Online Worlds Roundtable #16, Part Four

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Written by BuckGB on February 21st, 2008

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Now, as recent console success stories like Mass Effect and Bioshock have proven, you can take focus in a quick, acceptable way, and use it to tell an engaging story that adds excitement and intrigue into the actual gameplay. However, these titles present stories in a linear way that force players to follow along. The trick is to figure out how persistent online games can convey story in new ways that work in an interactive environment. Branching narrative is the most common approach in storytelling for games to date, and it really falls short. It neither offers the power of filmmaking to hold your focus and drive you through a story, nor the inherent excitement of actually being immersed in the gameplay.

I find it useful to think of interactive storytelling in the context of tribal storytelling. In most cultures, before there was recorded history, stories were handed down generation to generation. These were usually shared among the members of the tribe in a ritualistic fashion, directed in part by a senior tribal leader who guided the story, but allowed group interactive telling with a fair amount of personalization. In many respects, the Dungeon Master in D&D serves a similar role, providing structure and guidance, but not a one-way, linear story.

In essence, this is our role as game designers, whether for gameplay or story. We provide the structure, through sense of place, defined mythology and objectives that drive and focus player creativity, inspiration, motivation and exploration. This structure also better allows multiple players to explore and create together by providing focal points to gather around.

In many ways, this kind of approach has helped us to craft the underlying epic narrative of The Lord of the Rings Online, while allowing players to still have personally driven experiences through the story, and the opportunity to have their game experience weave in and out of both the LOTRO epic story as well as the central one of the ring bearer in the books.

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