Ken Levine, Bioware, Harmonix Execs Discuss The Challenges Of Narrative
At the DICE Summit, BioShock creator Ken Levine, Bioware CEO Ray Muzyka, and Harmonix VP Greg LoPiccolo held a panel where each discussed the changing and expanding role of narrative in videogames. Starting out, Levine contrasted his style of storytelling from that favored by Bioware, saying he's "way too lazy to write that many words."
Our goal was to tell the story in the world, visually, and make it optional for the player, so the gamer could experience the game on very different levels... I think it's great that the industry is starting to figure out how to tell narratives in very different ways.
Muzyka praises the "directed experience" of games like Bioshock and Call of Duty 4, and then discusses the many types of narrative that surround a game, including the narrative that arises from a player's interaction with the character, letting the gamers develop and fulfill "an aspirational fantasy."
LoPiccolo, who's most recent game Rock Band doesn't contain the epic stories of either Mass Effect or BioShock, has a different approach to storytelling. For them, it's all about the player interaction, and forming a connection with your fictional rock band.
[W]e wanted a toolkit to allow people to make a long-term emotional investment in that band. So we blatantly ripped off RPG design tools, dumbed them down, stuck them on a map, and to our surprise it worked really well... it was all about the emotion.
Levine concludes the discussion with a practical look at the realities of using all of these narratives in an ultimately commercial industry.
Are people going to look at this and go, 'oh my god that's so awesome?' It sounds stupid, but sometimes you get all caught up in your RPG systems and all that, and you forget that your job is to amaze people. If you amaze people, they will buy the thing.
DICE: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Rock Band Devs On Developing Narrative [Gamasutra]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 9 February 2008
Other stuff like this: bioshock, bioware, dice, greg lopiccolo, harmonix, ken levine, narrative, ray muzyka, story
