Peter Jackson on the Future of Storytelling

Via VoodooExtreme, an article on Team Xbox covering a panel at X06 on the future of storytelling in games. Along with Mr. Jackson, industry veterans Peter Molyneux and Greg Zeschuck weigh in on this issue. The meat of the article is a video of the presentation, which is regrettably in .wmv format. The Escapist has some highlights of the conversation up in their news section. "'I've got to the stage now where I just end up catching something on DVD and I'm more excited about games coming out in the next 2-3 months than films,' said Peter Jackson, director of Lord of The Rings and founder of Wingnut Interactive, an offshoot of his movie studio. 'That created an awareness in me of the shift in entertainment options out there, and if I'm feeling that others are too.'"

Time

[EMeta]

Even though I'm not much of a gamer anymore, I totally see what Jackson is saying here. I could maybe invest 9 hours of my life into a typical 90 minute movie (though there are only a handful of these), while I imagine FF VI alone has lasted me 90 hours in its replaying over the years. One of these things is just not like the other.

Calling all English majors

[Amalas]

This is exactly why one of my friends is double majoring in CompSci and English: to write good stories.

Any good writing class should teach you about developing characters, rising action, falling action, keeping readers interested, etc. That's the sort of stuff that needs to be applied to gaming, not graphics.

Re:Time

[Anonymous Coward]

I generally agree that with good games, created by people who know how to write for games, are as good (or better than) any other medium for producing a good story. The problem as I see it is that most games are witten by absolutely terrible writers who look for "the hook" rather than focus on creating a decent story.

One of my friends "thought" that he could be a videogame writer and nearly every story he wrote was focused on how his characters could be the "Uber-Leetest" characters ever; his incohearant storylines involved "Lesbian-Vampire Demon-Slayers" and other X-treme ideas. Personally, most of the greatest game stories I have seen are usually very simple in plot, characters and story-progression and the depth of the story comes out in exploring the world. Having someone find a journal, complete a side quest, or listen to how the NPCs talk can have a greater impact on the player than a cut-scene where you find out that you're the son of a Lesbian-Vampire Demon-Slayer who was Raped by the King of the Warlocks.

Writers underrated?

[Travoltus]

Is it hard to get into the game industry as a writer, or do you have to be a programmer and a writer?

I know mod makers can get in really easy, but we have such an abysmal dearth of well written games that it suggests that good writers (and there are a lot out there) simply can't submit an idea and get a developer audience to chew on it.

Once the writers start getting as much respect as the coders, and actual story lines start weighing in more heavily, we'll see a major shift in the way games are made.

Who wouldn't be more interested in games?

[kinglink]

I remember when interactive fiction was the best thing ever. You could tell the computer what you wanted to do and it would do it. Now instead of going to a film that I basically watch for 2 hours and forget I now have the option of playing a game with similar graphics, more interactive story, and a feeling of accomplishment, rather then being force fed a story with nothing to do but watch.

We have big screen TVs, we have voice chat over game consoles, we have the world at our fingertips for the internet The world has moved on, movies and theatres are just dying. Except for the teenagers who want to make out, but then enjoy the extra privacy they have.

I go to 1-2 movie a year for a reason (this year it was superman returns) because when I can play xenosaga get over 2 hours of movie, 60 hours of interactive story and action, and actually have characters that grow rather then have a life span of 2 hours, what use is a movie?

That's not to say every game is better than movies But let's factor in TV as TV does play a part too. Alias, Lost, 24, all captivate my attention and last twice as long as even the director's cut of all three lord of the rings for just 1 season. When they have 6 seasons of these shows all with character development what use is a 10 dollar 2 hour movie when for 40 bucks I can buy 24 hours of entertainment and have a chance to "preview" the whole dvd at home as it's broadcast there first!

DVR to allow us to watch them when ever we want? Why go to a movie theatre when you get TV on your schedule now.

Movies were good for a period but it was a step on evolution of entertainment, it's time to expand the movie to a series, or make them more interactive. Because that's where our attention is going.

Re:Writers underrated?

[ectal]

I don't think there's really much of a job market for writing for games by itself. The closest would be to come in as a game designer, but from what I've heard, most designers start off in software dev, level design, or maybe production then move to game design once they establish a reputation. One possible foot in the door track that's been mentioned is to climb up from QA, but that assumes an endurance for low wages and an ability to wow everyone (as they're trying to ignore you) at every turn.

I'm sure this will change over time, but what won't change is the fierce competition to get into the industry in any capacity. So it'll always be hard to come in as a writer (or designer... or anything). Might even be easier to sell a novel. Maybe one based on a video game!