The old idea of a video game, in which you played through a set storyline, accomplishing different tasks in order to progress the next level is all but obsolete. I would imagine it began with the ’secret’ levels they started building into games. Suddenly it wasn’t enough to just find out the end of a story, you need quests and levels that took you above and beyond.
Alternative endings were the next step. It isn’t that difficult to implement; instead of having a linear set-up, you simply switch to a modular one. Which modules are completed affects the route taken through the story, and hence the ending. Modules can be affected by anything from the type of character the player chooses (mages get different quests to warriors) to the scores they get on a task (rescuing all 100 slaves means one thing, only getting 68 means something else) to straight out decisions (if the player decides to fight it makes a different story than if they choose to run.)
Of course, game developers resources are limited, so the more cross-over modules there are the better. Nobody is going to make five completely separate games – at the very least they are going to share environment backgrounds.
The alternative ending is progressing as games evolve; mmorpgs are in a unique position in that they are endlessly updated; changes to the world can directly reflect the actions of the players in them. And yet they also require a certain suspension of disbelief. After all, every time the big evil gets defeated by the great champions it respawns – not a problem for most gamers who are just after equipment and kudos, but something difficult to reconcile with an evolving story.
Another problem with mmorpgs is that storylines naturally build to a climax. The ring gets thrown into a volcano, the bad guy gets run out of town, and the hero gets married. Formats which encourage endless stories (like long running TV shows) always get tired and old. Witness the final seasons of Buffy. Or take a look at the current episodes of The Simpsons. Games are reinventing themselves as interactive stories, and though gamers are tolerating cheesy dialog as long as they get flashy graphics, how much better would it be if they got decent storylines as well?
Alternative endings are post-modern – and before anyone groans and runs away from that pretentious word, let me hasten to add that this is a good thing for games. Games are already non-linear, fragmentary, and slightly surreal. They have different view-points built in. Sci-fi and fantasy genres have always been questioning and challenging. Games have grown out of ’shoot fifty square blobs and gain ten points for each’ into complex multilayered worlds with good and evil, morality and sin, religious dogma, terrorists, sex, gods, mythology, anarchism, environmental activists, corrupt politicians, fearless prophets, satire, sarcasm, straight faced preaching and complex characters.
Aug 27, 2007 at 7:17 pm
And thank goodness that they have… the games market would most likely have collapsed by now if we were still limited to the old barely interactive style of games.
My favorite game is Diablo II. I’ve been playing it for years… newer and flashier games come out, but nothing else I enjoy as much or as consistently. What it DOES have is consistently good game play and a good storyline.
Aug 31, 2007 at 12:22 am
Agreed. Consistently good game play and story lines beat out graphics every time.