Dramatic Elements its quite wide topic to write about, there for I will try to narrow it down to only main objects in my opinion. I will try to cover in this little writing what do I think about today’s storylines written for games. As you have already read from my research, games that we have so far on the market are pretty basic when it comes to storylines and choices given to player during the game. Most of the games are linear, going from point A to point B with extra option to pick which route to take. But do games need any storyline to be successive? The answer of course is no, in order for game to be successive it needs few basic structures for player to engage with game and that’s it. They are :
''
- The ordinary word
- The call to adventure
- The refusal of the call
- The meeting with the mentor
- Test, alies and enemies
- The approach to the innermost cave
- The ordeal
- The reward
- The road back
- The resurrection
- The return with the reward
''
(Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams, 2003,pp. 95-96)
Each of this point means different bit of storyline that need to be implemented in the game. For example in Doom 3 we have:
1. Introduction to game
2. Beginning missions
3. The accident
5. Enemies,
6. Effect of chase
2. More missions
5. Big boss
8. Finally finish and rewards.
Similar story we have in F.E.A.R game, we are introduced as a special agent with some basic psychics abilities. Game starts slowly with low amount of enemies and basic rules of engagement of Special Forces. As the game progress we get to discover our skills more mission’s enemies and so on. Both of these games are pretty straight forward action games. Going from point A to point B but in opposite to Crysis (game which I have talked about in my previous writing) there is only one route to the next mission. Are they successive games? Of course yes but if we will compare them to some basic games like Zombies Vs plants, or Mario we ca see that even basic game with low budged and almost no storyline can be almost as successive as the one from
top ladder. This only mean that game doesn’t have to be multimillion productions to bring profit but already a mini games on iphone that cost £40k to make can already bring big profit.
Games that are released in our age are unfortunately are very basic when it comes to dramatic elements e.g. storyline. Most of the top shell games that are released now days are made mostly for graphics and action. When ever we have strategy, fps or mmorpg more the game got explosions, shining elements, fancy graphics the more popular it is. Now day’s people tend to say that they want realistic games but what they really mean is that they want more stylish game with lots of explosions and amazing effects. For example in Crysis case the more game ‘’glows’’ and is colouristic the more it’s popular. That’s why many of mods made for Crysis are only changing some visual aspects to make the game more stylish. Also Henry Jenkins has come to similar conclusion in one of his articles.
''In many cases, the realist style may represent a move away from absolute fidelity to the real world: for example, many people read black and white and grainy images in film as more realistic than crystal-clear colour images, even though most of us experience the world in colour. Photorealism depends on the representation of camera flair lines which are a property of camera optics, rather than reality.'' ( Henry Jenkins, 2007, April 17)
However dramatic elements its not only about storyline. It also cover the main character, game cover and much more. Of course not all of games are basic from story line point of view. For example mmorpg like WOW, Lineage, Fallout or Aion are trying to introduce people to more options and quests where to player get to chose when and how to do quests to the curtain limits. Of course WoW and Lineage are still in basic form comparing to Aion where quest system was created to be as easy as possible and in 90% of missions all you need to know will be pointed on map. Also fallout started to be bit more complex and gave players in some quests option to chose what to do which is affecting game storyline and ending.
In my opinion we are in the middle stage of games development. Games that are now developed are made to achieve as best as possible graphics. Storyline is still unfortunately hold back because graphics take priority. I believe that in 5-10 years once the technology and hardware allow us to have cheap and fast photorealistic stylish image will allow us to actually start some study on coding games storylines and making them as big as possible or maybe even an infinitive. I also believe that in that time the games will be made differently, people who will control development of game will come from Hollywood because once the coding is done and it will be easy to make complex story. Its the director who will make great games that will grab players by their emotions just like it's happening now in movies. So far games are mostly focused on getting good graphics, pretty complex level of challenge so that player is entertained during the whole game and some straight linear storyline that sometimes success and affect emotions of player and sometimes don’t. Also professors from The University of Southern California has came to similar conclusion, where to they have writen an article about military programs that were made to represent soldier training and the various of options that the player could pick was substantially many.
''
...The choice that the user makes has a direct effect on how the storyline unfolds, when different choices cause the experience to follow different path in a branching storyline structure. In all, there are 63 decisions that make up the branch points of our current application prototype, and each decision in the sotyrline has been motivated by a specific leadership point. The leadership points were identified through directed interviews with experienced company commanders....
''(Andrew Gordon, Mike van lent, Martin van Velsen, Paul Carpenter, and Arvan Jhala,pp. 844-851)
