Sunday, September 27, 2009

Why Storylines Are Critical to The Success of Computer Games

By Edward Elric

While the advancements in technology have enabled never-before-seen graphics and sound quality in modern video games, the importance of writing has never been more critical. Since graphics are pretty similar across all games, what determines quality nowadays is gameplay and writing.

During the early years of video games, all you needed was a slightly entertaining and playable game to get ahead. There is much more competition now, and for a developer to get the edge they need, a quality story is required.

There are several examples of games with great writing. Halo is a fine example, and it featured an important story that players could get in to. In addition, the character development was as meaningful as that of the story.

Game developers that refuse to acknowledge the importance of writing in video games are essentially doomed to fail. People have come to expect a certain amount of excitement in the stories of all games, and if a product does not deliver, the company behind it will not do well.

This makes one game seem like a repeat of its own predecessor, only with some technical advancement features added along. Hence, there remains too many loose ends to the story, leaving the player dissatisfied more often than once.

Fitting a poor story into a hidden object or match-3 game is a very commonly found error, although players of these types of games often do not care too much about a story. On the other hand, it is advisable that for games which are even available for free, a certain amount of grey matter be put into them so as to make them believable.

However, a well written game does not instantly guarantee its success; likewise a poorly written one may not be an instant failure. Fans of well scripted games eagerly await a sequel, and this cannot be said for games that do not have a good story.

In order to make a perfect game, a developer needs to mix an interesting story with the other important factors of a game. It can be difficult to find such ideal games, but if you play enough, you will definitely find a few favorites.

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