Game writing

Gaming gets trodden on sometimes because it's "badly written", "stupid" or some other, rather similar descriptive terms. And it's true, often games are a bit stupidly written: the plots are overly evident, simplistic and clumsy - and gamers easily forgive this kind of stuff in favor of playability, because, as an acquaintance of mine put it, "you don't have time to listen to follow the plot if you're too busy shooting everything in sight."

I find this unfortunate. I wish that gamers - the core group that actually consumes games and game culture - would demand something better. Unfortunately a large portion of gamers are happy as clams to simply get the next FIFA, NHL and Battlefield off the shelves, which really isn't that good for originality, risk taking and cool new ideas in the gaming business.

Luckily, the fringe, underground and indie markets are slowly gaining ground. Services like the XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade), PSN Store (PlayStation Network Store) and Steam have made it possible for anything that seems marketable to be on the market. You could make your cool ideas into a real, finished product but have no means of marketing it? Now you do.

Now, "indie" or any other of these labels doesn't mean a game is good. Not even close. But it means that original ideas finally have a foothold on the business: you don't have to try to get a footing through the coder scene (although it still helps) - you can go to a broader audience straight off the bat.

This means there's a lot of, well, not that good games (I'd rather not use the term swill, although sometimes it feels apt) circulating out there: topical spinoffs of something that was good, with very minor tweaks to the gameplay as such. But it also means that sometimes, you find absolute diamonds: blasts from the past, with a polished, "now" kind of a finish; storytelling treasures, psychological exercises made interactive, explorations into the human psyche...

Game writing is often mediocre and sometimes downright bad. But sometimes it gives you a slice of life that is worth a good book or a great movie. I've played games that have made me laugh, cry and live the plot with the characters. On this topic, I'll be pondering the Walking Dead (the game, not the comic or the tv series) next time.