And as for “adventure game puzzles pay the bills”: Luckily, what’s paying the bills for me right now is trying to figure out ways to subvert, expand, better-integrate, and get around adventure game puzzles while still keeping it accessible. And, of course, writing fart jokes.

Perhaps it’s based on the assumption that a game is something that will most of the time be purchased, but movies or books or CDs aren’t necessarily going to be bought?…

SimCity 4 was not some indie experimental game crafted by patchouli-scented art fags on a commune; it was a sequel to a profitable franchise for a huge corporation. And it was a lot of fun to work on, because the execs never talked about what would sell (not to us in the trenches, anyway), but about what would be fun for players.

I don’t call the games I work on “product” for the same reason I don’t call my friends “bags of meat and water.” Technically, either term is accurate, but one is just a lousy way to go through life. Luckily, I don’t usually have to think about “product,” because the companies I work for hire people who are good at that. It’s really that simple.

As for the rest, I disagree to the point where I don’t even say it’s a difference of opinion. I’d just say you’re wrong, because I’ve seen how good games can be at storytelling. It’s not some theory. There are moments in Sam & Max Hit the Road that I remember more vividly than scenes from the comics. Most of Half-Life 2 was more memorable and engaging to me than War of the Worlds. The twist in BioShock hit home a thousand times harder than the twist in The Sixth Sense, etc.

Game writing is such a “hot topic” because there are still plenty of game developers and ex-game developers who just aren’t getting it. It is about what makes games special and better than movies; that’s what all these posts have been about. I’m talking about getting over this dated idea of story being as separate as you describe, or only limited to adventure games. And about finding ways to carry storytelling moments throughout the entire game.

You won’t find any insight about level design here because I’m not a level designer. You won’t hear me going on in detail about adventure game puzzles, either, because a) there are many people (including yourself, and luckily, the lead designer on the Sam & Max episodes) who are better puzzle designers than I am; and b) traditional adventure game puzzles bore the hell out of me. What I am pretty good at, and interested in, is figuring out how and why a game, movie, TV show, etc. worked for me, and thinking of ways to extrapolate that to something else. That’s game structure.

How can anyone insist that game writing is ornamental, and then claim that games are incapable of being a great storytelling medium, and fail to see the cause-and-effect there?

I don’t think the games you’re making are akin to the indie experimental movies or James Joyce stream of consciousness books. They’re great, sure, but they are product.

If you want to immerse yourself in interactive narrative heavy with writing then you should be working and teaching at a university.

I’ll continue to hold to my opinion that if you are really passionate about great storytelling then you’re in the wrong industry. Write movies, TV, poems, books even librettos.

If you’re passionate about making games, then focus on what makes games special and better than books and movies. Sure story can be an element, but to make story the focus just makes me think the designer would rather be making movies. Can we say, “Wing Commander”?

Discussions about writing in games seem to take up way more space on blogs and posting boards than actual discussions of game mechanics, level design and game structure. Maybe it’s just the blogs I gravitate to written by other people who’ve made adventure games.

Why is game writing such a hot topic, when even at its most integrated it is an ornament hung on the Christmas tree?

Richard, your examples of story in strategy games are good ones, although I think the one of Gandhi getting the bomb in Civilization is the only one that developers should be trying to emulate. The others are mostly just the case of story adding context to a strategy game, where Civ’s “story” moments are more integrated, and actually derive from the gameplay.

I bet the developers would balk at the suggestion (in fact, if I remember correctly Soren Johnson explicitly said that story has no place in strategy games), but a lot of what the Civ 3 and Civ 4 teams added to the game are what I would call story development. They added more character to the other leaders, made the Wonder discoveries more dramatic, added additional mini-wonders and events to give “plot points” to the game. And they put a lot of effort into tightening up the end-game and making the early game more engaging. In other words, pacing — the same type of pacing you put into a story arc as you would into a game.

Jonathan, I think the art-vs-commerce thing is irrelevant, unless you really believe my balking at the use of the term “product” is the same thing as saying “I want to write anything I want because I’m an artist in happy fairy princess land!” You don’t even have to bring commerce into the discussion: there’s NO type of writing, except for a private journal that no one wants to read anyway, where you don’t have some obligation to an audience. I’m actually losing money on this blog, and it’s about as close to a personal journal as you can get without writing more about my feelings, but I still have to keep in mind that other people are reading it, and present it in a way that is hopefully halfway entertaining.

As with everything else, it comes down to why you’re doing what you’re doing. If you start out with the mindset that you’re making product, and your goal is to move units, then people will be able to tell that you’re pandering. If you go into it with the mindset that your work is secondary, and your audience doesn’t want to hear what you have to say so don’t waste their time, you’ll end up with vapid, insipid writing. The only way you get good material is to start with the assumption that you’re saying something the audience wants to hear, so I’ll make my point and then make sure it’s got the right pacing and clarity for the audience to get it.

It’s particularly interesting you’d talk about the Knight Rider TV movie immediately after going on about art vs commerce. When you’re making a two-hour long Ford commercial intended to launch a franchise that appeals to 16-year-old frat pledges, then you get lines like “I’ve never seen algorithms this complex!” and a dude who doesn’t shave for his mom’s funeral and starts out in the middle of a three-way because they were scared that otherwise he’d come across as a big pussy.

As for this guy’s lecture, I think Larry summed it up best: the people who really care about raising the state of game writing aren’t going to pay attention to lectures like this one. It’s still fun as a great example of what not to do.

If so, then it’s “cutsene” then “gameplay” then “cutscene,” rinse-repeat until the end of the game. Fine, keep the goddam cutscenes short.

^ I agree with that. I always think back to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time versus Warrior Within when this discussion comes up. Jordan Mechner wrote Sands of Time. During the game the Prince and Farrah would actually talk to each other. There was a genuine ongoing love story which frankly compelled me to keep playing just to find out what happened in the story. Warrior Within they hired two “Hollywood writers” and it was the most generic, abhorrent, painful mess of a story I’ve ever had to wade through.

So point one, the value the game company places on the writing is important. Point two, the respect the writer has for the audience is an issue. If you are thinking of writing a few cut scenes for some dumb teenage boys who just want to shoot stuff or blow something up it will hardly be prize winning material.

I think the writer should actually challenge the audience to go along with the material. Create something original and unique. Too often in video games I’ve played the story is force fed down your throat to a mind numbingly level. Look heres a cut scene, there’s a bad guy, now go play your game we’ll get out of the way now. The truly great gaming experiences combine the story into the game play, so what you are doing actually means something and genuinely relates to the story.