Stories in Games
/http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/02/08/amalur-vs-skyrim-does-gamep...
We’d read a book or watch a movie if we just wanted a story. But it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. Game controls, mechanics, all of it is just a means to an end, and that end is a story.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” goes the old Joan Didion quote.
There’s a lot of different kinds of stories in games... But just as important are the stories the developers give us the tools to tell ourselves...
Even a game that seems to favor action over narrative is just as reliant on story as an RPG...
It’s the stories that we tell ourselves that make the game worth playing, and whether it’s one big one or something so small as making your way up a mountain to take a break at the top, those stories are what Elder Scrolls has always done best. And it’s what 38 Studios is going to have to learn to do if they want to take their gameplay and use it for a purpose rather than imagining it stands on its own.