Tom Chick's top ten games of 2021

[Juan_Raigada]

@ArtVandelay

The thing is, you (and @Juan_Raigada, and @divedivedive) are describing how stories work in traditional forms like books or movies, and those are a fundamentally different animal to a game narrative. The story in a game is never going to work on those terms as well as the movie it’s trying to be, when the cutscene serves the dual role of establishing the player’s emotional connection to a character but also telling them they’re going to spend the next 30 minutes looking for collectibles in the ice level.

You are cutting games way short. Not every game has collectibles and ice levels, and games that focus in story are not less of a game for doing so (maybe academically, but not how “video games” are understood by their audience).Games are a very varied medium, and not all of them need gameplay distinct from narrative. Hell, this conversation is in part how games without explicit narrative can generate them through gameplay.

But to your point, things like Yu-No, Stein Gate or Phoenix Wright lie at an end of the spectrum of games were their stories work wonderfully. As good as they can in a movie or book, just through a different medium and tools.

Getting further from the “pure narrative without meaningful interaction” you have stuff like Until Dawn and the games that spawned from it, where the Macha it’s are about changing the story. And again, those stories can really work (quality of writing is important here, but even Quantic Dream games can work okis despite the bad writing, much better than an equally bad written movie would, btw).

Further down you have stuff like God of War and Last of Us. AAA gamplay drive games where the story is the main attraction and, many, do they work well. Again, as well as an equivalent film would, or better. Although you need to make sure there’s as little dissonance between gameplay and narrative (LoU does well here).

If you get into the more gameplay driven games, the other end of the spectrum, you can even there structure an authored story that works despite the gameplay interruptions. It’s certainly less common, but there are instances. I think the story in Returnal works and adds a lot to the game for me. It’s certainly not the main attraction, and it might not be groundbreaking, but it it well told and effective.

Note how I have not mentioned RPGs here. I find most RPGs do indeed fail to find a coherent focus between gameplay and story, so I have personally less examples I found moving.

Edit: or what @malkav11 said

[warrenac]

Also a completely different point came to mind for me - maybe the emergent storytelling from say a strategy game is actually carefully plotted micro-scale stories - instead of characters and the like, what’s important here is that they get all the weapon/armour/terrain, the object to object interactions to work. Back in the day, I loved Steel Panthers, a WWII tactical wargame, because it taught me things about German armour shrugging off the weak shells of many other tanks, but mind your rear! And you want infantry spotters because buttoned tanks couldn’t see anything but infantry in the open just gets exploded. And the German 88 anti-air guns just chews through armour if you get a straight shot.

The “narrative” here is more that I could go to the library, learn about units and tactics from history books and I could see it play out in the game. In a completely different place, the narrative care is maybe seeing Nethack levels of interaction where slapping something with a basilisk corpse should turn it to stone, and if you pick it up without gloves it’s probably gg. The game takes care of the “world” so that you can safely build consistent stories on top - oooh whereas some other games have a set story on top. I do find it hilarious sometimes that you easily beat a boss, but then the cutscene happens, and everyone says things like “he’s too strong we need to retreat”…

[roguefrog]

Umm sure. Nothing you said is really expanding from my thought though. At least as I understand it. And I agree that it can be simply ignored. But utmostly am just contrasting it with emergent story instead of the silly comparison with cutscenes and traditional storytelling in other mediums.

I guess I’d rather compare games to games then games to movies/books. There is something lost in translation there.

[Left_Empty]

To me, books are different from movies.

[ArtVandelay]

@vinraith

There’s also a real sense of ownership in those events. Something that’s pre-scripted, that’s going to happen no matter what I do in the game, really is just a “coat of paint over the gameplay.”

Right? That ownership is a key point for me.

@malkav11

In the sense that the demands of the format are different, yes. A movie has different needs than a book, as does a comic, or an audio drama. So too with games. But the same building blocks apply, the same principles of narrative.

I don’t agree here. A story that is written to be told, to be the whole point of the work, is a different creature than a story written to be told in the background of a computer game. They share a vocabulary, but they are not at all similar. The reason we see so many game stories that fail to understand, as you put it, the specific demands of the format, is that they are approaching it from the wrong starting point.

@malkav11

emergent events are a big ol’ shrug for me and the absence of purpose and deliberate narrative construction means there’s no coherent whole

What works for a given person is obviously personal, but those emergent events and absence of deliberate construction are to me the strength of games as a medium.

@divedivedive

whatever story I could dream up and paste over the random events unfolding on my monitor. Sometimes it isn’t but the times that it has it’s been far greater than the stories I’ve made up for myself.

We don’t need to make up a story. If we perceive the events unfolding in the game as a result of our actions as players, that gives them meaning. It doesn’t need to be a story in the sense of a narrative with exposition and foreshadowing and resolution.

@Juan_Raigada

You are cutting games way short. Not every game has collectibles and ice levels, and games that focus in story are not less of a game for doing so (maybe academically, but not how “video games” are understood by their audience).Games are a very varied medium, and not all of them need gameplay distinct from narrative. Hell, this conversation is in part how games without explicit narrative can generate them through gameplay.

Games are defined by their interactivity. You bring up many examples, not all of which I’m familiar with, but my point, that I don’t think you’re disagreeing with, is that the story-telling in a game needs to be structured around the gameplay, and should not be approached like we approach the story in film.

[malkav11]

@ArtVandelay

I don’t agree here. A story that is written to be told, to be the whole point of the work, is a different creature than a story written to be told in the background of a computer game. They share a vocabulary, but they are not at all similar. The reason we see so many game stories that fail to understand, as you put it, the specific demands of the format, is that they are approaching it from the wrong starting point.

You are assuming that games should not have story as the point of the work. I disagree. It is the point for me and many other players. Or at least a central point, among multiple. But again, that’s a matter of details and specific tools, not the fundamental nature of what storytelling is. Stories should either be written for a game, or they need to be adapted, much as they need to be written for movies, or adapted. You can’t just wholesale transfer one into the other…but neither are game stories some alien thing that requires a completely different approach and throws all the rules of good writing out of the window.

@ArtVandelay

What works for a given person is obviously personal, but those emergent events and absence of deliberate construction are to me the strength of games as a medium.

They are certainly a unique thing about games, and I’m not here to tell you you shouldn’t value them, only that they’re not storytelling as such and certainly not a substitute for same for me. To me, the strength of games as a medium is the interactivity. That doesn’t mean emergent events, that means being placed inside the scripted events and acknowledging the player’s actions in the story beats, be that through narration, branching or other tools.

@ArtVandelay

the story-telling in a game needs to be structured around the gameplay,

Or, you know, you could structure the gameplay around the story, or just elide most of what folks would traditionally consider gameplay. These are all valid ways of doing storytelling in games and taking advantage of the medium’s unique abilities. But again, I’d rather they try and do a story like in a movie (as wrongheaded as I agree that is) than eschew story at all.

[malkav11]

To me, a high level of world interactivity simulation is desirable and can in some respects substitute for an actual story in terms of giving me something to engage with in the world, but it’s basically the opposite appeal. It’s making a sandbox that’s responsive enough to my actions that experimentation is rewarding and surprising. I’d never pick it over a narrative game, but at least there’s some meat to the emergent systems.

[Juan_Raigada]

@ArtVandelay

Games are defined by their interactivity. You bring up many examples, not all of which I’m familiar with, but my point, that I don’t think you’re disagreeing with, is that the story-telling in a game needs to be structured around the gameplay, and should not be approached like we approach the story in film.

And movies are defined by images shown in sequence. Film was not essentially a narrative medium (it became one, but there are plenty non-narrative films that are powerful).

That games are defined by the interactivity doesn’t mean there can’t be good works in the medium where the story is the point. By either making the story reflect on the interactivity or by challenging the medium and taking most of the interactivity away (which is a different way of reflecting on it).

Of course just like there are non-narrative movies, there are games where the story is absent or irrelevant. And yes, as a medium, it’s an easier place to make those works, but ignoring story-centric games, or games without meaningful gameplay, is reductionistic. The medium is pretty wide and enjoyed in too many different ways.

[Nightgaunt]

@ArtVandelay

Games are defined by their interactivity. You bring up many examples, not all of which I’m familiar with, but my point, that I don’t think you’re disagreeing with, is that the story-telling in a game needs to be structured around the gameplay, and should not be approached like we approach the story in film.

Games are defined by their interactivity, but you’re using that to narrow the range of what games can be. When I was the design director on a Life Is Strange game, my message to the design team was the exact opposite of what you’re saying: In many games, story serves gameplay; in Life Is Strange, gameplay serves story. Gameplay that is abstractly fun is less valuable than gameplay that expresses a character’s personality (which itself is less valuable than gameplay that does both). Same with gameplay that is more interactive or more flexible or systematized. All great things, but if they don’t make the story better, then they’re not what we want in Life Is Strange.

That doesn’t mean that Life Is Strange may as well be a movie. The gameplay that’s there enhances the story experience. And it adds thematic meaning: The first Life Is Strange is about the consequences of making choices. That theme is way more resonant in a medium where you actually make choices.

It’s tempting to be a gameplay-first purist, and I think it’s the right approach for many genres of games. But not for all of them.

[divedivedive]

@ArtVandelay

If we perceive the events unfolding in the game as a result of our actions as players, that gives them meaning. It doesn’t need to be a story in the sense of a narrative with exposition and foreshadowing and resolution.

That sounds like reading tea leaves to me but hey, if it works for you, who am I to argue?

[robc04]

@Juan_Raigada

@PasqualePeluso

The filmmaking standard of cut scenes is just not very good yet.

Amen. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Most game cutscenes are boring and reiterative. I think part of it is that many times they don’t hire trained audiovisual storytellers, and part of it is that jump cut between different scenes is technically challenging with real time engines due to loading times.

There are so many stories in games that have kept me engaged - Guardians of the Galaxy, The Last of Us 1 and 2, The Witcher, Dragon Age (mostly the characters), Mass Effect series, Mafia, and so many more. I’m not a good judge of what makes a technically proficient story - but I sure bought into the characters on my team in the Guardians of the Galaxy game.

@ArtVandelay

So instead, we need to look at story-telling in a game as what it is, a layer of paint over the gameplay to make it more engaging. The scripted “cinematic” stories we see in the Uncharteds and Assassin’s Creeds and the like can work for this purpose and there is room for them, but at the same time they will always be amateurish Hollywood imitations, mixed in with gameplay that clashes with the story.

I don’t care if it’s “amateurish” if it is effective. Games have a way of making me feel more connected to the characters than most movies.

[geggis]

@Spock

I certainly agree that great stories can emerge from all sorts of games – not just board and video games, but also athletic games, like organized sports. Unscripted drama is often better than scripted drama because the story and ending are unknown to everyone, including the “authors.” […] games have a spring-loaded tension that is unique to the genre.

I love this and it explains a lot when you’re all wrapped up in any kind of ‘perma’ result in a game (that is, one that can’t be save-scummed or reset away). Which way is this going to go?! Nobody knows and the universe doesn’t care either. With authored content you can sometimes (often?) guess where things are going by virtue that it’s authored.

I’ve never played any of the ‘Legacy’ boardgames but I get the impression a large part of what makes them so intense and dramatic (and popular) is the finality of the outcome. It gives everything so much more weight.

[geggis]

@Juan_Raigada

even Quantic Dream games can work okis despite the bad writing, much better than an equally bad written movie would, btw).

Yeah, one of my favourite gaming experiences was playing Heavy Rain in parallel with a couple of friends and my girlfriend. We all played it separately but swore to honour whatever happened in our playthroughs as canon, and to keep it secret until the end. When we’d all finished we got into a big group call and spent ages talking about how it all turned out for us. It wasn’t a great game but I think because we all agreed to roll with the punches, it meant we only had one shot at everything which led to tense situations and ultimately diverging stories to share and discuss.

@rrmorton

One lets you talk about stories with your friends and the other lets you tell stories to your friends.

I really like this way of looking at it. It’s funny too that the developer-authored stories in Sea of Thieves were among the most boring aspects of the game, but the player-authored stories born out of the systems and events of the game itself? They were real tales to tell, and our own too.

[ArtVandelay]

@divedivedive

That sounds like reading tea leaves to me but hey, if it works for you, who am I to argue?

I don’t know if described it well, but the emergent narrative I’m talking about isn’t imagining meaning in random occurrences, it’s about unscripted events that arise organically from game mechanics. If the XCOM example doesn’t feel like that, think about the way characters in Crusader Kings interact with each other according to the traits and skills they posses. It’s not a story in the same sense of a scripted story, but similar to, for example, a football game creating drama without a script. For some people that does create a “full” story, like Tom talked about, but even without that I find those games compelling.

@robc04

I don’t care if it’s “amateurish” if it is effective. Games have a way of making me feel more connected to the characters than most movies.

Sure, that’s how those stories work. Our participation as players in the narrative makes it more impactful than it would have been otherwise, despite the story itself not being any good by standards applied to stories in other mediums.

I’m not against scripted stories in games, and for many types of games I’m not sure emergent events are workable. I just find those emergent stories more engaging when they work.

[Strollen]

Wow for for the first time every Tom and I have the same #1 game.

A-train is on my to buy list after Wildermyth

And Midnight Protocol and Slipways are on my investigate a bit more list.

My game backlog after shrinking to almost nothing by the end of the year, is now long again!

The only positive thing about Covid is it gives me a completely valid excuse to play games.

[KellyWand69]

No Inscryption? I’m outraged.

[justaguy2]

@KellyWand69

No Inscryption? I’m outraged.

Tom was too scared.

[Nightgaunt]

KellyWand Inscryption review when

(Inscryptopsis???)

[Rez]

Wanted to check out Midnight Protocol because the keywords “Ice” and “Cyberspace” make me nostalgic for Neuromancer on my C64 (one of my favorite games ever that got me hooked on adventure games/RPGs when I was a teen) but it’s keyboard only and I’m afraid I’ve metamorphasized into a terrible humanoid couch slug-sloth that only plays games with a controller, joystick or mouse these days. Help. Me.

[Left_Empty]

Somebody should put you, monstruous creature, out of her misery, as all the way I can picture using a mouse comfortably from a couch are unspeakable, defying reasonable logic and physics in strange, distorted and horrifying ways!