by James Brightman on Tuesday, April 22, 2008
GameDaily BIZ: I met with Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack earlier and he believes storytelling is the driving force that's going to take gaming forward. Do you agree with that viewpoint?
Ray Muzyka: Yes, but also, what is story telling? It's an interesting question to explore. I really believe there are different types of narrative in games that are starting to emerge now as separate threads. The story, VO, and the character interactions for us is an important one, but it's not the only one. There's also you as explorer, exploring new areas with that sense of awe and excitement, or you and combat as you as a combatant and progressing your abilities. Or developing your skills assuming your personal identity, growing your character, or interacting with other players in your online guild or community. Those are all separate narrative threads. When you start teasing out of them, what the player experiences, they are all important and as relevant as the story.
Then there's the storytelling aspect as well, in a non-linear experience, the players can try different things in different order. So there's the linear director's cut that goes through most games, with a starting point and end point (or multiple end points in our games), Every player has a different view. If you go to an uncharted world in Mass Effect, as an example, depending on what uncharted world you've seen before, your impression and experience of that world is going to be different than if you did it in a different order or never even saw certain worlds, so you have no context of back history or story or weight of the IP that's underneath the surface that's adding a truth to it all or making it feel more real.
"It's not narrative in the game that's the thing. I think it's the emotion, that whatever play experience you're having... it's the emotion you're feeling that makes you feel connected to it. That's why art resonates..."
BIZ: If narrative or storytelling is really the future of gaming and driving the industry forward, that sort of conflicts with Nintendo's approach because most of their games are very casual.
Muzyka: There's a narrative there, too, between people playing sports. It's actually a narrative between the people playing it. It's sort of one level abstracted from the game; it's like people playing the game and there's people in the community around the game, but if you're playing a game and laughing and having fun, instead of the game having those elements, the audience playing the game has the elements between them. I think it's still part of the game experience.
Greg Zeschuk: I think another, tangential view on that is those kinds of experiences are much more like a toy experience. They're playing, together or not, but you're not 'gaming' anymore. What's different than you actually playing tennis?
Muzyka: I think a lot of it is multiplayer, though, on that platform.
Zeschuk: It is, I agree, that's actually the strongest experience. I'm making the claim that it may not be gaming.
BIZ: Well there's the quote: BioWare says Wii is not gaming! [laughs]
Zeschuk: If gaming is defined by story, then generally Wii may not be.
Muzyka: I think it IS gaming.
Zeschuk: We don't have to agree on everything, right? The most fun you have is when you get 4 or 5 people together, right? The game they're playing is actually very different than the rest of us. What they're doing as a company is like a different flavor.
Muzyka: When you look at a moment to moment experience what a player does on a Wii game, it's different, lighter, and more toy-like. But there's also a narrative between the players outside the game and kind of fulfills the same things games do. Games are "toys" in the sense that they're fun.
Zeschuk: In our games, you're competing inside the game and with Wii you're competing outside the game with your pals.
BIZ: So there are two schools of thought there – games as an art form or merely like toys or entertainment.
Muzyka: Maybe they're both. What's wrong with that?
Zeschuk: I think that's a lot of the misunderstanding in the mainstream press... if people aren't familiar with games and haven't played them, and their experience is only from the arcade or the Wii, they tend to do a one-size-fits-all. But really what's happening is there's an incredibly broad range of experiences. A deep, hardcore MMO is completely different than Mass Effect, which is completely different than Ninja Gaiden, which is completely different from Wii.
Muzyka: But you're playing and having fun and hopefully having emotion during all of them; I think that's the common thread. So it's not narrative in the game that's the thing. I think it's the emotion, that whatever play experience you're having, whether social interaction or gameplay interaction, or in the game having combat, it's the emotion you're feeling that makes you feel connected to it. That's why art resonates, as you start feeling something for the characters or the experience.
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