Narrative in Games Part 2: Mixing Oil and Water

Not every game is consistent between the cutscene and gameplay narratives.

Last week we took a look at narrative in games, splitting it into two concepts: explicit and emergent narrative. Explicit narrative referring to the type of story generally told in books, film, and other traditional media, and emergent narrative referring to the story that emerges due to the choices and actions taken by the player within the game's mechanics. We looked at the strengths and drawbacks of each and touched both on why these are often very isolated from one another and how they can still reinforce each other even when disconnected.

This week we'll take a look at a couple ways that developers are already trying to integrate the two together more directly, as well as a few example games that demonstrate these methods.

Narrative in Games Part 1: Cutscenes vs Gameplay

Don't worry, in another 10 minutes you'll remember this is a game.

Video games have had a rather mixed history when it comes to storytelling. While many games certainly make attempts at telling grand, meaningful stories most of them tend to exist primarily or entirely inside either cutscenes or dialogue dumps. Despite the fundamentally interactive nature of games their actual narrative tends to be strictly non-interactive - or at best with only slight variance along a small number of discrete paths. As a result many in the gaming community heavily criticize cutscenes in games, claiming that they instead try to mimic films rather than utilizing the inherent strengths of the medium.

So, are cutscenes a crutch that less innovative or skilled developers rely on, or do they have merits within video games?

Bit Rant: Guns and Disempowerment

Today I'm going to try something a little different with a new series I call Bit Rant. Basically this will just be a humorous rant against popular mechanics or topics to approach them from a different point of view. As such everything here should be taken as parody rather than literal critique.

With that out of the way, let's talk about how horrible the mechanics in modern FPS games are and how they directly undermine their narrative themes!

Inventories and Trash Mechanics

Check out my new 20 slot bag!

Inventory systems have been around almost as long as video games themselves. It's pretty much given that if your game has items or equipment that you'll need some way for the player to manage them, and there have been several minor mechanics that were created to either improve the inventory concept or to allow for more varied or interesting ways for the player to interact with their inventory. Unfortunately not all of them have been positive. With that in mind let's take a look at one of the worst offenders - trash items.