So should game developers also be in charge of writing? It seems to have worked in Bioshock, Kojima games, Silent Hill etc.
I don't know, I'm fucking tired of the disconnect between quests and cutscenes. Integrate the gameplay into the story, a fucking fetch quest is not getting me invested in the world.
>Pic related
Bioshock had bad writing. Kojima games I've never bothered to play but the plots read like B-movies to be honest.
I think writers should be in charge of game development. Subtle difference, but what I mean is that the person leading the project should have first and foremost a strong sense of the world he/she wants to build but also be capable of writing a good story within that world. Not necessarily the skills to actually program the game.
Talented people should be in charge of their respective departments, an there should be communication between said departments. Your argument falls apart when gameplay/story department head disregards the other dept, or considers it less important.
This desu
Or they could just hire better, albeit more expensive writers.
I strongly believe in the auteur theory, if there is a single talent which filters everything you get a more unified and often unique whole.
Depends what you're trying to make.
If you're trying to make Super Mario, then sure gameplay is more important. If you're trying to make Thief, a good writer in the lead is indispensable.
No game has had good writing, so it doesn't matter.
In Kojima's case, or to better say "in MGS case", the games weren't actually written by him. MGS1, 2 and 3 were written by Tomokazu Fukushima. When he left the change in the writing started being very noticeable.
Kojima is very good at applying a solid writing in a very cinematice game like MGS, but when he writes on his own he shows he can be really bad at it.
Good scripts are uncommon even in movies and television, and for good reason:
No good writer is going to work on cinema or videogame scripts, and even if a good writer does, they're not going to produce a good product. You have no creative control, you're usually part of a team acting as a series of editors, time constraints, and working hours and offices don't produce particularly compelling writing.
There's a reason there's never really been a good video game story.
There have been good video game stories. But they all tend to be older games or indie games.
Thief, Gabriel Knight, Max Payne, Alan Wake.
At the the risk of outing myself as a narrative pleb, what exactly constitutes as good writing? The terms story, writing and plot seem to get used interchangebly on Sup Forums, so if we were to break these down, what exactly are the differences between them?
Max Payne, Alan Wake - Sam Lake
Nier - Yoko Taro
Publishers should be looking for auteurs that can oversee the story while designing the game.
Thief sucks, so does Alan Wake. Haven't played the others.
Nier sucks. Shitty characters. Highschool-tier philosophy.
>Thief sucks
Yeah, I know. Truth hurts. Go back and play it and try to exercise some fair scrutiny, but Sup Forums is a place that genuinely thinks Legacy of Kain is good when it's unbelievably bad.
Tell us your favourite video games so we can laugh at your shit taste and opinions user
>it seems to have worked
>kojima
L O fucking L
I don't think videogames hace good stories and that's not why I play them. I mostly play fighting games these days and crazy games, because they have excellent gameplay.
>good writing
It depends on what you're looking for. Personally I think coherence, strong exploration of themes linked to and reflected in the plot, natural sounding diaolgue and the like are pretty good indicators. I like works that allow me to empathize with characters, situations, themes, mostly and broadly the human condition.
>plot
The actual events of the... thing. Hero leaves town to save princess.
>story
Plot factors into this but it's only a part. The story of the above mentioned plot could simply be an adventure story but it could also be about self-discovery and introduce themes that are seemingly at odds with the plot. It could also be presented in a way to subvert the usual adventuring 'guy saves girl' stories.
>writing
When I think of writing, I think of the quality. There's loads to it from choice of words, style, narration, dialogue. How is it structured? Is it a unified whole or a mess? Style over substance? What themes are explored and are they explored succesfully?
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