By: Christopher W. Mock

THE STORY BEHIND THE GAME

IN THE BEGINNING….

• The first electronic game was on the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement device in !947. The game was a missile simulator inspired by the recently developed RADAR devices used in WWII.

• Computer programming for chess came out soon after, followed by Nim, and eventually Pong, Tic-Tac-Toe and other games began to show up as computers got more focused on gaming.

• What did all of these games have in common? No story line.

THE FIRST STORYLINE• The first real video game storyline came in 1985 with the Super

Mario franchise (the best selling game series in history).

• After the success of Mario, other games began incorporating a storyline such as Final Fantasy, Wing Commander, and the second best selling PC game, Myst.

STORYLINE IS IMPORTANT• The argument for a storyline in videogames can be seen just in

the numbers. Some of the best selling games in history had storylines, while relatively simple, the definitely existed.

• The best selling PC game ever, Sims 2, took story telling to a whole new level in which they allowed the player to create their own life stories, however they wanted.

• Even Halo ended up being reprogrammed to better suit the gamer’s story telling needs.

• Here is a link for this argument, http://www.lingualgamers.com/thesis/story_video_games.html

STORYLINE IS NOT IMPORTANT• The other side of the argument is that it is more about the gameplay

than it is about the actual story.

• Sports games have little to no elements of story telling, yet the industry is constantly pumping more money and better technology into the games. And they still sell.

• Even games such as COD, or Halo have a resemblance of a story, but when it comes down to it, the goal is to shoot things and not die.

• Here is a link for this argument, (potentially unreliable source) http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Why-Storylines-In-Video-Games-Just-Don-t-Work-12467.html

WHEN STORY BECOMES TOO MUCH• Recently, story lines have become more and more complex to

the point where some argue that it is way too much.

• Games such as Beyond: Two Souls, have a tendency to rely too much on the story, so it feels like the player is just involved in an interactive movie.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qolJTsmmWA here is a walk through of the game. This exceeds 8 hours, so don’t watch the whole thing, but be skimming through, you can see my point.

WHAT MATTERS MOST?• That really depends on the player. For me, I love a good story, but if

the story is lame and seems forced, I am unhappy with the game. In that case, I would almost prefer no story.

• Question 1: What is more important to you? Storyline, or gameplay?

• Question 2: Is a solid storyline needed to make a best selling game? If yes, explain big selling games with weak to no story line. If no, explain games like Myst and Mario.

• Question 3: Are video games a new form of story telling like books and movies used to be? Or are they just another form of entertainment?