Segments I came to the realization recently that in many games the storyline and the gameplay have little to do with each other. In many games the story is little more than segmented movies played between ‘action’ (or gameplay) points. It’s like watching a movie in 30-second to 4-minute segments and being forced to complete little mini-games in order to see the next segment. Most games can be easily divided into ‘story segments’ (ie, parts of the game where the player is just told story) and ‘gameplay segments’ (ie, where the player must perform some task). These story and gameplay segments can either be active or passive. * Active Segments An active segment is given to the player immediately without choice. For example, immediately after defeating a boss, the player is given a story segment to further motivate the game or after receiving a story segment, the player is thrust into a gameplay situation. Active segments have the allure of giving the player what is needed to continue the game immediately. This avoids the problem of not knowing what to do or where to go. However, this has the side effect of driving the game in a very linear path. When a player is given a segment of gameplay there is usually one ending that progresses the storyline. For example, a player is given a story segment about a boss and the player is then given a gameplay segment to fight the boss. The conflict with the boss usually has only two outcomes. Either the player dies and is forced to restart the game (or return to an earlier save), or the player defeats the boss and moves on to the next story segment. Even if the game has multiple story lines depending on the resolution of the gameplay segments, the player can feel helpless in steering the storyline, especially if it takes a turn the player dislikes. In almost any game, if the player feels helpless in controlling the direction of the game, the enjoyment factor will immediately drop off. * Passive Segments A passive segment is one that the player must seek out. This is most common in ‘open ended’ style games or traditional RPGs. The player is often given hints about where to find the next segment, whether it be a gameplay or a story segment, and it is up to the player to discover these segments. This gives the player the ability to control the pace of the game. This is most rewarding where the pace of the game can have an affect on the overall challenge. In RPGs, for example, if a player spends much of their time powering up their characters and moving very slowly through the game, the boss battles often become rather simple for the player. If the player just pushes onto the next story point without spending any time powering up they may feel overwhelmed by the boss situation. Allowing the player to control this pace gives them the ability to control the difficulty of the game with the sacrifice of time. It is important to note that even when the main gameplay and story segments are passive, the transitory segments are often peppered with active gameplay segments. (ie, random battles while roaming the world). Additionally, games are rarely entirely passive. There are often stretches where the game takes on a passive role, allowing the player to explore, but these are balanced with stretches where the player is pushed from story segment to gameplay segment and back through to portray a portion of the main story arc. Passive segments also add the possibility of a non-linear story line. However, non-linear story lines require significantly more work on the part of the developers. Often, non-linear story lines require that each story segment be unrelated to the other story segments, or have special cases to reference other segments. For example, consider a game where the player is in a world where two overlords, the Queen Bee and the Colossal Squirrel, are devastating the land. The player is free to confront either overlord at their leisure. When they confront the Squirrel, there might be a simple check to see if they’ve fought the Queen Bee. If the player did defeat the Queen Bee, the Squirrel might have some additional dialog stating “Oh, so you’ve defeated my partner. I won’t be so easy to defeat!” This doesn’t really change the flow of the game, but does provide recognition of previous tasks. The problem is that it doesn’t really get away from the segregation of the story elements. They either must not rely on each other, or they must be built from special cases allowing one to be completed before the other. If the special case situation is used, it can easily degenerate into a game which still has a linear storylines from the developers perspective, only it has multiple linear storylines. For example, consider the previous case with the Queen Bee and Colossal Squirrel. If the player defeats one overlord first, the other overlord may decide to join the player and have a series of whacky adventures together. The dialog and story elements can still be crafted like a linear story, but the developers simply create two storylines and its up to the player to pick which one they will follow. It is important to note that this generalized into one storyline where the player has an overlord with them and storyline reactions are built around which overlord the player happens to be with. This allows the developer to build both storylines at the same time. However, if the developer is not careful, the particular overlord becomes meaningless and subsequent replays of the game where the player picks the other overlord can be rather disappointing. * Uni-Segmented Games Some games only have gameplay segments. These games are able to survive the lack of a story segments and are able to hinge solely on gameplay. Classic examples are Pac-Man and Space Invaders. People didn’t play those games because of an engrossing storyline, they played them because they were fun. Games still exist today which are able to throw aside the storyline. To name a few: racing games, sports games, and party games all are pretty devoid of a storyline but they are still popular and enjoyable. In fact, the entire casual game market seems to consist of games with little to no storyline. Within this view, movies could be thought as unisegmented games which only contain story segments. I wouldn’t want to make that claim, but if one imagines a game without the gameplay and just the story segments, it would play out like a movie. Blurring the Line Upon reflection I immediately ask “Is it possible to escape this segmentedness in games?” As games become larger with more story paths and possible endings, they are still stuck with a low finite number of paths, usually no more than ten noticeably distinct paths in the most ambitious of games. How can developers ‘blur’ the line between gameplay and story? * Interweaving Segments Some games seek to interweave the story segments and the gameplay segments by making the storyline segments part of the gameplay. Some Ultima games employed this idea by having conversation keys. When a player would talk to an NPC they could ask them about the conversation keys the player had. If the NPC had an interesting response (ie, something that progressed the overall storyline) the player would receive a new conversation key to use on other NPCs. This would continue until the player would find out some vital piece of information needed to progress the main storyline (ie, the location of a long lost artifact). However, this often degenerated into a brute force conversational method where the player would talk to every NPC about every topic until something interesting was said. This just made the game take longer to complete and didn’t necessarily make it any more enjoyable. * Dual Segments Another thought is to have segments which contain both story elements and gameplay elements mixed together. This could be in the form of information coming to the player while attempting to complete some task. (ie, the player is attempting to sneak past enemy guards while receiving radio information about the main enemy). This has the danger of overloading the player. It can be difficult to focus on moving a character through a series of obstacles while paying attention to what’s being said. I believe this information overload is why we don’t really see many dual segments in games today. What this means The segmentedness of games isn’t necessarily a ‘bad thing.’ If it was a strong issue among players, we wouldn’t have games the way they are today. There are games from every section listed above which are regarded as some of the best games of all time. Although it is interesting to note the progression of these segments: * Uni-segmented games * Active Segments * Passive Segments * Interweaving Segments * Dual Segments As time has progressed, the segmentedness of games has become more complex. This seems to be in response to giving the player more control and create a more immersive feel to the game. However, more control leads to more uncertainty. More uncertainty means higher complexity which means more money and time to develop. Whoever can create the next big way gameplay interacts with story will be able to change the landscape of video games. Perhaps if the two can be blended together seamlessly, video games will be able to further progress as an art form and move away from the stigma that they’re just entertainment. What will be the next innovation in mixing story with gameplay?

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Original post by Frogplague What will be the next innovation in mixing story with gameplay?

My game, Project Hamlet! The first (and quite possibly only) interactive storytelling RPG strategy sim game! [grin]

I'm semi-kidding here; actually I think the big innovation is going to be when more games come out that find new ways to blend story together closer with the the gameplay. I've discussed some methods for these in my colossal thread on automated storytelling and interactive plots for games, where I've compiled a list of resources. I feel that some of the methods there are going to be the next thing in storytelling in games. The interactive drama piece Facade shows a glimpse of one thing we can expect. Then there's those people who are trying to closer integrate stories into their MMORPGs. There's Chris Crawford, trying to define a whole new art form. And there's people like me who are trying to build an amalgamation between interactive storytelling and games.

I'm sure that in five years or so, one of these or something very much like them will have the right mix of elements, design, artwork, marketing and luck to strike a chord with the public, and then the whole field will blossom. Hopefully by then I'll have progress far enough with my project that I'll be able to join in at the crest of the wave.