Comments on: The Quest for a "Good" Story in Videogames

By: Gauldar

Gauldar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:51:59 +0000

My all time fav would have to be Planescape Torment. Great background story, atmosphere and character development.

By: Shadowmancer

Shadowmancer — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:54:46 +0000

cod4 didn’t have any story it just copy and pasted the script from 24 season 6, yeah I agree most sequels dont really have good stories and just undermine the previous game from a story point of view but add more gameplay instead. The old point and click adventures Broken Swords 1 and 2, The longest journey, and other old adventure games had the best stories, now its just aliens have invaded you are our last hope, or terrorists are at large you are our last hope kind of stories there are no original stories left that i have seen.

By: Tau_Elite

Tau_Elite — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:59:48 +0000

I think the best games don’t have storylines, just gameplay for everything, that way you get the best replay value. Sure, a small plotline could be followed, but making your own path is so much more enjoyable, and rather than being withdrawn from the game because you’re playing some character, you’re drawn into the game, and make them who you want to be.

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Oops, posted it twice.

By: Tau_Elite

Tau_Elite — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:55:46 +0000

I don’t mind some games stories actually, sequels can be pretty gay, but the best games seem to be the ones without stories, so maybe that’s the answer, for example, I pay DoW: Dark Crusade, and that has no story to speak of, except the fact that you have to be the supreme race on Kronus, so basically you dominate everything… I think if you’re going to put a story to anything related along a game like that, it’d have to be a movie or book otherwise it’s too much of a story and not enough of a game.

By: KnightShift

KnightShift — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:00:15 +0000

Well no, theres never going to be a game that compares to a novel for the story, thats would be like comparing a Novel to a role-playing-game Like D&D. Video games actually share more in common with the tabletop games, or the ‘choose your own adventure ‘ flip-books. Theres only so much you can accomplish while maintaining a level of interaction the player will stay interested in.

Having said that, I liked the story for CoD 4 immensely, to me it felt a bit like a Tom Clancy novel.

By: Shadowmancer

Shadowmancer — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:07:33 +0000

I believe that the story in “The longest journey” was one of the best stories told from a videogame, but it is true that most games don’t have more story than pong ever did.