BLITZEN'S PROFILE

I would like to pose my opinion on story in games. BEcause games are interactive, a chance to exercize cause effect and problem solving, the best stories are the ones that the player makes for themselves. By this I do not mean choosing amongst a predetermined sequence of options that the game presents, but using the interactivity to form a narrative that would NOT exist without the player's direct, immediate input.

For example, a game of Super Smash Bros. can be exhilerating, enfuriating, fearful, etc. You may realize that you are near death one second, and then triumphantly counter and dominate the next, only to topple off the screen in inattentive folly.

This is what I think is referred to as "low-level" story. I find that a designer creates a good game, not when they present the player with a well-crafted plotline to follow, but when they present the player with the choices and environments that allow the player to create unique and exciting experiences, so that they can weave their own story.

And people who play games usually begin to craft low-level stories that the designers never even envisaged after a while. (ie speedrunning a level of Mario, crashing cars in mid-air two player in a game of Rush or Burnout, seeing if you can use remote mines to blast a guy up through the hole in the middle of the Temple level in Goldeneye, etc)

So yeah, games don't have stories, games are stories, and the quality of the game as a whole directly relates to the quality of the "story" the player experiences. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with plotlines, or what Card was talking about, but that how I see things, anyway.