I begin my pitch. "Ok, so it's called 'Behind the scenes of E3'. Basically, I spend a week in LA, avoid the games convention completely and take in as many amusement parks and movie star homes that I can manage. All the crowds will be back at the LA Convention Centre. I avoid the queues and there's no messy media accreditation to worry about."
Nothing.
"Okay then; this one's called 'EB Undercover'. First I score a gig at my local EB Games. Then I'm working the counter, but I'm wearing a wire see? I've even got the recording tech taken care of." I open my shirt to reveal a minidisc recorder gaffer-taped to my chest.
Still nothing. I've got other story ideas up my sleeve but don't want to play all my cards at once. I've got this one idea where I actually go inside a videogame. One of my PALGN colleagues reckons that's already a movie. I say he's lying - a case of professional jealousy in the workplace if I ever saw it.
"No problem, I've got other ideas but I'll need a bit of time. Give me that time, and I'll give you a column with Godfather levels of storytelling by 2016."
"We kind of need your article by Saturday", said Big Ed, who this week sounds eerily like the voice-over actor Nolan North (Nathan Drake). Last week it was the voice of John Madden, a move that was possibly a management ploy designed to motivate us as a team, but instead just annoyed the crap out of us. Big Ed (channelling John Madden) kept stating the bleeding obvious. "It's Thursday, and we'll be seeing Friday any day now", "Those gaming bargains are sure to contain some bargains", and "Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon." We're still trying to figure that last one out.
I'm clearly losing Big Ed now. It's time for the big guns.
"Could you possibly wait for 2016 if I promise to actually top the Godfather?"
Absolute quiet. Not a single light on any of the super computer's 104 cabinets before me is blinking. Damn. I may have had more success promising to top Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
Videogame narrative
This week, with none of my story ideas getting the green light from Big Ed, I'm instead taking a look at videogame narrative.
Last Sunday came exciting news from Nottingham in the UK. Keep in mind there's been nothing of note come out of Nottingham since the tales of Robin Hood emerged, and that was 800 years ago. This exciting news even has something in common with the fictional world of Robin Hood - it concerns videogames and the tales they have to tell.
Dr Souvik Mukherjee is a researcher and videogame narrative expert from the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University. How great would it be to have such a niche qualification? The academic conferences are possibly lonely affairs, but it has to be neat being an expert in a field that no one else has studied.
Now according to Dr Mukherjee, the complex mesh of possible storylines and deep levels of involvement in videogame narratives relate to, and often surpass, the experience of earlier narrative media, such as books and films. In short he believes computer games have the same value as literary texts. 'Take that Mum. Zing!'
No need to topple the Bard.
Says Dr Mukherjee, “Though often unfairly dismissed as toys for children, computer games are far more complex than that. Most gamers, adults and children alike, play these games because of the stories they tell. So, whilst many focus on the violence in videogames, the narrative potential of these games should also be explored.”
He would get no argument from Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux (Fable, Fable 2) who, back in March, famously predicted “Godfather” levels of storytelling in games by 2016. At the time, Molyneux was taking part in Edge Magazine's issue #200 roundtable which had posed the following question: 'By 2016 (the year when Edge issue #300 should be published), will we be any closer to that completely immersive narrative experience?' As reported by MTV, Molyneux explained, "We’re starting to realise our uniqueness, and that we’ve got the ability to do things that no other medium has had before. I think by 2016 we’re going to have a truly amazing story, which will be cited as the equivalent of ‘The Godfather’ on film."
Earlier this month at GDC, Molyneux upped the ante even more. Speaking to VG247 he said, “I think I was wrong about that Godfather line… I think we can surpass where the Godfather is. Here’s the thing about games: you’re involved in them. And part of the stories that we tell, if we tell them in the right way, and we give you access to the right tools as you’re playing, you will feel engaged and involved in them in a way that you cannot feel engaged and involved with any film, or even book."
Back in the forests of Nottingham, Dr Mukherjee studied how games have been influenced by earlier forms of media such as film, comics and graphic novels and in turn, in the case of Max Payne, can contain a strong enough narrative to lead to a film adaptation.
Not a great adaptation to be sure. For the purposes of the column and consistent with my fine tradition of procrastinating, I watched the movie last night. That's a hundred minutes of my life I'm never getting back. Of course failed adaptations aren't always the fault of the source material. (In the case of the Max Payne movie, had the script been more true to the videogame, the movie may well have been more successful). For every Shawshank Redemption, and indeed The Godfather - stories that successfully make the transition from the page to the big screen - there are films such as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which fail miserably.
It's not a competition
While I largely agree with Dr Mukherjee's findings, and while I certainly admire Peter Molyneux's audacity and ability to generate a headline, I'm not sure that the videogame medium needs to surpass or supplant any other existing medium.
Just as great cinema in no way makes great literature redundant, I believe gaming can similarly expand its narrative scope and emotional capacity to engage its audience without diminishing in any way the importance and relevance of other art forms and other mediums. Videogames don't need to topple other art forms and other media to be taken seriously or to achieve greater mainstream and critical success.
The narrative that exists on a canvas is different to the narrative running through a poem; the story structure of a screenplay, different to that of a short story or a novel. Different is the key word. Not better; just different.
Great books, great films, poetry and art can and do exist side by side. So can videogames. Let's not forget that there are already fine examples of good story telling in the videogame world; games such as Shadow of the Colossus or Bioshock to name but two.
Narrative structure in videogames can be simple and clichéd, or minimalist, as was the case with Ico, or, like last year's blockbusters Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4, they can be rich and multi-layered.
While film and the written word may have both short and long form, videogaming is still very much an evolving medium, not yet constrained by convention. I have no doubt it will continue to mature and develop. Videogaming doesn't need to topple the works of Shakespeare (or for that matter the works of Mario Puzo) anymore than Hollywood needed to, in order to achieve greatness and acceptance as a legitimate art form.
Until next weekend, that’s The Wrap.
BackWrap
26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
Loading...
