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Rumpus Book ClubWhy Aren’t Writers Writing Videogames?
“On the face of it, you might think that this relatively new, rapidly developing art form would be exciting and fertile territory for authors. There’s scope for experimentation in the ability to, say, explore multiple narrative strands, to make mistakes and start again, to work in puzzles. There’s also the surely attractive chance to encounter the kind of predominantly young male demographic that traditional book publishers have such trouble reaching. And, of course, there’s the oodles of cash you stand to make if you can just keep hold of the rights.
Yet while writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse headed for California when Hollywood was at a similar stage in its development, it’s hard to imagine any big names in contemporary fiction getting involved in computers.”
— Sam Jordison at The Guardian asks a very good question and has some answers that make some sense.
UPDATE: So it turns out we’re hearing from lots of writers who are working on videogames. Tell us about it. What is it like? What do you do? Where do you work? I’m curious.
February 27th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Do game companies pay as well for writing as Hollywood pays or paid for films?
I think the article is wrong that the “control” issue is about the user. It is about the development, I think. In a novel, the writer has supreme control of everything. A pure vision. In a film or TV script the writer still at least creates a product (the script) with his control and it is the foundation that the film is made from.
With a videogame, the game does not start at the writing level. The writing is what comes last, right? You aren’t producing a script that will be turned into a game, you are filling in dialogue on a game that is already being made, whose concepts and characters and levels and everything else may already have been made. That’s the control question. Again, perhaps a few RPGs are exceptions, but when Capcom makes Marvel vs. Capcom 3 they aren’t starting from some cool game script someone wrote. They will just fill in whatever bits of dialogue later on in development.
That said, it does seem like gamers should demand much better dialogue and narrative text when it does exist in games. It really seems like it wouldn’t take long at all for a decent writer to turn game dialogue from cringe-inducing to at least decently interesting.
p.s. if any game developers are reading this, I have very reasonable rates!
February 27th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I think you’re right, Lincoln, except for the part about reasonable rates. I mean, I’m sure they are reasonable, but listen here: My game developers. MINE!
February 27th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Warren Ellis has written for video games.
I think the whole thing is totally dismissive of the storytelling talent out there in the game industry. Just because most games don’t print the writer’s name in big letters on the cover doesn’t mean there wasn’t one.
And because they are writing for the “young male” demographic doesn’t make their stories crap. There are some incredible games out there, have been for a long time. I mean, they aren’t Annie Hall. God, Annie Hall would make a boring videogame. It made a boring movie.
February 27th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Brian Oliu. http://www.conjunctions.com/webcon/oliu10.htm. And there’s a whole book coming, word on the street is.
February 27th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Brian Oliu!!! Brian Oliu just finished “Leave Luck To Heaven,” a fantastic collection of lyric essays about 8-bit Nintendo games. Some of the pieces are already published or forthcoming in various online and print journals. He describes how the collection started and links some of the pieces here: http://www.brianoliu.com/blog/?p=272
February 27th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Brian Oliu. I mean, c’mon guys. Doesn’t anyone read literary journals these days? He’s only in all of them.
February 27th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Well, to be fair, they’re talking about writing the scripts of actual videogames, not writing essays about videogames. And I love the Oliu essays, but am I missing something? Did he also actually write videogame scripts?
February 27th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
What’s actually really interesting is the burgeoning field of narrative and sociological studies on the stories video games are telling. One of the most fascinating elements of the video game story I think the writer of fiction can get into is achieving the sense of immersion, of closing the distance between reader and character as they become one in the same in the game (this sense of immersion) and its the aesthetic of art-hiding-art where authorial presence all but disappears. I think video games are definitely a stage for a fiction writer to have some fun (I mean, writers are often trying to write novels–trying to be “novel” and new haha). I mean imagining a character like say, Lara Croft, with a fully-fleshed characterization and forming her just right to the point where the player “becomes” Lara Croft. I think the way game designers and writers can see eye-to-eye is putting the player in the character’s shoes, because that’s where the gaming experience succeeds, which is why Japan keeps cranking out (sadly, it’s getting too predictable, but I still find them fun) JRPGs with the same old formula with the same circulation of stock characters. But the medium is evolving with experimental games like “Heavy Rain” for the PS3 or even heavily cinematic games like “Ace Attorney” or “Professor Layton” or the “Persona” series.
While it seems like the gaming field is dominated by shooters, fighting games, and MMO’s, I think the writer has the potential to wrap everything programmers and developers are doing into even bigger hits, like the secret spice in a recipe. Writers can achieve cohesion in a different way that programmers and developers do through visual and control aesthetics–video games really can achieve the aesthetic of literature, of memory, of relevance, of a mirror-to-modern-times that writers are all about I believe. I think adding the aspect of the writer is the way some dark horse video game companies can shine.
This is all sophistry though. I haven’t done enough authoritative research. I’m just a reader of fiction and a player of video games.
February 27th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Sorry, Seth. I didn’t actually read the article. I was responding to a Tweet from TheRumpus which said “If you or a writer you know does work on videogames, tell us about it in the comments! http://bit.ly/hTMxrZ” I took “on videogames” to mean writing on/about videogames.
February 27th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Yes, that was me, and I definitely could have worded that better. Sorry bout that!
February 27th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
“One of the most fascinating elements of the video game story I think the writer of fiction can get into is achieving the sense of immersion, of closing the distance between reader and character as they become one in the same in the game”
This is an interesting idea, but I’m skeptical of how much this really happens in video games. Or rather, the distance is closed in such a way that the “character” in the video game tends to cease to be any kind of character and just becomes an avatar of the user, a tool to play around the game with. You do not get inside a character’s mind like you do in a novel. You aren’t immersed in another human’s thoughts and life. When I play a game like Tomb Raider I don’t learn what it is to be Laura Croft anymore than I learn what it is to be a thimble when I play monopoly.
Could a game immerse someone in another character? I could see it happening, but it would require something like a constant voice over (in fact, having the character you play constantly talk back to you about your actions could be pretty interesting.) Perhaps there are some games out there like that?
I’ve played games all my life though and I’ve never met a memorable video game character. I’ve never had a moment where I felt I was entering the consciousness of a character or seeing the world in a new way. Not that this is a problem, the goal of games is different than the goal of literature.
February 27th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
I think it’s not really that characters in video games, at least well-written ones, aren’t written to be “memorable” in the same way characters in a novel might be. Rather, I think the sense of immersion is that both the player and the character are being “written” as the game progresses. As the character, the avatar onscreen controller by the player, “levels up” or “beats the boss” the player himself feels a momentary (if he’s plugged in enough) achievement of his own, even though all he did was press some buttons. Much has been written about how video games have actually been able to capture a unique (well, you can debate whether it’s “unique”) kind of pathos and catharsis with a significant part of the cause being the sense of immersion, that the reader really has entered the world of the video game and had a hand in what went down. Examples include Aerith’s death in FF7, whom many game players admit to being one of the saddest moments in gaming, some even reporting they were brought to tears. There was a large amount of regret in the player’s helplessness to save her and the ignition of anger towards her murderer. You could play this off as gamers who’ve gotten too lost into a digitized world, but emotion is real whether experienced in the real world or in the imagination (I mean, isn’t that what fiction writers are doing?)
Most American games aren’t really aiming for any of these entering-consciousness aspects, though for good reason as I think the Americans are beating out the Japanese in sheer terms of technological innovation in game-making, championing the FPS like Call of Duty and Halo or the MMO. The RPG is where stories have the most impact, and I think the American game-makers prize visual and technological innovation (not necessarily at the cost of narrative: I’m thinking of games like GTA and Heavy Rain) while the Japanese have used the same kinds of narratives and aesthetics that, I would argue, resembles much of their body of modern literature (frustrating many game-creators whose companies only reward them for drawing cute girls over giving incentive for innovation).
Anyhow, my point was that RPG’s are where the most “conscious-entering” occurs, and the Japanese are especially good at it, though it appeals to a niche crowd who doesn’t mind being fed the same formulaic games like Pokemon and Final Fantasy. The series “Persona,” particularly “Persona 3″ and “Persona 4″ I think are great examples of entering-consciousness games because of its themes and structure. It’s clearly an homage to Jungian psychology with its references to Personas and Shadows, but the game itself is built around navigating the life of a nameless protagonist and getting to know NPC’s both in battle and school life. This structure isn’t for everyone, but I think it’s a great story, and one scholar even praised the strides in which this video game addressed modern issues, such as homosexuality in contemporary Japan.
In regards to your last comment about never having met a memorable video game character of entering the consciousness of a character or seeing the world in a new way, I think that speaks to the difference in response from different gamers–some gamers play for fun, some for the emotional stimulation. Either way though, it is true that the goal of games is different than that goal of literature, but I think they both share the same label as “art.” In a game, some are designed to suck you in while others are portrayed as a benign world, a come-as-you-please aesthetic. The story, I feel, is designed to play a balancing act between both, to be conducive to gameplay as to be something that’s simply fun to pick up, but also strives for that compelling putting-your-shoes into the character, and different gamers feel different things, just as any novel as multiple interpretations. I mean, as you’re playing Mario or Zelda, for example, you could just be having fun jumping on Goombas or slashing through monsters OR you could really feel like a hero trying to save a princess-I think either way a player responds, there is an emotional urgency weaved into how the story is written that compels the player to play to the end.
I think that is the challenge of the writer in video games: to compel the player to get to the end. I think a fiction writer would have fun with that.
February 27th, 2011 at 9:59 pm
My disagreement is that this has anything to do with “character” in the literary sense, though. I agree with you that, say, a player can experience joy at achieving a power up or experience fear as they walk down a dark hallway where enemies away. But it is the same joy or fear one might get playing scrabble or any other game. The “character” is really just an avatar for the player with no identity of its own 99% of the time (hell, plenty of games obviously don’t even have an avatar and many of the ones that do you don’t even see it. When you run around in a FPS you may technically have a character you are playing, but all you see is a gun).
RE: Aerith’s death in FF7
I would actually suggest that the reason that moment was impactful has less to do with the immersive aspects of the game (Aerith is really a side character anyway, even if you can control her in battles) and more to do with the fact that FF7 was filled with cut scenes and cinemagraphic. By the time Aerith had died, we’d kind of watched a month-long film where she was a major character.
So, I don’t see that as being consciousness-entering. FF style RPGs work more in the way films or, perhaps more appropriately, TV series work rather than literature.
RE: different player responses… sure, obviously people will experience games differently, but I’m not sure I buy that anyone ever enters the conscious of Mario (to use your example). No one learns his hopes, his dreams, his view or reality. He is just a weird look dude you jump on things with. He doesn’t have dialogue, much less thought that we access. When someone players Mario and thinks “I’m a hero rescuing a princess” they think THEY are the hero, not that Mario is. Mario is just the tool, again like the timble in Monopoly.
I fully agree that RPGs are where writing can have a big impact. That said, when you get to the “art” debate, the games that seem to be held up as proof of art status (Shadow of the Colossus, Passage, etc.) are often very minimal in their use of text or story. Not sure what that means though.
February 27th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
I really should check over these posts for typos before posting. Sorry.
February 27th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
I suppose “character” in video games resembles very little as “character” in literature. I agree with your analysis of FF, but I don’t think you can divide its cinematic qualities from its game qualities as much as someone criticize the pictures Jonathan Safran Foer uses in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” I think the “immersion” has to do with what the game does to allow the character and player to become one, and thus “identity” becomes an issue that is debated much more externally than internally as one might do in literature (In “Persona” a lot of the characterization is done internally as player choices basically create the protagonist’s identity). But it is true that “character” in the literary sense is much more limited in video games because it is less novelistic in the post-modern sense of literature and resembles the heroes of epics (I’m thinking of Bahktin’s theories on the difference between the epic and the novel). “Character” in the video game is much more limited, so video games rely on the same qualities of fighting for good/orphan myth/passionate/maybe a little dumb/ etc. and achieves something unique through aesthetic. I mean Mario and Link play very, very, very similar plotlines, but no one would ever get the two mixed up. The writing may be simple, but its works in the same way some children’s literature endures.
I don’t know if you can call video game characters tools so simply because ultimately, these characters have something in them that allow them do to do things they do, not the player. I mean, sure someone as simple as Mario could be considered a little tool-like because the things he does are fairly benign, but whereas a player would probably never jump over lava pools to save a princess, Mario will–Mario endures as the character who WILL do these things, not the player who may even give up out of frustration with a certain level. A more convincing example would be the burgeoning games with anti-heroes, like God of War and Kratos–can you really call Kratos a tool? It’s quite a gory game, and I suppose you can call him a tool if he’s there just to fulfill a player’s violent fantasies. The way God of War is written, it’s clear that the game is not for us per se, it’s following Kratos who I think is expertly developed as the memorable star of the game. Even if you want to disregard the cinematic parts of God of War with pieces of Kratos’ dialogue, I think his sense of “character” is so well developed alongside the plot. Not a lot of actual “text” is needed–the story exists as a sentiment, an aesthetic, a premise, characters, gameplay, etc.
February 27th, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Oh, but writers ARE writing vids–Orson Scott Card, Alex Garland, Rick Remender, Clive Barker…you’d think this article were written in 1980–when there weren’t as MANY writers working on videogames.
February 28th, 2011 at 3:09 am
I think talking about writers from other media working in video games as though those are the only game writers who matter denigrates the amazing creative work of video game writers. Like they aren’t REAL writers because they aren’t writing novels or poems or art film. Just because YOU don’t know who Sam Lake or Ellen Beeman or Hideo Kojima are doesn’t mean they aren’t writers. Damn good ones, even.
Video games are an entirely different form; the writer has to create stories, plural, in any given work that depend on the choices of the player. Yeah, the main character is in many ways an avatar for the player. That’s because it’s a game. The player has, or should have, an active role in shaping the direction of the story. If they aren’t memorable characters, why do we know who Lara Croft and Gordon Freeman are?
Video games, and their merits as art, should be discussed in terms of video games. Not judged by the criteria of other narrative forms.
February 28th, 2011 at 6:44 am
I think there are too many games, that make dismissing the story behind that game far too easy. A true gamer can see past the gun slinging and puzzle solving to see truly epic stories emerge. The beauty about a video game is the players ability to help shape the story. Of course, some games have very limited ways in which the character can choose to mold the story, such as the Half Life series, or (forgive me, I know) the halo series. Take, for example, the Mass Effect series of games. The player has such a hand in shaping the game, that what happens in Mass Effect, will (if you choose) have a large effect on Mass Effect 2.
I think it is an interesting medium. Writers could choose to write a game that the player is forced strictly to their story line, with little or no room for variance. On the other hand, what makes the most memorable games (I say games in the sense of every aspect, be it the story, game play etc) are the game that allow you to choose your own path. However, that is not easy to do. There have been several titles of such games, but very few are memorable past the end credits, should a player make it that far.
Game designers and developers in themselves are producing works of art. Hell, even the Smithsonian thinks so. Perhaps writers who prefer writing novels or scripts should stick to that, because I think there is much more to a great game, beyond a great story. Writers have a very important role in the process of developing a quality game, but the real stars are, most of the time, the graphics designers, or the code writer that developed a fantastic new engine etc. I think that is the soul of the video game, but the story should be able to immerse the player beyond fancy graphics.
I know there are many people out there that see reading a novel, or watching TV/movies as an outlet. A way to get away from the stresses of daily living, or simply to relax before bed. Personally, video games are that release. I would love to see more writers, who have made their names writing novels or scripts make the switch to video game adaptations, though I will admit a bit of bias, as I fancy myself a true gamer and(hopefully with some luck) an up and coming writer.
February 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
I write a Facebook game called FameTown. Does that count? Like a lot of writing-for-hire gigs, it has upsides and downsides, which are wildly subjective, of course.
Downsides (for me): I’m big on revision, and tight turnaround times often mean that “first thought” had better be “best thought,” because it’s gonna be “only thought.” Sometimes what starts out as funny, inventive copy (uh, if I do say so myself) becomes virtually unrecognizable once it’s been sanitized through the three or four channels that dole out approval. What starts out as “have fun with it” often becomes “the sponsor’s legal department won’t let you say ‘boner.’”
Upsides (again, for me): I can work in my underpants while the dog sleeps on my feet. And it legitimizes my pop culture obsession. What? IT’S RESEARCH.
February 28th, 2011 at 9:30 am
“I think talking about writers from other media working in video games as though those are the only game writers who matter denigrates the amazing creative work of video game writers.”
The work they do ISN’T amazing. The standards for writing in video games is FAR FAR lower than in other artforms. Most of the writing and dialogue is absolutely cringe-inducing. That’s okay, that often happens with new artforms. It took a long time for comic books to get decent writing and they still have some ways to go. It took film decades before a good standard quality was reached.
February 28th, 2011 at 9:36 am
“If they aren’t memorable characters, why do we know who Lara Croft and Gordon Freeman are?”
Who is Gordon Freeman? And who, in any real sense, is Lara Croft? I’ve played Tomb Raider games and all I know about Lara Croft is she has big boobs and is some kind of archeologist with guns. I know nothing else about her. She isn’t really a memorable CHARACTER, she is a memorable IMAGE (big boob woman wielding guns).
I just went to wikipedia to see what I’m missing. There is no section on her character, beliefs, ideas, even history. The closet thing is a short paragraph titled “Description” that mostly just describes her physical appearance. Here is the total summary of her character
“Game manuals describe the character as the Wimbledon, London-born daughter of the fictional Lord Henshingly Croft. She was raised as an aristocrat and betrothed to the fictitious Earl of Farringdon. Lara Croft attended the Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun and Swiss finishing school. A plane crash left the character stranded in the Himalayas for two weeks; the experience spurred her to shun her former life and seek other adventures around the world. Lara Croft wrote books and other published works based on her exploits as a mercenary, big-game hunter, and master thief.[4][5] The story was later changed to include her mother in the plane crash. While searching for shelter against the elements, Lara Croft witnesses her mother vanish after tampering with an ancient sword. Her father disappears in search of his wife.”
Not very much for a “character” that has sold millions of games over decades.
February 28th, 2011 at 10:56 am
This is a really great discussion. I’ve been playing with branching/interactive fiction for a few years now, mainly experiments to try to figure out, for my own artistic ends, what the advantages and limitations are. One thing I want to point out is that the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books many of us read as children are a great text-based model for a more literary/fiction approach to video games. Computer games in the model of MYST also do a good job of lending depth to a series of challenges/puzzles. And then there are things like this:
http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html
…which sort of fall into the space between Art/VideoGame/Story.
But the truth is that no one’s really hit it yet; no one’s really come up with a complete and right-feeling model for a story that is interactive. I will predict tho that when someone does, you will see a flood of imitators — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing! I think we WANT this form of entertainment/edification/stimulation. I hope we don’t have to wait for Star Trek style Holodecks to get it.