Game and Stories

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Stoooories! Gosh, am I really excited for a reading? I guess so... I kinda am.

The first article I read today is Level 9: Games and Stories. It starts off with the standard question, all of them articles always start the same way - What's makes for good stories? Well, apparently, game developers look at three certain works, and those are:

• Poetics, by Aristotle
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
• Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

Poetics by Aristotle... Used in games? That's quite interesting. Let's look into it a bit more. 

Aristotle used a very different language compared to the one we know now, so poetics isn't actually about poetry, but more about writing tragedies, but it's not the way we know it, as a story with a sad ending, no, for Aristotle it was basically serious and lifelike writing - there was no superpowers or mythical animals. Tragedy is life. 

"One important thing that Aristotle really hammered on is that each scene should follow the previous ones with a logical cause-and-effect relationship. Weak writing goes like this: “X happens, then Y happens, then Z happens.” Stronger writing is more like this: “X happens, and because of that Y happens, and because of that Z happens."

Basically, what this quote is saying that nothing happens without a reason. If something happens to the main character, it needs to have a reason, possibly one that the main character themselves made happen, otherwise, we feel like the main character has no control of the story.
This applies to cut scenes in games. That one time when player doesn't have control over the game and the happenings, something bad happens - usually death of a lovable character - and there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do is sit, stare into your screen and both love and hate the game. (FFXIV... I am talking about you here.)

Last part of Aristotle is that he had a certain way of defining the stage play.

• Plot. The narrative that describes what actually happens.
• Theme. What does it all mean? Why does it happen?
• Character. As in, a single role within the story.
• Diction. The dialogue, and also the actor’s delivery of that dialogue.
• Rhythm. This does include “rhythm” in the sense of music, but also the natural rhythm of human speech.
• Spectacle. This is what Aristotle called the “eye candy” or special effects of his day. He often complained that too many plays contained all spectacle and nothing else – sound familiar?

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The next part is about McKee, who, basically, rewrote the Poetics in an easier language and focused it more on the story writing. He believes that story isn't a formula, but a form, and you can't write it by following a template... simply because such template doesn't exist. 

• The protagonist has a goal, which is created by an inciting incident.
• The protagonist tries to reach the goal, but a gap (that is, some kind of obstacle, not necessarily a literal gap) opens up and prevents the immediate achievement of the goal.
• The protagonist attempts to cross the gap. Either the gap widens and they are unable to cross, or they do cross the gap but a new gap appears.
• This cycle of gap-crossing continues until the protagonist either finally completes the goal, or is prevented from completing the goal in an irreversible manner.
• In a typical three-Act structure, there are two reversals (new gaps) that happen between the Acts.

"Another interesting thing McKee talks about is the difference between what he calls character and characterization. The things we normally think of when we define a “character” are superficial data: favorite food, blood type, hair color, and so on. McKee calls these characterization. Character is what defines the person – used in the sense of “this activity builds character” or “she has a strong moral character.” What McKee says is that character can only be revealed by putting a person in opposition."

Pretty interesting part of the article. But, as the text mentions, there is no real way to show the real character of a character, only through cut scenes, not the gameplay. And since the world is only game, and the player has nothing to lose, the decisions will always be different in the game environment and in real life.

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The next part is more about making a strong character, dramatic moments and how people interpret them. There are two pretty good examples:

• Consider the main characters in many video games – Master Chief, Samus Aran, Gordon Freeman, Chell. You do not typically see your own character much at all, nor do you hear them speak much. This is not an accident. It is done deliberately to allow the player to project their own personality onto the character. The character becomes an extension of you as the player, and you feel an emotional connection to the character specifically because they are not very well defined.
• On the other hand, you can also have a strong character that is very defined – Duke Nukem or Lara Croft, for example. In this case, we immediately recognize the main character as not ourselves. To compensate, they must show a strong personality.

"The last thing I’d like to draw your attention to is McCloud’s concept of the “blood in the gutter”. In the book, there are two panels, one with a murderer swinging an axe at a victim and then the next that just shows a scream. When did the guy die? Between the panels… and it was you as the reader, with your imagination, that killed him. Nothing was actually shown."

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The last part is about hero's journey. The writer spent a lot of time studying myths and stories and found out they all follow a certain pattern.
The Hero’s Journey goes something like this:

• The hero starts off a commoner in a common world, and this “normal” world is established.
• The hero receives a call to adventure.
• The hero may decide to follow the call, or to ignore it. In the latter case, new events then force the hero to follow the call anyway.
• The hero starts their journey and encounters the first barrier. There is often a guardian that must be overcome to proceed.
• The hero then moves through the barrier into a new, darker world. They follow a trail of trials, each more difficult than the last. Along the way, the hero grows – not just in the “experience points” and “levels” sense, but in the “coming of age” sense. The hero becomes a better person. They become, well, a real hero.
• Eventually, the hero encounters the final evil, and is able to overcome it.
• The hero claims the prize.
• The hero starts returning to their world. Along the way they encounter the final barrier.
• Finally, the hero returns to their common world. The world may be the same, but the hero has changed.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article and actually spent quite a lot of time on it.

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When it comes to the two extra readings, I skimmed through them, as they didn't quite catch my attention, but Into the Woods: A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey just talks more about the Hero's Journey in more detail, so I will probably come back to it tomorrow and read it with fresh eyes.
The What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story talks about the importance of story, how dialogues are not the only way of showing it and that certain scenes require less dialogues as they focus on the actual events that are happening.

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