Writing vs. Storytelling
Lots of attention lately has been focused on the quality of writing in MMOs and other games, so I imagine that a number of would-be writers would see this as a great time to jump into the industry. Over on F13′s game dev board, I responded to a thread started by a poster confused about the term “narrative designer” and how that differs from a writer. In the interest of thrift and the desire for relevant blog topics that don’t have to do with Richard Bartle, I thought I’d present an updated version of my thoughts here.
Here’s the thing. There’s a huge push right now for telling better stories in MMOs, so naturally most people assume that means hiring really good writers.
But I would point out an important distinction. I think it’s even more crucial to hire really good storytellers. There’s a difference.
Designing for an MMO requires a different kind of storytelling ability from writing a short story, novel, or poem. While you can certainly tell great stories in all three of those forms, they don’t match up well with MMOs for one reason: they rely solely on written words. The thing everyone knows (but some of those people looking to hire writers haven’t quite put together) is that an MMO needs to be based around action, not words.
When WoW and EQ2 were in development, it seemed a natural evolution of the MMORPG to emphasize questing. As we all know, questing was actually a fairly minimal aspect of gameplay in EQ and wasn’t even present in UO. Quests seemed like the universal catch-all that would solve a number of shortcomings in the genre. Quests could be used to give players stuff to do, expose your lore, and serve as a recurring rewards system. Brilliant!
What we didn’t consider at the time is that quest journals rely upon the written word, and when your character has vowed to rid the world of evil baddies, the last thing you want is to be mired down in words. So what happened? Players speed-clicked through dialogue and quest responses as they raced to the quest accept button.
The thing we forgot is that the earlier generation of games already had a great way to tell (and better yet, inspire) stories. Some of the most memorable moments in MMOs come from witnessing the actions of cool NPCs within amazing environments. Did you need to read a book on Nagafen and the fire giants to appreciate the story that unfolded as you journeyed through the dragon’s lair? No. Did you need a treatise on the Plane of Fear to understand the relationship of the minions to their god when they called out their obeisance to the will of Cazic-Thule? Nope. That was amazing storytelling using very few words.
Now, that doesn’t mean that great writing skills aren’t useful on a game team. After all, every designer needs to be able to express his or her thoughts and intent clearly so that the gameplay can be implemented properly. What’s more, the techniques one learns in writing courses are invaluable in honing the ability to tell a compelling and well-structured tale. But a designer can’t fall into the trap of relying solely upon words to tell a great story in an MMO, because words only slow players down. The designer should focus on telling a great story using all the tools at his or her disposal, not just the written word.
On EQ2, I worked with a brilliant designer who was only an average writer. But his zones were fantastic, perhaps because he knew he couldn’t rely upon words to get his intent across. He told great stories using zone population, set dressing, mob abilities, treasure drops, scripted behavior, and more. You understood what was going on by playing through the zone, not by reading about it.
Game design relies upon great storytelling, but the designer has to be able to adapt his or her techniques to the tools that are available.
So despite the pomposity of the term “narrative designer,” I think it actually describes the position pretty well. If you want to be a great storyteller in MMOs, becoming a solid writer is the beginning of the journey, not the end of it. Just as a great poet won’t necessarily make a great novelist, a great prose writer won’t necessarily make a great MMO storyteller. But in defense of writers, learning those skills in a classroom can’t hurt.
I really have to agree. The later Elder Scrolls games also fell victim to the “walls of text” phenomenon, featuring screen after screen of text in books, letters, etc that was used to flesh out the lore of the world — but was oh-so-boring to play though.
I think that the classic “Out of this World” was a great example of storytelling — and nobody spoke at all (at least, not in a language one could understand)!
Which EQ2 zone was it? Just curious…
Interesting post, Moorgard.
I’ve recently come to a similar realization, not necessarily about MMOs, but about Pen and Paper games as well.
I’m sure you know the 4th Edition of D&D was released not long ago, and I’ve since been working on a new campaign for my friends to run through using my own world. While I had written plenty of material on the world and its inhabitants before, I found that when preparing a campaign to be played through you are really quite limited when it came to using actual words – you don’t want to bore your players to death reading excessive descriptions and narrative. I quickly adapted to this new style of storytelling using the same methods you mentioned: dungeon details, environmental clues, monster visuals and personalities, and item drops all became tools I had to use to slowly ease in the overall theme and message of the area.
That being said, I completely agree with your assessment that MMORPG writers need to be able to do more than weave together fancy sentences which most players wont read anyway. Coming up with ways to blanket an entire area or zone in the lore you are trying to get across is much more effective.
[...] under: MMO Design, Quest Writing | I just read an excellent post on Moorgard’s blog about writing vs. storytelling. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read it, I highly recommend it since it has some [...]
I fully agree getting to the action quicker for me is a major + I dont need a 20 min worded tale of the lost and forgotten castle of Tersist who 500 years ago was some crazed ruler that is sayed to haunt the place still…. ( if its so lost and forgotten why do you know so freaking much about it. )
I just wish I were technically proficient enough to bring to life things I want to show rather than tell. It’s a drawback, probably for lots of writers, but definitely an issue for me.
Guilty as charged here too – i’m too wordy. But let me say this: since when does a good writer use more words? i’d say that a really strong writer can convey more content in fewer words. That’s what the editing process is all about. See: Hemingway.
[...] back, Moorgard wrote an excellent post wherein he discussed the difference between writing vs. storytelling, and how most quests in MMOs [...]
I fully agree with you in that we are not using all the tools available to us when narrating stories in MMOs, but considering how much you have to spend on creating an interesting cut-scene, within a beautiful environment, with long animation sequences to narrate an event visually (the way most would like to see it done) and comparing that to a single written sentence, with a time/capital cost of less that 1/100 of the first choice, I can understand why many developers are forced to pick the second option, and the fact that we go for the cheaper options despite knowing that player crave for great visuals and epic scenery is a growing problem in the entire game industry. Game companies nowadays are made up of a small number of managers who care mostly about costs, and who have little understanding for narrative aesthetics, and a large number of “real” developers, who are either too junior to have developed that sense, or who wield too little power to actually turn their highest ideals into realities. In MMO development, the sheer volume of work is so great, that focusing on the quality of each single part/quest simply becomes unfeasible from a cost point of view. Sad but true: we are mass-producing games nowadays, and just like any other mass-produced product, quality and at some point, variety will suffer.
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