Do retro games have better written stories?

[Anonymous No.5922003]

Bear with me, for a moment. I was wondering whether or not games are doing better in terms of story-line nowadays compared with the past.
I’m asking this because I stopped playing games some time ago when I picked up reading books again.
Everything seems to dull in comparison.

Maybe the developers don’t really care much about stories or plots being written for their games. But,
• Was this always the case?
• Am I just blinded by nostalgia or have video games always been poorly written?
Could be the fact that I have autism/ Adhd and I’m entertained by flashy lights and stuff.

I can’t think of anything which would compare to Cormac or Faulkner. [In terms of game story, of course.]
• Also, do you think video games are more creative than books?
• What about retro games compared to the ones nowadays?

[Anonymous No.5922008]

>>5922003
No. It's gotten better, generally.
Narrative in video games has always lagged way behind any other kind of commercial art. I know these stories are precious to us, but they're generally pretty laughable even compared to young adult fiction.

Game stories have gotten way better. Maybe the rest of the product has gotten worse for some of you cranky old grandpas, but the writing has increased in quality greatly.

[Anonymous No.5922030]

In the 80s game developers struggled to put their massive world's to life. Some could, but it was absolutely a struggle. In the early-to-mid 90s, game developers could begin to fit their massive stories onto games. These games were successful enough, particular to those who read and those interested in DnD, but these games did not appeal to the masses because of the average person's short attention spans. The game developers' bosses instructed them to write stories that might appeal to wider audiences so that they can get more sales. Since the late 90s/early 2000s, narrative-focused games have gotten simpler to appeal to a wider audience. Narrative structures mirrored (and still do) film and television narrative structures. Stories used to be more complex. Now everything is streamlined to be by consumed by the ADHD masses.

[Anonymous No.5922059]

>>5922003
>compares Deus Ex and Deus Ex: HR/MD
Yep, definitely

[Anonymous No.5923878]

>>5922059
Sad.

[Anonymous No.5923887]

They're "better" in that most of them are vaguely defined enough that you fill in the details for yourself. Whether you prefer that type of storytelling or more blatantly defined is gonna determine if it's better.

[Anonymous No.5923891]

>>5922008
>No. It's gotten better, generally.
Kek. Tell that to ratchet and clank. They couldn't even remake the original game without fucking up the story, characters and humor. Game narratives these days are based off of movies, because a lot of writers in the game industry are Hollywood rejects.

[Anonymous No.5923892]

>>5922030
Fallout 1 & 2 come to mind as well as adventure(point n click) games like gabriel Knight, when it comes to well written stories.

[Anonymous No.5923902]

>>5922003
Martian gothic has a good story, but it was butchered by time constraints. You can definitely put some of the pieces together to get a pretty nice sci fi story.

[Anonymous No.5923904]

In modern video games, stories feel like big budget normalfag hollywood movie stories. There's a high level of polish but It's all very conventional and predictable.

Mid 90s to early 2000s games tend to have tons of whacky stuff which made them memorable. Also some themes, that were fine before are off limit now thanks to PC culture.

[Anonymous No.5923909]

>>5923891
>because a lot of writers in the game industry are Hollywood rejects
Kek, so true.

Posting this on Kikebook, Twitter, Cuntaku and shit like that would be pure fucking lulz. The butthurt would be immeasurable.

[Anonymous No.5924597]

>>5922003
Why don't you learn how to read and see how some games "written stories" are for yourself?

[Anonymous No.5924645]

>>5922003
>I’m asking this because I stopped playing games some time ago when I picked up shit posting on gaming boards with the intent to insult certain genres and start infighting.
Fixed.

[bg No.5924675]

Video games are a very young media. We can't really compare the storytelling in video games to literature or even film because it's fundamentally different. Most games use story as a vehicle for gameplay and so obviously it's going to be thinner and even contrived. Games with a narrative focus on the other hand, aim to immerse the player in a way that has the potential to go beyond other kinds of media. The "cinematic" type tries to tell its story outright in a format similar to film while using the gameplay (which itself can become thin and contrived in these games) as a method to regularly draw the player back in. There used to be text based games like A Mind Forever Voyaging that tried to tell a literary story in this way and the visual novel still does although it uses manga as its "literary" basis.

The truly innovative form of storytelling in the young media of video games is a format where the player truly guides the story and feels like their choices and ideally even their gameplay style makes a real meaningful difference in their experience in the game the way our choices effect our real lives. This is a kind of storytelling that other narrative media cannot do and it's the way video games will develop into their own respectable format for it.

In not going to mention any specific games because I don't want it to devolve into "hurrr ur taste = bad" and we're probably not even to a point yet where any of our games will be looked back on as a truly profound interactive experience but advancing technology does gradually allow for more and more complex forms of this kind of narrative.

We're getting there.

[Anonymous No.5924790]

>>5922003
Yeah no, game stories have improved in most ways since the 90s but you can't compare games to books. Novels are the longest lived from of storytelling for a reason. Video games have only recently gone from B-movie level to great TV series level.

[Anonymous No.5924798]

story in games has improved immensely in general because limitations have slowly loosened, meaning writers can realise more and more complex ideas well. there are of course some examples to the contrary, but that doesn't change the consensus.