This is a very interesting article, and contains valuable information. I also dissagree with the thesis that stories and games work against each other. First of all, I think the author errs when he says the outcome of a game is unknown, or unexpected. During a baseball game we all know one or the other team will win. (barring a tie for you over precise readers) What is exciting is what happens during that struggle. Stories are the same. The audience knows either one or the other thing will happen. It is up to the story teller to make the wait as exciting as possible. It comes down to a matter of style. That is why, even when the baseball game is over, if it is thrilling people will be giving eachother play-by-play accounts for days afterward. The same is true of a story. We have all recited favoite lines or moments from movies to our friends. In fact, games with a powerful back story are even more exciting, as in the case of two rival teams in a playoff. A boxing match between two brothers would be more interesting than between two complete, but very cordial strangers. What people want is emotional tension. And lets face it, despite all the talk of moral relativism going around, we like Good vs. Evil. This is probably why WWII games are much more popular than WWI. In WWII you get to shoot Nazis.
In a very basic way, we know all the stories already. They have been told and retold. Very intelligent people have analysed the heck out of stories and can tell you all the tropes and character types and whatnot. But we still like stories. Games allow us to tell stories in a new way. Instead of requiring "suspended dis-belief" games suspend the dis-belief for us, and let us try to be the hero (or villian of our choice). That is why single player games have a limited ability to captivate the audience. After the story of the single player game is exhausted the game palls quickly. Multiplayer is fun, because it pits you against your friends, and gives you the emotional tension that replaying the single player missions does not. On the otherhand, a really good adventure game is more satisfying than a movie. Though the replayability is limited. Games, in short, are valuable for the stories that they give us. The two are integral to each other, though stories more easily stand alone.
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Posted - 3/21/2004 12:15:57 PM
