Novels vs Games

[coyotecraft]

I thought this might be fun to compare the two in terms of storytelling. What are the differences? Is there anything that one does better than the other? There are different types of games, so that's something you might want to clarify when you make a comparison.

Something you see all the time in books but rarely in games are time-skips. Novels can follow a character through different stages of life. Or just skip to another point in time weeks, months, or years later for something relevant to happen. Looking at my game collection, time-skips have been used more frequently in current-Gen action titles than the older generation. But they don't really happen in rpgs. Everything happens at once with one thing leading to another. Sometimes player playtime is seen as an time-skip. You spend 10 minutes walking to the nearest town and the characters act like it took weeks to get there. But the only time a significant jump happens is between sequels.

 

[Xilef]

The best stories in games have a structure where you start with tension and there's an up and down wave of problems that lead the player to the ending crescendo and there's usually no plateau of "You win, now everything's back to normal", that part is reserved for the credits.

Books lead you differently, using language and imagery to pull the reader in and lead them towards a crescendo that levels out at the end, Lord of the Flies is a good example, if it were a game the game would open with the plane crash itself to show the player immediate action and tension, even the pre-title opening of Link's Awakening shows the storm that washed him onto the Koholint Island, the game itself starts with him awakening (Hmm...Deep game) to the scenario.

Harry Potter tends to open up with Harry yawning, dicking about for a bit, getting into mischievous trouble and then being whisked off to school where he dicks about some more before the main plot and mystery takes full hold, then it hits crescendo then ends on the plateau, the Harry Potter games pretty much skip all instances of Harry dicking around and gets straight into some kind of adventure piece, on the GBC games the dicking around was described with pictures and text that you could mash your way through.

The best way to write a novel is just do it, the best way to write a game is write the beginning and end then fill the gaps. Also, novels tend to end up having some kind of strange commentary surrounding them, games tell their commentary through character interaction (Sometimes narrator interaction) so I think you get more fully fleshed characters in novels and character in games are more left as a half-way finished vision to let the player make up their mind, Alyx in HL2 can be seen as a head-strong character or an emotionally led character depending on how you look at her, Cloud in FF7 has the duality of a strong character but part way through he goes a bit emo (Which VII:AC sadly capitalised on and made the chances of an FF7 remake drop down to near zero).

 

[Ellie]

I think a lot of games miss out by their creators thinking they can't or shouldn't attempt big stories like a novel would. Games can jump all over the place like novels do, they don't need to be one continuous gloop. Final Fantasy VII seems to take place over the course of one day (with some sleeps inbetween admittedly), whereas Final Fantasy VIII has gaps inbetween, and even switches characters (albeit in a weird way such that you're still playing as the originals dreaming). Games need to be exciting all the way through to keep you interested I guess, but that excitement can come in different forms, and wanting to find out the answers to plot questions is exciting.

 

[Xilef]

Giving yourself a set number of days in your story to write within sounds like a good idea, actually.
Could be a good way to portray size of the adventure to the player.

 

[Weary Owl]

I think the medium doesn't matter too much so long as you use it appropriately for the story you want to tell. The medium should serve your story as much as possible. Naturally the advantages of a game story are interactivity, more flexible methods of story-telling, optional side-stories and opportunities for character development - that sort of thing. I feel depending on the writing some people may develop a more personal association with a character even if it's a pre-made character given the time and effort they spend raising them and guiding them through the narrative. Nier took an interesting approach with this regarding a sacrifice:

Spoiler

During ending D had you delete your 100% save and watch each aspect of it be deleted permanently to progress. This helped to drive home to the player the sacrifice the character was making and the high cost another characters survival had. Given the time and amount of farming you had to do to reach that point watching all of your hard work disappear made it a much harder choice.

Naturally the structure of a novel versus a game differs quite a bit and certain aspects of a story might seem too 'video-gamey' for a novel.

In terms of novels they should be more fine-tuned than a game's story with every section, every sub-plot, line of dialogue and every side-character having a good reason to justify their existence (not that you shouldn't also do that in game making but you can get away with a lot when making optional content. Books don't tend to have optional chapters.) otherwise you're wasting your readers time or worse; insulting them. Making a game is not an excuse to tell a substandard or lazy story; game stories can and should seek to entertain or enlighten just like a novel. I've seen a lot of games sell themselves short or cut corners when story telling and unless the gameplay really makes up for it you've shot yourself in the foot.

 

[Jumping Jack Flash]

I dont think books and game are really comparable at all. I hate books.

 

[coyotecraft]

I especially enjoy fantasy novels that parallel real world issues. I can't think of any examples at the moment. But it's intellectually satisfying.
But fantasy games are kinda stuck in a loop. Doing the same things over and over. Warring Kingdoms. Invading Hoards. *yawn*
In the 90's we saw a lot of games that dealt with "dying earth". I think that theme reflected the eco-conscious, global warming, save the rain-forest thinking at that time. That and human right movements go along with magical creature "racism" in some games.

I suppose those are still relevant today. But they have been done to death and there are other issues that haven't been touched. Part of Master of the Wind's story was about a giant corporation of sorts putting smaller equipment shops out of business. I'd kinda like to write an RPG that involves organ trafficking. Or addiction to potions (pain killers).

 

[jamieyuan]

Who have Online rpg game guide ?could sent me a one. :box: :box: :box: :box:

 

[WaldoPeppers]

Maybe it's my age or maybe my lack of coordination, but I prefer plot development over blood letting. I want to know just WHO these people are. If I know them then I care about what happens to them. I am not the kind of person that fast forwards through the wordy stuff. But it seems that I am in the minority of game players. So, I write games for me. They have character development, puns, twisty plots, and talking. I don't bother sharing them because they do not fit in with the 'cool stuff.' That is one of the great things about this "hobby." We can write our games and have fun doing it.

 

[Ellie]

That sounds like my kind of game. I'm far more interested in the story of the world, and of its characters, than in stat progression and battles, outside of boss fights that are set up to have a story angle to them.

 

[coyotecraft]

In novels, kingdoms are much bigger. A royal family extends to Dukes & Duchesses and Barons. There're more politics involved, lines of succession, territories, alliances and treaties ect....

In games, kingdoms are just a castle town with boarders on a map. Sometimes you travel all around the world. Other times it's just a town and nearby forest, lakes, caves, ruins; and you're not really sure what kind of government these people have.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Depends on the game really.

Western RPGs are USUALLY good at making the lore really apparent. :D

Dragon Age Inquisition went in depth for a royal family - that was fun. :P

 

[coyotecraft]

Yeah, but they kinda cheat with codex entries. And Skyrim had books. Nothing wrong with that. It's just we're comparing mediums and there are cases like that where it's a medium inside a medium.

Maybe that's splitting hairs? A npc can convey information in the same way a letter or book in-game could. I just think the player should be able to witness some things for themselves, you know, and figure stuff out on their own instead of assigning a character to explain stuff to the amnesiac/foreigner/half-wit
But that's not always easy to do.