Braid's Jonathan Blow: "Most game stories are terrible"

Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, says he doesn’t tend to like games whose primary purpose is to tell a story – and wants his upcoming game The Witness to be more about the experience, because “most game stories are terrible.”

[Whitefeather]

Almost all media be it movies, games or books the majority is terrible.

[360ICE]

I think you'll find good stories are a lot more common in good books, than they are in good games. If the book is a narrative at all, I mean.

[Whitefeather]

So you're saying there are good stories in good books? Isn't that redundant? I think I understand what you are getting at but most thinks are commercialized and that leads to lower quality in most media nowadays.

[Tommykrem]

Agree 100%
There's not the same need for games to supply good stories, because they can rely on gameplay.
Books however are nearly all about story, so the good books have good stories. Period.

[3-4-5]

Books actually are where the best stories are found. You need to be able to use your imagination a bit though, but it lets you create your own world along with the book.

[Hasanhastam]

I really enjoy spec ops the line story hope other games story be like that

[Xperia_ion]

Someone who can't think of a good story would say that.

[360ICE]

No, someone who is upset with the current standard of the industry and would like to improve upon it would say that. He's not saying that to excuse his own games, dummy.

[Xperia_ion]

Its his excuse for not putting a narrative in his game, lazy . How many hours does it take to complete Braid ? It doesn't matter cause its artsy am I right?

[Tommykrem]

I think it's reasonable to argue whether or not Braid has a good story at all, but I think he genuinely thinks he makes good stories. If you games with bad stories you don't criticize the industry for doing the same,you just try to sweep the need of stories under the rug.

[Cyb3r]

Final Fantasy 13 is a good example

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

FF13 would be an example of one of the better stories. I'll admit the execution wasn't great, but if you took the time to truly understand what was happening it was one of the better stories in games. It connected to current events well. On paper it h had a lot of literary value that the fancy shmancy english majors would have appreciated. It had good symbolism, themes, and all that other crap movie critics and book critics love.

[omarzy]

FF13 was not the best FF, but the story was fantastic in my opinion.

[CanadianTurtle]

FF13 had a terribly presented story. The story itself was okay, but it was really flawed in execution. The characters were much worse.

[Eyeco]

the characters were the worst part of FF13 great backstory but horrible characters, it just goes to show that you can have the best set up for a story, but poor characters will ruin the experience, GeOW is another example of this.
However if you look at Uncharted the story really isn't that great but the likeable characters , great writing , brilliant, believable voice acting make up for that. I mean seriously the writing of U3 is hollywood quality.

[wishingW3L]

a good example of a badly written story, right?

[-Gespenst-]

So true. So many games have no subtlety and no elegance when it comes to narrative.

[CanadianTurtle]

At least you can say it's getting better over the years. But seriously, I think this guy is thinking too hard on things.

[masa2009]

Braid is just a bunch of cut and paste puzzle levels with a few text screens containing divagations about sentimental life, hinting that said puzzles may be a subte parabole about sentimental life, which they obviously aren't.
They're just samey 2D platforming puzzles.

So I guess he has a point not trying to tell a story in his next game.

[irokster]

Fuck this guy. I hate people like him who think they know what's best for the gaming community. Whether it be how games should be made or saying "oh, this is shit and so is that."

[matgrowcott]

You know, this is the one developer I just can't stand. Molyneux's a great guy, David Jaffe is outspoken but intelligent enough about the industry to make it work. They might be controversial, but I like them both.

Jonathan Blow just made one game and then has spent 6 years telling us all why it (and The Witness) is better than anything coming out of mainstream publishers.

[cleft5]

Another out spoken developer that should shut the fuck up. Seriously, do these guys not have PR people.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

On the contrary, most games I've played have great stories behind them however I believe its harder to discover titles that have matching quality in gameplay.......

[vickers500]

The guy isn't wrong. With games, there's so little quality in the story, that if a game reaches the quality of a slightly better than average run of the mill action movie, then it's considered to be "good", not because it is, but because it contains a better story than most other games out.

[guitarded77]

Braid was a good game, but seriously overrated IMO. So many sites act as if it is the best downloadable game ever. As for Blow and his opinion, I really don't care what he thinks, just as he probably doesn't care what I think.

[Kran]

True... but considering all he did was write his story into majorly big paragraphs in many books nobody really wanted to read, he can't talk much.

Braid was good, but what was the point on the long paragraphical story?

[HonestDragon]

“It is about communicating personal thoughts, feelings and experience in as honest a way as possible – straightforwardly, not presentationally."

So...you're telling a story. Seriously, if you're conveying ideas through scenes, pictures, and literature...you're telling a story. Just because you bend words a bit that doesn't change what it means to tell a story. If someone is watching your film, reading your book, or playing your video game and learning about the people and the world in it, then you're telling a story. Granted, the story might not be all too complex or dramatic, but regardless it's a story.

“By playing the game people can encounter these ideas through experience, rather than being told the ideas verbally, which can lead to a much richer and subtler kind of communication.”

Reading, watching, and playing are all ways a person can experience stories. It doesn't matter if there aren't cutscenes or voice acting in a video game. Plenty of people get by okay on classic games. And I disagree with him about stories in games these days. There are a lot of amazing stories told through video games. It's just a matter of finding them and expanding your horizons.

[jdklaffke]

Books are written by one person. Typically, art is more impressive when it comes straight from an individual instead of being filtered and modified by dozens of "workers" (as in, video game production). That's why indie games like Braid are more sincere than, say, Kingdom Hearts.

[Knushwood Butt]

In fact, most games are terrible.

This guy is a genius!