Script writer on videogame story telling

  • Posted February 8th, 2008 at 11:56 EDT by
  • 1,619 views
  • 10 Comments

The videogames industry has come a long way in regards to story telling. Long gone are the days where videogames featured plots where the main antagonist simply had to move from point A to point B to “save the world” and defeat the main boss at the end.

Indeed, while many games may still feature the point A to point B concept such as Call of Duty 4, many added elements such as character development and high quality dialog has enhanced the story telling in videogames in recent years.

However, a prominent videogame scriptwriter believes that while the story telling in the games industry has advanced, in comparison to film, it still remains black and white on certain levels.

Tom Jubert, explains:

"It seems contradictory to suggest film is capable of doing just that, but that gaming is somehow different - there's not a leg to stand on. Gaming's an unfortunate term we've been saddled with. Of course, topical relevance being palatable and it actually occurring is a different story.

"Blacksite gets a lot of flak for its botched political message - but at least they gave it a shot. Bioshock was altogether less ambitious. But it's early days - in cinematic history we'd still be in black and white".

What do you think? Let us know about it in the comments section below!

Source: CVG

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  1. PS3-The Ultimate Machine

    • 1:16pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 1

    I think you(Sarad) should edit this article and correct it,before,ppl start b itchin' about it.In case you didn't notice,you wrote "....where the main antagonist simply had to ......"

    Antagonist means the bad guy,NOT the good guy i.e. the protagonist.

  2. roh_sik | rohsik

    • 1:29pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 2

    Well if we r still in black n white in the game world then wat about the time of original pac man n space invader??

  3. Phileoca

    • 1:57pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 3

    FFX and FFX-2 were both great stories.

    But Uncharted has one of the best stories, character development, acting, and music of any game.

  4. Deldwen | Deldwen1

    • 3:06pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 4

    Agustis Gloop the big fat greedy ne-cem-poop

  5. psn_frov | frov

    • 4:48pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 5

    i sort of see what he means

  6. el_rika

    • 5:08pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 6

    When talking about storytelling in video games they should mention MGS and Uncharted, not Call of duty lol....but those guys probably never heard of MGS so, sux to be them...

  7. Alpha2

    • 7:25pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 7

    Uncharted and Heavenly sword are some how less impressive examples of story telling in games than "Good Luck Chuck" and "Welcome Home Roscoe jenkins"? Right.

     

    Seriously people need to really think about their industry before they start throwing stones.

  8. gingo | gingo

    • 8:24pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 8

    psn id: gingo... video game storys dont need to be perfect to make them good, they only need to be realistic and make you want to play the game to get to the end of them

  9. itforensic | ITforensic

    • 9:53pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 9

    Honestly, I don't think the story telling evolved that much from the times of Atari, ZX Spectrum, Commodore or Amiga. In fact, I will go so far as to claim that the story telling went downhill in the last 20 years... that's just my 2 cents.

  10. Uncool | Admodistrator

    • 10:53pm GMT - February 8th, 2008
    • 10

    @gingo - pretty much sum's up it up for me as well. While not all of us focus on the storyline we do however put more emphasis on gameplay. Thats not to say storylines like the one in AC is nothing short of amazing but its not as restricted as say a decade ago going from only A->B.

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