General gaming |
- The Evolution of Early Game Narratives
- Sleeping Dogs Gives Players a Dark World to Explore at their Own Pace
- Telling a Tale of Empowerment
| The Evolution of Early Game Narratives Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:32 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 30 | NARRATIVE IN GAMES The Evolution of Early Game NarrativesCover Story: How a few radical ideas set the framework for decades to come.W hen gaming began, narrative was almost nonexistent. In Tennis for Two and Pong, it was just an electronic competition. It wasn't until titles like Pac-Man, Pitfall, and Donkey Kong that gaming started getting stories. Sure, the tale of Jumpman fighting a big ape wasn't enthralling, but it gave context and color to the gameplay proceedings. As time wore on, stories got deeper, especially as RPGs grew in popularity. Even still, the story was mostly constrained to the instruction manual. Even The Legend of Zelda, which is now one of Nintendo's most story-heavy series, had little in-game context. That began to change in the late '80s, though, in a surprising place: the Ninja Gaiden series. Two versions of the game, one for the arcades and one for the Nintendo Entertainment System, came out and wound up being very different despite the shared name. Ninja Gaiden for the arcades was nothing more than a side-scrolling beat 'em up, something that was on the same level as a Double Dragon. However, Ninja Gaiden for NES wound up revolutionizing narrative in video games, delivering a hardcore platforming experience that was equal parts stellar and frustrating. |
| Sleeping Dogs Gives Players a Dark World to Explore at their Own Pace Posted: 31 Jul 2012 02:02 PM PDT Hong Kong action cinema certainly enjoys the opportunity to be silly and gritty at the same time. Those double-fisted gunfights, the pulse-pounding cops chases with improbable physics, and (in some cases) those doves that fly out of nowhere; all of it comes together to weave a world that's slavishly stylish but slightly ridiculous. This is the type of world Sleeping Dogs wants to recreate to a degree: an intense environment where brutal gangs can make your best friend suddenly disappear if he upsets the wrong people. A world based in loose realism, but also one where silly things can still happen. A recent preview build effectively conveyed this video game trip into foreign cinema, and it highlighted the way it tries to strike a balance between the two. My 1UP cohort, Marty Sliva, helped me realize something significant pertaining to the differences between narrative in video games and ones presented in film. He argued that, in a film, a director has a set runtime to stick to -- a schedule that pushes the storytelling aspects of film forward. In about a two-hour span, a world has to be created quickly, complete with a cast of characters, and then present the viewer with a beginning, middle, and end. A film director has to make every second count for fear of losing his viewers through convoluted plot points and irrelevant action. |
| Posted: 31 Jul 2012 01:07 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 30 | NARRATIVE IN GAMES Telling a Tale of EmpowermentCover Story: How games unite story and play by letting you blow stuff up.S ome people say that story in games is as superfluous as story in pornography: A pointless distraction that simply gets in the way of the material the audience actually wants. But is that really true? Not every game needs a story, but when integrated thoughtfully narrative can elevate a simple amusement to something more meaningful. Not unlike the way a well-crafted story can transform simple porn into erotica. But what constitutes thoughtful integration? Mainstream media may be content to depict video games with dated Pac-Man sound effects (or a clip of Doom if they're feeling particularly contemporary), but those of us who actually follow games know the medium has advanced well beyond rudimentary score-chasing arcade mazes. The kind of story in a game and the manner in which it's incorporated into the action varies according to that game's genre and purpose; in a visual novel like Corpse Party (or offshoots like Ace Attorney), story reigns supreme. In a twitch-based arcade shooter, plot provides little more than context and atmosphere even at its best (e.g. Einhänder or Radiant Silvergun). |
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