Sam Lake on Video Game Storytelling

loladeutsch writes "What makes for a great story in a video game? Sometimes, with all the innovative development and cool graphics the actual story a game has to tell can get lost in the shuffle, or at least can seem to be an afterthought. When a game arrives on the shelves that presents one of the more engrossing stories we've seen in awhile, it's worth noting. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has been recognized by many people with their heads screwed on straight as a benchmark in video-game storytelling. "

halflife, final fantasy, doom...

[imthatguy]

ok maybe not that last one...but it had a big fscking gun!

We've come a long way from...

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.

Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
spoken in the Flash animation as Someone set up us the bomb
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
Cats: How are you gentlemen !!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Cats: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
Operator: Captain !!*
Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'Zig'.
Captain: For great justice.

Story?

[Bobdoer]

Since when did a good game need one of those? Back in the good old days, all we had were little pixels that roamed the screen, and if they actually did something, we were amazed. Story, heh. Those young'ens today are spoiled, I tell ya.

You mean...

[canfirman]

...Grand Theft Auto: Vice City doesn't qualify as a good story? Awww....

I got a better one.

[rice_burners_suck]

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has been recognized by many people with their heads screwed on straight as a benchmark in video-game storytelling.

Actually, for me, the benchmark in video-game storytelling is Leisure Suit Larry, from Sierra On Line. That d00d is my hero.

The Archetypical Video Game Epic

[WwWonka]

I think the greatest video story ever told was that of the lonely hungry yellow orb with eyeballs. Always running from his past, devouring the needed fuel to keep him going and learning life as he traveled the mazes of unpredictability. Chased by the undead that could never understand his ideology nor motives only to cause this lost soul to consume a secret drug like substance that multiplied his anger and made him insanely aggressive for short uncontrollable periods of time. It is a story of a journey that will never subside and never end.

Oh, and he liked to eat fruit.

Re:Story?

[funny-jack]

Your pixels roamed the screen? Lucky bastard. Ours just sat there. We had to imagine them moving. And they were all one color, too.

the best was

[Anonymous Coward]

atari combat. That story made me cry.

Slashdot Jeopardy!

[Tackhead]

Geek: I'll take "Suicidal Web Administrators" for $100, CowboyAlex.

CowboyAlex: The answer is:

There seems to have been a slight problem with the database. Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

Geek: What are the two Stupidest Possible Things a web server can be programmed to do during a Slashdotting?

CowboyAlex: Correct for $100, go again, geek!

Poor Technical staff...

[Pollux]

Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections in /home/www/jivemagazine/forum/admin/db_mysql.php on line 40

There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.
An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Poor tech staff. Let's see here, I've tried to reload the page three times, so that's four emails from me alone...multiply that by maybe 100,000 slashdot users...

Man, I know that the web server takes a bad enough beating, but I never knew we could slashdot the mailserver also!

Re:We've come a long way from...

[hambonewilkins]

Ha ha ha! Oh gosh that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. "All your base are belong to us." You know, I've, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference, reference that outside the game before. Because that's what it says in the game, right? Isn't it? "All your base are belong to us." And, and yet you've taken that and used it out of context to use in this everyday situation. God what a clever, smart person you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any, any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me too as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity. God, you're so funny!

Adapted Family Guy.

Re:halflife, final fantasy, doom...

[I_Love_Pocky!]

No it actually was a file system checking gun. It totally ruled!

Re:I play plenty of games with good stories

[Gizzmonic]

This is really, really fucking funny. And it makes a great point...what's so great about the stories in RPGs? Almost all of them are grade-F "reluctant messiah" stories, with all the worst aspects of Sweet Valley High novels thrown in for extra pizzazz. Seriously, either they sound like they were written by a Japanese schoolgirl on ecstasy, or a basement-dwelling dwarfartard whose best work is faint echoes of Star Trek fanfic.

Honestly, why look to games for great storytelling? You may as well proclaim the fucking operating manual for your TV set as great literature because you love watching TV.

Re:I got a better one.

[drkhwk82]

I think the first 'boss key' I ever saw was one of the LSL's, where it put some kind of histogram of condom durability on the screen, hysterical.

See for yourself here. [ophidian.org]

Nethack

[tttonyyy]

Let us not forget our roots; the battle of @ against &.

An epic story of the struggle between good and evil.