Storytelling

Storytelling is a massive part of the current video games world. Some games have a compelling story with almost zero gameplay style while others have brilliant gameplay and no direction outlining the actions of the player. Several developers have given their reasons for this recently giving interviews to IGN and it all seems to boil down to one point - story lines have to connect to the player on a personal level for them to become invested in the character/s struggle. The issue with this and the future of gaming is how we differentiate between direct story driven consequences and the opinions of the player. Will we be playing linear games with high production costs to progress players by following set pieces or will we play complex stories with a variety of story progression options. This will mainly come down to the development team behind each game or the structure of the game itself and we certainly have an interesting time ahead.

Video games as a medium are coming into their own now; more people play and therefore more people buy. Some of those more casual players want their hands held throughout the entire experience whereas the hardcore players want a storyline involved but the freedom to explore whenever and wherever they want. Developers have an idea about our individual personal emotions but they can never account for everyone. They have to work out how invested their players are at each story development point and progress accordinly. This allows them to continue in the desired direction and also hold the players attention if not drive them to continue playing more.

As video games have progressed the developers have brought up further ideas and ways to keep pushing the medium forward. People are becoming as invested in their games as they are with books and even films. The set pieces in some of the AAA developed games almost come straight from a blockbuster movie; just look at Modern Warfare.

Linear games crop up in all shapes and sizes; Gears of War, Halo and many other shooters of the current generation follow a completely set out storyline where personal decisions never really count. You know the objective and your character follows the path set out in front of them. In certain games this 'set piece' driven drama is worked almost to an artistic level - Crysis 2 springs to mind. In comparison La Noire was portraid as a deep game with hundreds of decision options but the outcome always stays the same.

No matter how many times you play something like Mass Effect though the story always drives you in a different direction. Quests you don't pursue or even find in previous playthroughs change your endgame. Even Mass Effect though ends with the same finale. Oblivion is another piece of completely open world play. Almost as soon as you put the game in your console you are free to do your own bidding. Completing the Main Quest though always end with the same confrontation. Other games have tried altering the finale - Dragon Age and Bioshock and with many varying levels of success.

Overall these differences in game style do not always affect the choices we have when purchasing. Certain genres, characters or settings do this for us but either way the new innovations in gameplay mechanics is sure to make the next few years very exciting.