Story in Games: Signifier vs. Signified

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and Tales of the Abyss.  Those who wish to play it or haven't beaten the game yet have been warned!

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Let's talk about a concept I learned about last semester in my Literary Theory class, that being the idea of a Sign.  The definition of a Sign according to linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is "something that can have meaning."  A Sign can be broken down into a Signifier and a Signified.  What this means is that an object that can be two different things; the word attached to it, and a person's idea of it.  To simplify that, people think in signs, and signifier and signified help us to better understand those same signs.  Signifier stands for the concept that a word stands for, whereas the signifier stands for the concept that the signifier represents.  If that is somewhat difficult to understand, I'll use the word "cat" as an example: the signifier in this case is the word cat, whereas my idea of the word is a black cat.  Because the relationship between words and concept is arbitrary, there is no set in stone concept that ties to the word "cat."  Somebody else's idea can be a tabby cat, or a white cat.  It doesn't really matter.  A word doesn't actually refer to the word, it refers to a loosely defined concept.

tl;dr

Some of you might be thinking, "Very nice, way to tell yourself that majoring in English wasn't a waste of time.  But why talk about it now?"  Well, the reason why is that story in video games is an incredibly loosely defined concept.  Compare Metal Gear Solid to Castlevania: a pair of Japanese games both published by Konami that have very different storytelling styles.  Both use similar ideas - story through gameplay, cutscenes and themes - to tell their story, but the way their stories are told emphasize these differences.  While Metal Gear Solid mostly uses cutscenes to tell the story, it also uses strong gameplay to further emphasize the aspects of the plot, such as the stealth elements.  Castlevania doesn't use a lot of drawn out cutscenes or gimmicky gameplay and focuses mostly on gameplay to move the story along.  Admittedly my only experience with Metal Gear Solid is Snake Eater on the 3DS - I grew up with a Nintendo 64 - and I've only just gotten to The Fear, so my apologies if my argument is as of this moment uninformed.  I'm mostly just trying to make a point about the differences in storytelling styles, and from there one can look at the strengths and weaknesses of them.

The initial idea for this post came from reading an article interviewing Shawn McGrath, the creator of Dyad, where he stated that traditional storytelling in games is "idiotic."  His argument is that a linear narrative where you make lots of decisions that have little to no impact on the game in titles like Mass Effect and Skyrim is badly done.  The article can be found here:

http://bitmob.com/articles/dyad-creator-thinks-traditional-storytelling-in-games-is-idiotic

McGrath does bring up a fair point; if you're not familiar with Egoraptor's series Sequelitis, I recommend you watch the Castlevania and Mega Man episodes, as they do a great job of breaking down the strengths of linear gameplay and telling stories without words.  According to Egoraptor, Castlevania's motif is that of horror, and the way the game demonstrates this to the player is by having a delay on the attack, which makes plowing through the challenges that assailed not a very viable option.  Mega Man X deals with the theme of getting stronger, and every aspect of the gameplay - beating bosses and getting powerups - all deal with the theme of getting stronger.  It's a pretty interesting example to use, considering the main purpose of video is to talk about gameplay and design rather than story.  Check it out sometime.

The thing about this is that games were pretty limited back in the era of the NES and SNES.  For the most part games with long narratives were limited to RPG series like Mother and Final Fantasy.  For the most part, early games were a result of being about escapism in the same manner tha movies were back in the 1930's; they were supposed to be something fantastical that would let us take a vbreak from the normal world. With the next generation of consoles - Playstation, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn - more powerful systems allowed for more emphasis on cinematic storytelling, which gave rise to games like the aforementioned Metal Gear Solid.  The point I'm making in bringing these games up is that while McGrath isn't wrong, it's just that his idea of story is more similar to what game creators were forced to work with because of technology limits at the time.

A traditional narrative in a game may be there to make us look at a character and learn about them as they struggle to accomplish a goal. We see the characters act, learn about them, and maybe root for them.  They're more akin to movies or novels in that they focus more on characters over the experiences of the player.  However, multiple games that follow this formula have been lauded by critics and financially successful because they've focused on an atmosphere that draws the player in despite having no real connection to the game's narrative.  Games with distinct atmospheres like Silent Hill 2 and Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker do this to immerse players in the world which helps them sympathize with the characters to an even greater degree.  Multiple endings in games like Silent Hill can play in with McGrath's vision of the player's decisions having an impact on the story.  Every Silent Hill game has at least three endings that radically change how the characters act at the end.

Is one better than the other?  No, I don't think so.  While McGrath has valid points, that doesn't mean that his opinion is king and all other opinions are bad.  Let's take a look at a game like Persona 4; in the game you have the option to pursue "Social Links" with various characters that you meet that grant you bonuses in battle and creating Personas, Pokemon-esque entities that give you power in battle.  However, they also flesh out the characters and tell us about them.  However, Social Links don't really contribute to the game's story outside of changing the game's ending sequence slightly,  Is this a choice-based system that has no impact on the story like McGrath discussed?  You could interpret it as that, yes.  But we learn more about the characters that let us look at them in a different way, so his argument that choice-based systems that make no difference on the game isn't completely valid, especially in the case of the characters or Kanji and Naoto, a pair of characters that struggle with sexual and gender identity respectively.  These subjects are practically untouched in most games, and learning more about their issues helps the player understand more about how these issues can affects not only the character, but also give a fairly good impression of it overall.  Just because these choices might not impact the storyline of the game at all doesn't mean that the player won't see it differently as a result.  It's a good example of "story being told without text" that McGrath champions in his interview.

Let's talk about some examples of how to tell a story in a game without using text.  Games like Portal and Virtue's Last Reward that build their story around a gameplay mechanic are the bet way to do it, as it's a good way to make the story feel balanced and not have the characters take actions that seem strange, and plot points based around gameplay won't feel illogical.  Probably the best game that drives the story through gameplay that I can think of is Virtue's Last Reward.  You'll find early on that there is a menu called "Flow" that lets you revisit alternate story paths that you've already ventured down.  This can be accessed at any time, can let you revisit any point, and cuts down on backtracking through the story to get the next plot point.  However, the big twist of the game is that the main character, Sigma, can project his consciousness into alternate timeline versions of himself.  Additionally, certain plot paths can't be accessed until you've found out information from other plot paths that fit the situation.  During especially tense bomb defusal scenes, the player is encouraged to jump back to the right spot if they haven't written down the passwords needed to defuse the bombs.  Additionally, the memo screen becomes blurrier and less clear for each jump you make, tying in with Sigma's difficulty in remembering things from alternate timelines.

Now we'll compare the Flow menu from Virtue's Last Reward with the Seventh Fonon plot point in Tales of the Abyss.  It's a type of magic that a certain character possesses, but about halfway through the story, the main character Luke comes into possession of this ability.  Luke uses the Seventh Fonon's powers in the plot several times, but this only happens during cutscenes; Luke can never use huge explosions or magic fixes in the plague the game's cutscenes to supplement himself in battles, so the Seventh Fonon just feels like a hamfisted plot point that only serves to make an already dreadful story feel even more ridiculous.  With all the words it devotes to talking about the Seventh Fonon, we don't get to use it once or even really realize its effects because of how detached the cutscenes are from the world that game takes place in.  Virtue's Last Reward's Flow mechanic is a great example of a mechanic that lets you make multiple decisions that have different impacts on the story like McGrath supports, and the game itself is a visual novel, meaning that its storyline is more along the lines of a complex narrative.

Welcome to the first third of the game!

Stories in gaming are the perfect example of a Signified.  Because there are so many ideas of what a signified can be , it's no wonder that story in gaming has so many different interpretations in different games.  This post isn't a rant on how to tell your story, but to play devil's advocate against McGrath's decrying of the traditional narrative in a game.  Nope, that comes next time when I take on a game franchise that I legitimately despise and thought should be prematurely ended despite the creator's intents to make multiple more entries into the series.  Oh, and it'll be a timely release for those trying to find hints to what I'm talking about.  See you in February!

My top 5

Hi.  I'm an English major at VCU who hasn't really bee in the habit of doing writing on my own recently.  Mostly it's been assignments and the like.  My New Year's resolution is to change that.  However, I'm not particularly useful as a person, so my knowledge of stuff and things is limited to pretty useless stuff, like games.  Since I won't be deterred, I'm going to blog about issues I have with games - both good and bad - for the entire year, one month at a time.  That means that if you're dumb enough to stick around, you'll get 12 posts from me, right?  Wrong.  I'm going to make an initial post talking about my top five favorite games before I actually delve into heavier stuff so you can get to know me a bit better, as well as see my writing style.  That means you're going to see me ramble about nothing important for 13 posts!  Alright, let's begin.

Number five on my list is Metroid Prime.  It's a pretty standard Metroid game; Samus finds Space Pirates on the planet Tallon IV, who plan to weaponize Phazon, a radioactive substance found on the planet that causes mutations.  Samus then takes it upon herself to put a stop to the pirate's mischief, but finds that the main danger on the planet is what the corrupting Phazon has done to it. A well-received FPS for the Gamecube, I see it as a sort of antithesis of modern day shooters.  It's more of a non-linear adventure rather than an actual FPS; the perspective is first-person, but puzzles and exploration take center stage over combat. That's not to say that there is no combat, rather that the combat is less about showering an enemy in bullets, but rather figuring out how to shower the tougher enemies in bullets; most of the bosses and minibosses have tricks up their sleeves that make just shooting them not an option.

A scanning option is often used to provide hints or circumvent the damage reduction entirely.  The Scan Visor actually is one of the things I enjoy most about Metroid Prime; not only is it useful in combat, it reveals interesting aspects about enemies and can be used to scan lore that adds depth from the perspective of both the planet's natives and the planet's invaders.  Some of them are pretty serious, while a handful are pretty lighthearted.  While it does point you in the right direction through scans that pop up from time to time, they're more along the lines of gently nudging you in the right direction and then letting you figure out how to use your new toy to progress as opposed to sending you in a straight line for ten hours.  More than anything though, it's incredibly atmospheric; the graphics have aged well and still look good today, and the music sets the tone for the eerie Chozo Ruins and Sunken Frigate well, drawing you in.  It truly makes you feel as though you're part of something bigger, and isn't that what an adventure is all about?

About the only complaint I have with Metroid Prime is that it's pretty easy.  Some of the bosses can be tricky - Thardus and Omega Pirate - but other than that you can play pretty cautiously and use your upgrades wisely you shouldn't have too much of a problem.  It's on my list over other strong entries into the Metroid series like Metroid Fusion and Super Metroid because of its innovation.  Moving to a third-person perspective helps you feel like you're a part of the game and adding in the multi-faceted Scan Visor makes it seem like an upgrade of the equally atmospheric Super Metroid.  Fusion has a better story, but adding in somebody to talk to - the A.I. Commanding Officer - relieves some of the tension typically found in the isolation of previous Metroid titles.  Both are fantastic games though, and the only really weak entry in the series is Other M.  If you haven't played Metroid or any of its offspring yet, check it out.

Ranking in at number four is Portal.  You are a test subject who wakes up at the urging of an A.I. who gives you a shiny Portal gun and has you solve puzzles with promises of cake (and grief counseling) after you finish. Really, what has been said about this game that hasn't been already said?  It's clever, witty, well-designed, and all those other positive adjectives that reviewers like to toss around.  It's one of the most memorable games of the past decade for all the right reasons.  Moreover, it's incredibly simple and utilizes teaching tools effectively throughout the game to show you the more complex techniques so that you can easily use them later.  It's truly a game that embraces the idea that "less is more."

It's also another game that excels in atmosphere.  It gives you the idea that something is wrong as you go through test chambers and don't see anybody watching you, despite that you have somebody constantly giving you orders and instructions.  This is another example of how it utilizes minimalist design to make things better.  Letting somebody figure things out for themselves is better than just telling them things.  It gives the player a feeling of discovery and wonderment as they discover more about the game.  Letting somebody work for a reward gives a more gratifying feeling than having things dropped into their laps.

Mother 3 is appropriately my third-favorite game.  Though it was never released outside of Japan, a translation patch by industry professional Clyde Mandelin was released a few years ago.  If you haven't checked it out, do so soon!  Mother is the name for the classic SNES RPG Earthbound in Japan, and it's a sequel to Earthbound (Mother 2).  It's a coming-of-age tale that centers around Lucas, a child who lives in a quiet village that gets invaded by the forces of the Pig King.  It has a heavy emphasis on the theme of nature vs technology and is easily one of the most emotional games I've ever played.  It's really hard to describe what is so great about the game without significant spoilers about it, but I suppose what most draws me in - about the series as a whole as well - is the mix of light-hearted dialogue and tone mixed in with surprisingly mature themes.  It’s one of the few games that isn’t a visual novel type game that has dialogue that simply a joy to read.  It also manages to be a genuinely tragic game despite having limited graphics, as it’s a Game Boy Advance game.  The game’s slogan is “No crying until the end,” and what a fitting slogan it is.

Number 2 on my list is Rayman Origins.  It's a fairly recent 2-D platformer that was released on multiple consoles - I bought mine on Steam - and received critical acclaim.  It's pretty simple; Rayman and pals' snoring wake up a bunch of zombies that live below him who then overreact to this minor inconvenience by taking over the world and it's up to Rayman to give these cranky neighbors the boot.  This game is just top to bottom amazing.  It looks great, plays great, feels great, sounds great, and is just damn great.  The difficulty is solidly paced, starting out simple but challenging, and then ramping up significantly while teaching you how to cope with the new obstacles by granting new powers that affect how you traverse them.

It’s another charming game, with simple themes for its levels – a hot/cold level in the same vein as Hailfire Peaks from Banjo-Tooie is portrayed as being a spicy Mexican kitchen and an icy cocktail lounge respectively – and they’re all hard as hell.  Again, it’s paced well so when you have trouble with later parts it feels justified, and the settings combined with these tricky parts ensure that the game is far from forgettable.  The controls are great, the animations are fluid and charming, and everything about the game is brimmed with charm and plenty of appeal to nearly every kind of gamer.  The game’s only flaws are that the Tetris level from E3 didn’t make an appearance, and director Michel Ancel wasn’t a playable character.

Finally, the big one; my favorite video game of all time is Machinarium, a minimalist point-and-click adventure game from Amanita Design – also responsible for Botanicula – and is available on Steam, PSN, and Playstation Vita.  It’s a simple-point and click that has you navigating a city populated entirely by robots.  Part of the game’s charm is its simplicity and minimalist design; the journey throughout the city is more along the lines of framework than actual story as you find out absolutely nothing about the characters or story, and there’s literally only one word uttered throughout the game.  This lack of cramming exposition and story down your throat allows you to appreciate the game’s sights more.  The game was made for under $1,000 and the visuals were all hand-drawn in order to cut down on cost.  The result is a game with a unique look and incredible amounts of detail.  This also allows the characters to show off more and be expressive when combined with the absence of dialogue.  It really goes to show how much character you can put into a game when you don’t have to be concerned with story or graphics or complex gameplay.  On the subject of gameplay, only a handful of puzzles fall victim to the “adventure game logic” that appears in titles such as Anna.  Practically every puzzle only uses items found in that room, and items that carry over into later areas have their purposes pretty much dropped into your laps.  Machinarium gives you several examples of how to use your built-in powers of stretching and eating objects to use later so that you’ll have a good handle on them later.

Like Metroid Prime before it, the music lends much of the atmosphere to the game (I own the OST on vinyl, and oh, what a splendid acquisition that was!).  It synchronizes with the idea of exploration, giving off unusual tones and incredibly versatile sounds that compliment the equally diverse areas of the city.  It puts much more of a focus on music though, having radios and bands play music at various different points that begin to play after a puzzle is solved, or are used to solve puzzles.  It’s less of music being the puzzle and more along the lines of solving all of the puzzles plays music, which then progresses the game.  I love this about the game because music is such a huge force in the world, both in and outside of video gaming.  Most of the puzzles seem to play along these lines, being less of “rub every object in your inventory against every surface in the room” and more along the lines of solving actual puzzles.  It’s great to see a studio realizing how to do a point and click puzzle game right, and the fact that it’s got a great atmosphere that draws you in truly allows it to wear the title of “adventure” in its genre description proudly.

 

I hope this first post has given you an idea as to who I am and how I write, and I hope you come back soon.  As mentioned before, another post will come this month, the contents of which will talk about stories in games.  Hopefully you'll look forward to it!