A Story Told…

This post spawned from a tweet I saw posted by someone I follow on twitter. She was berating herself for getting weepy about a video game. I know of whence she comes but I told her that she shouldn’t feel bad as it is a story that was written and the media used to tell the story is ultimately irrelevant.

Consider that a movie is typically under two hours. Assume this movie is not an adaption / sequel / reboot. We are introduced to characters, given a plot, and at some point, the movie will end and the story will be told. All within that tiny capsule of time. On too many occasions to list there have been films that hit close to home to just about everyone. There a number of films that leave me a little misty. Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” always hits me hard. In every single instance of watching a movie it is a passive experience in which you become a fly on the wall of the Universe the film is set in. You have no involvement in the film except for the relationship you feel towards either the situations or the characters.

Let’s shift our focus on over to video games now. Any video game that you can finish in two hours is likely not going to be a satisfactory experience, although I am sure there may be some that would argue that point. The beauty of video games is that you have at least 10 hours to develop that special relationship with the plot/characters. In some instances you have 100+ hours! The game she was referring to was an RPG called “Persona 3″ and while I know next to nothing about the game I do recall the controversy surrounding it. Controversy aside, it has been scored extremely high by critics. Chances are I will never play it, it just isn’t my bag.

I recall one of the best games I had ever played in the past was an RPG called “Planescape: Torment“. This game was essentially a D&D game but dealt with the Planescape Multiverse as opposed to the typical worlds. I had no idea what I was getting in to but it was a well reviewed game and I wanted something to play. You play The Nameless One, and you must solve the mystery of your own mortality. You wake up in a morgue with a talking skull as your companion and you must try to figure out why you are there. Death was not punished in this game and often it would serve to advance the plotline when you would die. It was a brilliant game. Over the course of the game, you gather other lost souls around you and your party forms. Together you track down the villain of the game who seems to be leaving clues everywhere you turn. Near the end, you must say goodbye to your party and I found myself getting a little weepy as I realised I had grown attached to all of them and I had to leave them behind. It was surprising and sudden.

A recent instance would have to be in Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption“.

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When you finally track down your former leader and leave him to the US Marshal’s I kind of reckoned that would be the end. I rode home to my family to what I percieved to be the final cutscene as a song crescendoed in the background. Then I met my family that I had been working to be with the entire game. I reckoned that NOW the game would end and I could start with multiplayer. Well, then a bunch of missions popped up and I continued playing them. I herded the cows, I delivered the grain, and in the back of my head I kept saying to myself, “this dynamic is endearing my family to me and something bad is going to happen”. When the US Marshals showed up on my doorstep and John Marsten was shot down I had to take a moment because of those stupid missions. All I could think of is “John Marsten will never see his family again”. Luckily you pick up where he left off as John’s son Jack.

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Still so many weeks later after finishing the single player I get a little melancholy. Not gonna lie.

With video games that are well written, we invest HOURS into characters that we interact with and in the case of RPGs you spend precious care levelling up the characters in ways that you choose that help make them unique to you. You develop relationships with the characters because you are acting through them. When a good writer is able to work their craft in to a game well, the payoff is that relationship that you feel towards the characters, towards the game. It makes the game so much better because you can identify with story and the people the story touches. I am not saying that “Gears of War” really makes me want to get a hug, or anything like that. Some games are not meant to evoke emotional responses.

Some stories are so well told, though, that they don’t care HOW they are told. Just that they are.