There are dozens of ways to express the same thing in a language, depending on the circumstances and ways the speaker wishes to interact with their surroundings. In comparison, video games have far less choices but that does not rule out calling them ‘tiny languages’. Their size then being directly proportional to the number of options given to a player. It can be tough to pick up on this in a mostly linear game like God of War because it has so few options that one can’t really appreciate the ‘games as language’ argument. That’s a game that falls under Hideo Kojima’s ‘games as museums’ design theory, and is more about delivering a series of set experiences that the player roleplays through. On the other hand, games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Far Cry 2 on a greater level represent enough choices compounded together that the first indications of a language start to form.

Jeffries notes in the comments that this is sort of the converse of something that Ian Bogost has written extensively on — the ability of games to communicate at masses of people.

Games as Language Systems [PopMatters]

The key, of course, is to keep dialog short where it counts. And the hard part is in knowing when that is. Dialog that's in the environment, tied to gameplay mechanics, or that plays during game action really needs to stay short, clear, and direct. But that is never an excuse for lower standards of writing.

Very short dialog (under six seconds, averaging two) is critical for information that needs to be digested instantaneously. Merely short dialog (let's say as long as 15 seconds, but averaging closer to eight) has the flexibility of carrying a lot more information and character, but can't reliably be used while the player is fully engaged in intense, focused play.

Obviously, the pressure is off when you've got the player's attention and they are largely passive, such as in cinematics, dialog trees, and when they can safely listen to narration over their current task — that is, for untimed puzzles and nonverbal, visually centered challenges (as in Portal, for example). Still — I would argue that there are precious few cases where a single line of dialog should run over 20 or so seconds.

He pulls out some good examples of what works and what doesn't in many situations, and it's a nice meditation on the role of those short little snips in games — pretty necessary, but pretty hard to get right at times (pedantic prose is, after all, easier to write than compelling poetry).

Ode to Short Dialog: Reconsidering the Sound Bite [Gamasutra]

The way that videogames have dealt with failure, primarily through protagonist death and trial-and-error, has generally been more concerned with games as rule sets than with games as narratives. As a result, games which appear to tell stories often become incoherent, bringing narrative progression to a halt, eliciting frustration with gameplay rather than engagement with fiction. Despite what some may charge, however, this is not an inherent bias of the medium. The die-and-retry approach is a shortcut in game design, a holdover from an era when games were more limited in their ability to tell stories. This convention now imposes an artificial limitation, even as alternative methods of dealing with failure have been exercised in some games.

This argument should not be taken to suggest that all games ought to be narrative-oriented games, that trial-and-error has no place in modern videogames, or that all games should be so concerned with preserving an illusion of boundless choices .... This article simply seeks to argue that universal models of game enjoyment that would lump such a game in with Tetris fail to acknowledge that such games ultimately offer different appeals.

I don't agree with all of his points, but it's certainly a thought provoking article (if lengthier than the usual posted on Kotaku). The design-related conversation over the role of death in games is one worth having, and this is one of the more well-written pieces I've read on the issue. Eladumos in general is worth having bookmarked — it's a young journal, but a solid one.

“You Are Dead. Continue?”: Conflicts and Complements in Game Rules and Fiction [Eludamos]

In fact, the final theme may be semi-incoherent if you attempt to analyze it as a literary work. However, that doesn't matter because it provides the moment-by-moment scaffolding of feedback that helps the player learn their way through the game. As long as the game is fun and delivers value to the customer we can often toss the literary definition of theme out the window.

In fact, you start getting into trouble when you make the theme so rigidly defined that you can't adjust the feedback for specific game mechanics .... The hundreds of little trade offs that occur when theme coherence wins and gameplay loses diminishes the effectiveness of the game.

So you can't just 'skin' a set of game mechanics. When you do makes the attempt, a well executed iterative process of game design will often result in a game that is quite different than its source material. A poorly executed process results in a game that plays poorly.

He suggests that designers start working on 'vertical' slices early in the design process, so that they can work on merging themes and mechanics in a way that will make sense over the course of a game. As always, a thoughtful entry from Lost Garden and worth reading.

Theme and game design [Lost Garden]

... We are reminded of sports or puzzle games with unnecessary story elements tacked on as evidence of the misguided nature of narrative games. Or we explore the limits of games like GTA4 and Bioshock and bemoan the promises broken when it comes to fully identifying with Niko or making truly meaningful ethical choices in Rapture. These "failures" are seen as defining the limits of narrative gaming - reminders that games just aren't quite up to the challenge of telling good stories.

Really?

I'm the first to admit this narrative medium is still emerging from its infancy...but what a handsome baby it has been! It requires no strain on my part to recall a fairly large collection of games that have provided narrative experiences I've found compelling and meaningful. System Shock, Deus Ex, The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Planescape: Torment, Bioshock, Planetfall - these are only a handful of the many I could name. Are any of these perfect? No. Could they be improved in all sorts of ways? Certainly.

Amidst the teeth gnashing and wailing that frequently accompanies these discussions of narrative, a little injection of positivity is a welcome thing every now and again. Also worth keeping an eye on — and a bit of a tie in to this article — is a developing 'conversation about Braid' and interactive story telling.

Beware the straw man [The Brainy Gamer]

There's not much yet, but if Ryan can stick to the book-a-week premise, I think there will be a nice and very accessible collection of reviews and thoughts on a wide variety of books. It's one of those things I've added to my feeds and just hope it doesn't peter out.

The Secret Books of Game Design [Words on Play via Grand Text Auto]

Video games can be gateways to higher learning. Is it idealistic? Sure. But the base repudiation of idealism is so often used as a shield against saying anything interesting. Anti-idealism is what keeps triple-A games generic, and the reversal of that trend should already be a good enough target.

Compare the social value of these games to that of Halo or Oblivion. They're just as entertaining, but they are not relevant to any humanitarian or political discussion, and are certainly not literary. The Wire and The West Wing will not reform government but they will challenge and galvanize their viewers.

I'd be curious to know how many people actually went out and tackled Ayn Rand after playing BioShock; I'm also a little skittish about the idea of heavy handed philosophy and the like making a strong appearance (one Xenosaga series was enough, thank you). Fyfe's opinions aren't new by any means, and can be found in just about any essay talking about more 'grown up' themes in games. Interesting essay and worth a look.

Video Games Are The Silver Bullet [GameSetWatch]

Perhaps "manifesto" is too strong a word for what I'm describing, but at the moment I can't think of a better one. Most dictionaries define the term as a public declaration of intentions, motives or views. Beyond that simple definition, however, manifestos are intrinsically anti-status-quo. Regardless of its framework - politics, ideology or art - a manifesto is a defiant call for change and an implied "Who's with me?" All of the people I'm about to describe are plugging into something that sounds very much like a collective manifesto to me.

Many people currently writing about narrative and game design do share a lot of commonalities in thinking, so some sort of 'collective manifesto' (even just informally speaking) does make sense. Anyways, Abbott's roundup isn't particularly long, but worth a read; he's done the work for you when it comes to pulling out some particularly salient bits of the essays.

Narrative manifesto [Brainy Gamer]

... I also find The Count of Monte Cristo frustrating because the mechanic is such a bad form of interaction for the storytelling that is supposedly going on in the game. I would be a little more patient (I think) if the object searches were a little more relevant to the game's supposed narrative, but in the case of the Cristo game, we get to search for absurd things in various settings around Marseille.

(To give credit where due, the settings themselves are designed to be period French rooms — but that doesn't quite excuse the fact that apparently one of the damning bits of evidence against the villain is, in fact, a pine cone.)

She breaks down more successful marriages of literature and game, which mostly center on gameplay that actually seems to relate to the narrative. Personally, I find a lot of hidden object games to be the worst offenders in 'crappy casual games' — sure, there are some that are nicely put together, but many are eye-sores of poorly put together photographs that just look ... cheap — so I guess I fall into the same category as Short. And people are supposed to want to shell out money for these things? In any case, I'm always interested in Short's opinions on narrative design and applications to here-and-now games, and this article is worth a read. It's not enough to drape a mantle of 'classic literature' around a game — it's nothing but nice window dressing unless it's supported by gameplay (I would still love to see the FPS version of Wuthering Heights, however).

Playing the Reader [GameSetWatch]

Despite my fondness for the adventure games of yore, it appears the days of puzzles in narrative games have come and gone. Puzzles - especially the serial unlocking variety found in the old LucasArts games - seem to have become a relic of a bygone era. Where they once provided a necessary ludic element to a clever and often complex narrative - designed to add challenge and force the player to earn his progress through the story - few modern players have the patience for such challenges anymore ....

Combat has replaced puzzles as the progress-impeding mechanic du jour for modern gamers, and fast-paced action, quick reflexes, and gamepad dexterity are the premium skills. To be sure, games like SOCOM and Call of Duty also require strategic thinking, and online multiplayer often requires fine tactical thinking and cooperation. But puzzles - the kind you study for awhile, scratch your head about, and maybe even mull over in your sleep - have largely disappeared from narrative games.

Is there a place for puzzles of the old school stripe in current games? Abbott suggests considering the purpose of such puzzles in narrative-driven games while re-thinking their implementation; it's a difficult puzzle, to be sure, but one whose dividends could pay off in future gameplay.

Puzzles are for geezers [Brainy Gamer]

To build a meaningful game, a narrative designer joins together and balances these disciplines in game development so that the story can shine in a game. When done successfully, the game expresses themes that connect to audiences. It becomes more than simply a game, but a meaningful experience ....

By espousing this multidisciplinary approach to narrative design, developers can elevate the art of game development as well as increase the bottom line. Meaningful games require advance planning, but players benefit much from the integration of story, art, gameplay, sound, and music. Using themes, narrative designers ensure that each play experience is not only immersive, but also a meaningful one.

Clearly this is geared towards games that have a real narrative to weave the other elements around, but not shirking any of these smaller parts in creating a grander whole would add to any game. It's a shortish essay that's worth a quick read — Chen's piece is nowhere near as pedantic as some of these 'narrative design' essays can be.

Towards More Meaningful Games: A Multidisciplinary Approach [Gamasutra]

Is the "insincere choice" (telling the player they have no choice while they actually do) the best means we have to present a subversive message? If we are locked into a rule system by the nature of the game's code we can never change the system, what would be the ultimate extent in this regard? Making a game that allows the players to create their own rules, would almost seem to devolve very quickly into art-piece.

The resulting experience might have something profound to say about the abstract notions of games as a subversive medium, but would it lack enough direction/focus to be captivating in the slightest, and therefore possibly unable to be profound or meaningful to an individual?

I don't really look towards my games for 'subversive' material (having plenty of daring literature bumping around my shelves, sometimes I just want to get away), but Pfeifer provides some food for thought on how a variety games get their point across.

How Can A Game Be Subversive? [GameSetWatch]

It's about... I didn't mention this in my presentation, I keep forgetting to... it's about damaging not the character, but damaging the player. I think insulting the player is something... to put the knife in his back, not just the character's back. Because every game has the knife go in the character's back.

But if your perception of reality is screwed with, and you're basically played for a sucker, people have an emotional response to that. It's like when you read people saying, "I just put down the controller and walked away from the game for a minute." That doesn't happen when your character gets thrown off a roof and knocked unconscious, or gets shot at and wounded.

Even if you're tired of BioShock, it's an interesting interview that hits on a number of issues.

Ken Levine on BioShock's Narrative Drive

Castles aren't large walled structures where people live and work, they're intricate mazes. Temples aren't places where people go to worship their various deities, they're where the ancients practiced their Booby Trap- and Death Course-making skills (and they were so good at it that they are still functional after hundreds of years without maintenance). Even places like warehouses and sewers, where the design should be fairly straightforward, are designed solely to deter intruders, even if there is no earthly reason why it should be so, and even if it utterly inconveniences non-intruders. One wonders what the regular people do.

Videogame Tropes [TV Tropes via Joystick Division]

... What we get is maybe a story that's not so much the standard cliché about an AI that gets out of control, but instead about the idea that any AI created would necessarily be emotionally broken, because it would be constructed with killswitches, designed to be disposable, or at least crippled so that it could not threaten the more important human life. If the AI had any urge towards friendship or companionship, that urge would be stifled and perverted by the fact that those around it have absolved themselves ("ethicists agree...") in advance for killing it if necessary.

That's a sad and interesting story, but Portal stops short of completely telling it

She also critiques some aspects of gameplay. It's another take on a game we all know about from a different perspective.

Still Alive [Emily Short's Interactive Fiction]

Jeff Howard's Quests is an incisive and highly accessible book that leads the reader on an exploration of literature, computer games, and a connection between them .... The book offers useful discussion of the history of adventure games and detailed analysis of quest elements using concepts from narrative theory, poetics, game studies, and other fields. Quests equips students and scholars as they journey onward to read, play, and fashion games and narratives.

Sounds like a delightful diversion from modernization theory. The book is being published by A K Peters and the hardback is retailing for $45.

Jeff Howard's Quests [Grand Text Auto]

But comics and video games are alike in another way: they both remain marginalized, infantilized media, where the Wares are the rarest exception and the medium in general holds little to no value outside of very specific circles. The highest ideal of the vast majority of creators is to force the medium into being something it's not, and the largest segment of the audience consists of juveniles, in age or mindset, who haven't "graduated" to more respected forms of entertainment.

Browse the racks of a standard comic shop, and the books on the mainstream shelves will be filled with flashy illustrations depicting laughable actions stories, absurdly-proportioned women, and superheroes. Likewise, browse the racks of an Electronics Boutique and you're bound to find mostly sports stars, Japanese children's cartoons, burly men with guns, and women in shameless, implausible dress. The medium infantalizes itself through its chosen subject matter. Based on surface alone, I can't blame the outside viewer for thinking little of the medium at large.

Bad movies reign at the box office, bad books remain on top of the NYT best seller list for months, bad games get more press than the little gems. Still, no one would accuse cinema or literature at large of being juvenile, infantile, doomed to a ghetto. People like consuming crap, and 'low brow' sells; this is not news, and has caused legions of connoisseurs to throw up their hands in despair.

Borat Pfeiffer fired back at The Plush Apocalypse:

I've certainly had days where I'd agree with most everything he says. I get where it's coming from. Whether it was a frustrating day at work, or sometimes just going to a particularly rough GDC, I am not immune to that brand of despair. But, overall, I gotta say, games still have much more to achieve as a medium - if I didn't think so, I wouldn't be working on them.

He goes on to refute several points of the original, addressing issues of accessibility, infantilization, and engagement. I think plenty of us have felt frustrated at some point or another with games and gaming culture at large, but the day I feel like we're really stagnant, not going anywhere, and stuck in a juvenile ghetto is the day I give my setup away and walk away.

N'Gai Croal spread his rebuttal out over two articles in Level Up; if you're going to read any response to the original, this one is it. As he astutely points out, many of the issues Gaynor is complaining about are simply endemic to mass audiences for all forms of art and culture (how else to explain the wild popularity of an 'artist' like Thomas Kinkade and faux oil paintings?). Do we think that more artistic and independent film makers aren't lamenting the same exact issues, or literary authors don't wish Danielle Steele wasn't ruling the best seller lists?

The very thing Gaynor decries—a lack of willingness among the audience to work for their entertainment—isn't inherent in to this medium. It's almost intractable among mass audiences no matter what the medium. Popular fiction generally outsells literary fiction. Summer blockbusters generally out-gross arthouse films. Is this any different from, say, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat out-NPD-ing BioShock last year, or Madden doing the same to Shadow of the Colossus in 2005? Does it truly matter that in aggregate television is more mass a mass medium than videogames, when on an individual level, its practitioners are faced with the same challenges that plague those who work in other media?

John Walker adds his own take on the issue at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

I think there is a missed target in all of this. I think we, the gaming press, and we, the gamers, expect far too little of games. BioShock was a great game, but really, its commentary was a pamphlet. And yet it was heralded as an intellectual goliath. Of course there was a backlash to this - no, most of us won't have read Ayn Rand, and will learn something. But it isn't good enough for the adulation it receives. However, it's a perspective thing, and when compared to the rest, we feel we've no choice but to get excited. "Good grief, this one tried!" I stress again, I thought BioShock was an excellent game, but one with a poor narrative structure, and many failed ambitions.

And at entirely the opposite end, I think we expect far too much of games. We do not lament Scrabble for its lack of Brechtian estrangement. We enjoy playing Mousetrap because the pieces go plonky plonky plonk and then the diver falls in the cup. Games so often should be visceral fun. I think that once we relax and let games be this, we'll perhaps develop the confidence to let other games aim higher, and achieve more, without feeling the need to pretend they're our Citizen Kane.

I think we have more than enough smart and talented people in all sorts of roles to 'aim higher'; that doesn't mean 'visceral fun' is going to be replaced by high brow topics. But diversity is never a bad thing, and I trust that in years to come, there will be an ever increasing array of options, from the high brow to low brow, from the emotional to the emotionless.

The whole debate is interesting to page through, and more people weighed in than listed here; if you've got the time, it's interesting to read how intelligent people are responding to a debate that does get played out over and over again, just usually not with quite this domino-chain reaction.

Wager [Fullbright]; Is the Cultural Trajectory of Videogames Doomed to Parallel That of Comic Books? Part I and Part II [Level Up]; The Cultural Significance Of Video Games [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Imagine the person who sits and reads a book, looks up in horror, and shouts, "This word 'tree' looks nothing like a tree! It looks like some letters on a piece of paper!" and throws the book at the wall, disgusted. He's either a fool or reading a Dan Brown novel. We simply don't work that way. The semiotic power of a word is enough for our beautiful minds to conjure the very best tree imaginable. Literally. We have excellent brains that will always be capable of better graphics than the most exceptional technology ....

Graphics are hugely significant to many people - that can't be ignored. Find the review of a crappy game that doesn't give it a good kick in the pixels. Bad graphics do tend to be a sign of a lack of care in production. But I challenge you to find the review that says, "This game would be excellent and worth your time, if only the graphics were better. But since they're so poor, don't bother." It doesn't happen. If every other factor of a "good" game is present, the poverty of the pictures will be forgiven, although perhaps mentioned. We don't need them - we've already got them fixed upstairs.

There isn't any reason great narratives and superb graphics shouldn't go hand in hand — there are many films out there that illustrate that wonderful pictures on a screen can enhance a strong narrative and vice versa. One of my favorite movies of all time, a 2002 Korean release called Chihwaseon, remains on the top of my movie list because it brings together an engaging narrative, spectacular cinematography, and even sound to a wonderful effect — the visual, mental, and aural converge for an absolutely mesmerizing and immersive movie experience. Remove the narrative, and you have some spectacular cinematography with no substance; remove the fabulous cinematography, and you have a great narrative that deserves a better visual companion.

Is a word worth a thousand pictures? Good words can be. But there's more to games than narrative, and even games devoid of a narrative can be great fun. Still, there's always room for a few more great games, and giving narrative design attention equal to the worrying put in over pixels would stand more than a few developers in good stead.

A Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

We really need to move forward on story — as one of the fronts. That's not the only front left ....

I had an argument with somebody that there were only four types of gameplay, and then out comes Populous. Okay, there are five, then. And usually, it's an excuse to plagiarize. We all take inspiration from other games, and that's fine. It's when we take inspiration and don't do any more. That's the sad thing. When you don't move it forward. And there's a danger. Some of the games that fortunately don't get much airtime don't necessarily do that. That's a missed opportunity. Especially these days, where we're making fewer games than we used to. We're essentially being trusted to use the opportunity to do something fantastic, and if we don't we should get slapped around — which I'm sure we will do.

Well, now I'm curious to see if Braben and his team can actually deliver - talking about grand plans is one thing, putting them into practice (in a manner that actually works) is another. I'm all for improved narrative design, but plenty of developers have gone down the 'revolutionary' path only to fall flat on their face with a disappointed audience who was expecting more.

Next-Gen Narrative: The David Braben Interview [Gamasutra]

When an audience member sat down to listen to an oral epic poet in ancient Greece, he knew he was going to hear about Jason and Achilles and Medea and Atalanta beforehand, in the same way an MMOG player knows he's going to get Fighters and Warriors and Clerics and Rogues. Furthermore, our ancient poetry lover also knew he would hear about "swift-footed Achilles" or "resourceful Odysseus," in the same way our MMOG fan can expect to hear about wolves that need slaying and mushrooms that need collecting.

Such formulas - whether in epic poetry or MMOGs - are not just for the convenience of the artist; they're ultimately for the benefit of the audience, eliminating guesswork and confusion and giving people what it is they expect - a new toy with familiar packaging.

However, no matter how formulaic Vergil might have been in structure and use of epithets, his language itself is a pleasure to read in the original - even formulaic structure becomes a masterpiece when it's dressed up appropriately. Formula serves a purpose, but it's no fun when it's bland.

Rhapsody: Quest Formulas in MMORPGs [The Escapist]