FFS.
This* is like the fifth article I’ve seen recently that thinks a game is a story. Go ahead, read it. It blatantly says so in sentence two.
A game is a system of rules and goals. Period. Story doesn’t even begin to enter in to it.
Once again, for those who were so utterly dumbfounded by the previous statements that their brains filtered them out: A game is a system of rules and goals. Period. Story doesn’t even begin to enter in to it.
Since video games use a multi-media presentation (multi-media being little but a buzzword for “has pictures and sounds”,) people have been trying to turn them into movies pretty much ever since it was remotely feasible to try. They have, on many occasions, succeeded. Not in making truly interactive stories, but in turning a game into a movie. A movie with a 20 minute plot written by hacks then thinned out to encompass 40 hours of “interaction” consisting mainly of dragging the protagonist from set A over to set B and occasionally pressing the correct button when prompted like a laboratory chimpanzee.
This annoys me.
When I buy a video game, I want a game – first and foremost. A game. Where the fun comes from figuring out the system of rules and exploiting it to the best of your ability. And having a way to measure your success (a score, like) helps quite a bit, as well. I could care less about a story. If I want a story I’ll read a book or watch a movie. Something written by professional writers rather than introverted code monkeys.
If a game has a story as well as a game, it doesn’t offend me. If it’s well-crafted I may even enjoy it. But it is not why I am playing the game.
I am playing the game because it is fun to play the game. Ideally. There are an awful lot of games anymore that prey on the average nerd’s slightly OCD nature and are more akin to jobs where you grind out your quota than to actual fun. I do play far too many of those. But I don’t play any game because I give half a rip what is going to happen to the characters next.
I don’t have anything against interactive fiction. I had a ball with many a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book or an Infocom program. Though, my main interest was in solving the puzzles required to get the good ending. Even then, I didn’t care about story in my game. But, if what you want is a slightly interactive story (and it seems like the vast majority of so-called “gamers” do) – go for it.
Just, for the love of monkey, stop assuming it’s a game.
*Link removed because it no longer worked.
Posted on October 10, 2010
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