Why writing in games matters: advancing the art of storytelling
by BEN KUCHERA
While games may make plenty of money without quality writing, if we want to …
The problem with writing in games is that we point out when it’ s terrible, but we don’ t praise it enough when it’ s good. Consider Half-Life 2.
In the beginning of the game, you’ re just another desperate citizen pushed through processing before entering the city. People around you are muttering, and if this is your first time playing, you’ ll likely amazed by the graphics and the Source engine. It’ s beautiful. Then the megascreen on the building pops up and Dr. Breen appears to explain why the aliens have taken away our ability to reproduce. The quality of the writing makes it worth quoting at length:
Let me read a letter I recently received.“ Dear Dr. Breen. Why has the Combine seen fit to suppress our reproductive cycle? Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen.”
Thank you for writing, Concerned. Of course your question touches on one of the basic biological impulses, with all its associated hopes and fears for the future of the species. I also detect some unspoken questions. Do our benefactors really know what’ s best for us? What gives them the right to make this kind of decision for mankind? Will they ever deactivate the suppression field and let us breed again?
Allow me to address the anxieties underlying your
Half-Life 2
concerns, rather than try to answer every possible question you might have left unvoiced. First, let us consider the fact that for the first time ever, as a species, immortality is in our reach. This simple fact has far-reaching implications. It requires radical rethinking and revision of our genetic imperatives. It also requires planning and forethought that run in direct opposition to our neural pre-sets.
I find it helpful at times like these to remind myself that our true enemy is Instinct. Instinct was our mother when we were an infant species. Instinct coddled us and kept us safe in those years when we hardened our sticks and cooked our first meals above a meager fire and started at the shadows that leapt upon the cavern’ s walls.
But inseparable from Instinct is its dark twin, Superstition. Instinct is inextricably bound to unreasoning impulses, and today we clearly see its true nature. Instinct has just become aware of its irrelevance, and like a cornered beast, it will not go down without a bloody fight.
Instinct would inflict a fatal injury on our species. Instinct creates its own oppressors, and bids us rise up against them. Instinct tells us that the unknown is a threat, rather than an opportunity. Instinct slyly and covertly compels us away from change and
100 | WGSA MAG July 2013