"Western games don't have good storys"

[Vault101]

Ok Bob what the hell are you talking about?

anyway If you havnt seen MovieBobs video basically thats what he said

now dont get me wrong Im not about to go ranting about Moviebob even after all the crazy stuff he said about PC gaming dying I dont have to agree with him all the time to respect his opionion (no not in that case however, that just felt like trolling)

anyway If by that perhaps he means that when it comes Down to it most games storys are not the complex and are generally at B movie level, then yes I can sort of understand where he's coming from

however I still think plenty of games have good storys and sure I dont ask much from videogame storys other than they keep me interested at least

but what alternitive is he talking about? JRPG's? yeah because we know how highly regarded they are around thease parts....."especially" for their storys

that said how ever I dont know much about Japanese games

 

[Duffeknol]

Bioware.

Wups there goes everything Bob claimed right out the window.

EDIT because I get quoted way too much at this and this is the easiest way to reply to everyone:

'Story' is not 'plot summary'. That way, you can make anything sound simplistic and stupid. Here, look:
Citizen Kane - Young man turns into a weird recluse. Is that the story of Citizen Kane? Hell no.
Also, if you'd ask someone to actually tell the story of, say, Mass Effect, and if he'd do that in a little bit more detail, it automatically gets better. You'd start with a character introduction: 'Commander Shepard is the first human Spectre, which is a really big deal because of . See what I'm getting at? That's the story, not just a summary of the plot.

Say, I take the book Lord of the Rings and I read the back. Basically I can sum it up as 'weird little creature with big feet has to burn a ring in order to save the world'. Pretty fucking stupid if you ask me. But is that the story of Lord of the Rings? Or is it what's actually written in the hundreds of pages in the book? Isn't the writing of the book the exact same thing as the actual story? In my opinion, it is. Story = the writing.

Like Extra Credits pretty much said: the story of a game is communicated to the player in a lot of different ways; gameplay mechanics, dialog, codex entries, whatever. All of that is story as well.

Basically, what it comes down to, I think Bob mixed up the terms 'plot' and 'story'. Yes, Western games mostly have silly, simplistic plots, even I can agree with that. But a lot of them have great stories to them, since a story is so much, much more.

 

[StormShaun]

I just played Yakuza 4 and I love the story and the combat so far, also I like the culture of Japan and I love the enviroment....

 

[AceAngel]

Actually here is the dealio.

Western games have crappy stories, but great unfolding of the narrative (Uncharted, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc...), meaning the way the story is told adds in the strengths. Think about it for a minute, Mass Effects story is pretty 'eh eh eh?' at best, yet the way it's told, and how all the world is held together is what adds the strength to it.

On the other hand, the Eastern games have more 'varied' themes of a game's story, but they lack the ability of make the narrative worth two craps. Take for example Knights Contract:

An evil Lord goes on a Witch purge, and decided to kill a clan of Witches which wants to help common people, yet the people get riled against them because of the Evil Lord manipulations. The guys who is tasked as the one to kill the Witches doesn't want to see the truth and accepts what is happening due to his own fear being outcast from society.
So a Witch curses him to be immortal, making him into something he feared he would be looked down upon as.
The Witches which are killed all come back to life, and are monsters (variations of 7 sins) and now want to destroy humans, but one of their sisters with the main character have to stop them.

However, the game isn't worth two crap in the story department because everything is drawn out so badly, it's not funny. The Witches all talk in a voice of boredom, the pacing is horrible with dialog that sounds...off, the events are employed at random (in one scene, the characters have the chance to fight the evil lord, but they say 'it's not now the time', and later on are in some other even that cannot even relate to the previous event). Lack of proper narrative, muddy progression and lack of coherent plot settings.

So yeah, if only Western and Eastern game developers actually joined forced, then maybe we could something that is worth two craps.

 

[binvjoh]

Bioware.

Wups there goes everything Bob claimed right out the window.

Dammit.

I guess I'll have to be more specific and say Mass Effect.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Even though BioWare stories are pretty damn cliched, they present the stories well enough for them to be interesting and they know how to create interesting, likeable characters.

I'll admit most Western games don't have good stories, but neither to do most Eastern ones.

Obsidian probably does story and writing the best out of the major RPG developers.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

The thing that people need to stop doing is comparing stories in games to stories in other sorts of media. Just like movies can never create stories as in depth as in books, games can't and shouldn't compare with any of the two, books or movies. They're different, not better or worse.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The thing that people need to stop doing is comparing stories in games to stories in other sorts of media. Just like movies can never create stories as in depth as in books, games can't and shouldn't compare with any of the two, books or movies. They're different, not better or worse.

Also, not making sweeping generalisations about the West or East.

[small]I'd also like to add that most books and movies have rubbish stories as well, we remember the good ones because they stand out from the dross[/small]

 

[stormtrooper9091]

Bioware.

Wups there goes everything Bob claimed right out the window.

Bob even liked Avatar so it's not as if he's got much credibility anyway

 

[Fanta Grape]

STORIES! STORIES! STORIES, DAMMIT!

and I believe he meant "GENERALLY Western games don't have good stories." Which is relatively true. Wasn't that the implication?

 

[Owlslayer]

I really can't say cause the only somewhat eastern game I've played was DMC4. Though i did like the cutscenes and other stuff. Not really sure if that even counts... but if does, then hells, i liked it. I was fun.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Actually here is the dealio.

Western games have crappy stories, but great unfolding of the narrative (Uncharted, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc...), meaning the way the story is told adds in the strengths. Think about it for a minute, Mass Effects story is pretty 'eh eh eh?' at best, yet the way it's told, and how all the world is held together is what adds the strength to it.

On the other hand, the Eastern games have more 'varied' themes of a game's story, but they lack the ability of make the narrative worth two craps. Take for example Knights Contract:

An evil Lord goes on a Witch purge, and decided to kill a clan of Witches which wants to help common people, yet the people get riled against them because of the Evil Lord manipulations. The guys who is tasked as the one to kill the Witches doesn't want to see the truth and accepts what is happening due to his own fear being outcast from society.
So a Witch curses him to be immortal, making him into something he feared he would be looked down upon as.
The Witches which are killed all come back to life, and are monsters (variations of 7 sins) and now want to destroy humans, but one of their sisters with the main character have to stop them.

However, the game isn't worth two crap in the story department because everything is drawn out so badly, it's not funny. The Witches all talk in a voice of boredom, the pacing is horrible with dialog that sounds...off, the events are employed at random (in one scene, the characters have the chance to fight the evil lord, but they say 'it's not now the time', and later on are in some other even that cannot even relate to the previous event). Lack of proper narrative, muddy progression and lack of coherent plot settings.

So yeah, if only Western and Eastern game developers actually joined forced, then maybe we could something that is worth two craps.

My thoughts exactly. Very well said indeed, good sir. In a nutshell: western stories are often shallow/cliché but very well told, while eastern games tend to have more interesting yet poorly executed plots.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Bioware.

Wups there goes everything Bob claimed right out the window.

Bob even liked Avatar so it's not as if he's got much credibility anyway

Because bob can tell apart visually entertaining and story telling. Both is good in a movie

 

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

That's actually just a poor localization and is more than likely the result of no effort being put into the process of it. You could easily blame the west for mucking that game up by hiring poor voice actors and doing a shitty job of translating the story. (and possibly changing bits because they're afraid the west won't like them; see Nier [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nier_%28video_game%29]) It's entirely possible that before the west got it's hands on it the game's story played out quite well.

Of course the story could have been crap from the get go and localization may have made it worse or couldn't help it at all. Garbage in garbage out, as a comp science professor once told me.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

Didn´t he just say something along the lines that even "good" game stories are about on the same level as crap 90s action movie ?

Oh and could someone tell me what Video is specifically refered to here ?
In my experience, whenever someone says "basically thats what he said", it more often than not really wasn´t basically what he said.

 

[MrJKapowey]

What about Bethesda, I liked the TES and Fallout stories. But then again I didn't think that MW2s story was bad.

 

[Dana22]

The last non-western game Ive played was Metal Gear Solid 4, which was an epitome of clusterfuck and barely comprehensible storytelling. Before that was Final Fantasy XIII a mastery in cliches and linearity.

Argument is invalid, or something.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Sturgeon's Law. That's all I have to say on this matter.

But if youb want the longer veriosn:
Both he and you are both grossly generalizing on the west and east respecitvely. If you want to make the arguement that all JRPGs have crap stories, I could just as quickly say that most FPS games have crap stories. For every Chrono Trigger and Modern Warfare, there's at least 50 FFXIIIs and Homefronts. Don't go using Bioware either, or I can use Atlus. There is no superior storyteller.

And honestly, I was disgusted that the Escapist, a community that prides itself on their intelligence in gaming discussion, took one single line from a video about movie adaptations of videogames, and took it as a chance to turn it into the age ol' flamewar of East vs West.

 

[Blood Countess]

I sort of stopped watching movie bob for obvious reasons and this sounds like another one.
I do admit a lot of western game has bad stories but so do a lot of japanese games, personally I find Japanese are worse cause I could watch anime for the story