Wednesday, September 23, 2009
There's a Reason It's Called "Back"-Story
There's a running gag in dice-and-paper circles about gaming store owners and employees not wanting to hear about customers' characters.
It's amusing because it's traditionally all-too-true. I've never been employed by a gaming store, but on my infrequent visits I, too, have found myself enduring an annoying customer who takes my passing interest in all things RPG as license to launch into a four hour diatribe about their "awesome" character, their back story, and detailed enumerations of everything they have done on every adventure they've had since first level. Unfortunately, offering a polite, "That sounds cool," and hastily walking away from them often only serves to encourage them to follow and continue their exposition.
Game Masters can be just as bad. They can expound upon their world / campaign as lovingly and at such length as if it were their own child. Only a historian or accountant could have such a love for timelines, details, and numbers. They are Cliff Clavins of their own worlds.
Not that these worlds and characters are in any way boring. They often have the seeds of what could be some really fascinating stories. But they just get expounded upon without a hint of storytelling skill. They think they are recounting an exciting story, but they are really reciting the phone book verbatim.
Computer RPGs are not immune to this problem, either. Too many RPGs (and indie RPGs, this means you) feel the need to unveil their lovingly-crafted campaign world before you get to jump in and start having fun. Granted, having a little bit of up-front exposition is preferable to being dropped in the middle of nowhere wondering where in hell you are and what you are supposed to do. But I have played too many RPGs that probably thought they were providing an awesome analog of the Star Wars opening crawl, but instead delivered the first ten chapters of the Book of Chronicles.
And, unfortunately, I see too many descriptions of indie RPGs that provide too little information, or too much backstory, or - surprise! - both. I'm not gonna name names here, to protect the guilty. They don't need the voice of (dearly missed) Don LaFontaine here, but paying a little attention to the trite-but-still-works movie trailer formula he was famous for might help here. The setting, plot, and character were often combined into a single sentence:
"In a world where bat-winged donkeys rule with an iron hoof, one hero will rise to kick some serious ass."
I know writing advertising copy ain't easy. But an entire paragraph on how two kingdoms came to be at war, or how the evil was unleashed on the world because the mages accidentally destroyed heaven (in a pretty uninspiring Dragon Age: Origins trailer - though to their credit, it was only one of many trailers, most of which were much more exciting). All this backstory is very good and very important - but what you need to tell me in the first few seconds is why I should care.
Sell me on a story I want to hear, people! I have slogged through hours of studying for high-school exams in Persona 3 and 4 just for the sake of an intriguing Twilight Zone-esque story, so I know what a sucker I am for the promise of an interesting story with some characters I came to become invested in.
Fortunately for those of us who love indie RPGs, the experienced developers out there have been learning, and this is becoming less of a problem. I think Aveyond 1: Rhen's Quest and Aveyond: Lord of Twilight have very good prologues which are interesting in their own right, provide enough exposition to set up the story, yet stop well short of disgorging voluminous unneeded details.
Eternal Eden tried to do the same, as well as combining it with a tutorial. Unfortunately, I felt that one was a little too cryptic, leaving me wondering "WTF?!?!?" at the end. Sorta like how I felt about Final Fantasy XII's gargantuan intro (great CGI, but... who were all these people again? And who am I playing? Oh, no, not that guy I just played, apparently...)
Yeah, I know. There is a call for better story in games approximately once an hour. An hour from now it'll be someone else's turn. But this is just one little suggestion that I think will make a major difference. Quit trying to move the back-story to the front. Give us just what we need for action and flavor, and let us discover the rest as we go, once we've had a chance to get invested in the storyline.
Labels: Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:05 AM (Permalink)
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There is also the problem of small talk cluttering could be good dialog. I hate having to press the button through endless back and forth nothing between characters, Star Ocean quickly comes to mind.
But back to subject matter, I fully agree. Huge intros rarely move me, after the first 30 seconds I am usually looking around the room and back to the screen to make sure I don't miss needing to press the button. I want to create a character and get into a fight real quick, just one to test my creation out. Then it's time to get into story, people, places, and events. Eschalon did a good job of this, I could go in and recreate a character without having to wade through endless dialog and movie sequences again.
As far as back story goes, a little mystery never hurt anyone. Most good movies and games have hidden back story, and often times it ties into the story. Slow revalations through interaction is the best way to both develop the story and the back story. Put it all in the manual for those who want it that way, but let everyone else unfold it through the game.
Take Locke in FF6 for example, it was quite a ways into the game before the bulk of his back story was told, and by then the player cared enough to listen. Imagine how dull it would have been to learn about his misfortunes at the beginning. The offbeat heroic intro of present was a much better way to introduce this character.
But back to subject matter, I fully agree. Huge intros rarely move me, after the first 30 seconds I am usually looking around the room and back to the screen to make sure I don't miss needing to press the button. I want to create a character and get into a fight real quick, just one to test my creation out. Then it's time to get into story, people, places, and events. Eschalon did a good job of this, I could go in and recreate a character without having to wade through endless dialog and movie sequences again.
As far as back story goes, a little mystery never hurt anyone. Most good movies and games have hidden back story, and often times it ties into the story. Slow revalations through interaction is the best way to both develop the story and the back story. Put it all in the manual for those who want it that way, but let everyone else unfold it through the game.
Take Locke in FF6 for example, it was quite a ways into the game before the bulk of his back story was told, and by then the player cared enough to listen. Imagine how dull it would have been to learn about his misfortunes at the beginning. The offbeat heroic intro of present was a much better way to introduce this character.
A good example for back-story presentation is "Baldurs Gate". You start with an intro that is mysterious and at the same time, telling us a small prtion of the overall story.
Then we have the "Candlekeep" area where you get to know a bit of the world and about your character.
To me, "Baldurs Gate" have the best beginnings of all RPG's.
Then we have the "Candlekeep" area where you get to know a bit of the world and about your character.
To me, "Baldurs Gate" have the best beginnings of all RPG's.
Actually, I think a lot of backstory problems would be solved if people were forced to fit their intro into the space of the Star Wars opening crawl. 90 words, including the title!
Heh, Robyrt, I like your idea.
Doesn't necessarily translate to games with cinematic intros, but I think a 60- or 90-second time limit would also work just fine.
Doesn't necessarily translate to games with cinematic intros, but I think a 60- or 90-second time limit would also work just fine.
I prefer a backstory that's interwoven into the game, parceled out by character dialogues (fairly short dialogues) or other mechanisms, such as notes, books, PDAs, emails/logs (in-game, that is), audio recordings, visions, etc. The environment itself should tell the backstory as well.
For example, if there was a battle at Red Meadows, then the player should find signs of the battle when he arrives there: bones, rusty weapons and armor, etc.
As the player acquires clues and explores the environment, it can be quite gratifying to put the pieces together; preferably there will be many little "Oh okay, that's why!" moments.
I also think it's cool to sometimes play some of the backstory, i.e. either the player starts out playing some events in the past (e.g. Fallout 3's character development), or there is some sort of "flashback" which allows the player to go back in time and play through some previous events.
The Caverns of Time quests in World of Warcraft come to mind; here the players are actually allowed to go back in time and take part in a few of the historic, world-changing events. Cool stuff.
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For example, if there was a battle at Red Meadows, then the player should find signs of the battle when he arrives there: bones, rusty weapons and armor, etc.
As the player acquires clues and explores the environment, it can be quite gratifying to put the pieces together; preferably there will be many little "Oh okay, that's why!" moments.
I also think it's cool to sometimes play some of the backstory, i.e. either the player starts out playing some events in the past (e.g. Fallout 3's character development), or there is some sort of "flashback" which allows the player to go back in time and play through some previous events.
The Caverns of Time quests in World of Warcraft come to mind; here the players are actually allowed to go back in time and take part in a few of the historic, world-changing events. Cool stuff.
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