Would you kindly read this (videogame storytelling pt2)

To anyone who has played Bioshock, one of the top games back in 2007 those three words ‘would you kindly’ represent sheer brilliance in storytelling. Throughout the game the player has taken orders from another character, who often says ‘would you kindly’ before telling the player what to do next. But, in the course of the plot those three words turn out to be subliminal activation words that force the player to do what is commanded. But, because this is a game, the player is doing that anyway. If you are told by a commanding voice in a game to open a door, you do so, not knowing that you are actually being hypnotised into it as it what you have been programmed by almost every other game – to do what it tells you to do.

There is not enough space here to consider the full genius of Bioshock’s twist, but Destructoid.com decided to  make it #1 in ‘the most meaningful videogame quotes of all time’. What Bioshock shows is the pinnacle of what can be done with a linear game, simple but effective and allowing for a highly developed and cinematic gaming experience, whilst at the same time making the player feel like they have been blindly following the commands of others, not being forced down one path in a linear game.

So what are the risks and rewards of thinking bigger?  Right now it is the blockbuster RPGs produced by Bioware that really push the limits between game and story, straddling the fine line between quality of story and the content of gameplay. With their classic titles, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 the plots were vast and sweeping as a 2D engine allowed for content to be generated at a low cost by both professionals and amateurs alike and whole new areas and characters could be added and integrated with ease. Of course the graphics aren’t easy on the eye anymore, and the modern gamer, expecting voice acting as standard may not be up for reading the masses of text required. Nevertheless, its fans will tell you it has unlimited replay value; Baldur’s Gate is vast indeed.

The modern Bioware games, Mass Effect and Dragon Age have had their fair share of critical acclaim and represent the modern trends in storytelling.  The Mass Effect series, a sci-fi saga charting one character’s saving of the universe, spans several years over three full games and a huge number of different options and routes. But despite the depth and quality of the writing and plot, the games are further limited by the sheer cost of modern games.  Cutting edge graphics and the voices of actors like Martin Sheen and Tim Curry do not come cheaply, the more variables in a plot the more developer time and voice acting required; the latter being a huge and costly operation. For that reason the plots of modern games are limited by budget.

Sheen voices Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2

So how do you get around this obstacle? Well there is no quick fix in the world of mainstream games but within small independent development something revolutionary happened. Last year saw the release of Sleep is Death. Here the possibilities for storytelling are only limited by a player’s imagination. Why? Because whilst one person plays the game, another other person is writing and drawing it. Played online the game has one player as an actor and the other as a sort of game-master with total control over what happens and fulfilling the player’s commands.

Sleep is Death has to be seen to really be understood in the above video we have a player (the guy in blue) screwing around with a game-master’s Pokemon themed story by breaking a TV and threatening Professor Oak with a shard of glass. The catch with this game is that it is slow, at least 30 seconds between each frame, but nevertheless hilarious, artistic and fascinating as both players are at the mercy of each other’s imagination and attitudes with all sorts of outcomes.

Unfortunately we can’t view Sleep is Death as a new form of game, trying to implement it into a modern title would never work. So what other options are there for developing storytelling and allowing freedom to the player? A player can never be truly free, but as story focused games get bigger so do the number of options they offer. But I think a lot more can be said about the nature of the balance between what a player wants to do, and what can be done without damaging the plot deserves more focus in a future blog post. Would you kindly check back often for that!