Reading

Story in games

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130770/what_every_game_developer_needs_to_.php?page=2

Story is important in games because it is something memorable and gives players a reason to keep playing with a pay off at the end of the game. If a game is fun but has no story then reaching the end will almost be disappointing because it's over but if the story is good then there could be a huge pay off at the end to reward players for finishing the game. Stories in games have the same elements as stories in film and TV. There is typically a protagonist, antagonists, an inciting incident and something for the protagonist to overcome. Not every story follows these but they are outliers.

The character also needs to have a personality, there are plenty of games where the protagonist has no personality and is just a drone the player controls in the world and these are boring, we need to know about what type of person the character is in order to identify with them and follow them along throughout the story. The conflict in the story can be either internal or external, is someone trying to kill the protagonist or are they trying to overcome a personal battle within themselves. Normally the conflict is external, there is someone the protagonist must overcome or something along those lines however internal conflict is a big theme in Hamlet as he tries to overcome his own personal demons to avenge his father. Both work and both can be great.

The artical uses Halo as the story it mentions as an example, not a game known for great story but it shows how core it is to any game. They have you fight along side marines however at one point a marine attacks you and you choose to kill him or not which makes up your character, are you merciful or not?

Games also show and don't tell quite often, Dark Souls is a game in which nothing is told to the player, they must piece together the story themselves by observing the world around them. It is very possible to complete dark souls and not know what is going on because you didn't search for a story yourself.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130742/into_the_woods_a_practical_guide_.php
Article 2

This article is about the hero's journey and how it plays into the story of a game. If a hero just stays in the same room for an entire story then it'll probably be boring. Changing scenery and setting keeps new things in the story for our hero to engage with so we can learn more about their character, the world and the story.

According to the article a hero typically possesses a couple qualities such as: courage, intelligence, a special talent, a motivation and an obstacle to overcome, to name a few. We can see that any successful story has a protagonist with at least a few of these or the story is based around them not having these, these qualities are integral to story.

The article also mentions villains. What makes a good villain? A good villain is someone that people root against, in the pro wrestling industry they're called a heel. A good hell makes people dislike them by being cocky, arrogant, a coward, deceitful, rude, wins by cheating and dishonorable tactics. This generates heat against them and makes people root against them. These can all be applied to a villain in a story. Look at white goodman from dodgeball for example, Cocky, arrogant, bought the best dodgeball team instead of earning one and mocked the average joes the whole film. A great villain and that was for a comedy, in a serious role someone like that could be more fleshed out and hated.