WHY WRITING MATTERS - PART I
The last few years in gaming have been, in my opinion, a testament to the gap in values between developers and gamers, as well as the difference in values between those who primarily game competitive online versus solo. With the rise of prices for new release games (the standard price now being $70 or more) accompanied by the emphasis on the monetization of online play, DLC, monthly memberships, digital-only ownership, and more, the goal of gaming companies seems to be shifting away from having a devoted community of players which continue to put time and money into their franchise games and merchandise, and more towards a dollar-per-bullet (in reference to Ubisoft's CEO John Riccittiello proposed in-game payment per ammo reload transaction) mode of making constant transactions in order to participate in the communities and community competition themselves. Though there have been major title releases that have focused on a powerful storyline that often is a continuing piece to an existing story such as Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Alan Wake II, Baldur's Gate 3, and other award-winning games, I feel that many other AAA or similar title companies have not been up to par in terms of story or substance. For instance, the Assassin's Creed series has declined in popularity on many social media platforms, with some gamers arguing that they haven't put out a game with as much originality or memorability in plot, characters, combat, transversal mechanics, and more since Black Flag. However, Assassin's Creed is an inarguable powerhouse title in the gaming world, making its success and continuity seem almost inevitable despite the argued decline in quality of substance. Other companies have made their claim by capitalizing on games that purposefully lack a storyline, such as Fortnite, Rocket League, and other similar MMOs. While some games of this type such as League of Legends supplement MMO style gaming by creating and building upon intricate backstories or even animated series and films such as Netflix's Arcane or the Mortal Kombat movies, many others rely on the explosive and competitive combat systems to keep players continuously spending time and money performing the same actions with limited changes or improvements being offered. This is not to say that these types of games aren't worth playing, as there is often ample replayability and enjoyment to be had in arcade style games such as Super Smash, Mario Kart, or Mortal Kombat, but the value in these games is often tied to the depth of lore which already exists in franchise or franchises they hold reference to.
In general, I do think the author of the ARS Technica still has a relevant argument. While many major AAA companies are releasing lower quality games at a more common and faster rate, it has resulted in the rising popularity of indie games taking the stage. Games of various different platforms and genres are becoming recognized for their unique and well-written stories and characters, with titles such as Stardew Valley, Hades, Lethal Company, Helldivers I, and rapidly gaining fans and building massive communities. I hope that this contributes to an increase in major companies and franchises overcoming the decline in substance with games, and instead move in a direction where amazing engines partner with good writing to create games that are as beautiful to watch and play as they are to experience.
WHY WRITING MATTERS - PART II
The character I have chosen to discuss is The Ghoul (Cooper Howard) from the recent Fallout television series. Having invested a lot of time in the Fallout game series personally, it was very interesting to see how characters in this world would be portrayed in a non-game setting where the player/audience would have no influence on the environment. While all of the protagonists in this series had a relatively obvious set of explicit motivations, I found particular interest in the portrayal of The Ghoul. His primary and explicitly stated goal is to locate his family. However, throughout the series it is revealed that his desires for doing so may have more to do with simply being reunited with his wife and child. Pre-war, he was a movie star and former marine. His wife's career then tied him to Vault-Tec, where his demonstrated moral rectitude conflicted with his wife's desire to keep their family safe in the event of nuclear fallout. His motivations at this point in his life had only to do with escaping the fickle and morally grey world of fame and government secrecy to enjoy life with his wife, daughter, and dog. When he is faced with the extreme duress of realizing that his wife is an active proponent of the inhumane organizations which posed the threat of nuclear war in the first place, he is saddled (pun not intended) with a major conflict of values. Flashing forward to his current life as a bounty hunter Ghoul, Cooper Howard exists as a nameless source of violence and fear within the wasteland who recently escaped years of physical and mental torture. It can be speculated that his vicious desire to find his family as well as his descent into extreme moral instability can be attributed to all of these physical and mental stressors, especially considering his complicated and unfortunately knowledgeable background on how the world ended. It isn't made clear at this point in the series how his relationship changed with his family (his wife in specific) post-nuclear fallout and the exact reason he wants to find them, but his psychological degradation into viewing the world and people around him with significantly less grace as he did prior to the bombs reveals that he received no closure after the devastation of discovering his wife's true identity and values.
Between the three primary protagonists, The Ghoul is most closely aligned with the negative karmic system and the character archetype of the Lone Wanderer, categorizing him as a loner or vigilante, and as someone who often remains aligned with true neutrality which can occasionally stray into both good and evil depending on the characters which they are interacting with, the events of the world around them, their success in achieving their goals, and more. Because of this, it is difficult to speculate the complete reason as to why The Ghoul is searching for his family, but easy to see that this character's complexities will allow for him to be able to achieve his goal in a multitude of ways as opposed to having a more linear route to his goal.
WHY WRITING IN GAMES MATTERS - PART III
Having an academic background in the creative technical aspects of theatre and film, learning more about the writing process for games was not only refreshing but helped to further solidify my decision to redirect my career aspirations. At the beginning of the article, it's suggested that while games looking, sounding, and running better is sign of improvement, it doesn't necessarily warrant the increasing cost when the plot of the games and the characters within them don't deliver upon the same level of improvement. I definitely feel that this is still applicable to the state of gaming today.
Susan O'Connor highlights in her interview that writing for games is a collaborative effort, and that if she wanted her name to be recognized and be more "large and in charge", she would write novels instead. In my experience with novice screenwriters for film and television production in an academic setting, writing is becoming a progressively more glorified and individual-recognized position, which has pros and cons when working with and for those positions in a creative nature. In some cases, operating as a costumer and makeup designer, I was able to work with writers in the earlier phases of the creative process, offering my input in tandem with the story and characters as they were introduced, and supplying visual concepts that complimented that of the written concepts. In other cases, my role was introduced as an afterthought to cushion the writing, and it was demanded of me to create character looks loosely based on a powerpoint presentation of Google image and Pinterest screenshots a week before filming, long after the script had been finalized. Here, the expectations of my role were to use my sole perspective to deliver on the creative ideas of the directors and writers, which almost never pans out perfectly the first time, usually because I didn't have a firm grasp on the characters of their story. The biggest thing I've noticed in both instances is that in the rare occasion that the writers and designers are consistently working together throughout the production process, the kind of cohesion that O'Connor is referencing is more present. I feel that in a similar way, denying thorough visual development in order to solely rely on good writing makes for a good story, but one that is ultimately not very fun to watch and that fails to resonate on the level that it could have, had the project delivered on all outlets of its potential. While film and theatre is a bit of a far cry from gaming, I feel that this principle remains consistent in that leaving any creative aspect behind in the production process only creates dissonance further down the road. O'Connor explicitly mentions that if she could, she would have the writers begin their work at the start of projects in order to wring out the problems of the script prior to finalizing it, obviating many of the issues that come with trying to fit it in later. This point in particular resonated with me as a designer, and makes a lot of sense in application to the timeline of any production, especially in the gaming industry where the final product is a showcase of creative and technical skill that creates a functioning, interactive game. Because of the nature of games, there is often a raw concept already in place to begin with, or a concept that stems from an established universe or related franchise. I am of the opinion that a good idea for a world or character usually isn't enough to make it enjoyable for an audience - it's the things that they do and say that make it interesting. The world of science-fiction and monsters is inherently a widely popular idea to begin with, but when the creature design is unconvincing, the characters are annoying and unrelatable, or the deaths are corny or boring to watch, any semblance of enjoyment that an audience or player would typically have becomes greatly diminished. Utilizing good writing as a vehicle to highlight those concepts is what allows good films to be watchable and good games to be playable, because it establishes a world and a story taking place within it which people want to immerse themselves in.
Due to my own experiences, I feel that I often get tunnel-vision towards the visual properties of games, and I tend to put the other aspects of a production that are equally as important in order to deliver effective immersion in the backseat. In reading this article, even with the specific topic being writing for games, it thoroughly reminded me that each and every aspect of a game relies on multiple other aspects in order to truly be appreciated. For instance, O'Connor mentions that it's not just a solid story that allows good visual elements to really shine, but she heavily suggests that good delivery (specifically mentioning actor voice lines) is imperative to allowing the story to be well-received and immersive. I firmly believe that it doesn't matter how good a voice actor or character model and animation is in a game if the dialogue has the player cringing or scratching their heads constantly. Even if the environmental design within a game is gorgeous, if the game is buggy and the player can't continuously operate within the world smoothly, it becomes significantly less worth it to tolerate poor gameplay. Balance is essential, and it's interesting to hear how the lack of balance in the progression of the gaming industry has been a recognized occurrence for multiple generations of consoles, as was mentioned by the article's author. While I do feel that the stagnation and even decline in quality with some games produced by larger companies is a big negative for the state of gaming, I do feel that it has created space for more independent companies and developers to put forth fresh ideas. I believe that there is great potential there to take advantage of the tools and knowledge that these larger names have greatly invested resources into in order to build upon, and to combine them with the creativity and innovation of less established creators who have yet to use those tools to deliver their ideas.