Poll: Saving story telling in games

[Melkai]

'I hastily disguise myself in the rags of a beggar before sneaking in under cover of darkness. I feign a decrepit limp to give credence to my need for a walking staff, a conveniently inauspicious weapon. The guard wearily regards me as I pass through the gate, barely raising his gaze from my feet. I'm in. Perhaps somewhat too eagerly I press onward, unaware that each step slowly lifts the veil on my ruse. The guard, suddenly aware of his lapse in duty, snaps his gaze twofold to me. Though now some distance from the guard's station my noble posture, and ample figure, is unmistakeable. I was no beggar. Startled by the revelation the guard bolts toward me, an amateur mistake. Seasoned guards know well to raise the alarm before confronting a suspicious stranger in the dead of night. The guard was closing fast upon me, subtle deception was not my forte. It was time to turn this encounter to my advantage, to play to my strength as it were. Whipping about on my feet I twist and spin the staff over my head. The air split before the path of my blow, and the guard was denied the opportunity to learn from his mistake. The clanging of alarm bells rang, as several guards stormed the courtyard. The crashing blow had clearly alerted the whole garrison. In short order I am surrounded by belligerent sleep deprived guards. My mission to rescue the captured King had come to a tragic end. Or so I thought. Luckily I had saved just previous to sneaking by the guard, this time I think I'll bribe him instead.'


Oh right, I was meant to be making a point.

The greatest stories tell of hardship and triumph, glory and failure. It would seem logical for such lofty stories to fit perfectly with the electronic gaming medium. However it is the interactive nature of the experience that leads to its downfall, the 'safety save'. Choices need to have consequences for any real immersion in story telling to occur. 'Safety saving' occurs when prior to making any potential crucial decision in a game, you save, in order to go back in case the decision has unpleasant/unexpected results. How can a story be told in an engaging manner, or indeed engaging stories be created, where the audience accepts nothing but glorious good-times? Do the moments of hardship make the gaming experience, and by extension the story, more enjoyable? Or does it make the gaming experience less enjoyable?

Do you 'safety save'? and do you believe it harms story telling?

 

[Radeonx]

No. I only save if I have to stop playing and want to come back where I left off, or if I feel like saving after a battle.

I never did it, but I don't think it harms story telling. The player can choose which path he wants, and, if he doesn't like the one he took, what's the point in replaying the game just to re-do a choice.

 

[Melkai]

Thanks for posting.

I made this post after a realisation while playing Mount & Blade. I had been, for some time, saving before and after every major battle/event I encountered. Only recently it had struck me as a horribly damaging gaming behaviour, especially so in a game with such sparse narrative. I had been writing my own story,as gamers do, but had whitewashed the experience to eliminate failure. I suppose this could be seen as a confession of a compulsive saver. My thinking now is that such saving cripples the consequences of game decisions.

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

To prevent things like safety saves we really need to have a game where the game doesn't end if you get yourself into a sticky situation. I think Heavy Rain is meant to have done this but I haven't played it yet. But till that time comes I shall "safety save" at will to avoid the frustration of having to repeat my actions.

One way of getting round it would possibly be to not allow the player to save, but the game itself saves every second or so by its own accord. Obviously this has problems associated with it, like if you get stuck in a glitch then the game is over for you and you have to start all over again from the beginning. But then maybe there could be a kind of checkpoint system where you could load at the beginning of every "chapter" (would only work if each chapter was quite long) as well as where you currently are.

You make a good point though and are also surprisingly good at story telling.

 

[Melkai]

Thanks for the story critique, I got a little carried away.

You make some excellent points about game design, especially regarding life after 'sticky situations'. Good stories are at their best when the chips are down after a crushing setback, though this isn't really reflected in games. Something going wrong so often means death, and game over (for an interesting exception check out Omikron: The Nomad Soul, not a great game, but a good exception nonetheless). I think you've hit the nail on the head with game design to improve story telling.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I used to abuse savegames a lot, but <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.182805>a while ago I came to the conclusion that I'm cheating myself out of the full gameplay experience if I reload whenever something doesn't go as planned.

Nowadays I keep reloading to a minimum. I still save a lot (after all, you never know when a bug is going to ruin your game), but I only reload when I really can't progress otherwise.

 

[eggy32]

I rarely safety save, though I've been doing it quite a bit in Morrowind. I'm only just getting into it now (always takes me several characters to properly get into a TES game) and it's my first proper playthrough so I wanna make sure I don't mess any of the good stuff up for my low level character. I'll probably stop soon though.

 

[Melkai]

It seems you've covered in detail exactly the issue of contention. A stellar line-up of example games also, precisely the scenarios I called to mind in writing my post.

It is somewhat ironic that excellent stories are hailed for their epic tragedies while in the world of gaming (and its preoccupation with story telling of late) such emphasis is placed upon perfection in play. Perhaps when people accept loss as part of a game (not just gamers but developers also) these quibbles about story will be a thing of the past.

 

[Melkai]

Morrowind provides an excellent example, one in which I share much experience/frustration. The narrative (depending on your playing style) can be quite sparse, leaving one free to create your own. For me this entailed daring assassinations under cover of dark. 'Daring' though wouldn't quite describe my meticulously cautious approach, saving with every second breath. Instead of creating a marvellous adventure of how I got away when the task went bad, I was labouring over a self-enforced goal of perfection in execution (pun very much intended).

 

[redblinky]

1. The OP is epic.
2. I dont safety save because of my decisions... But when playing my favorite game of all time for which I bought a computer for the sole purpose of playing, morrowind. I am forced to save because in all its glory and awesomeness its buggy as shit. CTD's on my computer versions or the "this game is not supported" message on the xbox will drive me nuts. Literally nuts. So the "safety save" for me is my holy shit im not going back three hours of life because my game just went tits up again.

 

[Marter]

I save whenver the chance comes up. It doesn't break the immersion for me. I won't go back and reload if it is a choice based game though. I just tend to get pulled away from games pretty often, and I like not losing much data when this happens.

 

[Waif]

I safety save a lot, though I can see why some people may feel that it detracts from the players feeling of immersion in the story. Though for me it actually helps keep focus, because having to replay an entire scene takes me out of the story. That and I'm not having to worry too much when it comes to a "Leap of Faith" platformer or an insta-kill puzzle that has no instructions. For this reason I safety save, only when I don't want to have to repeat a certain process over and over again. Though sometimes I save just because it seems like a good idea, with mixed consequences. To me, safety saving is a worthy practice that won't break the continuity if used wisely.

 

[Jordi]

I safety save almost always. If I don't it's because I forgot, not because I chose it. I can definitely see why people think it's more enjoyable to experience the story as it comes, without this safety. I like to be in control of the story though, and also I like to experience as much of the game's content without having to actually replay the entire game (I'm impatient like that). I usually play a choice in all the ways to see what happens and then pick the one I like best (or I think fits my character the best) and then stick with that.

 

[SimuLord]

I safety save for one reason and one reason only; because games on the PC crash a lot. Losing a chunk of a save to a game-over? Not so bad. Losing a five-hour session to a CTD and having to start over five hours previous? Different story.

 

[Lullabye]

I hate it when people tell me this. "there needs to be consequences!"
NO, there doesn't.
Do you have consequences when reading a book? How about watching a movie? No? huh. Yet somehow we still enjoy it.
That being said, playing through the Fire Emblem series where characters die permanently on the battlefield really does add a sense of desperation to the whole thing. The more people you keep alive, the more of the story unfolds.
Still, I rather enjoy being able to save before a major decision, that way I don't need to play through the entire game again to see "what might've been"

 

[Kpt._Rob]

I safety save constantly, and why not I say? If no one else wants to say it, I will, because frankly, I did not buy Oblivion or Fallout 3 for the story. Hell, even Bethesda doesn't seem too horribly drawn to sticking with story, considering that they completely changed the ending of Fallout 3 in the DLC. I come to games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 because I have fun wandering around the wastes collecting as much valuable shit as I possibly can. I spend a lot of time playing, I've invested a lot of energy into my character, if I don't use the safety save then the only way for me to get the outcome I want is to invest countless hours making a new character and replaying massive stretches of the game just to change one decision (thereby turning the countless hours spent on the previous character into wasted time, and also making the second, third, or fourth trip through the game increasingly less enjoyable and more frustrating when I again fail to forsee the outcome of a decision). And, considering the amount of time I invested in the files where I did safety save, the amount of time it would take to successfully complete the task of "best possible outcome" without the safety save would be rediculous. I don't know about you, but I'm going to die some day, and while I've got enough time to play videogames, I don't have that much time. If the developer has a story they really want to tell, they won't be giving me a choice in the first place, but I don't come to sandbox games for the story, I come because I want to have fun. And to that extent, I am glad for my safety save.

 

[Irridium]

I do it in some occasions.

For example, I live with my choices in the games. However if I make a mistake and accidentally choose something I didn't mean to. For example I could have twitched or the mouse could be screwy. Plus, there is the always present possibility of game crashes.

Other than that, I don't. I hate it when people do, since it takes the whole "consequences of choices" aspect out of the game. But eh, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Kimarous]

My earliest gaming days was based around Sierra games. As such, I have always lived by the creed of "save early, save often". It doesn't break my immersion; in fact, I feel less immersive if I don't because I worry about something going awry and losing a bunch of progress.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

I only really do it when I know that it's been a long while since an autosave - generally though, I hope I had good enough judgement to make the right decision in the first place!