In the early 1900's, film began to take firm roots in storytelling. These early stories were short, simple affairs that were heavily restricted by the medium - the sound track was separate from the film reel, so movies were silent. Colour film was yet to enter into the equation on a viable level, so everything was black and white. Cameras were hand cranked, so subtleties in beat and pause were nie on impossible for all but the very best in film makers. And on top of all of this, animation was new.

The games industry went through very similar restrictions in its infancy. The nature of computers in the 70's meant it was extremely hard to successfully draw a person-shape on the screen, much less give them any real character. Several decades on, and games have come a long way. But our stories are still sub-par.

Perhaps this has something to do with the way we have cherry-picked a lot of our techniques from film - and why not, when as technical mediums, the two have so much in common. Both games and film rely heavily on visual aides to lead us through; cameras and the myriad techniques that come with them; effects and environments that allow us to disappear into the fantasy.

But even though almost all of the cinematic techniques we have were taken from film with very little tweaking necessary, games have yet to capture the essence of storytelling that our medium rightly deserves. And for those about to mention the Deus Ex's and Final Fantasy's of game storytelling, take a moment to consider the real truth of it - these games are brilliant relative to others, but they are only a stepping stone.

While the penetration of games in mass media has been far faster than film or music, and the popularity of games has skyrocketed past Hollywood in recent years, we are 40 years in, and we still haven't seen our Casablanca.

All this is because, while on a technical level it makes sense for us to borrow from film, in a creative sense it doesn't work. Length, pacing, dialogue restrictions, visual components and story branching are all radically different for a game. We need to start addressing these issues head on.

The Hero's Journey story structure works for film, because it is highly focused - it follows a very specific pacing pattern and story flow. Games cannot do this. There are simply too many variables as a result of the interactive nature.

There are other kinds of story though - Greek and Shakespearean Comedy and Tragedy, Fairy Tales, Fables, and Act Structures, among a few others. These are all much better suited to the dynamic ebb and flow of a game's story, and often the characterisation is secondary to the morality or metaphors involved. Wouldn't that be a far better way to approach games, especially since everyone has it in their head that having a nameless, generic husk as the protagonist allows the player to 'put themself in the game' (that's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish).

The study and debate on story in games is very long, and equally complicated. This is simply one aspect of that discussion. Feel free to pipe up with an opinion or rant of your own. I'll be continuing the story blogs in the future.