Interactive Storytelling for Video Games Chapter 15: The Future of Storytelling in Games Josiah Lebowitz Chris Klug

Stories Then and Now  Stories in games have come a long way since Donkey Kong and Colossal Cave Adventure.  The importance of stories in games continues to grow.  Stories have become a key feature in many genres.  Games today use a variety of different storytelling styles.

The Key Arguments  Pro Player-Driven Storytelling:  Player-driven storytelling is the evolution of the art form.  The writer can explore different story angles and progressions.  The player can become closer to characters he creates.  What players want most is to control stories and steer them in the direction they enjoy.  Pro Traditional Storytelling:  Storytelling is a perfected form and has no need to “evolve”.  Highly player-driven stories are time consuming and expensive to create, and most players won’t see the majority of the content.  Players can too easily turn the story down an uninteresting path.  It’s difficult to create highly emotional scenes when the player can always go back and change things.  In many ways, the illusion of control is better than actual control.  What players want most is an enjoyable well structured story.

What Players Want  Both arguments come down to what players want and enjoy most in game stories.  Stories are a very important factor in determining which games players buy and play.  Players have a moderate interesting player-driven storytelling.  Games with more traditional forms of storytelling are the most popular among players by far.  Games with highly player-driven forms of storytelling aren’t very popular among players, aside from a handful of big name titles.

Looking Towards the Future  The game industry always looks towards the future.  Accurately predicting the future, even in only a single industry, is very difficult and uncertain.  Interactive traditional storytelling is currently the most popular style by far and will most likely remain that way for the foreseeable future.  Player-driven storytelling won’t disappear and will likely gain popularity over time.  However, the carefully designed structure, pacing, and characters found in more traditional storytelling styles will continue to dominate the industry.  The basic foundations of storytelling will remain constant as they have for thousands of years.

A Future for Everyone  Many people in the game industry are always searching for the “best” way to do things.  They assume that, once that “best” way is found, everything else will become obsolete.  The industry has continuously defied their predictions.  No matter how the industry grows and changes over time, there will always be fans of every game genre, storytelling style, art style, and the like.  Instead of arguing about which type of storytelling style is best, game designers and writers should focus on creating the type of games and stories they want to create.  If the game and story are good, they’ll likely find an audience, regardless of the storytelling style.

Things to Consider  Do you believe that the game industry tends to become too fixated on a single “best” way of doing things? Why or why not?  What are some of the most important things you’ve learned from this class?  How will you use the things you’ve learned to improve your stories?  What are your own views on the future of storytelling in games?