• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

Conflict!

  • Sviel
  • 06/02/2014 12:39 AM
  • 227 views


Any story, anywhere, will have conflict. At least, any story worth reading. Often times this conflict is front and center in the narrative as it gives the audience a reason to become involved within the story. If they have properly been convinced to care about the characters, conflict has the chance to provoke a wide range of emotions.

Should the player lose track of this conflict, whether it be something threatening the whole world or just the morning cup of joe, the story quickly begins to stagnate. Few writers make this mistake, but there is another which is even worse and far more common. Should the player not know that what they're seeing is related to the conflict, then they may check out completely and miss some important information.

Good conflict will do more than simply keep the player engaged, though. It will also establish the basis for gameplay. This is beautifully illustrated in the Halo series. Sure, on some level it is a sci fi shoot 'em up, but every combat situation is related to the plot. Contrast this with some RPGs where random encounters are included but never linked directly to the main conflict. Most will at least establish that the Evil Thing has corrupted the nearby animals or that Bandits are likely to attack in certain areas, but these justifications are rather thin and will quickly snap if stretched too far. Without further grounding in the main conflict, they are best used sparingly.

On the other hand, gameplay that forces contrived conflict is perhaps even more foul. If the game has been all about shooting things up to a point, throwing a complex puzzle at the player is an egregious shift in tone. The conflict has been, on a micro level, can I shoot the enemy to death before they shoot me to death. If it suddenly changes to solving a complex puzzle, players who came along for the shooting may balk. Note, if it is a relatively simple puzzle, though, it can be used as a nice break in the action. Or, if tough gunfights and puzzles have been intermixed from the start, then the player won't be lost.

Finally, conflict is one of the most important elements in setting up the intended atmosphere of a game. Diner Dash would be much different if the customers were violent and Resident Evil would not be recognizable if the zombies were simply hungry for cafe fare. Adding even one violent customer would be very jarring for DD, while a single friendly, hungry zombie would shatter the experience of RE.

Whisper, thus, was crafted with the central conflict established first, then everything else coming on in complementary layers. Gameplay that didn't mesh well with central conflict was eliminated in an effort to maintain a very coherent theme.