/lit/ - Literature

Videogames have terrible writing. Why would you want to learn to write badly?

The average video game script is a step or two above fan fiction. You don't need a degree to write that.

>>441495
>>441504
Planescape Torment

>>441518
It would have been better as a book anyways

>>441518
Planescape Torment is NOT your average script.

>>441518
>the average video game script

Torment was made into a book. It wasn't as good.

The writing for Torment is an elaborate choose-your-own-adventure tree that was plug and play directly from the D&D rules and setting.

It's a good game; but to call it good writing that works outside of the rhetoric of a video game is absurd.

>>441495
>>441504

For the same reason. I think that VG are the next step in script writing. I don't want to learn how to write badly, i just want to make a difference in VG Scripts.

And also, there are good writing in some VG's, like the first Fallout, for example.

Well, maybe there isn't a degree for it, but there is a book about it: The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. So maybe is a more serious buisness than fan-fic.

Sigh. Just take a screenwriting/playwriting course.

>>441541
Done that. Not the same.

>>441537 but to call it good writing that works outside of the rhetoric of a video game is absurd.

Then it's a good thing it was part of a video game?

Beg a writer who worked on Far Cry 2 to tutor you. This is the future of game writing.

>>441573
>Far Cry 2
>Anything to do with pushing the industry forward.
No.

>>441578
> Doesn't know about Far Cry 2's revolutionary everything.

>>441578
This.
Any claim on innovation outside the graphics department nowadays is a joke.
Especially when you recognized 95% of their "innovative new gameplay/technology/system" shit as things that where new in the 80's. (not that reviving that is bad, tons of stuff has had a drop in the mainstream for no good reason)

>>441607
Remember when Far Cry 2 didn't have that neat, innovative narrative system? Yeah, me neither.

>>441618
didn't bother with the second after the first one i'm afraid.

>>441636
They're completely unrelated. Far Cry 2 just used the name to get market momentum.

You said script writing, sorry but no schools exclusively "teach" video game writing.

What kind of writing DO you want to do?

>>441537
if the book fallowed the game at all you might have a point

anything made by Amy Hennig has great writing

>>441659

Just want to learn the protocol, actually, and something about the industry.

But I undersatnd that no nobody teach this, so straight to the book I guess.

Thanks.

>>441682

I dont understand, if it was script writing than I see no reason to take screenwriting/playwriting classes.

>>441682
film would be your best bet. Games are like movies but with the added challenge of game mechanics and having to give control of the camera to a fucktard

>>441708
People like you are why game narrative sucks.

>>441716
The average consumer doesn't give a shit about narrative quality. Money moves the game industry, and emphasizing high-quality story telling is not worth the risk to your average publisher.

I don't like this, but that's how it is.

>>441736
> Implying that has anything to do with “lolgaemzismovis” attitudes.

Game narratives should do no more than provide a reason for the gameplay to take place. At most, they should be amusing distractions.

There isn't a single storyline in video games that wouldn't work better in any other medium.

>>441753
> I like to make grand pronouncements without supporting them at all.

>>441761
>I like to try to refute without examples

>>441753
Lies.

Shadow of Colossus.
Bioshock.

Both of those stories have the interactivity and choice as a core element of the stories.

I do agree that a novel or film style narrative is unnecessary for a game.

A great game story should be a fleshed out world, primarily, then should adapt on your actions. That cannot be done in any other medium.

inb4 choose your own adventure.

>>441753
Many Adventure games purely narrative-driven. And are still awesome.

If you want to write good vidya, study Heavy Rain.

>>441768
>>441761
I would like to point out that you're both insufferable cunts.
My proof is that you two even exist.

>>441790
>I submit to your wisdom

>>441768
There's nothing to refute. There would have to be some substance for me to refute anything. All I've got to work against is a vague prescription and a claim that's probably untestable.

>>441796
all you would have to do is show examples of a story that works best in the medium of video games like
>>441767
>>441790

Video games have a really good advantage when it comes to narrative. I mean think about it, literature has been around since the dawn of civilization, so when one writes a novel or poetry or play or anything they have some 3000 years worth of canon working against them. Video games on the other hand have only been around for some 30 years so there's still a lot that can be done with narrative. I mean think about it, we've gone from games having cut scenes as passive events, where the player is forced to sit through them with no control. Then we get quick time events and suddenly players, to some degree, can control the cut scene. Now we have something like Heavy Rain, where the whole game is a cut scene that the player is in full control of.

>>441802
Or, respond to either.

I think all three examples are good and valid.

>>441809
There is no innovation in video games beyond Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist

>>441802
> all you would have to do is show examples of a story that works best in the medium of video games

Totally possible, bro. It's not like there aren't a million independent variables that would muck up the result, even in the rare case that a game's story has been reproduced in another medium so we could actually compare. Anything else would be the kind of unsubstantiated guesswork of which you are so fond. But you've got that style of “thinking” covered and I feel no need to contribute.

>>441809
this