The advent of of the FPS seems to have pushed forward the idea of character as a “blank slate”, where the player becomes the character. This is great if you already happen to be a gun-toting steroid-ridden powerhouse, but if you’re not, then the character of “you” is almost by definition false.

When you take a “blank” character, and put them in a sandbox, then how does involve the player in the game on anything other than a “make thing go boom” level.

I’d add one group to your list (which is kind of implied in what you’ve said) which is LucasArts. Back when they were Lucasfilm Games, they really concentrated on story with games like Monkey Island & Indiana Jones. Orson Scott Card worked on Monkey Island, and wrote another of their classics (as I’m sure you recall), The Dig, which was brilliantly ambitious. It failed, sure, and I think that was inspired LucasArts to move away from story for a while – that and the inexplicable failure of Grim Fandango – but they seem to be finding their way back, in cooperation with teams like Bioware and TellTale.

I’m really looking forward to playing the first game you write. Can’t wait!

Unfortunately the nature of MMORPGs mean that these fantasy worlds are not populated by characters at all (aside from some minor NPCs that have very little, if any, story or personality) but by real people. What I want from a fantasy game is to be transported to another world with characters and plots that are epic and affecting. What I get in an MMORPG is a cast of hardcore gamers speaking to each other in gamer vernacular and standing around either doing nothing at all, or slaying wave upon wave of respawning creatures that seem to serve no other purpose than to level characters up.

While I’m here I’d like to say that it was video games that got me into reading, so I will always defend video games when (usually clueless and ignorant) people say that kids are playing too many video games and not doing enough reading. I read the first Broken Sky volume back in 2000 because it had a manga cover and it immediately made me think that its story was going to be something like a JRPG’s. And I loved it. Broken Sky Volume 2 was then the first ever book that I bought with my own money, and by the time I had finished that I was completely hooked. I still regard the Broken Sky series as one of my all time favourite stories, so thank you Chris, for them.

I’m a member of staff at the Cardiff branch of Waterstone’s and I’ve had the Broken Sky compilations face out in the children’s section with my staff reviews underneath them, but sadly, we’ve run out of the first volume and we can no longer get them from the publisher. It’s a shame that all editions of it have now gone out of print as every customer that asks for recommendations for teens gets directed straight to them. I also offer them Alaizabel Cray, as this is another fantastic book, and luckily we can still get hold of it.

So, it was down to the storytelling of video games that I picked up my first Chris Wooding book. It just goes to show how powerful the medium can be. And if companies start turning to professional authors to write for them, then I think there will be some incredible titles ahead of us.

You’re right about Morrowind, in that the story itself is pretty traditional, but it’s the sense of being surrounded by a world that makes that game. I can’t think of any other medium that allows you to wander around and just soak up the atmosphere like sandbox games do.

MMORPGs I can’t get on with, mainly because I don’t enjoy the social element at all – I don’t really do online socialising (beyond the occasional forum post, obviously). Even the thought of logging on to Facebook blackens my soul a little, so the idea of being forced to group with a bunch of random players just to beat up some uber-goblin makes me reach for the power button. I’ve done it once or twice, and it was like trying to herd cats. ‘Just wait here 10 hours while I go into the next town and do some trading.’ etc etc. I just don’t have the unlimited time & devotion that MMORPGs all assume you have.

@ Naomi – You’re welcome. Glad you liked it.

You’re completely right about good storytelling in videogames. I’ve been a gamer, along with you, since the days of the original consoles (my first was the Sinclair Spectrum) and the games I remember and the games I have loved have been the ones with the most affecting stories.

The game that has affected me most profoundly is, without question, Final Fantasy VII. I don’t think I will ever be so absorbed or so moved by a video game again, although I am open to be. My experience of Final Fantasy VII happened in 1997/1998 and I still think about the game now.

The reason for this is pretty much down to one thing – its incredible story. As soon as the upper plate was released by the president of Shinra, crushing the people of Midgar (including Jesse, Biggs and Wedge), I felt real emotion, and this was when I knew this game was something very special indeed. After that event the storytelling continued to blow my mind with plot devices and twists that beat any book I’ve ever read.

I know I’m not alone in having been so moved by Final Fantasy VII; it has been regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time since its release, and it always will be. It just goes to show, like you say, Chris, that gamers want a great story and financially, for companies involved, it is highly beneficial too.

I just want to make a note on the other Final Fantasy games – Despite very mixed opinions on Final Fantasy VIII, I regard it as the second best Final Fantasy. Its story was not at the standard of VII (pretty much everything about the witches was uninspiring) but it tried its hardest and it succeeded in most of its attempt. The sense of being a part of a school at Balamb Garden was masterful, I thought, and watching Squall slowly fall in love with Rinoa was too. The reason Square decided to advertise VIII as a romance (the hugging on the packaging, the flying feathers, the ballroom dancing, etc.) was, I believe, down to the phenomenal success of Cloud and Aeris’s relationship in VII, and I think it was a perfect step in the right direction. I want more romance in video games, real romance, where people fall in love and get hurt.

Sadly, very sadly, Final Fantasy has completely lost its way. IX and X were both fairly decent in that they both attempted good stories, though they seemed shallow in comparison to VII and VIII. Then came Final Fantasy XI, which I’m not going to discuss here as it was an MMORPG. Square were jumping on the band wagon here and it didn’t do them any favours. I think they’re embarrassed about it now. So the hope was with Final Fantasy XII, and what a bitter tasting disappointment it was. I have no real qualms with the gameplay, it plays just as you’d like a Final Fantasy game to play. The now non-turn-based battles seemed to work (I never actually had any problems with random turn based battles), but the story was almost non-existent. There was no real villain to hate, there was no sense of danger, there were no plot devices or twists, nobody fell in love, nobody died, nobody actually seemed to have any real part in anything, and everything that the player did just felt as though you were doing it for nothing.

It’s a shame, because, as I said, the physics of the gameplay, the graphics, and all other technical issues were dealt with very well. If only more care had been taken to give the game a decent story, just something we can invest a little bit of emotion into, then it could have been great.

Let’s hope that Final Fantasy XIII sees a return to the magic storytelling of Square’s finest days. We’ll find out in March 2010.

Another thing I haven’t mentioned above is what I believe to be the second most important thing in videogames – its music. Final Fantasy VII had an outstanding score by the great Nobuo Uematsu, as did VIII. I really don’t know what happened with Square and why Uematsu is no longer working with them on their games (maybe he couldn’t write music to games with no story), but the score to XII was another thing that was lifeless and without merit. I cannot recall a single theme from XII, and yet I can hum one of Uematsu’s without hesitation and feel moved at the memory of it.

Aside from Final Fantasy, I also had great pleasure in playing Bethesda’s Morrowind. For me, the allure of that game was its sandbox freedom and sense of exploration, which was a different pull to that of Final Fantasy. I can’t say that the storytelling in that game was great, I felt that the vast collections of history books, scrolls, legal documents and such that you find were mostly full of randomly generated names like ‘Urgrvaal Weatherbane’ and had the integrity of fan-made mod content as opposed to official storyline material. I also felt that Oblivion and Fallout 3 suffered from the exact same problem. Nevertheless I had fun playing Morrowind for its sandbox element, and I wasn’t looking for a Final Fantasy style moving story.

Other games that I think should be praised for their fantastic storytelling are Monkey Island 3: the Curse of Monkey Island (not number 4), and Broken Sword 1 and 2 (not 3 and 4).

Having not mentioned the Final Fantasy series in your post, Chris, I’d be interested in finding out what you think, if indeed you are a fan of the games.

Lastly I’d like to say that it’s fantastic that people are talking about storytelling in videogames, as I think it is, like Chris explains, the most important thing. It’s the foundation that holds everything else together, and without it, the rest is just an empty, polygon-shaped shell.