gameplay vs. narrative
There’s been a lot of debate recently on quite a few blogs about the perceived contradiction between story and game play in videogames. In other words, to borrow a summation from the Spectre Collie blog, “If you’re putting narrative in front of the game play, you’re no longer making a game. You’re making a movie.”
That same entry goes on to look at things in a much more balanced way, such as considering how the best gaming experiences can balance narrative AND game play without either one suffering. Still, this is a fascinating topic and I think that whatever conclusions are drawn depend far more on the gamer than they do on the game.
For example, Square’s Final Fantasy series has been putting narrative at the forefront of their games to a greater degree with every installment. “Final Fantasy IX,” for the PlayStation 1, was the last game that really even allowed for any kind of nonlinear game play or traveling the world freely in an airship. With the next installment, “Final Fantasy X,” the game became an almost completely linear adventure with very little opportunity for the player to make choices that would impact the course of the game. I still enjoyed “Final Fantasy X” a great deal, but interestingly enough my reaction is based entirely on the narrative, or cinematic aspects of the game and not at all based on game play. Other than blitzball. Which I LOVED.
Square took this a step further with “Final Fantasy XII” allowing the player to control only one single character in the party and having the other party members automatically fight, heal, retreat or whatever based on pre-decided actions that the player pretty much programmed into them. I have real mixed feelings about “Final Fantasy XII,” and many of them are based on the fact that at certain points I could quite literally put the controller down and let the game play itself while I watched. Just like a movie.
The flip side of the coin is, of course, game play. I don’t remember a damn thing about the story, if there even was one, from the first “Devil May Cry” but I do remember having a blast shooting everything in sight. One blogger mentioned that in some games, the presence of a story actually makes the player feel even stupider, citing “Gears of War” as an example. In other words, don’t saddle your first person alien shooter with a bunch of stupid plot points to try and explain and justify what’s going on. Just give the player a huge gun, a goal, and let ‘er rip. I can see the logic in there.
Additionally, there is the concept of just what a game really means. Is there a narrative to volleyball or poker or Tetris? No, not at all. It would be stupid if there were. And yet millions of people play these games every day. Take it a step further. Is there a narrative to “Super Smash Bros.”* or “Mario Kart” or F-Zero?” No, not that I’m aware. Yet again, millions of gamers play, and enjoy, these games daily.
Perhaps this explains the appeal of first person shooters like “Doom” and “Quake.” I’ve never had any interest in playing those games at all. I figured they would be boring, especially since I am not especially good at that kind of thing and I really do prefer games with some kind of plot and narrative structure. Yet first person shooters are more popular than ever before, and probably billions of people have played “Doom.”
Ultimately, it just depends on what kind of gamer is playing the game. Some people want pure game play mechanics, no plot necessary. Some people want tons of narrative, regardless of game play. Most want both. Nintendo, in particular, does a fantastic job of blending narrative with challenging and innovative game play. Take a look at just about any Zelda, Super Mario, Metroid or Pikmin game for numerous examples.
- Matt
* Super Smash Bros. Brawl actually has a story mode with a wacky nonsensical narrative about the characters teaming up to fight a greater evil. The cutscenes are fun to watch, but it really is an incredibly weak story and the real magic stll lies in the meat of the game, the multiplayer gameplay.
- Kyle