The Art of Creating a Bad Story

 

The Art of Creating a Bad Story

 

Creating a story takes effort, a collaboration between writers sitting down next to each other and discussing characterisation, dialogue and development of the overall story. Often in games story is practically non-existent, merely a driving force to get the game moving. My favourite recent example of this is Rayman Origins. Rayman and pals are all asleep, yet with their collective snoring they are making too much noise for their elderly neighbours to handle. The general reaction of neighbours would be to get a broom and start banging of the walls, but oh no not these characters. Their reaction – UNLEASH HELL ON RAYMAN AND FRIENDS. I’m happy with that, because then begins one of my favourite platformers of all time.

   Simplistic stories, however, are not what I mean when I say bad stories. It’s a cliché nowadays to say, but just turn to Capcom (OR CRAPCOM haha…) and observe their works of art. I never played Resident Evil 6 myself, I played the demo but that was quite enough for me, but I’m fairly sure I can summarise the story.

   An evil terrorist cell, using a company as a coverup has obtained a new deadly form of the virus. A member of the terrorist cell says ‘Hey, let’s blow some stuff up to show our power.’ The tyrannical and totally not stupid leader says ‘NO LET’S UNLEASH THIS VIRUS INTO THE WORLD’. Oh dear, everything’s gone wrong.

   Could be completely wrong, but to be honest it’ll be something like that. What really surprises me is how, even though the stories are like this throughout the overall RE story arc, the story has somehow become convoluted. Not on par with Metal Gear Solid or the Mario series though, obviously.

The first few games, while ridiculous, still contained a sense of foreboding. I play Resident Evil 2 at least once a year and it still somehow fills me with dread. I don’t know why because… look at it. After the majesty of the originals opening, you knew you were in for a good thrill ride. The stories are on par with a lot of B-Movies, and I’m a huge fan of B-Movies (seriously, check out Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Fantastic movie.) I’d say there would be an assumption that the stories for these games were created without any effort, but I like to think that the writers begin a hugely self-destructive lifestyle, working day and night and breaking apart their families trying to create these works of art. Not that breaking apart their families would be very nice.

   Having a bad story doesn’t ruin a game at all, and having no story at all doesn’t ruin it either. Look at the recent Journey, where all the player is given is a light to get to. The player makes their own story. But I feel that in this day and age where the whole ‘games are art’ argument is prevalent and stories are becoming better and more important, like Telltale’s fantastic Walking Dead game series which, in my eyes, has a better written and more affecting story than both the TV series and the comics (seriously get these guys on board for everything), stories like Resident Evil just look more ridiculous and badly written. Story doesn’t have to be good to make the gameplay better, but in a game where you are supposed to become invested in the characters it would certainly help. Put next to the storyline of a game like Final Fantasy XIII as well… Sort it out Square, that game was stupid.

Fair play to them though because creating a story as bad as that is an art, and takes a certain kind of genius.

 

Philbo and Moif is live!

An Introduction

So, this is Philbo and Moif, a gaming blog. In this blog, we are going to look at issues and themes in video games like gender, technology and other things that two guys with liberal arts degrees would write about.

The idea is to put down in words the sorts of conversations we usually have when are are together. Like, why is it so hard to make a relateable female character that has good dialogue?  Why does Capcom make such fantastic games, but has such atrocious writing? What makes death in a game serious, what makes it silly?

Me and Philbo will be writing about on the same topic, changing every week or two. We will probably update with a few other things as well, like pictures and videos (I have one of Philbo ducking and rolling that I will save for a rainy day). We are also always open to suggestions.

First posts will be coming in the next week or so. If you like us, please share the blog. If you agree or disagree, please do tell us!

Anyway, Philbo is up first. You can tell his posts from mine because he usually writes like a seven year old. Anything written in comic sans is him.

-Moif