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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Tell 
                        me a Story</font></i></font></b><br>

                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        Russell &quot;<a href="mailto:radpipe@loonygames.com">RadPipe</a>&quot; 
                        Lauzon</font></div>
                    </div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 9<br>
                      January 24, 2000</font></b></h5>
                  </td>
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              <h5 align="right">&nbsp;</h5>
            </DIV>
            <div align="left"> 
              <h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How about those other 
                games?</font></h3>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                loonyboi, my esteemed Editor-in-Chief, boss, bearer-of-the-whip, 
                and lover of fine guiness, once wrote a story that appeared on 
                <a href="http://www.planetquake.com">Planetquake</a> called, Waiting 
                for Casablanca. I remember when it first appeared and read it 
                from start to finish. In it he criticizes storytelling in games 
                and talks about the degeneration of the art. It was one of his 
                most popular pieces to date and generated tons of feedback. One 
                of them, as mentioned in the review I quoted above, was from an 
                anonymous source at LucasArts who tried to convince him that this 
                new game they were working on, Grim Fandango, would change all 
                that. And it did. </font></p>
              <p></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My next question revolved 
                around other games that the 3 designers have played and enjoyed. 
                Were they story-rich in content? Did they think it was more difficult 
                to tell a story through a First Person Shooter?</font></p>
              <p></p>
            </div>
            <blockquote> 
              <div align="left"> 
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tim Schafer:</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  It's no more difficult to tell a story with a first-person. 
                  It just takes a little imagination--like in Half Life. That 
                  game illustrates what a lot of us need to figure out--how to 
                  develop a story in interactive ways, not just through cut-scenes. 
                  That's something I aspire to do with every game, and still feel 
                  like I have a long way to go.</font></p>
              </div>
              <div align="left"> 
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Justin Chin:</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  I'd have to say my favorite story game is, Full Throttle. I 
                  just love that game. I think it's difficult to tell story in 
                  first person shooters because there is a lot of people who think 
                  you don't need it. Other than that, I think it's the perfect 
                  way to tell a story. I love the first person perspective, it's 
                  engrossing and real. Generally, I think some might consider 
                  it difficult because television and movies have a lot of editing 
                  and visual camera work to tell their stories. But one must remember 
                  that computer games are a relatively new medium, and that it 
                  also demands a new way to tell stories. If that's what you want 
                  to do. Remember not all games need stories. I still play a lot 
                  of UT and Quake.</font></p>
                <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Incidentally our 
                  current game, New Legends, is a third person shooter. I know 
                  I've said that I love first person shooters, but we made this 
                  decision for game-play reasons. This is the only way we could 
                  conceive to play New Legends and get the most out of the combat 
                  system. It was purely a game-play decision. I know everyone 
                  is grumbling as they read this, but in the end, when the game 
                  is released, everyone might understand why.</font></p>
              </div>
              <div align="left"></div>
              <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Marc 
                Laidlaw: </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I 
                haven&#146;t been drawn to RPGs in any major way. It&#146;s taken 
                me a long time to get comfortable with the basics of the form: 
                character stats, modes of combat, etc., etc. My lack of mastery 
                of those elements has made it almost impossible for me to get 
                into the story of any RPG. I prefer to play games where the best 
                possible experience has been worked out in advance and is delivered 
                to me as long as I feed energy into the system. I&#146;m willing 
                to trust that the designers already waded through all the possible 
                storylines and shaped them into the most powerful basic form. 
                So I guess I prefer my stories handed to me on a platter!</font></div>
            </blockquote>
            <div align="left"> 
              <h3></h3>
              <h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Post A Comment</font></h3>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Ultimately it is the 
                gaming public that has the last word on any particular game. I 
                asked Justin, Marc, and Tim what were some of the most interesting 
                comments they&#146;ve had on their games.</font></p>
            </div>
            <blockquote> 
              <div align="left"></div>
              <div align="left"> 
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Justin Chin: </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It 
                  was from a post on alt.games.jedi-knight, &quot;I found it very 
                  disturbing that my character killed that girl who was his friend. 
                  Why did he do that and why didn't I have the choice to keep 
                  it from happening?&quot; He continues, &quot;I feel like I'm 
                  a part of it. I feel really bad about killing the girl. She 
                  was a babe. I just have this bad feeling of guilt. The dark 
                  side has taken me over.&quot;</font></p>
                <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I hope more people 
                  felt that way. After debating on that dark/light story point 
                  for the whole project, I think we did the right thing. And, 
                  yes, I agree, Jan Ors is a babe.</font></p>
              </div>
              <div align="left"></div>
              <div align="left">
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Marc Laidlaw:</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  I like it when people recognize that story is just one ingredient 
                  among many. If they say they enjoyed &#147;the story&#148; as 
                  much as they enjoyed the levels or the AI or the art, that&#146;s 
                  saying a lot.</font></p>
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tim Schafer:</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  Women really like Glottis. I thought they'd like Salvador. Go 
                  figure.</font></p>
              </div>
              </blockquote>
            <div align="left">
              <h3></h3>
              <h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Rad Says</font></h3>
              <p></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you haven&#146;t 
                yet guessed, I&#146;m a big proponent of putting the story into 
                the game. I feel that, before a story can be told, whether it&#146;s 


                in a book, in a magazine, on TV, or in a game, there needs to 
                be at least 3 times as much information carefully compiled in 
                terms of background and story development. Sure, write your science 
                fiction story, but I want to see a 5,000 year future history leading 
                up to it.</font></p>
              <p></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The second most important 
                part of putting your story into the game, is developing it. I&#146;ve 
                seen way too many games that have a story leading up to the &#147;Select 
                New Game; Select Difficulty; Start Cinematics...&#148; then suddenly 
                die. Have you ever played a game where you come up against a door 
                that won&#146;t open but will helpfully tell you, &#147;You need 
                the red key.&#148; Sure you have. I have too. It&#146;s akin to 
                running across a non-player-character who tells says, &#147;You 
                need to see your Uncle Leo about the book first to get the key.&#148; 
                And you start thinking, I need a key? What book? I have an uncle? 
                When I get to this point, I usually quit the game. Chances are 
                my interest was lost about 20 minutes ago.</font></p>
              <p></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And third, if you are 
                a game developer, get yourself a person who can tell a story. 
                Someone who can describe a scene and make your mappers, artists, 
                coders believe they&#146;re there. Someone who can put some dialogue 
                together and make it real.</font></p>
              <p></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until next time, this 
                is RadPipe, looking for Casablanca...</font></p>
            </div>
            <blockquote>&nbsp;</blockquote>
            <div align="center"> 
              <p align="right"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>- 
                Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon is currently exhausting all 
                his free time researching Beer Goggles.</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                </font> </p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.3dpalette.com/dimension">Durrenberger David 
  (dines)</a>. This article is &copy; 2000 Russell Lauzon. All other content is 
  &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. So 
  don't do it, or we'll make you cry, sissy.</font></i></p>
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