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The father of Ultima, Richard Garriott, made some very strong comments about the state of story-telling in games at DICE. Not only does he believe he’s written some of the best interactive dialogue in games, but he also thinks most other story-writing attempts have failed."I as an artist, as a creator, and a gamer myself, my passion completely lies with creating and playing story-based content," said Garriott. "As I review my 30 year career, I don't think the market has necessarily tended to reward that.”Garriott blames ever-evolving game formats for changing play mechanics which in turn starts the development-learning process all over again."The vast majority of attempts to include story (in games) are failures," Garriott explained. "Do I know any great examples of interactive dialogue writers?” shared Garriott regarding a question a student once asked him. “No. As a creator and gamer I’m passionate to find the solution to those, I just think if you’re looking at investing behind games, you have to be very careful about saying ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have story.’""If you spend a million dollars on it can you predict that the story will be any good, and will that story contribute to game sales?" He goes on to explain that he was emphasizing to the student that publishers don’t necessarily put much stock in a game’s story.Garriott warns that the answer to a good game plot does not lie in Hollywood. “I’ve hired very expensive Hollywood writers, and found they cannot write interactive dialog,” shared Garriot. “Writing branching dialog is a skill unique to this industry.”“In spite of the fact that I don’t think I’m a good writer, I think that some of the best interactive dialog, I wrote! So that’s a double negative [for the industry],” Garriott added.What do you think about the state of games' stories? Would you consider story-driven releases like Mass Effect 2 and BioShock 2 failures as Garriott does? Source: Gamasutra
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He is just coming off as sounding arrogant, games are heavily incorporating story's as well as now very well received game play. I think for him to out right disrespect other people in his profession is just plain childish of him.
yeah, sure... (first)
also, final fantasy 13, mass effect and heavy rain sure sound like a failure to me. what a tool.
I kinda agree with him. More or less.
Mass Effect and ME2 have sooo much story I didn't even read all of the codex. Amazing games and worlds to get lost in. THere is a ton of back story to some other games as well: Dead Space, Bioshock, Halo, Dragon Age, Star Wars, ect...
This guy is smoking something.
Does this guy only play his own games? To say that there are no good story telling experiences is either an uninformed statement, or a complete fallacy. In this instance I'm forced to turn to the latter.
"My dialog is the only good dialog out there. Everyone else fails."
That's what I just read.
You know what? Fine is he truly believes he's created the best stories or dialogue. He's obnoxious, but he's entitled to think so.
Well it depends on the game rpgs still have good story lines. shooters wiht the exception of bioshock, mass effect, and dead space have shitty story lines
I think that the stories in games, recently, has vastly improved to what it used to be. Mass Effect 1 & 2, Heavy Rain, BioShock, and Grand Theft Auto IV to name a few. I don't know what Lord British is getting this from.
This is a very oddly vague thing for Garriott to comment on. Especially since he gives no solid outline or details about his rather caddy comment. It's almost like he hasn't been paying attention to the game industry over the last 5 years (not that lots of games previous to 5 years ago had good story telling also, but currently is pretty amazing). That being said, I could see if he was coming at it as the story's that are being told are too scripted and that the play experience is what the story evolves out of through interpretation, but that's mere speculation and would have to hear more of what he's actually getting at.
Again, quite an odd statement from "Lord British".
Bioshock, Mass Effect, Heavy Rain....wow this guy is high on himself
I have to disagree with him and say that games such as Mass Effect and BioShock are definitely not failures. These games have great stories and depth to them. He's pretty much slapping Bioware's dialogue people in the face by saying this. Look at the effort i'm sure they had to put into they're newest game like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age.
A little full of himself, no? I mean, kudos on creating Ultima, but what else have you done lately?
Sorry, but its story that matters most to me in a game. More than realism. More than graphics. More than mechanics.
Story. BioWare and Bethesda both knock the ball out of the park in those areas.
I want what he's smoking.
Mr. Garriot, kindly play Mass Effect 1 & 2 and then play the original Bioshock(I haven't finished no.2) and then go on about how games can't tell good stories(though, I do think Bioshock's loses its steam fter you confront Andrew Ryan).
dude is just inflating himself. This kind of thing used to get me worked up because of the way these people pass what they're saying off as fact, but now I try to realize that the guy is just trying to play himself up and maybe stir up trouble to, again, play himself up. whatever.
This guy kinda seems like a ***. there are plenty of games with excellent stories. Even if he writes good dialogue, it won't matter if he doesn't have good voice actors. You can have one without the other. But if he doesn't think stuff like bioshock, mass effect, AC, etc. don't have good stories, i am worried about what he thinks it takes to make a good story.
His comments kind of remind me of internet forums. People really haven't been able to post anything worthwhile on the internet. I mean, I have, but can I think of anyone else who has? No, I can't.
Um, really though, compelling stories and dialog are abound in gaming. Maybe he should look again.
Is this guy on crack?? Has he even played any Half Life? Or Mass Effect? Or Okami? Or Shadow of the Colossus? Or Ico? Or any Grand Theft Auto? Or Heavy Rain? or Bioshock? Or....I'm just going to stop now before I get into the games of the 80's and 90's with better stories than this guy can poop out.