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Games are great, and I’m sure you’d agree (why else would you be here otherwise?), but I often find that the storylines in 99% of games are weak, shallow, devoid of meaning or just clichéd and basically have nothing to say. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, video game storylines and dialogue are generally considered weak.
So do video games have the potential to have good storylines with hidden depths, layers and understandings, or will they forever be regarded as just mindless entertainment?
Many years ago, film and TV was probably seen to have no real artistic merits whatsoever, with people dismissing it as just trash that would give you square eyes. However, as time went on, filmmakers learnt that film was a powerful medium to get across their messages, and they found that film was a powerful tool to do this, as they could express their views to a wide audience and evoke many emotional responses from the viewer. What followed are many years of great movie making and TV programmes that have achieved high critical acclaim, but will games ever receive this praise?
Some games designers have seen the potential for video games to have artistic merit; people like Hideo Kojima with his brilliant Metal Gear series have shown that not only can games have morals, meanings and messages, but they can also be great fun too.
It would be nice to see more games that make you think; games that have moral messages about our humanity, our world and ourselves, games storylines that are not clear cut, and can fulfil deep thinkers as well as casual thinkers.
I’m not saying that we want a sudden rise in crappy arthouse productions, with games having morally pretentious storylines and stupidly obscure metaphors, but game plots need more depth and intelligence.
Lets take films as the example; there are many films that have obvious or slight social commentary, morals and messages hidden within, and depending on how you wish to approach the film, they can either be though provoking, baffling, or you can just ignore them and enjoy the movie. It all depends on how deeply you read into the stories.
Planet of the Apes is my main example (the 1968 original, not the recent lame “re-imagining” with Marky Mark): Planet of the Apes is one of my all time favourite movies; not only is it a great sci-fi adventure with Ben Hur battling against monkey men whilst wearing a loincloth, but it’s also a very clever satire, a modern morality play, and a wittily disguised allegory on contemporary human society in the era of the Vietnam conflict.
The film managed to put satire and metaphors alongside action and adventure, something which most video games haven’t yet been able to do.
PotA was made at a time when Vietnam was raging, and ‘The Summer of Love’ had given way to the threat of a nuclear winter, where people approached the future with much trepidation, and wondered what damage mankind could do to itself with its all powerful weaponry; PotA shows what could happen.
The final scene where Taylor (Charlton Heston’s cynical anti-hero) discovers the post-nuclear remains of one of the most well-intentioned and symbolic statues, The Statue of Liberty, is a shocking discovery and a message that the same thing could happen in real life (though thankfully, 34 years later, it hasn’t yet).
One of my favourite quotes from the movie is from the Sacred Ape Scrolls (a kind of monkey bible): “Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust or greed. Yes, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: For he is the harbinger of death”.
Not only does this apply to the Neanderthal like humans in the film, but also to mankind as a whole outside of the movie, and how we treat each other and our world.
You could probably chuck in the moral message about racial prejudice in to the mix as well.
One of the reasons why the remake was so poor is because it didn’t have any of these clever meanings.
Many people have probably seen the anime film Akira, and similarly to Planet of the Apes, it also tells the story of Western sciences mishandling of technology and powers beyond their control, leading to disastrous consequences for mankind. Governments haven’t learnt from the mistakes of previous devastating wars, and the unleashing of Akira’s energy on an unprepared world could be their downfall. It’s not just a mindless cartoon it has messages.
Many post-apocalyptic sci-fi films have these kinds of meanings and warnings.
The great anime film Princess Mononoke is another film that comes to mind when talking about meanings and morals; in the film, mankind is showing a great lack of respect for Mother Nature and is increasingly resorting to deforestation in their pursuit of iron for weaponry. They are advancing their civilisation but exploiting the forest in the process and killing animals that get in their way, however, the power of nature fights back. There are some good messages in there about how we treat our world, and how we should always respect our planet.
Even the schlock zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead has social commentary, focusing on commercialism and how much of an important part it plays in peoples lives. The zombies (metaphors for people?) return back to a place that they held in high regard and that had been an important place in their lives...the shopping mall. So if a zombie film can have meaning, can a video game?
Metal Gear Solid has an anti-nuclear weapons sentiment, similar to Planet of the Apes and Akira, whereby powerful weaponry might one day destroy us if we continue to develop this technology (especially Snake’s final monologue after the credits) and there’s more thought provoking things in Sons of Liberty.
The Final Fantasy games often have the air of morals and teachings in their stories and Max Payne has the odd spark of metaphorical talking, but apart from them, there aren’t really many other intellectually challenging game storylines.
If video games ever want to attain a higher status than the ‘mindless entertainment’ bracket, then, in a similar fashion to films, the storylines must improve and have more intelligent features.
It would be nice in the future to see games that have something important to say, or a moral to tell, rather than just being another senseless action ‘em up.
Phew, I’m glad I finished that speech; now I’m going to have a go on a mindless beat ‘em up :)
So do video games have the potential to have good storylines with hidden depths, layers and understandings, or will they forever be regarded as just mindless entertainment?
Many years ago, film and TV was probably seen to have no real artistic merits whatsoever, with people dismissing it as just trash that would give you square eyes. However, as time went on, filmmakers learnt that film was a powerful medium to get across their messages, and they found that film was a powerful tool to do this, as they could express their views to a wide audience and evoke many emotional responses from the viewer. What followed are many years of great movie making and TV programmes that have achieved high critical acclaim, but will games ever receive this praise?
Some games designers have seen the potential for video games to have artistic merit; people like Hideo Kojima with his brilliant Metal Gear series have shown that not only can games have morals, meanings and messages, but they can also be great fun too.
It would be nice to see more games that make you think; games that have moral messages about our humanity, our world and ourselves, games storylines that are not clear cut, and can fulfil deep thinkers as well as casual thinkers.
I’m not saying that we want a sudden rise in crappy arthouse productions, with games having morally pretentious storylines and stupidly obscure metaphors, but game plots need more depth and intelligence.
Lets take films as the example; there are many films that have obvious or slight social commentary, morals and messages hidden within, and depending on how you wish to approach the film, they can either be though provoking, baffling, or you can just ignore them and enjoy the movie. It all depends on how deeply you read into the stories.
Planet of the Apes is my main example (the 1968 original, not the recent lame “re-imagining” with Marky Mark): Planet of the Apes is one of my all time favourite movies; not only is it a great sci-fi adventure with Ben Hur battling against monkey men whilst wearing a loincloth, but it’s also a very clever satire, a modern morality play, and a wittily disguised allegory on contemporary human society in the era of the Vietnam conflict.
The film managed to put satire and metaphors alongside action and adventure, something which most video games haven’t yet been able to do.
PotA was made at a time when Vietnam was raging, and ‘The Summer of Love’ had given way to the threat of a nuclear winter, where people approached the future with much trepidation, and wondered what damage mankind could do to itself with its all powerful weaponry; PotA shows what could happen.
The final scene where Taylor (Charlton Heston’s cynical anti-hero) discovers the post-nuclear remains of one of the most well-intentioned and symbolic statues, The Statue of Liberty, is a shocking discovery and a message that the same thing could happen in real life (though thankfully, 34 years later, it hasn’t yet).
One of my favourite quotes from the movie is from the Sacred Ape Scrolls (a kind of monkey bible): “Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust or greed. Yes, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: For he is the harbinger of death”.
Not only does this apply to the Neanderthal like humans in the film, but also to mankind as a whole outside of the movie, and how we treat each other and our world.
You could probably chuck in the moral message about racial prejudice in to the mix as well.
One of the reasons why the remake was so poor is because it didn’t have any of these clever meanings.
Many people have probably seen the anime film Akira, and similarly to Planet of the Apes, it also tells the story of Western sciences mishandling of technology and powers beyond their control, leading to disastrous consequences for mankind. Governments haven’t learnt from the mistakes of previous devastating wars, and the unleashing of Akira’s energy on an unprepared world could be their downfall. It’s not just a mindless cartoon it has messages.
Many post-apocalyptic sci-fi films have these kinds of meanings and warnings.
The great anime film Princess Mononoke is another film that comes to mind when talking about meanings and morals; in the film, mankind is showing a great lack of respect for Mother Nature and is increasingly resorting to deforestation in their pursuit of iron for weaponry. They are advancing their civilisation but exploiting the forest in the process and killing animals that get in their way, however, the power of nature fights back. There are some good messages in there about how we treat our world, and how we should always respect our planet.
Even the schlock zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead has social commentary, focusing on commercialism and how much of an important part it plays in peoples lives. The zombies (metaphors for people?) return back to a place that they held in high regard and that had been an important place in their lives...the shopping mall. So if a zombie film can have meaning, can a video game?
Metal Gear Solid has an anti-nuclear weapons sentiment, similar to Planet of the Apes and Akira, whereby powerful weaponry might one day destroy us if we continue to develop this technology (especially Snake’s final monologue after the credits) and there’s more thought provoking things in Sons of Liberty.
The Final Fantasy games often have the air of morals and teachings in their stories and Max Payne has the odd spark of metaphorical talking, but apart from them, there aren’t really many other intellectually challenging game storylines.
If video games ever want to attain a higher status than the ‘mindless entertainment’ bracket, then, in a similar fashion to films, the storylines must improve and have more intelligent features.
It would be nice in the future to see games that have something important to say, or a moral to tell, rather than just being another senseless action ‘em up.
Phew, I’m glad I finished that speech; now I’m going to have a go on a mindless beat ‘em up :)
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Games are great, and I’m sure you’d agree (why else would you be here otherwise?), but I often find that the storylines in 99% of games are weak, shallow, devoid of meaning or just clichéd and basically have nothing to say. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, video game storylines and dialogue are generally considered weak.
So do video games have the potential to have good storylines with hidden depths, layers and understandings, or will they forever be regarded as just mindless entertainment?
Many years ago, film and TV was probably seen to have no real artistic merits whatsoever, with people dismissing it as just trash that would give you square eyes. However, as time went on, filmmakers learnt that film was a powerful medium to get across their messages, and they found that film was a powerful tool to do this, as they could express their views to a wide audience and evoke many emotional responses from the viewer. What followed are many years of great movie making and TV programmes that have achieved high critical acclaim, but will games ever receive this praise?
Some games designers have seen the potential for video games to have artistic merit; people like Hideo Kojima with his brilliant Metal Gear series have shown that not only can games have morals, meanings and messages, but they can also be great fun too.
It would be nice to see more games that make you think; games that have moral messages about our humanity, our world and ourselves, games storylines that are not clear cut, and can fulfil deep thinkers as well as casual thinkers.
I’m not saying that we want a sudden rise in crappy arthouse productions, with games having morally pretentious storylines and stupidly obscure metaphors, but game plots need more depth and intelligence.
Lets take films as the example; there are many films that have obvious or slight social commentary, morals and messages hidden within, and depending on how you wish to approach the film, they can either be though provoking, baffling, or you can just ignore them and enjoy the movie. It all depends on how deeply you read into the stories.
Planet of the Apes is my main example (the 1968 original, not the recent lame “re-imagining” with Marky Mark): Planet of the Apes is one of my all time favourite movies; not only is it a great sci-fi adventure with Ben Hur battling against monkey men whilst wearing a loincloth, but it’s also a very clever satire, a modern morality play, and a wittily disguised allegory on contemporary human society in the era of the Vietnam conflict.
The film managed to put satire and metaphors alongside action and adventure, something which most video games haven’t yet been able to do.
PotA was made at a time when Vietnam was raging, and ‘The Summer of Love’ had given way to the threat of a nuclear winter, where people approached the future with much trepidation, and wondered what damage mankind could do to itself with its all powerful weaponry; PotA shows what could happen.
The final scene where Taylor (Charlton Heston’s cynical anti-hero) discovers the post-nuclear remains of one of the most well-intentioned and symbolic statues, The Statue of Liberty, is a shocking discovery and a message that the same thing could happen in real life (though thankfully, 34 years later, it hasn’t yet).
One of my favourite quotes from the movie is from the Sacred Ape Scrolls (a kind of monkey bible): “Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust or greed. Yes, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: For he is the harbinger of death”.
Not only does this apply to the Neanderthal like humans in the film, but also to mankind as a whole outside of the movie, and how we treat each other and our world.
You could probably chuck in the moral message about racial prejudice in to the mix as well.
One of the reasons why the remake was so poor is because it didn’t have any of these clever meanings.
Many people have probably seen the anime film Akira, and similarly to Planet of the Apes, it also tells the story of Western sciences mishandling of technology and powers beyond their control, leading to disastrous consequences for mankind. Governments haven’t learnt from the mistakes of previous devastating wars, and the unleashing of Akira’s energy on an unprepared world could be their downfall. It’s not just a mindless cartoon it has messages.
Many post-apocalyptic sci-fi films have these kinds of meanings and warnings.
The great anime film Princess Mononoke is another film that comes to mind when talking about meanings and morals; in the film, mankind is showing a great lack of respect for Mother Nature and is increasingly resorting to deforestation in their pursuit of iron for weaponry. They are advancing their civilisation but exploiting the forest in the process and killing animals that get in their way, however, the power of nature fights back. There are some good messages in there about how we treat our world, and how we should always respect our planet.
Even the schlock zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead has social commentary, focusing on commercialism and how much of an important part it plays in peoples lives. The zombies (metaphors for people?) return back to a place that they held in high regard and that had been an important place in their lives...the shopping mall. So if a zombie film can have meaning, can a video game?
Metal Gear Solid has an anti-nuclear weapons sentiment, similar to Planet of the Apes and Akira, whereby powerful weaponry might one day destroy us if we continue to develop this technology (especially Snake’s final monologue after the credits) and there’s more thought provoking things in Sons of Liberty.
The Final Fantasy games often have the air of morals and teachings in their stories and Max Payne has the odd spark of metaphorical talking, but apart from them, there aren’t really many other intellectually challenging game storylines.
If video games ever want to attain a higher status than the ‘mindless entertainment’ bracket, then, in a similar fashion to films, the storylines must improve and have more intelligent features.
It would be nice in the future to see games that have something important to say, or a moral to tell, rather than just being another senseless action ‘em up.
Phew, I’m glad I finished that speech; now I’m going to have a go on a mindless beat ‘em up :)
So do video games have the potential to have good storylines with hidden depths, layers and understandings, or will they forever be regarded as just mindless entertainment?
Many years ago, film and TV was probably seen to have no real artistic merits whatsoever, with people dismissing it as just trash that would give you square eyes. However, as time went on, filmmakers learnt that film was a powerful medium to get across their messages, and they found that film was a powerful tool to do this, as they could express their views to a wide audience and evoke many emotional responses from the viewer. What followed are many years of great movie making and TV programmes that have achieved high critical acclaim, but will games ever receive this praise?
Some games designers have seen the potential for video games to have artistic merit; people like Hideo Kojima with his brilliant Metal Gear series have shown that not only can games have morals, meanings and messages, but they can also be great fun too.
It would be nice to see more games that make you think; games that have moral messages about our humanity, our world and ourselves, games storylines that are not clear cut, and can fulfil deep thinkers as well as casual thinkers.
I’m not saying that we want a sudden rise in crappy arthouse productions, with games having morally pretentious storylines and stupidly obscure metaphors, but game plots need more depth and intelligence.
Lets take films as the example; there are many films that have obvious or slight social commentary, morals and messages hidden within, and depending on how you wish to approach the film, they can either be though provoking, baffling, or you can just ignore them and enjoy the movie. It all depends on how deeply you read into the stories.
Planet of the Apes is my main example (the 1968 original, not the recent lame “re-imagining” with Marky Mark): Planet of the Apes is one of my all time favourite movies; not only is it a great sci-fi adventure with Ben Hur battling against monkey men whilst wearing a loincloth, but it’s also a very clever satire, a modern morality play, and a wittily disguised allegory on contemporary human society in the era of the Vietnam conflict.
The film managed to put satire and metaphors alongside action and adventure, something which most video games haven’t yet been able to do.
PotA was made at a time when Vietnam was raging, and ‘The Summer of Love’ had given way to the threat of a nuclear winter, where people approached the future with much trepidation, and wondered what damage mankind could do to itself with its all powerful weaponry; PotA shows what could happen.
The final scene where Taylor (Charlton Heston’s cynical anti-hero) discovers the post-nuclear remains of one of the most well-intentioned and symbolic statues, The Statue of Liberty, is a shocking discovery and a message that the same thing could happen in real life (though thankfully, 34 years later, it hasn’t yet).
One of my favourite quotes from the movie is from the Sacred Ape Scrolls (a kind of monkey bible): “Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust or greed. Yes, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: For he is the harbinger of death”.
Not only does this apply to the Neanderthal like humans in the film, but also to mankind as a whole outside of the movie, and how we treat each other and our world.
You could probably chuck in the moral message about racial prejudice in to the mix as well.
One of the reasons why the remake was so poor is because it didn’t have any of these clever meanings.
Many people have probably seen the anime film Akira, and similarly to Planet of the Apes, it also tells the story of Western sciences mishandling of technology and powers beyond their control, leading to disastrous consequences for mankind. Governments haven’t learnt from the mistakes of previous devastating wars, and the unleashing of Akira’s energy on an unprepared world could be their downfall. It’s not just a mindless cartoon it has messages.
Many post-apocalyptic sci-fi films have these kinds of meanings and warnings.
The great anime film Princess Mononoke is another film that comes to mind when talking about meanings and morals; in the film, mankind is showing a great lack of respect for Mother Nature and is increasingly resorting to deforestation in their pursuit of iron for weaponry. They are advancing their civilisation but exploiting the forest in the process and killing animals that get in their way, however, the power of nature fights back. There are some good messages in there about how we treat our world, and how we should always respect our planet.
Even the schlock zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead has social commentary, focusing on commercialism and how much of an important part it plays in peoples lives. The zombies (metaphors for people?) return back to a place that they held in high regard and that had been an important place in their lives...the shopping mall. So if a zombie film can have meaning, can a video game?
Metal Gear Solid has an anti-nuclear weapons sentiment, similar to Planet of the Apes and Akira, whereby powerful weaponry might one day destroy us if we continue to develop this technology (especially Snake’s final monologue after the credits) and there’s more thought provoking things in Sons of Liberty.
The Final Fantasy games often have the air of morals and teachings in their stories and Max Payne has the odd spark of metaphorical talking, but apart from them, there aren’t really many other intellectually challenging game storylines.
If video games ever want to attain a higher status than the ‘mindless entertainment’ bracket, then, in a similar fashion to films, the storylines must improve and have more intelligent features.
It would be nice in the future to see games that have something important to say, or a moral to tell, rather than just being another senseless action ‘em up.
Phew, I’m glad I finished that speech; now I’m going to have a go on a mindless beat ‘em up :)