Stay tuned for the next poorly written episode
Clive Thompson has a column up at Wired about the potential for episodic video games. He says TV is a better model for video games than movies, for a host of reasons.
I think he's right for the most part. It's much easier to digest a five-hour game than a 40-hour one. Developers can improve graphics and physics as they go along, rather than waiting until the whole thing is perfect. Gameplay can change from episode to episode.
But in terms of story, episodic games won't see the benefits of serial narrative until the writing and acting drastically improve. Thompson writes:
The problem is that in most video games, characters' personalities aren't developed at all. And when they are, it's via cliched dialogue or plot points. I haven't played Half Life 2 and Episode 1 -- which he says feature "Alyx, one of the spunkiest and best-acted virtual characters I've ever seen" -- but except maybe for Psychonauts, I've never played a video game that came close to giving me a character whom I wanted to keep spending time with, like I do with Vince Chase or Homer or Borat.
Because they don't have as high costs or the pressure of a release date, episodic games would be a great way for developers to experiment with improving the writing and narrative. But the nature and structure of episodic content won't automatically solve the underlying problems.
I think he's right for the most part. It's much easier to digest a five-hour game than a 40-hour one. Developers can improve graphics and physics as they go along, rather than waiting until the whole thing is perfect. Gameplay can change from episode to episode.
But in terms of story, episodic games won't see the benefits of serial narrative until the writing and acting drastically improve. Thompson writes:
Dickens soon discovered that he could now do innovative things with his story. His characters' personalities could be developed not through single, central scenes, but through a dozen glimpses over a long stretch of time. Serial narrative also changed the way audiences relate to characters. When we focus on movie characters for two solid hours, they become epic heroes; when we encounter TV characters every week for years on end, they become old friends. There's an intimacy to episodic stories, and it's all the more intensified in a game because you literally go through hell with these folks.
The problem is that in most video games, characters' personalities aren't developed at all. And when they are, it's via cliched dialogue or plot points. I haven't played Half Life 2 and Episode 1 -- which he says feature "Alyx, one of the spunkiest and best-acted virtual characters I've ever seen" -- but except maybe for Psychonauts, I've never played a video game that came close to giving me a character whom I wanted to keep spending time with, like I do with Vince Chase or Homer or Borat.
Because they don't have as high costs or the pressure of a release date, episodic games would be a great way for developers to experiment with improving the writing and narrative. But the nature and structure of episodic content won't automatically solve the underlying problems.
2 Comments:
At 17:41, Ed said…
You know what I really like about this idea? The notion that one player games could become the kind of community experience we enjoy with television. People would recieve them at basically the same time; unravel the story together, talk about what happened in the game around the water cooler, speculate about what's next on message boards, etc.
I don't think that the experience is entirely dependant on dialogue, either. Plot twists, emerging and evolving characters, the introduction of new game play elements and tactics, gaining new abilities and inventory and previewing new bosses and levels are all the mechanics that keep us going from one savepoint/cutscene to the next. Why wouldn't that work with episodic content as well?
At 00:48, Josh Korr said…
In theory, I think that would be cool too. But to make people care enough about the characters, the plot twists, and the storyline to want to talk about it the next day like a TV show, those aspects all have to improve a lot just like the dialogue.
As far as the rest being next-day conversation -- new abilities, new bosses, the technical in-game stuff -- I think games need to get a little more mainstream for that to happen. If you mean like talking about it at work. For me at least, few of my friends and even fewer of my colleagues play a lot of video games. If you mean like the game community in general, online and such, would be playing the same new stuff at the same time and have it be a shared experience among that community, I think that could be cool.
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