Writing is everywhere; every job, hobby, school assignment and business venture involves some modicum of it. Writing in games, in particular, has a very interesting history. In the early days, game limitations expected the user to have some sort of imaginative ability. In the times of old home consoles and such, your creativity played a main role in your gameplay. I’m looking at you, Adventure.
Looking back on some of the most loved games, you could argue that writing wasn’t a huge factor. Super Mario Bros. had next to no writing, and Zelda was never huge on it until recently. But look at standout titles nowadays: Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and The Last of Us, for goodness’ sake! These games bring out three major emotions with their writing; GTA always makes you laugh, Max Payne was a mentally taxing experience, and must I even talk of the tear jerking moments in The Last of Us? One thing that has been a constant lately is that almost all major games present stories – every game from the yearly, mandatory Call of Duty titles, all the way up to the now 20-year saga of absolute craziness that is Metal Gear.
On the other hand, graphics have always been a major selling point in gaming, growing in importance alongside writing. The concept goes all the way back to the bit wars that traveled from 8 bit to 16, to 32, and even 64. Then came polygons and full motion video. Once HD resolution and 3D gaming was achieved, literally anything was graphically possible. Games then began deciding which they could sell, a pretty world or engrossing narrative.
The biggest examples of the conflict between graphics and writing that come to mind are Quantic Dreams’s Heavy Rain and Telltale’s The Walking Dead. When the community was absolutely drooling over new consoles a little over a year ago, David Cage of Quantic Dream presented at the PlayStation Meeting in 2013. During this, he stated, “Technology is what we rely on in order to get the player emotionally involved.” He then showed off a tech demo displaying just how he could do that, using an old man’s beautiful eyes to relay a plethora of emotions.
To be fair to Mr. Cage, the graphics and engine are very impressive, and he is the greatest hype man since Peter Molyneux. But let’s look back on an earlier, and somewhat popular Quantic Dream game, Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain was an extraordinary risk in game design, relying heavily on narrative and emotion to run the story, as opposed to non-stop action. I will not lie, I am a fan of the game, but not for all the right reasons. The dialogue is incredibly inconsistent, and some controls are kind of silly. Nothing hits you quite like a sex quick time event. However, it was beautiful for the time, which leads to my point. Just because a game is beautiful, does not mean that it’s done well. For that, I direct you to a very notorious game that you can easily play, watch, or cry to: The Walking Dead.
When the game was released many, including myself, were skeptical, thinking it would be some re-skinned money grab like most adaptations. I was wrong… and soon, like countless others, I fell in love. In minutes I was hooked; the unbelievable system of writing keeps you absorbed just enough to panic when a walker comes around, while each crucial decision will make you feel like a terrible person before you end up crying.
Writing is important; writing is what makes games into stories. It transforms a static world into an immersive experience, driving you to take up arms and save it because you are a hero, not just someone behind a controller. Writing is that next step. It is that final leap that, if done correctly, can take a game from just a game to an intriguing journey of self discovery, tears, anger, and maybe a bit of depression afterwards when you finally realize that it was just that, a game.
So I say nay to games that rely solely on graphics, all the fancy lights, and action. They are often just a bunch of numbers until you put true human emotion and interaction in them. So here’s hoping that in these following years, more games create that amazing experience. Because writing matters dammit, and when graphics and dialogue mesh and flow in a delicious Yin Yang of media, it’s simply surreal.
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