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Tired of the Myth Talk?
By Corvus | October 21, 2005
I suspect some of you may feel that I no longer talk about game design. Some of you may even be tired of the super long posts on the topic of myth and story, feeling that you don’t have time to plow through such volumes of meandering over a cup of coffee, as you prepare for your day (or over a beer as you wind down).
Fair enough. But to my mind, I have been talking about game design all along.
The importance of the overlapping topics of myth and story is that games are a powerful medium in which to create story. A powerful medium with which to help build a modern mythology. Without understanding where mythology comes into play, or the role of story in our lives, then there’s no foundation, for me at least, to talk about game design.
Mythology is frequently used as merely a narrative device, both in literature, movies, and game design. Geeks like mythology, so lets toss in Odin, or Zeus, a flying horse and some basilisks. That’ll give us some geek cred and bring in the demographic. Well, merely regurgitating mythological figures into your games, does not mean your game fully utilizes myth. I’d argue that Max Payne did a pretty good job at taking classic mythological figures and recasting them in a modern setting so that a mythic resonance was built between a cultural history and a cultural present.
Stories, in my opinion, suffer from a similar restriction when it comes to games and Max Payne is a decent example of that restriction. The concept of adding a story to a game is, at the moment, to create a linear narration to hand the gameplay on. This doesn’t make for a bad game, and doesn’t necessitate a bad story, but it doesn’t fully utilize the power games have to create unique story experiences for each member of the audience.
Chris’s game in development, Fireball, stands a better chance at helping the audience craft an interactive story about their gameplay than a game such as Indigo Prophecy which, while touted as having an interactive story with player controlled outcomes, merely provides a strictly linear narrative with tightly controlled branching. Most of the reviews of Indigo Prophecy mention how poor the ending is, how rushed the writing becomes, how fractured the plot becomes, how jarring the experience is. Well, that’s what happens when a designer can’t let go of the story, but tries to give you the reins anyway. Deus Ex, for as much as I enjoyed it, suffered from some of the same issues. Fallout did a better job at it, but it was possible to create some significant plot holes there as well.
So, all of my talk about myth and story and how they apply to life and culture is integral to the process of game design. Once I’ve moved and I’m able to work game purchases back in the budget, I’ll start providing you with semi-regular dissections of games I’m playing. In fact, I’ll start crafting some more in depth reactions to the multitude of demos I play. In the past, I haven’t wanted to give full reviews of demos, as I hate reviewing a game on the basis of a level or two, but I’ll get over that, as long as you understand it’s a limited perspective. I don’t, however, want to become another voice shouting about Jack Thompson, or diversity in the game industry. We’ve got plenty of voices holding forth on those, admittedly important, topics already. What I will try to do is regain some of the humor that hasn’t been present as much lately. Some nonsense posts, if you will. In fact, I’m working on a series of sketches for a meme post that I hope to have ready for Monday!
So, have a great weekend and I’ll babble at you more soon.
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October 24th, 2005 at 4:53 am
No complaints from me.
I am constantly looking at how we might be able to apply mythology to games, and how we might regenerate our modern cultures which have become divorced from their roots. I have loved to read someone else coming from a similar mental space as me in this regard.
And thanks for the Fireball plug, but a word of caution: it’s a modest little game… It should be fun and a little bit different, but it won’t be anything more than an engaging oddity. On the other hand, I’d like to think some players will find it. It’s going to struggle to get noticed.