Phoenixmgs said:
Very few games across all genres have good stories because there's barely any writing talent in the medium.
Speaking as someone who has done professional game writing, I can totally third this.
It's not even just a lack of writing talent. For a long time no one thought a writer was needed and that the team could just cobble something together.
And then they started hiring writers at the last minute to just "give the game a story / make things sound punchier" when it was mostly done. And they hired people who weren't used to the unique challenges of writing for games.
Or they'll hire a novelist to write the story, and lock him in a closet, and then three months to deadline they go "yo, where's the story" and he's like "oh, I only have the first 3 chapters, and we have to completely redo all the level design for the first 2 levels for this important scene to work" or something like that.
Even now, when most good studios know the value of bringing a writer on early and integrating them within the team ASAP, they can still make mistakes.
Not to mention that writing for games has (like I mentioned), a lot of unique challenges and pitfalls that people who only know traditional writing can get trapped by.
Now, onto the OP's points...
B-Cell said:
im not saying that RPG have bad story. they have not. but the way i observe FPS do have better stories than RPG.
First, huh? While FPS games HAVE had some fantastic stories (thank you Bioshock), to say that they have better stories than RPGs, which were the original genre to bring storytelling to games seems kinda absurd to me.
Especially when you look at the flood of military FPS games last generation compared to the long and storied (ha) influence of RPGs.
Secondly, you kind of do say that RPGs have bad stories
witcher story is debatable but its based on book and its story is not very good. elder scroll and fallout story are crap even their fans believe both games story suck. mass effect story is also generic space story. compare them to single player story driven FPS like Half life, Metro, FEAR, System shock, Deus Ex have much better story than average RPG.
Honestly, it just feels like your massive distaste for RPGs is bleeding over into the stories and because you're not enjoying the gameplay, you extend that to the story.
Or maybe you're just playing RPGs with mediocre plots. I can't speak for the Witcher games, but Elder Scrolls and Fallout aren't actually intending to tell you a great story, they exist to let you tell your own story through the game world. And Mass Effect generally avoided being a "generic space story" by having brilliant character arcs that carried the rest of the games (Seriously, the Suicide Mission in ME2 was a stellar conclusion to a game about gathering a team).
Seriously, though, because you seem to have an aversion to RPGs already, I am not sure what I could recommend to you that has a good plot. Somehow I REALLY get the feeling you wouldn't appreciate what the classics like
Crono Trigger brought to the medium (A damn expertly crafted time travel story that touched on many major time periods and did some crazy stuff that most other games at the time woudn't have dared to do), nor do I think you'd click with something like
The World Ends With You, which mashed a thrilling supernatural conspiracy with lovable characters into a crazy-fun bizzare combat system.
Which means more niche stuff like
Radiant Historia or the later
Etrian Odyssey games or the RPGs I've made for fun, or even something like Octopath traveler is basically off the table for me to reccomend.
I mean, I guess I could recommend:
1) The first Xenoblade for having lovable characters, a unique world, and a plot that always felt like it was going somewhere, even in cases when you're essentially taking a detour to help someone out. That and it had several memorable twists that tied in really well to the narrative of revenge and forgiveness.
2) Persona 5, for again having fantastic characters, and a plot that dared to touch on darker subjects of people abusing their power, and letting you feel powerful in turn when you managed to expose them. Not to mention some damn nifty background stuff going on if you're paying attention.
3) Nier Automata...Although the game is truly weird and kinda disjointed in ways and you have to essentially replay the game twice before you get the second half of the game that actually reveals what the game is REALLY going for, and even then you need to look into all sorts of hidden lore to really understand the game and go "ooooooh...Hot damn this is amazing".
Also, hate to be contrarian, but Half-Life's plot (And 2) was pretty bland, and so was the gameplay. FEAR I can't comment on, I couldn't play more than an hour before getting bored out of my skull, Metro was pretty good (with a decent plot) but the gameplay was so janky I gave up on it, and System Shock and Deux Ex are actually Immersive Sims that happen to express their gameplay via FPS mechanics (Deus Ex has RPG mechanics, which ends up being why you have to wait 7 seconds for your pistol aim to steady before you can take a shot).
Also, Deus Ex 1's story is kind of an insane (but still very enjoyable) mess. What makes it memorable and great is how it gives you so many ways to express yourself on it, and have it actually recognize your choices. And some of the twists are memorably fun.
even DOOM has pretty good story if you pay attention to it.
Which Doom? The new one? I'll at least grant you that the new one actually does have some great writing, by way of interesting lore, weaving some of the narrative into the gameplay, and making the characters really interesting and fun, even if the main plot is essentially "Demons over there, kill they ass, also, chase a few plot maguffins)
Soo...Long story short, I don't think FPS games generally have better stories than RPGs. It only seems that way recently because FPS game studios have recently begun to understand the value of getting good game writers on board, when up until recently they didn't generally do it.
