Games, Stories, and Freedom

Earlier this week, I mentioned the upcoming sandbox MMO Salem, and that I found the idea of such a beast rather appealing. Not just because I like the idea of wearing hats with buckles and ganking noobs in a Lovecraftian colonial America, but because of the game’s story potential.

“My, what a vague and somewhat pretentious statement,” you say. “What ever do you mean?”

I’d be glad to tell you. But first, we’ll need some theory… and a sub-head.

Games Help Create Stories

Yes, yes, games can tell stories (I’m looking at you, Half-Life, Mass Effect, Bioshock, and a line of JRPGs that goes around the block), but I’m talking about creating stories.

Games help create stories by giving their players experiences. Players then turn those experiences into stories that they can share with others after the fact.

If you move in the same geeky circles I do, you’ve probably heard more than your share of these stories. A couple years ago, it was criminal antics in GTA. Last year, it was stories about crazy stunts in Just Cause 2. And the new hotness, Minecraft, has inspired several people to tell the stories of their adventures. (Come back and hit the links; they’re all quite entertaining.)

The key point here is that games don’t create these stories by themselves. By giving the player experiences, they help the player create the stories. The story is created at the point where the player meets the game.

The Best Stories Come from Unique Experiences

As a general rule, I prefer to hear stories I haven’t heard before. Sure, I’ll re-read the Game of Thrones books now and then, but what I really want to read is the next book in the series (before George R. R. Martin pulls a Robert Jordan and rudely dies with work unfinished).

I don’t think I’m alone in this. You don’t watch a movie with someone, then turn around and relate the plot to him or her. You don’t tell an anecdote to someone who was there to see it happen.

“Oh, man, you should have seen me at the Christmas party! It was awesome!”

“Yeah. I was there.”

“I climbed up on top of the piano, man. And I had this long extension cord –”

“I know. I saw.”

“And I whipped it up around the chandelier, and –”

“And you tried to swing like Tarzan but pulled the lights out of the ceiling and we had to call an ambulance. Then you died. We were sad — I know this story because I lived it!”

Likewise, in videogames, if your experience playing the game is the same as mine, I don’t want to hear your story. And I don’t want to tell you my story, since you already know how it ends.

“But when you get to the end of the course –”

“There’s no cake! Only fire! I know. I played it!”

That’s why the best stories come from unique experiences. I’ll tell you about the epic rise and fall of my Minecraft kingdom because my experience in that game is different from yours. I’ll tell you how I jumped off an airplane in Just Cause 2 and used a rocket launcher to destroy the target’s car from mid-air because again, my experience is different (and awesome!).

Games that Provide Unique Experiences Help Create the Best Stories

If games help create stories, and the best stories are those born out of unique experiences, then it stands to reason that games that give you unique experiences help create the best stories.

Minecraft is an example that I’ve already mined to death (can you dig it?). And I’ve also mentioned Just Cause 2 and the GTA series. But I’ve glossed over a whole category of videogames that is stuffed to overflowing with story-creating moments: PvP games.

Starcraft 2 is a current example. I haven’t played the game yet, but almost feel like I have based on the war-stories I’ve heard from the people who have. Ditto for League of Legends. And some of the best MMORPG stories I’ve heard are from players engaged in a bit of the old player-on-player violence. (One of my friends on Facebook regularly posts logs and screenshots of his genocidal crusade against the dwarves of Darkfall. That is some entertaining story right there.)

What do these games have in common?

The first batch could broadly be described as “sandbox” games. You’re given an objective (in Minecraft, you don’t even get that, beyond the ever-popular “don’t die”), some tools, and the freedom to pursue that objective however you see fit.

The second batch isn’t commonly considered “sandbox” (Starcraft isn’t exactly open world), but again, you’re given an objective (“defeat enemies”), some tools (units or character abilities), and the freedom to pursue that objective however you see fit.

The first thing these games have in common is player freedom.

You can go where you want. You can create your own strategies. You can make your own tactical decisions. You can try something crazy that just might work — or might result in you dying, on fire, at the bottom of a pit while skeletons shoot arrows at you.

The second thing they have in common is a world that can consistently surprise you.

I’m not talking about monsters that jump out of closets in a horror-shooter. I mean a world that does its own thing — spawning monsters, driving cars, sniping at you, etc. — that you can’t predict but can interact with (even if just by killing it with fire).

In a single-player sandbox game, the surprising world is somewhat the point of the game, and if you’re clever, it can become another tool for you use in your quest for victory. In a PvP game, the other player provides the surprising world. Yes, I just teleported my factory into your base. Surprise!

Player freedom is good, but when you mix it with the unpredictable challenges of a surprising world, you get truly unique experiences.

From these examples, then, I think it would be fair to say that

Games that provide freedom and surprise also provide unique experiences.

All of which leads to my final point:

Games that Provide Freedom and Surprise Help Create the Best Stories

Or, to put it in math terms: Freedom + Surprise = Unique Experience = Story

So what did I mean about Salem‘s story potential?

I meant that, from the description, the game will provide player freedom and surprises from both the world and the other players. This leads to many unique experiences, which means it has the potential to help create some really awesome stories.

So What’s the Point?

Good question. Am I arguing that all videogames should be PvP and/or sandboxes? Absolutely not.

I’m just pointing that one of the many things games can do is help create stories. Some games are better at this than others. And if you want your game to be one of them, freedom and surprise make a couple of great additions to your toolkit.