We Need More Drama in Gaming to Elevate the Medium

"When you look at the world of entertainment outside of gaming, there are many genres, but the most popular in film, television and literature always seems to just be basic, run-of-the-mill drama." | Explosion.com

[AmayaAi]

I think it's improving day by day. Consider the Walking Dead game. It's more like a movie and a lot less like a game.

[FarCryLover182]

Also better than the TV show.

[AmayaAi]

And I totally agree.

[dvewlsh]

The TV show is a complete mess, the game is just amazing and gripping.

[rpd123]

But not quite as good as the comics.

[Blacktric]

As long as it's not forced drama like Mass Effect 3's ending, I'm fine with it.

[DOMination-]

Its been a year get over it already!

[rainslacker]

Not to single out ME, but a lot of the drama in games is forced. It doesn't flow naturally like in a good movie or TV show.

This may be due to the nature of the medium, given that most people just complain when cut-scenes take too long to get through. Xenosaga for instance, I wouldn't say the drama was forced, however it had long and plentiful cut-scenes which broke up the game play enough to notice them.

It also doesn't help that some of the people writing the stories and scripts for some of these games aren't really equipped to write scripts, and often times the script seems to be forced into game play mechanics to add features and such.

[FrightfulActions]

Are you referring to the drama the fans made about it or the actual ending itself? Because I didn't find the ending to be dramatic at all. More confusing then anything else.

[Flavor]

we need more gameplay in games to elevate the medium.

Why bother 'elevating' to the level of mediums which many people find irrelevant...

You cannot put true 'drama' in most games. Angry birds with deep emotional attachment? Mass effect with a heart rending scene involving disabled kids and heroin?

[Hydralysk]

Walking Dead was hugely successful in it's drama, so was Spec Ops The Line, and Persona 4 Golden. That's just games from 2012.

I'd much rather play any of those, or in fact any game that treats it's story and characters as central components, than a game which simply focuses on gameplay.

[PhantomT1412]

Then watch a movie, or a TV series...

[Hydralysk]

Except TV, books, and movies are passive experiences, in video game you are the protagonist and driving the narrative forwards. Also, player choice is something that we haven't perfected, but it's still something no other medium is able to provide.

Gameplay isn't unimportant, some games like Dark Souls and FTL are amazing, and gameplay is how the character interacts with the world AND the story. However, saying gameplay is inherently more important than storytelling is something I strongly disagree with.

[GribbleGrunger]

Naughty Dog says hello.

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

I Agree.

Drama is not a must in all games but in order for that Genre to grow it has to be able to convey all of the genres of the other mediums.

But the problem is how do you do that and still make things fun
or still give the player a sense of control

[parkerpeters]

I think a focus on strong gameplay should come first and foremost, but story, plot, "drama" whatever you want to call it should be the immediate second.

The way I see it, games are trending to be graphics first, gameplay, then story. Which is just backwards.

[dvewlsh]

Yep, I agree.

I think that finding a way to work gameplay into a more realistic, dramatic plot is going to be the difficult part.

A game like Heavy Rain did a lot of that where you were just walking around the house, doing normal stuff and it was kind of interesting. I know a lot of gamers were kind of laughing at like, hold a button to drink orange juice and that kind of thing, but it was still an interesting concept.

Just adding more character-to-character interaction and personal storylines will help out a lot.

I'm not sure we'll ever move beyond the realm of WE GOT GUNS, SAVE THE WORLD, but it can get a little bit more engaging.