作者：Adam Rebika

我们很容易就能猜到为什么大多数人认为作为媒介，电子游戏同电影如此接近：两者都是通过图像表达它们的故事。

我的确相信电子游戏是故事媒介（游戏邦注：此分析并不适用于大部分无需故事情节的游戏），比起电影，我们认为电子游戏更类似书籍。为了证明我的观点，我将从特定的角度分析各种媒介的主要特点。

scifi-film(from blogs.amctv.com)

长度：故事发展需历经多长时间？

电影基本上为短时媒介。大多数电影时长为1.5个小时，也有些电影可能是2小时、3小时，极少有电影长达4小时之久。基本上，只需一个下午或一个晚上的时间，你就可以欣赏完整部电影。

另一方面，书籍需消磨更长的时间。而这取决于书本的页数和读者的阅读速度，但我们一致认为，大多数情况下，只需1-2周左右的时间便可读完一本书。当然，你也会偶然碰上一本好书，然后在几个小时内读完整部著作，但这并非正常情况。

电子游戏也是同样原理。通常，我需要1-2周的时间完成一款游戏的所有关卡，但是如果让我碰上一款出色的游戏，那我一天之内便可通关，虽然这是少数情况。

电影时长较短。所以你必须加快情节的发展，删掉那些完全没有必要的情节。电影的简介极少超过20分钟，你不能在情节中设置过多迂回曲折的故事。这也是为何大多数的电影只讲述非常简单且直白的故事，否则传递过多信息会导致观众数量快速流失。

只要与书籍或电影相关，你就觉得自己有很多时间。有些书会多达2000至3000页，而有些游戏可持续60多个小时的体验时间，甚至更多。通常这些媒介具有5-10个主要角色，它们都有自己的发展特性及发展历史——而电影却没有。

事情可以更慢发生，简介的时长也可以延长。显然，你也不想拥有长达1小时的简介画面，而你可以在进入真正行动前提供1小时，可能2小时的“开场白”。比如《Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance》中：真实情节并未在第四个任务前上演，而大多数的玩家已经在游戏中耗费了1或2个小时了。

同样，媒介的长度会大幅度地影响故事的节奏。

节奏：故事的节奏如何？

因为我们通常都是无中断地连续观看电影，所以大多数的电影都遵循同样的节奏：能够吸引观众的强有力的开篇形式（游戏邦注：通常与主要情节无关，或者只在中间涉及一些，或者穿插于整部影片中），接着慢慢引入主角及情境，接着故事情节开始发展，达到高潮然后结束。

另一方面，我们可以在书籍和电子游戏中享受更长的时间，而每次阅读或体验后会进行长时的休息。这也是为何这里的故事需以不同节奏发展。

你仍然可以慢慢构造一个大型的主要情节，直到达到高潮，然而故事发展一段时间后，只有少数观众欣赏时，你要另外组织更小更复杂的故事。书籍和电子游戏都以章节形式存在。而游戏中的分节并不明显，但是每款游戏都设有关卡、地牢、任务、过关模式……每个章节实际上又包含了一个次要情节，其中的小高潮及悬念能确保读者/玩家继续体验下一章节。

这就促使你将故事分成更小的组块，借此发展次要情节，丰富主要故事的发展。你甚至可以为每个章节搭配一个特殊角色，相较于电影，你可以决定它们的发展。

对话：信息是如何被转达的？

在电影中，任何事物都依赖于电影所呈现和讲述的事物。你可以利用一些文字（比如某地名，或者显示在屏幕上的一些信息）。当然有些例外，比如标志性的《星球大战》介绍，但它们本身就是个例外。

对话必须简短，因为观众无法跟上太长的对话。电影中不要设置过多独白，越简单越好。同时，电影大多依赖于演员的表演，以及他们如何生动地传达出情感。

另一方面，书籍依赖于文本。书籍记录下所有事物，包括每句对话台词和每个描述。当两个主角在交谈的时候，读者可以自由想象他们当时的态度、情感等等。

而在电子游戏中，由于科技发展，大多数的游戏都有配音效果。但大多数重要的数据仍通过文本传送。然而游戏中的演技十分有限，只有一些塑造精良的角色可以传达真实情感。

super-mario-galaxy(from techi.com)

想象：需要留下多少想象的空间呢？

电影没有留下过多的想象空间。它向观众呈现出每个地方/行动的具体细节。

另一方面，书籍很少描述所有事物。它需要读者自己的理解。

游戏也是如此。许多游戏允许你定义自己的角色，除此以外，你可以自己决定事情的开端。游戏或者书籍只会告诉你：他同时与10个敌人作战，并打败了他们，这需要读者去想象战斗场面，而玩家需参加真实的战斗。

电影因其属性的原因不能脱离现实。你不能让场景看起来过于虚幻，否则就会出现明显的电脑制作痕迹。你不能让主角看起来与人类大相径庭，否则你将无法找到相匹配的演员。当然，你仍可以从事动画电影制作，但这意味着你的观众是特定群体（指孩子）。

在书籍和游戏中，你可以想象自己想要的任何事物，并创造出来。在书中，读者可以自由进行想象，在游戏中，由于所有事物都是虚拟的，即使场景看起来并不真实那也没有关系。

续集：重点是什么？

电影领域极少出现续集。你需要聘请相同演员，而且情节需要与第一部电影紧密联系。而且你会纠结于演员变老这一事实，所以如果你在15年后才开拍续作，你最好能想出15年后的故事情节（当然，你也可以使用化妆术让演员看起来更加年轻或者更加年迈，但只是从某种程度上考虑）。而且观众常常会将电影同他的主角紧密结合起来，这意味着演员在真实生活中也是此种状态。

书籍和游戏在续作方面比较不会受限，它们并不要求坚持相同的角色（续作发生的时间不会被时间发展顺序所束缚）。我想这也是为何这两种媒介会出现大量续作的原因。你不必坚持某个角色：因为这些故事并不过多依赖演员的脸庞和表演，你可以转变读者/玩家的关注元素。

因此，我希望你可以从上述讨论中获取某些信息，实际上，这有助于你在这一新兴媒介中塑造出独具特色的呈现故事的方法与工具。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Books and games

by Adam Rebika

It is pretty easy to guess why most people consider video games to be very close to movies as a medium: both use images to convey their stories. Yes, the “closeness” does not go farther than that.

Or, should I rather say, should not go farther than that. Indeed, I do believe that we should consider video games to be, as a storytelling medium (this analysis does not apply to the very large number of games that merely don’t need a story), treated as much closer to books than movies. To prove my point, I will analyze the main characteristics of each medium regarding specific points.

Length: How long does it take to go through the story?

Movies are ultimately a short medium. Most are 1h30 long, some can be 2, 3, rarely 4 hours long. Basically, in one afternoon or evening, you have watched the whole movie.

On the other hand, books take a lot longer. Now, it depends on how long the book is, and on how fast a reader you are, but we can all agree that most of the times, it takes around 1 to 2 weeks to read a book. Of course you can stumble upon a book that is so good that you’ll read in a couple of hours, but this is not really the norm.

It works exactly the same way for video games. I usually finish a game in 1 to 2 weeks, but can stumble upon a game which is so great that I’ll finish it in one day, even though it is pretty rare.

In movies, you don’t have a lot of time. You need to go fast, cut away everything you don’t absolutely need. The introduction rarely lasts for more than 20 minutes, and you can’t have that many twists and turns in the plot. That is why most movies only have pretty simple, straightforward stories, otherwise they may quickly lose their audience under the amount of information you want to transmit to him.

But when it comes to either books or movies, you have all the time in the world. Some books can have up to two, three thousand pages, while some games can last up to sixty or more hours. It is not uncommon for these mediums to have 5 to 10 main characters, all with their own developped personnalities and backstories – something movies can’t sustain.

Everything can happen a lot slower, and the introduction can last longer. Obviously, you don’t want a one hour long introductory cutscene, but you can afford to have 1, maybe 2 “prologue” levels before getting into the real action. Look, for example, at Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: the actual plot does not start before the fourth mission, which is already, for most players, 1 or 2 hours into the game.

The length of this medium also have a strong impact on its rythm, something I’ll cover right now.

Rythm: What is the rythm of the story?

Since a movie is meant to be watched in a single stroke, with no interruption, most movies will follow the same rythm: strong introductory scene to get the spectator in (which is often loosely related to the main plot or will only make real sense halfway or more through the movie), then slow introduction to the characters and situation, exponential build up during most of the movie, climax and conclusion.

On the other hand, both books and movies are meant to be enjoyed over a long time, with long interruptions between every time you read / play. This is why you need a different rythm for the story.

You still have one big, main plot that slowly builds up until reaching the climax, but as it is stretched over a long time and meant to be enjoyed by small servings, you also need another, smaller and more complex organization for the story. Both books and video games are divided into chapters. Of course, the division is not always that obvious in games, but think about it: every game has either levels, dungeons, missions, quests… And each of these chapters actually contain a subplot, with a small climax and often a cliffhanger to make sure the reader / player wants to come back for the next chapter.

This forces you to cut your story in small, bite-sized chunks, but also allows you to develop one subplot for each of them, thus enriching your main plot. You can even dedicate one of these chapters to a particular character, allowing you to really develop every one of them much more than you could in a movie.

Communication: How is information relayed?

In movies, everything relies on what is shown and what is told. You can use a little bit of text (like the name of a place or some information shown on a panel) but rarely anything more. Of course some exceptions exist, such as the iconic Star Wars introduction, but they are what they are: exceptions.

Dialogs need to be short, as the watcher cannot follow a conversation that is too long. You can have very few monologs, and simpler is always better. The movie also relies a lot on the performance of the actors, and how good they are to relay emotions.

Books, on the other hand, rely on text. Everything is written down, every line of dialog and every description. When two characters are talking, it is up to the reader to picture their attitudes, emotions etc.

When it comes to video games, thanks to (or because of? this is a question I’ll raise in my next blog post) technology, voice acting has become a norm in most games. But a lot of data is still transmitter through text, and not always unimportant data (quests, lore details etc). But acting is still very limited in games, and only a handful of them have character models good enough to convey actual emotions.

Imagination: What room is left for fantasy?

Movies, of all mediums, are those who leave the less room for imagination. Everything is given to the spectator, every single detail of every single place / action.

On the other hand, books rarely describe everything. A lot is left to the interpretation of the reader, who usually likes personnalizing things a bit.

Same goes for games. A lot of games allow you to customize the main character, but things go even farther than that. It’s up to you to decide how things actually happen. The game or the book will only tell you: he fought and defeated 10 foes at the same time, and it’s up to the reader to imagine the battle and to the player to fight the battle.

Movies are also very limited by their race toward realism. You can’t have settings that look too fantastical, or the CGI will soon appear too obvious. You can’t have a main character that looks nothing like a human, or you’ll have trouble finding an actor for it. Of course you can still do an animated movie, but this means you’ll aim for a very specific public (children).

In books AND in games, you can imagine anything you want, and create it. In books, it’s up to the reader to imagine it, and in games, since everything is already virtual, you have no risk of having your settings look too unreal.

Sequels: What is the focus?

Movies are extremely limited when it comes to sequels. You often need to keep the same actors, and the plot has to be pretty close to that of the first movie. And you have your hands bound by the fact that actors do get older, so if you sequel is done 15 years after the first movie, you’d better find a story that takes place 15 years after the first one (of course you can still use make up to try and make him look younger or older, but only to a certain degree). And the spectators often create strong links between a movie and his main character, which means the actor playing this role.

Books and games have much less limits when it comes to making sequels, and don’t require to stick with the same character (and when they do, are not bound to make the sequels all happen in near chronological order). I think this is why both these medias make a heavy use of sequels (yeah, there are many books that are part of cycles or series). And you don’t have to stick with one single main character: as these stories do not rely that much on the actor’s face and performance, the reader / player’s focus can be shifted to any other element you want.

So, these where my two cents in a debate I hope will pick up, as it can actually help shape storytelling methods and tools in this still very new media.(source:gamasutra)