Story has become an increasingly important part of gaming over the years, with more complex storylines, a large cast of characters, and more inventive ways to convey the narrative. Single player games, especially Japanese developed ones, still have large chunks of narrative in between gameplay, and many developers still refuse to let go of cutscenes and extended exposition.
In single player games, gamers usually have higher tolerance. The experience is more relaxed. Other than the player’s time, there are no other constraints. Multiplayer games, on the other hand, are a completely different kettle of fish. When presented with story element, player become impatient. While some are always impatient when faced with story, even the most patient of gamers screams for a skip button in multiplayer games.
Some would argue that a story is unnecessary in multiplayer. Other than an initial premise to drive the action, a multiplayer experience needs little else to give players to play with or against each other. Gamers often ask “do people really care about story in multiplayer games?” The simple answer is no. More often than not, narrative and story seems to get in the way of an enjoyable experience.
Quite simply, players want to get to the action as quickly as possible in a multiplayer game. Urgency is much higher than during single player games for a number of reasons. Firstly, players often replay sections repeatedly in multiplayer sessions.
Secondly, the video game community multiplayer experience has largely been cultivated as one lacking story, mostly because of the limitations of technology at the time. Experiences like Dungeons & Dragons were largely not replicated in the video game realm for a long time. Gamers, specifically console gamers, can only envision story getting in the way of a multiplayer experience, and developers have listened thus far.
Is story and complex narrative actually deliverable in a multiplayer experience? While Soma Bringer is a fantastic dungeon crawler and multiplayer experience, it is also a perfect example of failing to provide a compelling story in a multiplayer experience. While the story is no doubt interesting, the game assaults players with long cutscenes filled with dialogue. Players that have no interest in the dialogue can skip the dialogue, but unless everyone including the party leader skips the scene, everyone must wait for the characters to deliver their lines.
Long non-interactive cutscenes are clearly not the answer to delivering a story in a multiplayer setting. Even fans of cutscenes like myself tend to skip right past them in multiplayer games. The natural reaction once this information is in hand is to suggest a story that is either interactive, or does not interrupt and slow the gameplay to an irritating degree.
Arcade games of the past (and even some of the present) had their fairshare of cutscenes, Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action brawlers provided simple story cutscenes between levels, but most lasted all of 5 seconds. In the context of a comic like Ninja Turtles, the cutscenes served not only to introduce new story elements, but provided context for the players and drove the action.
It is not 1992 anymore. 16 years later, we are still no closer to revolutionizing story in the multiplayer space, instead choosing to stick to the same conventions, or throw away story altogether. This really is unacceptable, though, especially considering the advances in interactive storytelling currently taking place in single player games, especially ones like Half-Life 2 and Bioshock.
Even in the multiplayer game space, games like Neverwinter Nights provided incredible storytelling tools where players could become online Dungeon Masters, creating an interesting narrative and cast of characters for players to explore and with which to interact. Because Dungeon Masters played an active role in the multiplayer game - as opposed to most games where story is controlled by the CPU - and could tailor the story experience for the participating players on the fly.
Even with such advances, and such obvious road signs to a pleasant future of innovation, why do most developers ignore such advice, instead looking to develop new ways to ignore narrative and story? The answer is simple: a lack of inspiration. While a few game have had success with providing context and drive in a multiplayer experience, the majority of games provide just enough to motivate the player to beat up, or work with their friend in order achieve some largely arbitrary goal.
There are many potentially successful ways to present an interesting and layered story in a multiplayer session. One approach is provided the story as an option. Not everyone cares about the complex story that ties the world together, and they should not be unwillingly subjected to it. The game could offer snippets of story via hidden items, much like Halo 3’s terminals, or quietly told in pictures strewn about the game. Newspapers clippings, posters and the background ramblings of computer controlled characters can go a long way to framing the action and driving the player without throwing up a stop sign and force feeding the plot.
Centering the creation and evolution around the player and the core gameplay is another route. Instead of shoehorning story into the game and forcing players to further the story to return to the gameplay, why not make the story the gameplay? Offer robust tool sets that allow players to forge their own story experience, and through gameplay, decide how involved and complex the story will be. Much like Neverwinter Nights’ Dungeon Master multiplayer, offer the ability to change the environment and story on the fly to compensate for unexpected situations. Or, offer narrative tools that players use in unison to create a story and narrative that matches their game style, much the way elementary school children write a short story together, adding a single paragraph and passing it on to the next in line.
Story is not totally necessary in multiplayer gaming and sometimes does nothing but hinder the fun. That does not mean that developers should not think of new ways to enhance and evolve how we think about multiplayer gaming. Games like Source Engine-based shooter The Crossing are trying to merge story more seamlessly into multiplayer, but if gamers reject it, it might not be because they do not want story in games. It might just be that the story is not improving the experience. It’s a dangerous and thin line to tread, but developers have to take these risks if they truly believe in the craft of game making as an art.
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