He seems to get it, though in specifically game-design terms, rather than in story terms, talking about "building a relationship between the game and the player."
Here's an idea.
Hire. Good. Writers.
Or am I out of line?
Profile
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ruckawriter- ruckawriter
- Website
Comments
The lame attempt at a plot in GH 3 says to me they should either abandon it altogether (Just play the songs damnit!) or get someone to write something for them. It's annoying.
Attitude in question: artists are needed; musicians are needed; business people are needed to create a game. They all have skills that required effort to acquire and that others do not have. Anyone can write.
This is deeply WRONG, of course, but it is the attitude.
Some games don't require a story element and that's fine...but plenty do as a major part of game play and the overall experience. BioShock is a good example, as is Knights of the Old Republic. The story is integral to gameplay and without it would ruin the experience.
The reality is, people like stories...although they don't always know what makes a -good- story or why it matters. I think game companies are starting to slowly make that connection, though.
Well...yeah. "I mean, obviously, anybody can write. That's just typing. We can hire temps for that."
Actual quote from a senior Microsoft Game Studios executive.
Not even kidding.
-E
It's ridiculous. And maddening.
I'd shell out for a video game written by you ... the guys from The Wire ... and maybe a handful of other people and comics and in television, even though my days of gaming are long behind me.
The real question is not if you're out of line, you're not, the real question, the sad question, is if the audience at large prefers awesome mechanics to a good story, and if that's driving the medium backwards at times, sometimes justifiably. For instance, you're not gonna get much story out of Mario Galaxy or Rock Band, but I see lots of kids playing them... South Park made a good point about that recently, where Stan's dad popped out a REAL guitar and played crazy licks and they snorted derisively.
The rift already kind of forms, like people who constantly read nothing but pop-culture non-fic biographies of Paris Hilton once every three years and the folks who consume, consume, consume, tucked in there with the game snobs.
I see it going like books, maybe? Specializations? But either way, in an ever-broadening market, writing will have its say, I hope.
Either way, I have some nice little game pitches tucked away for the day when the medium expands, as I believe it will. I always wanted to write a Choose Your Own Adventure as a kid, and video games are that taken to the adult level and given teeth.
But perhaps you forget that these are, first and foremost, GAMES. Some of the most beloved of all time remain the original Mario, Tetris, and Pacman. They're not about story, they're about playing a game and having fun. Story can be added to give a game depth, as can music, beautiful graphics, voice acting, extras, mini games, movie cutscenes, and so on, but a game is a game is a game.
Same game with crap writers would've been lost to the bowels of obscurity.
Honestly I can't tell you how many times I've been playing a game and after some ungainly cut scene or lame plot twist I've said to myself,"What if Azzarello had wrote that scene," or Huston, Rucka, Lansdale or whoever. Just someone who knows how to write - cause its pretty obvious that the vast majority industry can't write for s---.
Its funny that Mallet is in that article, too. I've played some of Assasins Creed and the dialogue and voice acting are just plain terrible.
Would a writer like Greg (just as an example) but suited to rewrite the script for Katamari Damacy? Should the story in Katamary Damacy make any sense - something that justifies and makes sensible a game about rolling up everything into a giant ball? Or what about Guitar Hero, does that really need a story? Or games like Advance Wars, Pikmin, Smash Bros, and Picross, where the emphasis is almost entirely on gameplay?
If a game attempts to have a deeper story, yes, it ought to be written well. But not every game needs a well-written story, or any story at all.
Hire. Good. Writers.
Or am I out of line?
Only a little.
It's not only a matter of hiring good writers. It's also important to hire the right kind of writers.
Game company managers/execs have heard that what gamers want is "great stories and characters." Everyone in their focus groups says so.
Companies like Bioware and Blizzard have created really viable writing models with fantastic economic payoffs. You have to get the right people, you have to bring them in house, and you have to put a Lead Writer in a position equal to the Programming, Art, and Design leads, so that your story doesn't get created by committee.
I can think of three reasons off the top of my head why game companies are not willing to do this.
First there's the money. Another lead, and extra team members whose contribution is "writing," which seems nebulous to management. Doesn't everyone write? As Trautmann pointed out, the attitude is still sometimes: "That's just typing. We can hire temps for that."
Second is the issue of creative power. Everybody thinks they should have a say in the story and the characters, especially management. Finally everyone has to go along with their vision of the story. I would go as far as to say that the reason many of these guys claw their way up to Lead is because they desperately want to be in charge of the story, and that's the only way to get creative control in this industry. Giving up that control of the story to someone else, even someone more qualified, is hard for them.
Third, there's my pet peeve: Hollywood. Many game companies would rather bring in a high profile writer, or take the chance to hobnob with someone famous, than get a writer who can come in and actually meet the needs of the game. Most often these TV/Film folks are short-term consultants who deliver a small amount of material and cost a lot. That's not to disparage the skill of the writers; it's simply that the TV and film model (come in, write a treatment or a draft, get paid) does not fit the needs of a video game (write and iterate a half-million words over 2-3 years).
And I guess that seems like enough to say in a comment. Maybe I should have taken this to my own blog :-)
Item #3 on your list...I've experienced that second-hand, I suppose, and yeah, it's pretty depressing. I think it's as much an issue of the medium struggling for legitimacy (you see the exact damn thing in comics, after all) and the self-loathing that comes from being in a "bastardized" or "unrecognized" art form as it is the, pardon my French, eternal urge to star fuck.
Item #2 is another one I absolutely agree with, and therein lies the problem. To paraphrase Harlan Ellison, not everyone can write, even though just about everyone seems to think they can. More and more I'm seeing fundamental storytelling mistakes, mistakes that, honestly, could be easily avoided if producers simply brought in a story editor or someone to consult. It's depressing as hell to me.
As I've said before, my interest in this is fairly narrow -- I recognize good scripting as much as good writing, but I'm still chasing that holy grail; I want an interactive RPG experience that is moving and, yes, cathartic. I believe that it can be done, and that the technology and even the will exists, right now, to do it; what I think is missing is the marriage between those who understand how to build a good game, and those who understand what is required to make a story work.
And, uh...link to your blog, please, here, y'know, so everyone can see it.
Just look at Knights of the Old Republic II. Better writers would've probably just meant that even more parts of the story were cut.