RSS
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting, keep it casual!
I recently read an article in the fall edition of Casual Connect Magazine about story lines in games. The article talked about the importance of story lines in games to draw the player in and make them want to continue playing until the end of the game. The article got me thinking whether game story lines are truly important.
As I was reading through the article, I was agreeing with most of the points being made, such as story lines help progress users through the game and create a sense of urgency to make users want to play through to the end of the game. I think this is definitely a major part of the story line. I know that if I am not interested in the story line I am usually not interested in playing the game.
Part of me also thinks that game play is very important and I can get past a mediocre story line or even get past no story line, if the game play is great. For example, I think Tetris is a great game to play and there is absolutely no story line to that game. The better companies can make the game play the more lea way they have with the story line. Game play can go hand in hand with the story line, which makes the game that much better and more interesting.
So, you have read how I feel about story lines. What does everyone else think? How important are story lines to games?
Storylines are extremely important for titles that cannot stand alone without them. For instance, Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) wouldn’t have been the same had it not been for the storyline. Although I don’t mind mindless killing after a few days of the same thing over and over it would have gotten old fast if I didn’t continue to play it for it’s storyline.
Then there are games, like you said, that don’t need storylines (Tetris, Peggle, Street Fighter, etc.) I put those in the same category as a movie which doesn’t need a storyline to stand on it’s own, look at some popular action flicks or anything with Van Dam or an action/fighter. Sure, many of them have some weak story or plot but realistically, you’re there to watch the action/karate/judo or whatever.
Once upon a time the WWF (now WWE) didn’t have a storyline but over the years they’ve changed. Why? To attract a broader audience (read: females) and try to make people continue to tune in. As things got bigger they needed to change it up to draw in a crowd on a weekly basis much like a soap opera. With a static set of wrestlers you can only see the same guys battle it out over and over before you’re bored, but if one turns bad and the other good or they get into some heated fight over some pretty women or an ex-husbands fathers sons dog then things change and people tune in.
I think you can apply that logic to a video game, games that have awesome quick replay value and are light on cost will often do well without the storyline. But when you’ve got a game that may be tedious to replay over and over (like those same wrestlers battling it out) you need something to break it up a bit, that’s where story plays its part.
Perhaps some games can only be designed if they have a strong story, perhaps a few can go either way while others would be over-done or too complicated with a story.
I don’t know where Super Paper Mario fits but it would have been fine with a bit lighter dialog and a little more action.