Comments on: Editorial: Narrate My Lego

By: Brettsuo

Brettsuo — Fri, 02 May 2014 19:23:01 +0000

@Imitanis: I really like the idea of the compromise between linear narrative and the Narrative Lego system, where the linear narrative comprises the “main” storyline and the Lego system handles interaction between lesser NPCs, and/or during sidequests and end-game stuff. It would add a nice bit of depth and flavor into the more generic characters and serve as a welcome distraction from the main storyline for those who are looking for a reprieve.

By: Scott 'Imitanis' Mundy

Scott 'Imitanis' Mundy — Fri, 02 May 2014 18:25:21 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. I really appreciate it, even if each of you don’t necessarily need this type of narrative in your games.

I’m hoping something like this system pops up in an Elder Scrolls or Fallout title somewhere down the line. Perhaps it could even handle post-game content in games with more linear narratives.

By: Ethan 'Ethos' Pipher

Ethan 'Ethos' Pipher — Thu, 01 May 2014 15:21:18 +0000

I didn’t know about this talk, so thanks for this article, Im! I’ve been thinking a lot about this type of design, although not exactly in the same direction that Levine is. I think there’s a way to combine linear narrative with the learning process that defines good gameplay. The game should react to the way the player plays, but the player should also react to the way the game plays.

By: Ferchu

Ferchu — Thu, 01 May 2014 09:35:03 +0000

I played linear games and no linear games and I like them both. This narrative I would like to see in a game like Oblivion but not being the case in a traditional Jrpg, since I like those games being linear with a rich storytelling feed giant spoon .

I agree with everything Brettsuo said specially that complexity and randomness does not necessarily lead to good narrative . I think a good narrative comes from having great imagination and the ability to put that into words in an well executed manner.

I greatly enjoyed reading your article Imitanis.

By: Brettsuo

Brettsuo — Thu, 01 May 2014 02:19:20 +0000

There’s definitely a place in video games for less structured storytelling like this and for linear narratives. For my money, I vastly prefer games that are more linear than ones with open worlds and a ton of room for exploration. This is partially because the storytelling does suffer a great deal in most open-ended games, due to the difficulty in making compelling storylines that can branch off and intertwine in so many ways and for so many different situations. The other reason is that linear games just so much easier to finish quickly and get that satisfying story arc completed, which is a huge deal to someone with little free time to spare. So, to that end, I’m not sure I agree that a “better” system for storytelling even exists (for my tastes).

More than that, I’m not convinced that Levine’s method can accomplish what I would want out of an open-ended game (because complexity and randomness does not necessarily lead to good narrative), but the more complexity and character they can add into interactions, the more realistic those interactions become, which can only serve to improve all types of narrative. So, I’m all for him trying to shake things up.

The current approach for most games seems to be to simply write complexity and depth into the interactions of the characters to create a more realistic narrative, which works very well if the writer is good. This Narrative Lego approach relies more on the randomized personality of their stars and their zero-sum system of affection toward the protagonist to create complexity and depth within the narrative. I suppose this will create some very interesting results and almost endless replay value, but I’m not sure I see how it will necessarily lead to a better narrative than just writing one really good linear one. It just seems like it leads to more narratives, and obviously with more narratives, there will be a dilution of quality, unless significantly more development time and money is spent and/or some technology gets created that can help with the process.

I guess when it comes down to it, I would really rather just have a good storyteller spoon-feed me a story than have to create my own story, no matter how good the process for creating my own might be. I can see the appeal in having unpredictable things happen in the game, but that always wears thin after all the unpredictable things have been seen. So, really, I can see this becoming just another gimmick that hack developers use to give their games the air of having a larger, more complex world. Hopefully they have the sense to use this as a tool, or building block to a new style of storytelling, and not a crutch.

This is all just my opinion, obviously, and this was largely off-the-cuff, so I will be more than happy to be shown the light by someone who sees this in a different way than I do. This was a great choice for a post (and it was well executed, to boot), Imatanis! Even though I kind of shit all over this concept here, I really do find it very interesting, and I do think it can lead to some much-needed advancements in the way video games are able to tell compelling stories.