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[Lermontov]

I ask the question because most of 'em are crud. I can't comment on Doom 3 because I've yet to own and play it, but word is the storyline is indeed crud. Now maybe this doesn't matter much with FPS but I tend to think it does. While the bar is continually being raised by developers in order to keep up with the graphics cards developers, anything approaching a decent storyline with a decent script usually gets left behind, or maybe wasn't even considered much in the first place.

"Here's the concept" they proclaim and then forget to actually develop it into a fully realized story with decent dialogue.

Thus games follow a similar path to films with the advent of advanced digital technology. Film makers became so obsessed with what they could do that they forgot to include a decent script, too. This is somewhat being redressed right now - partly due to many mega-looking spectaculars with nothing else to them losing money in the past few years. Lord of the Rings beat the trend but then it had a ready-made damn good quest story to begin with by a story-telling (and literary) master. The last two Star Wars films had storylines so cliched and dialogue so corny they wouldn't be out of place in a game. (Probably Lucas's intention anyway; but I digress!)

I play quite a few adventure games and in a genre where you expect story and dialogue to be their strong point it is sadly lacking. In the major game genres, Half-Life at the time was a big advance because of it's coherent storyline. It even gave you a 'choice' at the end of the game. Also Deus-Ex. This is nothing new now in games (and was probably less new than many made out, just included in a big-budget mainstream release; those old enough might be able to point to Sinclair console games that had advanced storylines for example) but how far has this advanced since then? Not very far. One only has to look at game sequels to see that. Maybe most gamers don't care. It does appear that a story is the last consideration when it comes to creating a game!

You only have to trawl gaming jobs to see just how non-existent posts for script (i.e. story not computer) writers are. Game storylines are often put together by those with plenty of technical but, with respect, no literary background or training - and it shows. It's that human side that gets lost in all the flash bang wallop.

I think that what makes a game ultimately great, along with the gameplay is an intriguing storyline, with well written dialogue that carries you through and characters with something approaching depth to them. Max Payne avoided the problem rather than solved it. It simply kept the story, literally, a graphic novel and didn't integrate it technically into a moving computer game.

Advances in technology and programming are making it much easier for games to have multiple possibilities in terms of storyline. It would be good to see more games - especially FPS biggies - employing them, for one thing it would extend gameplay. What we get for the most part is an illusion of 'choices' for what are mostly pretty run of the mill linear experiences, heaped with cliche and corn, and semi-illiterate cliche and corn at that.

As Roger Waters put it in 'Amused To Death', if an alien anthropologist were to pay a visit to the bones of human civilization he/she/it would have to conclude: "This species amused itself to death." !!! No search for meaning, no depth, just instantly gratifying crash, bang, wallop...virtual oblivion to avoid getting a handle on wtflip life is all about because 'we have to do that every day anyway'. But we don't really, we tend to spend our lives in a reactive state, never really in control, never really proactive. Most games give that same illusion, that we are in control, but really we are just puppets in the hands of designers who have set us on the rails of a linear experience that gives the illusion of us being in control. What a fabulous opportunity to reach young people - to actually have games that mean somthing and contain moral dilemmas and choices beyond 'Easy, Medium, Hard' and whether or not to blow someone's brains out in GTA!!!! I'm a romantic, I suppose!

(Next thing you know I'll be telling you all that mankind is really controlled by a group of shape-shifting, 12 foot, human flesh-eating lizards...among them the Royal Family, the PM and President Bush!!!! :D 'YIkes'!!!!!)

Anyway: Fingers crossed for Half-Life 2.

[Spook Tooth]

Crud. Now there's a word I've not heard in a long time... :D

Great reading Lermontov. You should submit this to some games mag/site or somesuch (err another games site as well as this one). I think I agree with your sentiment on this storyline thing. Max Payne (as you point out) is the only exception to the FPS genre I can think of myself that has any kind of substance to it story-wise and whilst it's good, it's not epic.

Half Life 2, from the movies sampled, does look promising. You appear to interact with other characters and there seems to be more than one way of traversing through a city-scape or whatnot, but I am prepared to bet that this is more than likely illusory and your path is pretty much linear all the way. After all, the characters talk to you but you don't talk back. Still, there is a story to it I suppose but your input is merely uncovering the plot that others have written for you rather than writing it yourself, I guess.

You've given me an idea about what would make a different kind of game. I had a flash image of some detective type bloke solving a crime or something (Colombo-esque?), very cliched itself, but you could choose your job/client from what was going on around you and your actions would dictate what happened in the game and any overall outcome that should arise (Sam Cruise?? Spectrum). Mind you, I guess with non-linearity, there would be a lack of an overall goal and hence concluding chapter? Or a convoluted one at best maybe, going from multiple paths through the game and different end scenarios - a game does need to be quite tight in plot I suppose (to an extent), else it loses a certain je n'ais c'est quoi to the point and purpose of playing. Mind you, there isn't much point to most games really - you just play till you reach the end or till you give up through sheer boredom or frustration.

Anyway, nice thread. Maybe this should've gone in the 'bone of contention' forum? :unsure: ;)

[The Ghost of Inept Pig]

The story in Doom3 seems to be the kind of thing that's just there to explain why there's all these things odd-looking things to shoot at.

Now, stories in games - on one hand you have the retro approach, did we need to know why Pac Man did what he did? And we never did learn if the pilot we were controlling in Asteroids had any personal vendetta against floating chunks of rock - Do some game makers feel the need to put a story to their simplistic title just to appease the masses? Or do they all have notions of making the next Hollywood style script, and applying it to their run-of-the-mill first person shooter?

Hard to say, but there does seem to be cases of a story for the sake of it in some instances - and if they fail to dream up an imaginitive enough storyline, they can always set the game in war-time, and insert a few keywords and have done with it...

I always found the better storylines resided within RPGs and Adventure games, Broken Sword 3 had a particularly nice storyline, with a it's fair share of memorable dialogue - but it's essential that these games have a fairly decent plotline, in order to drive the player forward - as for first person shooters, I must confess to normally be far to busy shooting things to be paying a lot of attention to the storyline, which as far as I can gather is something that encourages me to use my vast array of weapons in as nasty a way as possible...

[Lermontov]

Thanks for the emails fellers! I just wanted to post my score on MOH the show off! I'll figure out how to do it because I have done it before! I did at one point unistall All-Seeing-Eye (again) because I was playing the game too damn much at night, but then reinstalled it. Addictive personality? Probably! last night, on the Brest map I got 100 kills in under 40 mins!!!!! But I only ever use an SMG and only ever play on Allies. Riflemen are extremely sniffy about people who use SMGs!!!!!

Incidentally, it's clear that multiplayer online is the new 'Course Fishermen snobbery'!!!!!!!!!!! Turning their noses up at those who use certain types of equipment and aren't really 'true' MOH multiplayers - if they were they would use a rifle! I can see the point, though, it does raise the bar with difficulty. But life is too short to go that far, too short!