‘Videogames Are Terrible For Telling Stories’ Says Jonathan Blow

Play: "We speak to the minds behind Braid, The Witness, Transistor, Bastion, Dying Light and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger about the state of videogame storytelling."

[Nyxus]

Couldn't disagree more.

[Hellsvacancy]

Just when I kinda start liking J-Blow he blows it by saying something dumb

Some games don't even have words and still tell a good story

[Kingthrash360]

Oh my.
Great story list... Slimmed down to my top 5...
Bioshock.... 'Would you kindly' lol
The last of us
Uncharted 2
Final fantasy 7,8,10
And as confusing as it can be at times metal gear series.
Watching sniper wolf die when I was a kid really turned me into a all around gamer.
Honorable mentions...
Persona 4...awesomeness
Wild arms
Grim fandango
I can literally go on when it comes to RPGs ....this guy is an idiot for that comment.
Games when done correctly put in the story... Some depending on your actions, have you making story changing decisions unlike book or movies you play out the action and make the hard decisions...smh gaming can be the best way to tell a story imo.

[aquaticDonut]

So clearly you didn't even bother reading the article. His problem isn't that games have stories, it's that they are doing it through cutscenes instead of telling it through gameplay like it should and, thus, failing to make use of what makes video games so unique and powerful as a medium for telling stories. He's completely correct.

[Kingthrash360]

the last of us did that bro uncharted too what would those games be like without the back and forth banter while climbing or exploring the game. Joel and Ellie's back and forth banter made that game the most respected in gaming history....you felt like you knew them after the game was over...you cared for them. During gameplay tlou told us not only a story but the personalities of the characters in the game as a whole... you want a story told through gameplay right... So movies and books don't tell good stories? They don't have gameplay. They are just nitpicking games at this point. A story can be told in numerous ways. I admit story during gameplay is rare but it's also not needed for a story to be told. Movies do it perfectly fine and its just a giant cutscene.
All in all most telltale games tell a story through gameplay....smh wow...

[freshslicepizza]

what games have a great story without 'ANY' cutscenes? this is what he is talking about.

[Kingthrash360]

None. But how can a story be told without them? Smh impossible thing to do. Like asking someone to make an entire movie in one cut while jogging. Or write an entire book while bunji jumping.

[gatormatt80]

Half Life 2, as well as the episodes, didn't have cutscenes if I remember correctly and they told a pretty dang good story all from first person perspective.

[UltraNova]

@ above

95% of said story telling in HL2 was you in a room you couldn't leave while listening to other NPCs laying out the story which in my book its the same darn thing as sitting through a cutscene (which I prefer when done right, see MGS or Uncharted games)

That being said,I believe we need a good balance between cutscenes and live story telling ala Half life and The last of us.

As for what this guy said, I cant believe that after games like tLoU, there's a man from this very industry that believes games suck at telling a story because cutscenes break gameplay immersion...

Well I've got a question for this dude: how is more'immersive' experiencing story telling while sitting on your a** watching 2 hrs worth of cutscene aka a MOVIE???

At least in games you get to control, experience and in cases alter the course of said story by making choices. The next level of storytelling if you like.

To wrap this up, I believe games, in capable hands, are the greatest storytelling medium that exists today.

[helterskelter]

I respect the guy for putting so much effort into making such a great game. Yet that alone does not mean his opinions deserves respect on every matter outside his own little niche!
There are too many Molyneuxs, Blows and Cliffy Bees that think they are shaping the industry with their narrow minded input! Stick to what ye know best, making the games! Let the gamers make their own minds up on their quality!

[CertifiedGamer]

Your really comparing Cliffy B, and Molyneuxs to Jonathan Blow. Thats like comparing english to calculus. Braid is the type of game that you wish other games were like but unless but you passed then you wouldn't understand. Jonathan Blow isn't like any other developer.

[ravinash]

The only limit to the story which you can tell in a game is your imagination.

[solidboss]

Best comment I've seen all day. I agree with you 100%. Bubbles for you

[hay]

Planescape: Torment was written like a book, but was a game which worked really, really well. Journey was written like picture collection, was a game, and worked really, really well. GTA was written like a movie drama, was a game, and worked really, really well.

Gaming is finding it's place as a storytelling medium, there's just no golden solution for it currently. But saying games are terrible at telling stories is a bit "premature elaboration".

[spacedelete]

what BS. Shadow of the collossal has a magnificent story and not a single word is said in game. obviously western devs just know how to make explosions and advertisements instead of good stories.

[BiggerBoss]

Theres words spoken in SOTC. Literally right at the start of the game.

[ThunderPulse]

The guy is an idiot who can't make games with good stories so he thinks games can't have good stories.

[oasdada]

Among other games, Gone home proves he's wrong and very wrong

[aquaticDonut]

What?? Gone Home and it's incredible critical acclaim prove exactly how right he is.

[comebackkid9891]

Gone Home sucked, but games have surpassed film in recent years in terms of storytelling.

[3-4-5]

Video Games are THE best medium to tell a story on.

* You get Music, Sound fx, Art Style, Story, Interactive video Gameplay, cut scenes, Much Longer....

Video Games are by far the most efficient way to properly tell a really long or detailed story.

* Movies are like 2-3 hours.

You get 20-100+ hours in games to tell your story.

* Even without voice acting, games are awesome for telling stories.

* J.Blow giving Video Game story writers a nice slap in the face isn't going to help his sales either.

[peowpeow]

I think TV series are #1 followed by games. Shows like The Wire and GoT are just so enthralling. Games definitely > movies imo

[asadachi]

Yes, this article is full of fail. Do all popular articles on N4G just automatically suck now? I think there's a severe lack of journalistic education and everyone opts for sensationalism to market their clickbait articles in order to get hits. No need for integrity, just as long as people hit the page.

[nitus10]

There is nothing wrong with telling a story, films, stage and books do this all the time however in nearly all cases you are the passive spectator. Games on the other hand require input from the player.

There is no denying that some games that have a story behind them are very linear or are "on-rails" and cut scenes are just fillers to advance the story which is not that much more different than what film does now although unlike a film the player has to interact with the game.

There are other games that do have very good stories but it is left to the player to piece it together and sometime it may be possible to get an entirely different story depending on the choices you make in the game. IMHO it is these games which truly shine over passive story telling.

Please note I am really referring to adventure games with action and/or RPG elements although it is possible to get other types of games that have a story.

[Spotie]

Couldn't agree with you more.

My favorite part of games are the stories I get involved in.

Maybe he just means he sucks at using video games to tell stories.

[rainslacker]

"Johnathan Blow is terrible at using video games to tell a story"

Fixed his comment for him.

Video games can be great mediums to tell a story. Sometimes they come up short, but that isn't the mediums fault.

[Azzanation]

On average, games aren't the best way to tell stories however some of the best games iv played have stories far beyond any movie iv seen. Games like Final Fantasy, Halo, MGS, StarCraft etc. I think that gaming shouldn't be movies as I am no fan on sitting though cut scenes and QTE scenes but gaming Lore is why I game.

[BigBosss]

Explain The Last of Us story then

[Fro_xoxo]

that was more of a movie than a game.

[PixelGateUk]

aye, i remember the constant cut scenes and never having any gameplay, apart from the time i was playing the game

[helterskelter]

The greatest interactive movie ever made then! They obviously succeed in their vision to have TLOU mistaken as a movie!

[kayoss]

People who say TLOU was a cinematic movie clearly never played this game. If you said the Order 1886 was a interactive movie, then i would agree.

[SmokingMonkey]

200+ GOTY awards aren't given out to movies.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[Summons75]

Yeah there was no gameplay what so ever /s

[Army_of_Darkness]

@thefro.... That was very dumb.

[ThunderPulse]

You must've never played it then.

[Germany7]

That's because you never played.

[kraenk12]

That game was much more than a movie could ever be!

[rainslacker]

A good portion of character development took place during game play. Things that were often put into cut scenes were integrated into random talks that the characters would have while exploring the environment. All those little moments outside the big scenes were what helped sell the character, and it was no different than how a book will have little dialogues in huge parts of exposition. To me, it was probably the best presentation of a story in any game ever made because of how well integrated it was.

[Ezz2013]

TLOU offer more gameplay and more open than pretty much every single liner game on the market
there is a reason why it won more GOTY awards than any game in history
20+ hours game with only 2 hours cutscenes is a movie now ?!

i have no respect for fanboys like you

[Outthink_The_Room]

The writing itself is average.

But the performances....that's different.

The problem is, for ND to achieve those performances, they needed to pre-render the cutscenes and give the animators more power than what was available on the PS3 to achieve the believability in the characters faces and body language.

Not to mention, if they didn't pre-render the cinematics, then there would have been quite a bit of loading between areas/missions since the cutscenes and little linear pathway segements were used to mask this. The entire flow and structure of the game would not be paced well at all.

Don't get me wrong, Troy Bakers performance is one of the best we've seen in gaming. But it also comes at a cost in regards to gameplay. Many times control is taken away because they NEED to load more stuff behind the scenes. Forcing me to walk down a certain path because they can't load all the assets in time before I get there.

And again, if it wasn't for the performances themselves, that story falls flat. They NEEDED to have that detail in the body and face to convey the story they were telling. Without it, the game falls apart.

[BiggerBoss]

Just.... No.

[rainslacker]

So what you're saying is that games can be used to tell a story? Who cares if the cinematic were pre-rendered or not? What exactly does that change in terms of story-telling? Whether it's in-engine or pre-rendered is a moot point, because either way, the story is still being told the same way.

The game play worked. It was solid game play. The game play was plentiful. It's a TPS game with some exploration elements, and it was well balanced between all those things. Cut-scenes were well paced, and despite some insinuations to the contrary, were no where near as common as the game play sections.

More often than not, the cut scenes were short to move from one game play section to the next and set up the next part of the story, and yes, it did prevent level load, but what's wrong with that? Would you rather watch a loading screen or have some story or character development presented to you?

[Ezz2013]

@rainslacker

You pretty much said what i was going to say
Well said+

Also the problem with his comment is that he think the story was only told through videos
even though the meat of the story was told through the gameplay which why that game was a masterpiece

[ginsunuva]

He didn't say all games have bad stories.

He said it's difficult to tell stories through games. Just because ND are crackshots and do it often doesn't mean the average developer can.

[bunt-custardly]

Well that blows. Back to reading books then it is.

[Solid_Penguin-64]

It Johnathan Blows...

;)

[Maybay]

A lot of people may disagree with me, though I thought the recently remade Tomb Raider had a pretty decent story. There are better examples of course, though I thought Crystal Dynamics created a movie type of experience (which I enjoy).

[Immorals]

I got a similar vibe from it as I Did when watching Lost.

Seeing as Lost is my favourite TV show, I loved the story!

[Sonyslave3]

Japanese developers are kings imo when it comes to story telling in games from role playing to visual novels games.

[ChronoJoe]

I would argue the exact opposite. Japanese devs integrate story into their games in the most barebones manner, ignoring the benefits afforded by the medium. Japanese devs tell storys heavy on text and lacking in interaction and player involvement.

They could learn a lot from games like the Witcher, or Dear Esther, which allow a dynamic narrative to unfold as a result of the players variable interaction with his or her environment.

Japanese games often tell a good story in the same sense a book or manga tells a good story. They plan the narrative and its told in its simplest and most obvious form, through scripted dialogue that the player is unable to influence. It is however developers that harness the dynamic capacities of player influenced virtual environments that are the true masters of story telling in our medium.

In my opinion, of course, and naturally, there are exceptions. Persona, Danganronpa and Virtues Last reward come to mind.

[G3n3raL86]

999, Virtue's Last Reward, Danganronpa, FF games and many more say hello.

[SeanScythe]

Naughty Dog proves him wrong.

[Summons75]

Naughty Dog, Quantic Dream, Bioware, CD Project Red, Retro. Not to mention stories that are amazing through environmental story telling.

[Skankinruby]

Good god what an idiot

[Sir_Simba]

This was true in the early life of games, but now,
nope.

[dancerOfDeath]

I agree, Blow, which is why i typically couldn't care less about the story in any game, and end up jamming the A button through all cut scenes and dialogue. There are times when an enjoyable story brings something to an already great game, but never the other way around. A game cannot be great based on story alone, when gameplay is an afterthought. Not in my eyes, at least.

Last time I genuinely enjoyed the story in a game was Halo CE. Otherwise, a story sets the stage for me to kill people. I mostly game online and play racers/shooters anyways. I can see why JRPG junkies might rely on narrative.

[rainslacker]

Whether a story is good or not is rather independent of if VG's are terrible for telling stories.

In your case, the problem isn't the medium, but the presentation of the story, and your lack of caring about the story in the first place.

You say that story is there to set up the reason your about to kill people, which I take to mean sets up the next part of game play. And yes, often it is, and it should be there for that purpose. A good story can bring another level to that game play, and take it beyond the reason of you're just killing people because it's what you're supposed to do in a game. MP is there for the plain dumb fun, but for a campaign mode, it's nice to have another level of immersion, and a story can help people become more connected with the character motivations, thus not just be mindless button mashers playing to the end for no reason other than to complete the game.

[KryptoniteTail]

If you make s***** games like Braid instead of The Walking Dead, then obviously, yeah.

[kayoss]

He was using Destiny as his bench mark for this comment.

[dillhole]

It depends what you are playing a game for. I loved Braid but I couldn't tell you what the story was even about. I just played it for mind bending time based puzzles which it delivered on.

However Portal's appeal was similar: mindfuck puzzles but it still managed to captivate me and presented one of the best characters in the history of gaming: GlaDOS.

The difference is the game WAS the story. There is no way you could ignore GlaDOS as she was your guide through the game. She wasn't a cutscene you could skip or a page of text to ignore. At no point did I think 'oh let me just get on with this'. Neither the story nor gameplay needs to feel tacked on and often it does.

Sometimes when I am playing a story based game I feel like I am just thrown a bit of half-fun generic gameplay to keep me busy whilst the next bit of story is prepared. Sometimes I am given a page of text that is supposed to justify why I am now in a completely different place. Both are fine really but for a truly memorable experience it needs to just gel.

[SmokingMonkey]

I think he meant to say

*Puzzle* ‘Videogames Are Terrible For Telling Stories’

[Death]

Can someone fix the typo in the header? I'm pretty sure it should read, "Jonathan Blow is Terrible for Telling Stories" says Video Games.

Thanks.

[phoenixwake]

Jonathan blows at making video game stories. Don't project now.

[Activemessiah]

Well some of us skip the bloody cut scenes and wanna just play

[yuukiliu]

Weird. P4G, Ni no Kuni, Puppeteer, Danganronpa, and many more games I have played in the last couple years make me totally disagree with this. Yes, TV, Movies and Books can be better at times, but video games have some pretty amazing stories.

[LightofDarkness]

He's not saying the stories are bad, he's saying they're told badly.

[rainslacker]

I would agree that sometimes they are, but that doesn't mean that VG's are bad for telling stories. The story and the game play have to compliment each other to be good, and it does happen. It actually happens more now than it ever did. Interactivity is still an issue in some cases, but the lack of interactivity in some story parts does not mean that the game is bad, nor that the story is being presented in less than optimal fashion.

There are two examples of good story-telling that show how it can be good.

Mass Effect. Story was told outside of game play(or duing non-combat situations. Often there were cut-scenes between combat sessions, but the bulk of the story was told in the exploration phase of the game. The story was good, the game play was good, and they mixed well because for the most part, you could take it at your own pace, or even ignore most of it if you wanted.

TLOU. Story was told in cut scenes used to set up the next phase of game play. Here it was used in places that would otherwise show a loading screen. Much of the incidental character development, the non-major stuff which just makes the characters more human, was told during game play, mostly during exploration sections, but also during combat, and it flowed seamlessly with a good pacing.

Some examples of bad interaction would be things like Heavy Rain. The story was good, butt he pacing was more about the story than it was about the game play. I like the game for it's story, but in it's case, I found that the game play became a reason to set up the next phase of the story.

[GUYwhoPLAYSvideoGAME]

i actually agree with his reasons, except i still think they can be great for telling stories, and i think games like tlou got it right to a large degree

[LightofDarkness]

TLOU is perhaps the biggest example of how games get storytelling wrong. Same with Uncharted. Those games rely almost solely on heavily scripted cinematics instead of gameplay to tell stories.

[SeanScythe]

Wow really doing it wrong? Please make us a game doing it better and get over 100 GOTY awards, please.

[Germany7]

HAHA, sure, whatever you say.

[LoveOfTheGame]

Don't bother @Light, on this site those two decent games are considered "Innovative" and "Perfect".

People on this site have become so delusional they point to those two franchises as the pinnacle of gaming....just sickening.

[LAWSON72]

People get so offended with TLOU. Fact is the game tells its story through cinematics, not actual gameplay. I am by no means saying that is bad however shouldn't devs strive to make something unique where an interactive video game influences storytelling rather than just fill in the gaps.

But who am I kidding TLOU is considered innovative on N4G (won the award) and the only argument proposed is it has one 100+ GOTY awards.

[rainslacker]

@Lawson

Why does a games story have to be interactive or influenced by the game play itself?

I understand that that can happen, like with Bioware games for instance, but that doesn't mean that all games have to do so in order to present a good story and game play.

TLOU did story-telling right, and the topic here is whether or not games are terrible for telling stories. TLOU proves that VG's can be great mediums for telling stories. Whether those stories are the way you feel they should be presented is another issue, and purely subjective on your part.

@LightOfDarkness

"Those games rely almost solely on heavily scripted cinematics instead of gameplay to tell stories."

What kind of story should be told through game play? I'm seriously having a hard time wrapping my head around this, as I'm not sure what story can be told. Taking TLOU as an example, what story can be told while sneaking around and killing people? I'm not talking about the story that was told during these sections through random dialogue, but what story is told by the actual core of the game play mechanics?

Old mario games told a story through game play, but that doesn't mean that the story was compelling or interesting. Just that the story was there, but it relied on the player to fill in the gaps. That to me isn't good story telling, just a reason for crushing turtles.

[LoveOfTheGame]

@rainslacker
You're proving LightofDarkness's point. They couldn't tell a good story through the game mechanics and instead used cinematics.

This is my problem with ppl saying TLOU was the best game ever. To get the full experience from the game, all you had to do was sit there and watch. Sure that can make for a good "experience" but not for a game.

It's like watching a movie, but halfway through it asks you to pick up your remote and start making decisions within the movie. It can be an interesting experience but it will detract from what a movie is.

[rainslacker]

I have to disagree with you on that. There were lots of little things that happened during game play. They weren't game play mechanics, but those little conversations or comments from the characters during the game, helped sell the character. Ellie seeing the arcade machine helps show that she's a child of the aftermath and that she's known nothing but hardship. Joel talking about what he does now to survive while walking ellie through a corridor removes the need for a cut-scene. Bill talking about his partner as your travel through the abandoned town helps build up the impact of what happens when you finally find his friend. Sarah looking for her dad in the house before everything went to hell helped show she was a child that wanted her daddy when she was scared, showing the connection between her and Joel, which later added to the impact of what eventually happened to her.

All those little things that happen during game play add to the story in a way that cut-scenes alone can not. Game play mechanics themselves can not do this on the same scale unless they're done in scripted set pieces, because game play mechanics are meant to be the means to an end, not the reasons for those means.

TLOU wasn't asking for player input to decide the course of the story, it was simply presenting the story, with the game play both furthering it along, and the story setting up the game play for the player to be immersed from both aspects of the game. It did this exceedingly well, and is one of the reasons many people consider it to be one of the best games ever made. It had characters you cared about, strong emotional impact from the get go, and a perfect blend of both story telling and solid game play.

[MegaRay]

Never played Kingdom hearts, Persona 4, and tales of grace, I see.

[LightofDarkness]

Note, he's not saying games tell bad stories, just that they're bad at TELLING them.

He's really just talking about the all-too-common "ludonarrative dissonance" issue, i.e. incongruity between what happens in cutscenes and gameplay. He's right: videogames are terrible at telling stories, for the most part. Cutscene driven storytelling is crappy. That's how movies tell stories. Trying to compete with movies via cinematic storytelling misses the whole advantage of storytelling in gaming; i.e. interactivity. It is also never going to be as good as a great film is at telling stories in a cinematic fashion. Not until they literally are indistinguishable from reality and genuine film directors take the helm. But then you're just watching a movie, really. That's the David Cage problem, wherein such games can never amount to more than below par Hollywood movies (his words).

Some games are on the right track, when they do not interrupt gameplay (bar some rare instances). Half-Life and it's sequel were landmarks in storytelling for gaming because the narrative unfolded as you played without pulling you out of your role so you could watch a heavily scripted scene from dramatic camera angles, ruining immersion and your feeling of agency. Games can be great at storytelling but we need to embrace the true strengths of the medium, the one thing it has over all other media: player interaction and agency. They're just not really there yet.

[rainslacker]

It would seem to me that the problem lies in the fact that Blow, and some others, just don't like the ways in which the stories are presented. This is entirely on them, and is purely subjective either way.

Some people like that disconnect between story and game play. I think most can agree that overly done, long and uninteresting, or cut scenes which don't reflect what happens in game play can be bad ways to tell a story, but that isn't an issue with the medium, rather the design of the story and the game itself.

I can understand why he may not like certain ways of telling a story in a game, I'm sure we could all say the same about different types of presentations, but that dislike is not a reason for making generalizations on why games are bad for telling a story, nor does his dislike indicate that the medium is to blame.

[Dharma360]

How long do we have to wait for this game blow?

[Fez]

In terms of storytelling, surely it must go book>tv/video game>movie.

Video games can be great because they allow the player to be immersed in the world and characters for a long time. Similar to a TV show in that character development can occur over a number of hours rather than minutes in movies.

This is a strange statement from someone who has made a decent story in Braid.

I get what he means about cutscenes though, sometimes that's not the best way to tell a story.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I think he also is inferring that the act of making a game and all its components is a hard task and so if you are really only interested in delivering a story there are probably much easier paths and better paths to take to achieve that.

[Enyxodin]

This guy blow has a big mouth!

[mixelon]

LOL. I remember him and others mentioning how publications will reframe a quote to sell copy, this seems like the perfect example.

Does anyone have this latest issue of Play so his quotes can actually be put in context? Pretty lame of them

[OC_MurphysLaw]

" if your primary interest is in telling stories, then videogames may not be the best medium to choose." EDIT: just realized that was the summation of his discussnon not a quote. either way seems like the title and his comments are a bit at odds.

[Acquiescence]

Not the most sensible thing to say when there are plenty of games out there already that have proven you wrong.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

" if your primary interest is in telling stories, then videogames may not be the best medium to choose." That is the sentiment from Blow and I would agree. I think using a medium like games to tell a story is much more difficult than say Books or Movies and that should be obvious to all of us here. It's more difficult because you have more than just the story, acting and visual effects to worry about. Its a FAR more involved medium in terms of the audience and incredibly difficult to get the right balance of entertaining gameplay with story and all that comes with it.

I would agree with Blow in that if you really are only interested in telling a story primarily then video games probably are the worst choice to make from an ease of creation standpoint. It still can be done, and masterfully as well as we all have seen...but it aint easy.

[Fez]

Good comment and interesting perspective.
It's also nice to see someone around here that tries to put comments like these into context. Most people just read the title and comment.

[rainslacker]

I would agree with your view on this. If you're only interested in telling a story, VG aren't the best medium to choose, but with a "for the most part" added.

However, in some cases, the game can be about the story, and the game play is just a means to progress it. This isn't a bad way to go to present a story, but can have a polarizing effect on whether it's considered a game or not. In definition it would be a game, but in general perception it may not be one.

At the end, it just comes down to what the player expects a game to be. If they're playing it for the story, all the criticisms are rather moot so long as the game play is sufficient enough to move that story along. Quantic Dreams or TellTale games for instance are like this.

If they're playing for the game play, with the intent to see a good story as well, then the story and game play have to be paced and blended well enough to not give priority to one or the other, say ND or Bioware games.

If they're playing the game for game play with a interest in the story for added connection to their actions within said game play, then the story would actually be better told through cut scenes and the like, say with GOW, GeOW or Tomb Raider.

If they're playing the game for nothing but game play, well then skip out on the interactive novels and Quantic Dream games/TellTale games, play MP, or just skip the cut scenes. No one will care what they do.

All these different variances in what people want from a game story(which I didn't even cover all of them) mean that people can't seem to understand that each method of story delivery has it's pros and cons based on what the player themselves want from the game. In the end, whether you like that presentation is entirely up to the player, and not for a single person to decide. It's one thing to say that VG stories are bad, but it's another to blame the medium for the problem, or assume that the problem is in the way they're presented when it just doesn't live up to what you want.

I want to illustrate my point by using books as an example. Books I think are considered the best way to tell a story.

Lets look at the fantasy novel genre.

If you want a book heavy on character development through dialogue, with lots of exposition to explain events, you'd probably enjoy the Game of Thrones novels which are heavy on both.

If you want a book which is heavy on dialogue, but light on exposition, you'd probably enjoy something from Terry Goodkind.

If you want a book that's light on both exposition and dialogue, but tells a sweeping tale with lots of lore giving it a mythical feel, then Lord of the Rings would probably be more your speed.

There are other variations on all that, but I think it makes my point. There are different ways to tell a story, and whether those ways are good or not is usually dependent on the person consuming the content, in this case the player. Whether a story is good or not, comes down more to the creator of the story. The actual medium is rather moot.

[NeoGamer232]

Jonathan Blow is an idiot. He made a great game in Braid. But, everything else he has said or done since lacks any sort of brilliance. The problem is that he has no original story in his head so it would be impossible for him to tell one in a video game?

Play games like Lost Odyssey, TLOU, Tomb Raider (Reboot), Resident Evil, Walking Dead, The Wolf Amongst Us, D4, Game of Thrones, etc... and there is plenty of great story intertwined with the games.

The best example of story and games is actually Thomas Was Alone. The narrative and story in the game are second to none. The game is below average but with the narration and story it becomes a decent game.

Honestly, this guy spouts his mouth before he ever thinks. I don't know why gamers even listen to him. The guy comes out with one good game (Braid) which was about a 2-4 hour game with next to no replay ability. And you would think he was the creator of one of the AAA franchises the way he always spouts off. Reality Check buddy, you were a one hit wonder that was a slight blip in gaming. Your legacy is Braid and your negative feelings to the industry.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

He never said there aren't good stories being delivered via games. I think many here are getting all defensive based off the title of the article. In reading the article I get the sense he is saying there are easier paths to delivering a story than making a game... and if all you want to do is deliver a story then making a game is probably the worst / most difficult option to choose since there is so much you need to get right in order to succeed.

[NeoGamer232]

He is still an idiot, and I think telling a story is very much about the medium you choose to tell it within.

He misses the point that the medium chosen to deliver a story can also improve or retract from the story. Again, a perfect example is Thomas Was Alone. Take the narrative and story and put it in a book and it would be 10 pages of absolutely boring. You put it in with that game and it creates something better for both the game and the story.

Telling a story isn't about ease of delivery, it is more about choosing the right medium to deliver within that suits the story. Whether that be movie, book, tv, video game, magazine, etc.

[Greyfoxdbz]

If anything, they are actually better for telling stories. When i was playing as Geralt i felt what it was like to be a father. When Ciri was involved i became very protective of her and i've not felt that much in movies. true role play. they both have their uses but video games aren't bad for telling stories at all.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

You no doubt had a connection with the game and character but I can absolutely say that playing as Geralt can not and does not show anyone how it feels to be a father in real life. Being protective over a character in a game =/= how it feels to be a father. Being a father is an entirely different feeling and set of emotions that no game, movie or book will ever be able to relay. All it can do is stir an emotional response, but its not the same. Sorry... I get where you are going but no.

[Greyfoxdbz]

so what you're saying is that it is impossible to imagine what it must be like to be a father unless you have a child? That's bull. Imagination can take you anywhere, provided you have one. it's pretty ignorant to suggest that. Also no where did i say it was like being a father in real life, whatever that means. If what you say is true, why should we read books, play games and watch movies at all if we can't be transported into the lives of other people? why do you think we get bored when characters are 2 dimensional? I'm not trying to undermine the role of a real father here so i'm not sure why you felt the need to comment like this. I was trying to say that gaming is a pretty good way of telling a story and that inhabiting the role of Geralt elicited emotions synonymous with being a father. regardless of whether it was real or not. I don't know what it's like to be a spy, a king or a woman. But i can still imagine what it's like. And it may not be real, but that doesn't make it less significant to me.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Didn't mean to offend friend. Imagination is a powerful tool and I would never want to stifle anyone's use of it. I am glad you made a connection with the game and it drew out an emotional response for you. That is indeed powerful story telling ...and its the kind of reaction I think we can all agree on that is great about gaming when done right.

As to the father side of things... its a life changing event that goes well beyond surface emotions one might feel from media. I commented because your comment stood out to me, but again I really was not intending to attack you just comment on the amazing thing that is being a father.

[aquaticDonut]

Yeah, he's right. Not many games use the full potential of what the medium is capable of for story telling. The ones that do are subsequently lauded with praise. While, yes there are games that tell good stories without it, they would be infinitely better if the story was implemented into gameplay, and that's a fact.

[Nyxus]

That is not a fact at all. In some instances cutscenes may be the best choice.

[LomasEastwood]

They said the same thing about movies...

[Hold_It]

That's kind of funny coming from a guy who has sunday morning newspaper mazes and calls it a video game.

[LAWSON72]

Since no one can read I am just going to leave this here. (If only I could reply this to every single person that cant click an article and read some of it)

'Blow outlined the way in which games’ stories and mechanics frequently end up conflicting and laments the AAA model of storytelling of “cutscenes interrupted by gameplay bits that get you to the next cutscene, ” which, he says, “pretty much sucks”.'

[Nyxus]

As I said, I disagree completely.

[Relientk77]

Jonathan that opinion blows

[PersonMan]

I couldn't agree more. Video games are bad at telling stories because they have to write the story AROUND gameplay. They have to make you DO SOMETHING in the game, so the story has to be written around what you're doing.

It must be tough to write a story around killing waves of enemies.

[Hold_It]

I respect the fact that you have a different opinion, but I do have to say, not every game is The Last Of Us or Uncharted or a David Cage game where everything has to be playable cinematics. The reason those games "look great" is because they are just interactive MP4's essentially.

[KontryBoy706]

Johnathan Blow... you blow.

[sovkhan]

Telling stories is an art in itself, and it takes more than imagination to master it.

The media through which you tell the story is irrelevant, if your story is dull in the first place.

So, what matters is your mastery in the art of telling stories rather than the media you use it for that purpose!!!

Thus, saying games are terrible for telling stories is nonsense, one must adapt his art to the media he's using and not blaming games for his clumsiness.

[mochachino]

I'll admit that 95% of games tell pretty bad stories but games with good stories tell them better than 95% of movies.

A game (or series) with a good story is on the level of a good book/movie in terms of eliciting emotions, character attachment and development. Games that make you feel, really make you feel. And it's on a completely different level as the immersion transports you to another world but such games are VERY rare.

A lot of average game stories are probably still on the same level as an average action movie but also induce adrenaline.

[brando008]

I just finished MGS2 and was absolutely blown away by the story and themes. JB needs to take a walk and calm down

[baryonyx]

That depends entirely on who created the story and who created the game..

Naughty dog.
CD project.
and a good portion of other Developers have managed to even
create games with a story better then what we can get from
books and movies.

This guy obviously only played Halo which aims more on Gameplay while using a small story to give sense to why you are there.