, some games don't even have stories.
I can't remember ever crying because of a game's story, but I have gotten goose bumps many times because of a game's storytelling, not to mention all the survival horror games that have caused me to literally jump out of my seat. Although I do remember my mom crying when Sephiroth killed Aerith in Final Fantasy VII (she had been watching me play through it).
Games like Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Shadow of the Colossus are examples of games that I believe have really outstanding stories, stories that out do that of hollywood films. I just finished Red Dead Redemption last night and was blown away, not only by the story as a whole, but by how the game was able to keep me guessing all the way up to the end. The majority of the movies that I watch are usually pretty easy to figure out half way through.
I'm a sucker for a good story,but I think that game stories are where it's at these days. I can usually tell the quality of a game's story by whether or not my wife watches me play it. Since she's not a gamer, if a video game story can keep her interested enough to watch me play a game for 10 hours or more there really must be something special there.
So I think it's high time that we as a community stop throwing game stories under the bus in favor of film stories and start elevating them like they deserve to be and demand the same from the gaming press.
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