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GDC 2004: Warren Spector Talks Games Narrative
 
Shorter, deeper games as the future of the industry?
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March 26, 2004 - Warren Spector, the man behind the Deus Ex and Thief games, gave a talk at GDC 2004 about story as it's applied to computer games, and also added some intriguing thoughts on the double-edged sword of an open-ended environment. To start, he asked, "What's our motivation for incorporating story in the first place?", as many games and franchises have done pretty well without a strong story element, particularly with first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. However, Spector contends that narrative is important to draw in the casual gamer, who's used to having a story told to him in other entertainment mediums, particularly movies. He cited several industry pundits who claimed story had no place in games, but he feels it's inevitable. Unfortunately, to him, storytelling in games is subpar.

At one point during the presentation, he asked anyone to raise their hand and defend even the best game story against a "B" movie, and no one took the challenge. Even with the understandable reluctance to debating the point with an industry mover and shaker, no one took the challenge. You might be able to make an argument for Knights of the Old Republic or perhaps Max Payne 2, but still, compelling stories are admittedly few and far between. In fact, Spector cited his own Deus Ex: Invisible War as suffering this particular weakness and said the previous installment had a better story.

(Update: Warren Spector contacted us with a clarification following the publication of this article: "If I gave the impression that Invisible War had a worse plot than Deus Ex, I wasn't making myself clear. The fact is, we made a conscious decision to trade-off some of the narrative and emotional punch afforded by Deus Ex's completely linear plot in exchange for much greater player freedom over the storyline. In Deus Ex, we told one story, through which players maneuvered as they saw fit; in Invisible War, we focused on shades of gray rather than black & white events and motivations; we let players select their own goals; and we asked them to determine their own friends and foes, diluting some of the qualities typically associated with narrative.

"Invisible War didn't tell a worse (or better) story than Deus Ex; it tried to tell its story (or stories...) in new and different ways.")

At any rate, he revealed an intriguing struggle here. For Spector, open-endedness is not the be-all, end-all. As a story design widens out to a free-form system, he argues, the "emergent narrative" (story that's partially created by the player, rather than completely designed by the developer) ends up with a relative lack of direction and emotional resonance. There are fewer exciting, "holy crap" moments, since the narrative can't be designed as easily to flow towards those moments as effectively. Meanwhile, the "tyranny of choice," as he puts it, can threaten to make the player freeze up because they're simply given too many options for things to do and places to go. The player doesn't know the particular rules are of the game--what he or she can get away with, what the long-term repercussions are of "bad" behavior, and the rewards of "good" behavior.

Meanwhile, a well-defined story arc, while limiting player options, offers a familiarity of common techniques across all media. Meaning, people recognize a story when they see one and know generally how to follow along. With an open-ended structure, however, the player could get lost or stuck without even knowing it.

So, for Spector, the best direction would be towards deeper but shorter games than we've seen before. This means, according to him, more opportunity for drama and rich environmental simulation that invites replayability. Games don't necessarily have to be linear in order to successfully tell a narrative, but he doesn't seem to see a sprawling game world as an inherent advantage.

As for specifics on the projects he's currently working on, he didn't have much to say. Thief: Deadly Shadows is still on target for a Spring release.

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