Bethesda Vs. Black Isle: Sex, Brats, And Addiction

Progressed? Humour & Writing haven't progressed since maybe Rome was in power. There is a famous quote "There are 6 stories and we have been retelling them since the dawn of time." Technology helps you tell the story, but doesn't create the story. Shakespeare's writing isn't better because the lighting is better now on stage.... his plays' might be better due to the fact you can see & hear the actors from the back row.

 

Hey, Shakespeare, let's not generalize my entire argument and put things way, way out of the context, ok? Obviously, I'm not talking about writing and humor from some global evolutionary perspective. I'm using them in the context of the history of video gaming, where the role of compelling and masterful storytelling has shifted dramatically over the past 10-15 years - a fact that has little to do with the seven basic plots or the monomyth. What was often considered an unnecessary embellishment, has became a crucial element to any successful game, be it brainless shooter or a full-blown cRPG. If you don't know what I am talking about, just look at any game from the early nineties.

 

Missing my point. A writer is a writer regardless of their medium. Besides you might want to actually play older games instead of cherry picking examples from the past. There have always been good stories & bad ones. The strength of computer games isn't the story, but how you can be *in* the story which as technology improved became easier to do. Go grab scenes from PS: T and tell me that the dialog has gotten better over the years. It hasn't because good writers are few & far between.... worse yet the computer game industry isn't hiring good writers for the most part.

The movie industry is a great example of how writing hasn't improved while technology has. "Gone with the Wind" is a classic & the way it was made wouldn't happen today. The reason? Too expensive & dangerous. They would use CGI to do the big/dangerous scenes now.

2008 CGI: Maybe duplicating the original.
1998 CGI: You can sorta tell what they were going for.
1988 CGI: Are you kidding me?!?


The computer industry is under the impression that with good graphics they can fake good story telling. They cann't. What something looks like is only part of the story.... what they say, how they say it & where they say it is also important.

Can you honestly tell me that Fallout 3 has good dialog for any time period?

How about good voice direction?

Or finally do most of the scenes they create fit into Fallout 1's world?

 

I may dislike the sheer stupidity of Fallout 3 with a burning passion, but I can't deny the fact that most RPGs I played in the early 90s had far inferior writing (notice I don't say game mechanics... or graphics...) The reason? The gaming industry only started paying attention and hiring actual writers a little bit more than a decade ago. Before that, the vast majority of game writing had only been done by regular programmers, artists, producers, and so on - that is, by what was essentially a bunch of complete amateurs with little or no formal educational background in writing, English, communications, journalism, or any other literary field. The adage you mentioned is correct, but it only applies to actual writers, doesn't it?

To put it another way, what I am saying is that, until recently, game writing was more of a part-time hobby and less of an real, distinct profession. Anyone who wishes to make a fair comparison between the writing of Fallout 3 and that of any other game should bear that little fact in mind. Other than that, I agree with you. Graphics are no substitute for storytelling.

As for my supposed cherry-picking, Planescape: Torment is a comparatively recent 1999 game. When I asked you to look at any game from the early nineties, I meant practically any well-known RPG from the actual early nineties. Final Fantasy I-V, Wizardry I-VI, Daggerfall, Might and Magic I-V, you name it. I won't ask you to play them, but I suggest you look some of them up on YouTube. When it comes to telling a story, Final Fantasy I is no Grand Theft Auto IV. Not by a long shot.

 

Wasteland (1988) had pretty good writing, even if most of it was in the paragraph book.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtUMIOYVFWk
With all due respect, I wouldn't exactly call it a literary masterpiece.

 

Yup, Stackpole and St. Andre are definitely actual writers.

As I said, most of the actual writing is in the paragraph book.

 

Funny!

Do you know, they found in France a (I think) more then 30 000 thousand (or so) year old cave, with small paintings of some sort.

When Picasso investigated them some of his words were "we learned nothing to this end"

 

Have you ever writen a short story for English class? Does that make you are writer or not? There is a good article on computer game writing and why it fails as often as it does. I think it was on Game Banshee, I'll see if I can dig it up. The point it makes in the end is that the Writers haven't adapted to the technology. They write a static story.... the programmers on the other hand wrote a branching story which fits the interactive part of computer games. So in my opinion most of the games ever made are failures in terms of writing. JRPGs tell a good story you cann't change. Western RPGs use to tell an average story that you could. For the medium of Computer games it's the western RPGs that got it right and were improving up until the Graphics craze. If you really want to see a good story that is equal those found in books... play Adventure games. "Tex Murphy" & "Gaberiel Knight" are two of the better ones assuming you can get them to run on current machines.

I picked JRPGs for the reason that you are right that most western computer games lacked professional writing and it showed. Fallout 3 falls flat on it's face due to the fact that Computer Game writing is a profession now.

Edit: Fixing quote blocking.