Myst? I'd say it works in that due to the "wandering around fooling with stuff until you figure out what's going on" feel.

I thought it worked pretty well in Machinarium and Myst (although it's been a really long time since I played Myst). But I do agree that if done improperly, the P&C Adventure genre doesn't lend itself well to seamless storytelling.

That's only because Myst has no plot to speak of, and what doesn't exist, can't be damaged. ;)

The effect is not limited to adventure games though. The same can happen with RPGs, even action games (battling a scary boss monster isn't really scary anymore when you're doing it for the 14th time because it kept killing you in the previous 13 attempts). It may be more pronounced in adventure games though, since those games at least _try_ to tell a story (which many action games don't bother with), and since the pacing is set completely by the player.

Myst had a story. It was mostly all what people would call "backstory" though.

How to tell a story in videogames is an interesting topic, and one I've been thinking about a lot lately. One thing I know for certain is that interaction is of great importance, given that it's the one thing that sets videogames apart from say CG movies. But how to integrate storytelling (something that's always been a set-in-concrete thing) into a medium that's as much a sport as it is an art?

One approach that Frictional Games goes for is eliminating what they call "black box mechanics," which basically means that they downplay the "game" part of videogames. I admit that it works fairly well in Amnesia, but I'm not really sold on it as the way for the industry to go. Here's their article on the subject if you're interested.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-self-presence-and-storytelling.html

My thoughts, as well as some discussion about Amnesia's storytelling in the comments (EDIT: actually, I remembered wrong. The discussions about Amnesia's story took place in my Amnesia review :P)

. http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/2012/09/some-thoughts-on-self-presence-and.html

I'm slowly struggling with my own article on storytelling, but it probably won't be done any time soon. Too many things to consider and ponder.


Well, I liked Darkfall (at least the couple of hours I played of it) :P

From what I get Myst is telling a fictional history, rather than a story. Personally I felt more like an archeologist making discoveries than an active agent. I think that's why Myst works and what even makes it exceptional - and IMHO it's also a reason why most Myst clones failed (or at least couldn't beat Myst). It's like some devs just think that taking Myst and adding characters will automatically result in a better game.

And totally agree with you, story telling in games is an incredibly amazing topic and while not that much seems to be happening in this field people are writing an impressive lot of highly interesting articles about it. It's sad that the really big developers don't feel like improving this aspect, especially AAA games feel like Half-Life 1 with slight variations to me.

An interesting thing was what I read in a Polish book last year (titled "Wybuchające Beczki" which translates to "Explosive Barrels" - the author is working on an international English release). There he wrote a lot about story telling through the environment. Reading about it I felt like "I already knew this but I had no idea!". His main example for this was BioShock 2 which seems to tell you more of a story if you pay attention to the zillions of details in the game world. I knew that level design is complex because it should both be an artistic effort and be extremely functional for gameplay but I wasn't really aware of the gigantic potential it has as a tool for delivering information.

Halflife 2 actually does a lot of that as well. The vast majority of the story lies in you observing things about and in the environment. Of course, then one has to question where "story" ends and "exploration" begins. Or is it all story? With you as the character and your actions as the plot? I think that's also a valid view. I dunno. I'm still thinking about it and trying to figure out what I think.

Voting for Scratches, personally got sucked into the atmosphere and story from the very beginning, have really fond memories of it. Loads of creepy/eerie/enthralling fun.
Have to say, I don't get the hate for the key puzzle... You find the picture, you put things together, You find the key, but hey, I'm a sucker fr adventures so maybe I'm weird.
Give Scratches a shot!

i've never played scratches, and as horror gaming isnt really my cup of tea, i would say go with theif, becuase THAT game was awsome to the very core!

That's true, but I think the problem is that the Half-Life series is focusing too much on its patented interactive animations with characters - so much that the average player does not actively look for additional information in the environment (not to mention that much about the HL2 storyline and scenario feels extremely improvised and thought up as they go so I'm not encouraged to dig deeper).

That's true. It's something I sorta argued with another user about. He automatically dismissed this kind of stuff as "background information" or "the scenario". But it's a highly complex topic. I also support the idea that everything that happens including all actions and observations by the player is part of the overall story.

Some people also advocate the idea that supposedly plot-free games are the best ones at story telling (such as 4X games like Civilization or Master of Orion). The events are there, the player's mind turns them into a story. Not sure what to think about this approach yet.
It's kinda funny because the zombie levels of Thief are considered some of the most scary shit ever by some people. ^^

I think I might have seen that argument. Ultimately, the real problem is that there's no concrete definition for "story." The word has no inherant meaning. Just what meaning we give it. What's more, it's a term that artists use... and that means that it's constantly going to be stretched and bent, because that's what they do best. I see no reason that environmental exploration isn't just as valid a narrative experience as a linear plotline, but it is true that most people understand "story" in terms of the overall plot. At least as it relates to videogames. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard someone say "such and such has a really good story" about another medium. With books, movies, plays, etc we usually talk about "plot." Hmm... there might be some interesting implications there.

So, I think I've made my decision. Downloading Scratches right now. After that, I'll probably take on either Thief or Deus Ex Human Revolution. Thanks for the help, everyone!

Continue this discussion! This is good fodder for my article on Emergent Storytelling! :D
Let me know what you think, I've been casually eyeing it for a while.

Scratches wonderful. Let yourself be immersed. Playing at night and alone is highly recommended.

Well, there's a lot we could talk about. The divide we've created between "gameplay" and "story," for instance. Or the question of whether a story necessitates a passive listener rather than an active participant. Or how "deep" you have to dig before your actions in a game cease to be part of the "story" and become "gameplay."

Sounds like we're writing about similar things, although perhaps different enough to merit separate articles. Yours sounds like it's specifically about how open-ended games serve as a canvas for emergent stories, whereas mine's perhaps a little more about how gameplay in general is part of "story." I think. It's still a rather abstract concept in my head that I'm trying to nail down :3