Plot in Video Games

In following my theme from yesterday, I'm going to address my audience. You may wonder why I haven't been writing towards one specific audience and the answer is

This question comes to us from Madeupburg Oregon. “Dear David, what are your opinions on video games? I think your book is awesome and if it were up to me I'd give you a million billion dollars. Sincerely S.B. Conscious.”

Well S.B. all flattery aside, it is an excellent question.

Plot in video games is something I've thought a lot about. If we go back to the beginning of the video game era, we notice that a lot of plot was implied through the gameplay, or non-existent. After all, what plot can we attribute to Pong excepting that time Jim smashed Elroy's head through the television after the great Pong debacle of 1984. But if we look at games like Missle Command (whose designer had nightmares about the implied plot of the game, the slow annihilation of all life), Space Invaders (an ever increasing invasion which cannot be stemmed) or even the original Super Mario Bros. (A plumber always one step behind his foe as he tries to rescue a princess) the plots here are all implied. We rarely see them acted out on screen, allowing us to develop the narrative for ourselves.

It is interesting to note there though that these older games weredesigned to be tests of skill. They required you to memorize level designs, judge distances and speeds, and pushed you to the limits to pass levels. They weren't designed with plot in mind, they were designed to be challenging, and for many of them, to consume quarter after precious quarter.

As games drifted away from an arcade format, we begin to see larger plots unfurl within games, though in many of these games the plots still aren't directly narrated and spelled out. Looking at a game like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (just to use as an example) there is no dialogue to clarify any of the events unfolding, and beyond the connection of one boss leading the heroes through a series of challenges as they try to defeat him, there is no larger narrative.

During this time we begin to see RPG's that truly work with plot as opposed to challenges which utilize a simplistic plot to justify themselves. RPG's, with their repetitive gameplay (and I don't mean that in a bad way, just as a statement) require something more than the increasing difficulty of monsters and aquiring of goods to make them fun. They need something worth fighting for. The Legend of Zelda, Phantasy Star, and Final Fantasy all stand as examples of games which began pushing plot forward in video games and changing them from increasingly challenging tests of skill, into a slow progression through a story.

Fast forward for the sake of time, and we can begin discussing games today.

The big budget games of our time has abandoned the older style of being a series of challenges in favor of either multiplayer or story. I'll discuss Indie games in a moment, and there are exceptions to this rule such as Dark Souls but the majority fall into these two catagories. There will be challenging game play, but what set the old tests of skill games apart was that there was a game over screen if you failed and we are seeing the disappearance of the game over screen. So then, what do modern games have to offer us.

Games which exist as platforms for multiplayer generally have plots which don't do anything new. Call of Duty, Halo, Modern Warfare, etc. do have single player story lines, but they usually advance as an escalation towards a final goal to cripple or destroy an enemy. Or they just...fail (I'm looking at you Halo 2.) But these games have acknowledged something that the games of old also lived by. The plot wasn't important. The gameplay was.

On the opposite spectrum, we have the big name single players games (Bioshock, Dishonored, Skyrim, etc.) These games generally feature rich stories, which serve to draw players through them, as opposed to being something to be accomplished for accomplishments sake. This is also the case for modern RPG's which sometimes feature plots that span years, the rise and fall of civilizations, or take you through time itself. These are the games which draw intense emotions from their players and which you can't help but talk about around the proverbial water cooler.

These aspects of game plot should come as no surprise, but it's the indie games in particular which I want to end my discussion on game plot. A surprising twist to modern indie games is their combination of plot atop gameplay which used to exist within the challenge game design of old. The games I'm particularly thinking of here are games like Braid, the modern Mario games, or BattleBlock theater. These are games which use cutscenes to advance plot despite having gameplay which one would not think would contribute to plot. Essentially you have a story being told between checkpoints.

Now this isn't too surprising a development. The big plot games from above also use cutscenes (whether they are literal cut scenes or simply dialogue which plays out) to advance the plot, but they are designed with story in mind. The use of cutscenes in games which once did not utilize plot is an acknowledgement of the power of plot to advance a game! Not only that but we are seeing experimentation in story telling itself!

Let me show you an example from  That is all of the cut scenes, none of the game play. But this introduction and the ensuing cut scenes are, let's be honest, hilarious. It creates a story of witty proportions and what's interesting is that it wasn't necessary. It would have been enough to design a game with interesting game play and release but they went the extra yard and it pays off.

I could go on about plot but I feel like I've gotten my point across. Plot or story in games is no longer an anomoly which serves specific genres, it is a tool being utilized by games big and small for specific purposes. Sometimes the story is complimentary, a necessary inclusion before launching players into a larger multiplayer experience. Other times it is the predominant driving force of a game. But whether it is the first thought or the last, a good plot can add another dimension to games and raise them above the old mindset of time sinks. They become works of art.

So what are some of your favorite plots? Any games which you felt tried to hard or just missed the mark? As always, feel free to start a discussion. Or not. The choice is yours.