Repeat after me:

Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.
Story is not the same thing as plot.

*ahem*

Story provides emotional engagement. If you're playing FPS 2005 and it doesn't have a story, what's your motivation? What are your rewards?

Unless you find shooting things to be a reward in and of itself - in which case I suggest you see a therapist - then presumably you're playing for what you get for successfully shooting everything that can be shot. I guess you could be playing for the fun of outwitting the AI... but you're usually telling a low-level story there. In the long run, you complete the game - but few people actually play for that (or at least, few people actually complete all the games they buy).

So, say I complete a level of your FPS. What do I get, if not another chunk of the story?

Quote:

Original post by Grim Cut scenes are one of the ways to advance the story, but in my opinion it's overused.

Actually I don't think cut scenes (that is pre-rendered cut scenes) are used so much to advance the storyline anymore but to enable the putting of the feature line "Astonishing cut-scenes" on the cover. Those things sell.

I agree with Ace and Grim that there is no answer to if FPS games in general need a plot; there are many types of FPS.

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Original post by Bucko The FPS genre reminds me a lot of how porn movies are made; The thinnest of plot as an excuse for lots of improbable sex scenes. Satisfies the average wanker but will never appeal to a larger audience.

Haha, can I quote you on that one.[grin]

Quote:

Original post by superpig Repeat after me: Story is not the same thing as plot. [...] *ahem*

superpig: My mistake if I have misused/confused some of the terms. Could you give a short clarification on the terms story, storyline and plot where they should be used?

Thanks
/Staffan Einarsson

I think for a pure FPS, i.e. your one and only goal is to eliminate the baddies, the story is completly optional. In fact, I had played Doom for well over two months before it dawned on me that it even had a storyline or what ever you want to call it. Anyone remember what the story was?

On the other hand a story can make a FPS game much more fun if done right. Deus Ex and Theif 2 are two games that I can think of. Deus Ex had a great story line, plot twists, etc that kept me in the game to the end. The gameplay wasn't the best when you went into multi player mode though.

Quote:

Does the level design or the story make a good FPS?

Both make a good FPS.

Deus Ex multiplayer was a joke, it could be so rediculously unbalanced that one team could end up farming another at the spawn point with nothing but pistols and never worry about dying. >.>

My utter distain for that aside, My perfered form of storyline/gameplay mix is a freeroaming world with plenty of action, but with a deep and involving storyline that you can hunt down through exploration (Morrowind, System Shock, StarControl 2). Though having and ending to the free-roaming ride is also a good thing to have, which is something Morrowind didn't include (you beat the main quest and then what? Whoo! Wandering through the quest-striped land!).

If you like killing aimlessly,then of course you dont need a story.All you need is just some cool guns and enemies to kill.But in my opinion most users dont like this.At least they expect some kind of a story and some explanation like; "Who am I,why are they there,why am I killing the other enemies etc."
If a game does not exist of these kind of details,shooting some high polygons doesnt make much sense after 2-3 hours and players become bored.These type of games does not sell very well either unless they have great sound,great atmosphere,great graphics etc.Doom and Wolfenstein sold well because they were "unique" at that time.Now when a FPS is out,we just say Doom alike or Halflife alike.They become a standart in fps type games because that kind of game play was never tried before.Now developers spend time and money on plot,game story.Why? Because people dont spend money much for a regular fps without a nice story and plot anymore.These days are over now.If Doom III was a new game which didnt have a background,could it be a best seller?How many people would buy it?It would be a new fps just like the other ones on the market with some fancy graphics and monsters.Think painkiller.If Doom III was a whole new game, most people would think "Painkiller alike".

If you want to make a best seller game which will be legend in PC Game industry, then you should consider creating an impressive story line,plot and atmosphere.In 2 years, maybe no one will remember Painkiller anymore.

On the other hand, think about "Mafia".It became a legend and one of the best seller games in PC industry.It was just a FPS like the others, but when you were playing the game, you could see the amount of time and effort spent on the project in every single detail.The character details, the plot, the story line, the desing, the historical details of characters and the environment.Now these are the facts that makes a game classic.Most players didnt forget Mafia and they are dying to see volume 2.

In my opinion, these criterias are very important to be able to make a hit game nowadays.

Quote:

Original post by staaf Quote: Original post by superpig Repeat after me: Story is not the same thing as plot. [...] *ahem* superpig: My mistake if I have misused/confused some of the terms. Could you give a short clarification on the terms story, storyline and plot where they should be used?

Sure thing.

Plot is a sequence of events, of things that happen.

Storyline I'm not sure about, but I'd say it's the plot plus the way in which characters develop. So as the storyline progresses, things happen and people get emotional.

Story is storyline plus everything else you need, like the setting, character descriptions, etc.

I don't think there are any first-person shooters that have no story. Doom has no character development (well, characters develop from 'alive' to 'dead'), but it does have a story: a lone marine is trapped on Mars with a load of demons and fights his way from structure to structure to reach the teleport back to Earth.

To take the story away from Doom, you'd have to replace the demons with pure game tokens (just coloured quads or something, but they could still be rectangle demons), and replace the levels with an arbitrary collection of walls. It's a worthwhile excercise because it helps show off what the game dynamics really are - the game environment exists purely to prevent the player from moving to the exit (or to other game tokens like healthpacks) in a straight line, and the monsters exist purely to stop him from getting there with a positive health value.

Edit: Here's an article I read some time ago that people may find interesting.

I'd already been working with some interactive gameplay options, but that article really explains the fundamentals of it extremely well. It also shows why such games like Halflife seem so enjoyable. :D

Quote:

Original post by Gyrthok It also shows why such games like Halflife seem so enjoyable. :D

Yes, exactly.

"Gordon heard the crackle of grunt radios up ahead. Crouching down, he snuck up to the corner and peeked around it. He was greeted with a hail of fire from somewhere in the next room - a couple of marines, set up in position facing the doorway, just waiting for him to walk around that corner and get ripped to shreds. He backtracked a little way and found a ventilation duct that looked a bit on the rusty side; with his ever-handy crowbar he bust it open and climed inside.

Getting out his flashlight, Gordon shimmied up the vent and crawled along in the direction of the room until he came to a grate in the floor. Looking through it told him that he was directly above the two grunts, who were still standing facing the doorway with their MP5s ready to hand. He bust the grate open quietly, then pulled the pin and dropped in a grenade. There was a 'clink,' a shout of 'Get DOWN!,' and an explosion. And then silence.

Gordon grinned, but stopped short when a familiar noise in the darkness up ahead made him wish his HEV suit had a helmet..."

And that's the kind of thing you'd do, as gameplay. [smile] Of course, because Gordon's more or less a null protagonist, substitute Gordon/he/his for I/I/my...

One issue that wasn't considered in this thread is that a story for a game is required for development of a game. That is, a game that needs a story. Games like Solitaire, Poker, Minesweeper, etc., don't require stories.

superpig:
Story, storyline, and plot are synonymous if you use the right definitions.

1. story -- (a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program)

2. storyline -- (the plot of a book or play or film)

3. plot -- (the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.)

See http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

Quote:

Original post by Adraeus superpig: Story, storyline, and plot are synonymous if you use the right definitions. 1. story -- (a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program) 2. storyline -- (the plot of a book or play or film) 3. plot -- (the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.) See http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

And my nose is technically Uruguay if I use the right definitions. What's your point?

Those definitions are useless for anyone who wants to talk about this stuff seriously. Go and ask David Freeman if he thinks that story, storyline and plot are all synonymous.