Story Time

"*This is but one of the legends of which the people speak…*"
―Opening Narration[[src]]

## Overview

*This section focuses in on the increased importance of story within video games and how developers are consistently putting more and more emphasis on the story. This section also details what makes video games such effective storytellers.*

## Body

### A Growing Importance

When *Super Mario Bros.* came onto the scene, it was very evident that any story that it was going to have wasn't going to be the focus. Even with fairly rich games lore wise, like *The Legend of Zelda*, the story wasn't exactly the focus. In many cases, the story was barely even acknowledged in the game itself outside of an opening title crawl, but rather the instruction manuals. The story of the games weren't nearly as important as the gameplay itself, so it was an afterthought, something to explain away the quirkiness of the game and get the player from one place to another.

Though, as time went on, that trend began to die out as stories were no longer treated as background dressing and were implemented into the games itself. With the stories now available for all who play the game, no longer walls of text with an instruction booklet to hide in, more effort would have to be placed into them. Emphasis on story, narrative, and pacing became just as important as the gameplay. Developers are treating story and pacing as something that’s integral to games now and as such shouldn’t be thrown in with little consideration.

### These are Stories People Want to Experience

In the days of the NES, most games had only one difficulty: Hard. This was because it once again the gameplay that mattered the most. The motivation to push past a level was rarely spurred by the desire to see what happens next, but rather the desire to spite the game for making you suffer and leaving mental scars that haven't healed to this day.

More recently though, when confronted with the menu asking for the preferred difficulty, they'll see something like this. They'll be offered an option for a pure gaming experience like the old days, destined to break controllers all around. However, they'll also be offered an option that's presented as "For Players Who Wish to Experience the Story." Many people wouldn't be against choosing the latter.

By the way, Aunt May Dies at the end of *Marvel's Spider-Man*. Did that spoil the game for you? If so, what exactly did that spoil for you? The gameplay? No, that spoiled the story. What if this article were to suddenly blurt out what happens at the end of Red Dead Redemption II? Some time ago Video Games used to be spoiler free. When has anyone ever spoiled the ending of *Pac-Man* or *Galaga*? It sounds silly, but that’s how much change there has been. Now people are pissed when *Marvel's Spider-Man*, *Batman: Arkham City*, or *Bioshock* have been spoiled for them. Story is now so important to video games that you can get spoiled.

Games are given a three or five act structure now, not unlike most films. Next time you play through the newest release that isn’t a sports game, see if you can actually figure out where the act breaks are. You are likely to find them. However, it is somewhat expected considering that games have actually started to tap professional screenwriters and comic book writers to pen their games. Beloved Batman writer Paul Dini penned both *Batman: Arkham Asylum* and *Batman: Arkham City* while Dan Slott, the current writer for Spider-Man, was hired to help write the most recent Spider-Man game. However, one of the most blatant examples is the *Call of Duty: Black Ops* games, which brought in acclaimed screenwriters to write the campaigns of their games, one of which was David S. Goyer, who you might know as one of the screenwriters behind *The Dark Knight* Trilogy (this fact was advertised).

### These Stories are Recognized

How many of you saw Warcraft when it came into theaters? How many of you saw it is irrelevant, the fact that a movie was made based on the storyline of a video game is. The fact that it didn't succeed in movie form but did in game form might also be relevant. Hell, even the debatable quality of the story may be irrelevant as there are plenty of successful films and shows of debatable quality. The **point** is that this story was recognized, recognized as something worthy for the big screen and recognized as something worthy of a massive budget.

Even if a story is deemed unworthy of the big screen, it still hasn't stopped other stories from being worthy enough to adapt into print media, often comics and sometimes even novels. These are stories people want to hear and experience and stories that transcend the media they originated from. Despite this though, a distinct edge that video games carry is that many of these stories, despite transcending where they originated from, would not have as much resonance and impact as it has or had even been possible to tell in a medium that wasn't Video Games. And it's all because of one important aspect...

## Pages Relevant to this Section

* Cinematic Evolution of the God of War Series
* Cinematic Evolution of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Series
* Cinematic Evolution of The Legend of Zelda
* The Choices of Telltale

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