Please Note: The following article contains opinions that are mine (Jc2006) and so don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of Chris Jones Gaming, its staff, its affiliates or their staff.
In one of my opinion pieces, titled JC’s View, I spoke about how I didn’t like the way the gaming industry was going in regards to Multiplayer.
People high up in some of the top Game Developers have been stating that Single Player gaming is dying and that Multiplayer is the future. I found this worrying to say the least.
In my opinion, Multiplayer in a lot of cases is a map/track and a gun/car and the Player is told to go off and shoot eachother or try and beat eachother on a race track. Obviously this is popular amongst Gamers, but it isn’t for me.
Multiplayer, in this form, is incredibly shallow, mindless and ultimately pointless. It encourages very false feelings of superiority amongst those Gamers that obsessively play the game, SOME of whom bully, shut out and make feel inferior the new or lesser skilled Gamers of the title. This can be seen in many Multiplayer communities, it’s difficult to find a Gamer that hasn’t had this problem.
Cue Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, who I’ve recently praised for their Single Player, their focus on storytelling and their welcoming of fan feedback, which can actively shape their Games post-launch.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Naughty Dog Creative Director and Writer Neil Druckmann said that storytelling in the Games Industry was of a “poor” standard and revealed that they were aiming to, and I quote, “change the f****** industry” with their newest title, ‘The Last of Us’.
Druckmann also said that he wanted the team at Naughty Dog to raise the bar.
“(I want other developers to realise) Okay, I really need to learn the craft of storytelling, I really need to involve my actors in this in order to get realistic performances and realistic actors. That’s what we want to do”
He also discussed his disappointment that Game Reviewers far too often praised mediocre storytelling within games, which ultimately holds the industry up, by sometimes creating the false illusion they’re doing things right.
“We try so hard at Naughty Dog to push things. Games come out that are fun, exciting and get visceral things right, but to read in reviews that they have an amazing story is disheartening to us, because we work so hard at it.
As critics we need to raise the bar, otherwise no-one’s going to change. We’re going to keep pushing ourselves, and kill ourselves to make this story happen – but hope that by doing it, the rest of the industry is going to take notice and try to do the same thing.”
Asked about what he thought other Developers did wrong in terms of storytelling, Druckmann replied:
“We mistake quantity for quality. We don’t focus on characters, we focus on monsters or [the] gruesome”
Druckmann, as well as Game Director Bruce Straley, were then asked what The Last of Us will be about.
Druckmann: “This is going to sound corny, and it might not appeal to all gamers, but I would say it’s a love story. It’s not a romantic love story, it’s a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship.
We approached this genre because we felt no-one is getting to the heart of it. It tells you something about the human condition – that’s what you want to do as a storyteller.
We’re not saying every game needs a strong, compelling and dramatic story, but if you are going to make a narrative-based game then you better learn the craft”
Straley: “It’s not just a zombie game. It’s going to be a completely amazing experience that no player has experienced for this genre, the characters, the development, everything.”
That last statement by Bruce Straley actually began to address an initial concern I and other Gamers had expressed when this title was unveiled. Would “The Last of Us” just be another zombie/mutant game?………Would it be something we’ve all seen before, if not in Games than in Movies?
It seems Naughty Dog themselves are aware of this, which is a good sign. Their awareness that Gamers want more than just another zombie game, as well as feeling strongly about good quality storytelling, gives hope that “The Last of Us” will turn out to be a great Single Player game.
I do agree with Neil that not all games need to be deep and heavily story-driven, because that would be a worse situation than we’re in now in regards to Single Player.
Equally though, it’s wrong to review games and say that, for example, a 2-5 hour campaign is amazing, because it just isn’t. Homefront Developers Kaos Studios employed an author to write them a rich storyline, in the vein of what Druckmann spoke about, but this opportunity for story was wasted when the Campaign was over as soon as it started and the rest of the game was just Multiplayer.
Games shouldn’t be Multiplayer with a half-hearted, half-thought out Single Player bolted on to the side. Game Reviewers like myself need to be honest and say no, a 2 hour campaign (such as in EA’s recent Need For Speed: The Run) is not acceptable. It’s not acceptable to trade great storytelling, great writing talent, great voiceover artists and revolutionary improvements in AI for meaningless, shallow Multiplayer, which will one day be rendered completely useless when the Developer in question turns off the servers.
That’s what we all need to ask ourselves. What are you left with when the Multiplayer Servers are switched off?………..In the majority of cases these days, absolutely nothing.
“The Last of Us”, a Playstation 3 Exclusive, is yet to receive a release window from Naughty Dog, but is expected to debut some time in 2012.
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