Linear story lines can work wonderfully if they are good stories. The problem is only there when the story is weak. So if you have a good story go with it. IMHO

Ahem...

You have to remember landfish, that I''m on CET, and am actually resting about 8 hours of the day Thread moved.


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~

What do you call a book or a movie but a "linear storyline?" In a game, people want something that they can interact with, but there are many people out there (me included) who would much rather play a game with a great story than with great graphics or anything else which seems to draw people. However, open endedness also draws people. Look at Grand Theft Auto. The ability to do anything in that game has given it millions of fans world over. The thing that makes a game good is the amount of work that goes into it. If you put a good effort into making a great story, then it will be a great game. If you put in a good effort into making an open ended story, it will be a great game. No matter what type of game it is, the factor which determines how good it is is the amount of time and effort put into it.

okay lets clear up a few misconceptions.
Liner - means the story has a fixed path that never changes, there can be pseudo choices along the way but ultimitly the "chapter" always occur in the same sequance and there is nothing the player can do.

Open ended - that just means the person can continue playing after the game ends.

nonliner - these are games that that are don't progress in a fixed sequence. That doesn't mean that the game doesn't have a story. All it means you can do the various parts of the game in any order you like.

I personally would like to see more world(type of nonliner) games. Essential the user placed in a game world, that they can explore. There are usualy nodes(example towns) in these games that have quests, and other game objects. These can have a long developing storyline that occurs at fixed places or as you adventure. Fallout 1&2 is an example of world game both of which had a good solid story.

What I'd also like to see is a futher evolution of the world game concept in which parts of the world beyond the action node are effected through your actions. For instance if in one node there is massive powerplant and you destroyed it then the rest of the city might be blacked out.

Also I'd like to see malluable quests, the idea is that that the game can compencate some what for the players actions. For instance if Bob has critical quest needed to complete the game and the player kills Bob long before the crucial quest occurs. Then the game can adjust so that the quest is now gained through another means. Perhaphs from bobs rival or a hidden book is placed in bob's home that give the quest, etc..

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I'm a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document



[edited by - TechnoGoth on November 19, 2003 9:12:41 PM]

Well, it''s three years later, but my opinion hasnt really changed that much.
I still think that "open" games just for the sake of saying "Hey ! Look, you can wander around the land doing NOTHING ! As long as you want !" is silly.
Of course, I am playing Vice City right now and I absolutely adore the possibilities it offers.
But notice how it''s not *really* that open.
It''s beautifully crafted, full of little details, full of extras little things that add gameplay, but it''s, at its center, a nice linear storyline.
The freedom of movement and actions please the player and rewards the explorer type of gamer, while the storyline gives the achiever type something to do (I am talking about the "4 types of MUD players" here, as it''s convenient for my purpose).
For a while in the game, I was stuck in the storyline because I couldnt do a mission (I hadnt gotten the strategy right), so I went around building up my strength, using the freedom of the game to do other stuff, doing side missions and earning lots of dollars until I reached a point where I could buy what I assumed I needed to pass that bloody mission.

I have to admit that for a while I was a bit disheartened by the change in pace. My point is, Vice City played a very dangerous game by mixing storyline and open endedness, but they certainly are an example that should be studied in the future for how to do it right

Still I love japanese RPG and their "let''s do a perfectly great, but linear storyline".

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

While I prefer games with a great story, I also need to feel like my choices are important. I know its an illusion, but that illusion is very important.

Your typical tabletop RP''er knows his GM has set up an endstory, and no matter what I do he''ll find a way to get me where he wants me to go. That''s perfectly fine - as long as I''m not forced into a "Sorry that''s not a choice" scenario. The same applies for so-called RPG games.

I prefer games that give me certain waypoints that I will reach, no matter what choices I make in between; it may be a complicated route, but at least I got there by my own decisions. Games like FF, to a player like me, are boring beyond belief because I really have no role to play except surviving what events are thrown at me. I''m not really participating, I''m turning pages by dice rolling/probability/stat raising.

I don''t buy games to read a book or watch a movie - I buy games to PLAY. I have a friend who, like many other FF fans, pieced all the cinematics together along with some captured game footage to produce a "movie" that was infinitely more enjoyable to me to watch than it was to "play".

I am one of those FF fans who plays for the storyline. However I also like games like GTA (even though they are insanely evil) and platform games, Baulder''s Gate, etc. I like seeming like a part of a story, even if I''m basically just watching it, playing a game like FF brings me such intense injoyment beyond anything I ever could get from GTA because what I enjoy is seeming like a character in a story. Although I may not get many choices, I like watching the story work out and feeling like I am participating.

When you are playing a game for the first time, the story will not seem so linear. So a non-linear storyline promotes replayability more than anything, unless the player discovers something that they may want to experiment with or change to see its effect.

You have to be careful with non-linear storylines, though. I think they can easily turn into simulations of a system rather than an impactful story. Perhaps there could be one master storyline with several key events that will attempt to take place given certain circumstances (political support, acquisition of a powerful item, defeat of some particular foes, etc.)

A good example would be a system with many forces of differing makeup and motives wanting to take power, but all are currently at a stalemate.

After that, you can include as many side quests as you like, and put some in there that would obviously help the character to promote a chosen side, so that the player feels like they have some control.

Here is one example of a game that took the "take a linear storyline and make it non-linear" approach and failed miserably IMO. Legend of Mana is one game which I felt failed miserably in its approach because, although there were lots of little plots, they were all weak in delivery, and the overall plot didn''t have much to do with anything else. Now, lets say the game''s final boss played a bigger role throughout the game, appearing in places to make it seem like she was part of events occuring. Also, adding quests besides the last which involved her would have helped.

In trying to make a non-linear RPG, you must remember to keep storyline intact, while making side quests which, instead of leading the player away from the story, enhance it. This is one place where I feel a lot of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games have failed, as the side quests often take you far from the story, distracting you from the point of the game and taking away from the "I am the character" feel.

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