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分析电子游戏故事叙述的3个薄弱面

发布时间:2016-07-15 15:49:24 Tags:,,,,

作者:Josh Bycer

我发现,电子游戏中的故事叙述总是很糟糕。甚至随着技术与媒体的发展,我仍然很少看到能够至始至终吸引我注意力的游戏故事。

当我更深入思考后发现,有些游戏虽然有在努力解决这一问题,但是却很难做好,而这主要与电子游戏媒体的一些薄弱面有关。

WolfAmongUs(from gamasutra )

WolfAmongUs(from gamasutra )

故事叙述

在开始前,我必须申明我要排除那些没有声音或被认为是复古游戏的内容。因为这些游戏具有技术限制并且不能提供给玩家戏剧般的体验。所以让我们先从摄像机说起。

摄像机:

有很多方法能够为用户创造一个吸引人的故事,首先便是摄像机。如果你看过电影或电视节目,你便会知道摄像机永远都不会是静止不动的。因为始终保持预先调整好的角度会让人觉得很古怪。

当提到任何视觉上的故事叙述媒体时,电影艺术似乎是很容易被低估的故事叙述的组成部分。小岛秀夫便是第一个去探索电影艺术使用方法的开发者(游戏邦注:即在《合金装备》系列中)。那时候这还只是基本的3维呈现,而现在我们拥有摄像机能够通过事实发展去吸引用户的注意。

我们也可以在一些恐怖类作品中看到有效的电影艺术呈现。就像一些优秀的恐怖电影便尝试着带给观众全方位视角,同时在一些静止的画面中带给他们惊吓感。

我们经常会看到开发者将一台静止的摄像机设置在谈话者之间。实际上我们可以将其称为“Bioware问题”。对于第一人称游戏来说,摄像机经常是立在说话人的身上,并在整个对话中始终停留在这一位置(或者会出现一些重复的预设动画)。

其实在第一人称视角中也可以添加一些有趣的内容:呈现出角色四处移动,并让摄像机随之移动,就好像角色在对某些事物做出反应或看着某些事物一样。

《蜘蛛侠:破碎维度》便创造了一个第一人称过场动画并保持角色的移动去吸引玩家的注意。

与之形成鲜明对比的是,在《生化奇兵:无限》中,Booker很少会在过场动画中做出反应或进行移动;游戏更多的是专注于屏幕上的任务。

Naughty Dog也非常擅长在游戏中使用电影艺术,即《神秘海域》和《最后生还者》都使用了摄像机去吸引玩家的注意。

除此之外我还很喜欢Telltale Game的冒险游戏,如《行尸走肉》和《与狼同行》。

关于故事叙述的另一个视觉面便是角色本身,这也是许多游戏非常侧重的一方面。

动画:

关于对话我们都清楚的一点便是人们都不会是静态的。我们总是会四处走动,通过言行举止去反应一些事情的变化。而电子游戏在这方面便不行了,因为当角色在交谈时都是保持静止状态。

出现这种情况的原因很简单:制作角色动画非常昂贵。这也是为什么那么多动画会使用库存动画或循环出现的作品的原因;日本动漫就是一个典型例子。但是当我们谈到的是高预算的游戏时,这就不该是被忽视的问题了。

再次以Naughty Dog为例,他们会在角色浏览某些内容时对其进行动作捕捉从而让整个场景变得更加真实。或者就像Telltale所做的那样,角色会在交谈的时候四处走动或做某些事。

但是仍有许多高预算游戏选择使用一些根本不会动的木头角色。例如《上古卷轴》或BioWare的游戏便是如此。

现在我们已经可以在某种程度上解决糟糕的摄像机或木头角色的问题,但是最后一点却有可能让我们功亏一篑。

“现实的”交谈“:

我不知道你们是怎么想的,但对我来说听电子游戏中的人的交谈真是越来越无聊了。并不是说我有特别的声优偏好,而是这样的设定和编辑让我觉得很无聊。因为当人们在真实生活中进行交谈时,谈话内容并不会一直反反复复。

人们可能会打断彼此,评论交谈内容,承认某些事等等。这里的关键在于真实的交谈是顺畅进行的,但是电子游戏中却不是如此。

如果你去观看电子游戏中的一个带声音的过场动画,你便会发现交谈是如此展开的:A某开始说话,然后换B某说话,然后再回到A某说话,如此一直重复下去。更糟糕的是,两个人之间总是会出现一些停顿,即让人觉得这样的交谈是将两个完全不同的对话拼凑在一起。我真的不能想象在交谈中一个人完全保持安静而另一个人滔滔不绝地讲了2分钟的事。

就像动画一样,会出现这样的对话也是有原因的。许多电子游戏会提供给玩家他们为了前进需要获取的信息。而如果人们能在交谈中打断对方或更真实地进行交谈,玩家可能就会错过一些重要的细节内容。鱼和熊掌总是不可兼得的:如果你想要阐述一个吸引人的故事,那么谈话内容就需要足够吸引人。

打破固有观念:

就像我在一开始所说的,电子游戏故事叙述对我来说是很无聊的一部分。我都算不清自己略过多少游戏的过场动画了。

而《绝命毒师》这部电视剧则是在这方面做得很好的一个案例。不管是摄影技巧,演技还是方向,所有的一切元素都能将玩家真正融入故事世界和场景中。虽然除此之外还有很多例子,但是这部电视剧却始终都在提升着自己并不断吸引着观众的注意。

我知道,要想看到与《绝命毒师》拥有同样水平故事的电子游戏还需要很长时间,但如果电子游戏想要作为故事叙述媒体继续发展的话,它就需要开始完善这三个方面。就像我所说的,许多游戏可能只能做好其中的一两方面,但却没有哪款游戏能够真正将这三部分都收入囊中。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

3 Areas of Poor Video Game Storytelling

by Josh Bycer

I’m probably going to get yelled for this, but I find that storytelling in video games has always been and continues to be horrible. Even as technology has improved and we have seen the growth of the medium, I’ve yet to find a game where the story has hooked me from beginning to end.

When I think about it further, some games have gotten close, but none have managed to get it all right, and this has to do with several elements that the video game medium is weak around.

Storytelling

Before we begin talking about this, it’s important to point out that I’m excluding games that have no vocals or are meant to be throwbacks to retro games. The reason is that these titles were limited by the technology and not meant to give a cinematic experience to the player. With that said, let’s talk about the camera.

The Camera:

There are a lot of parts that go into making a story compelling for the audience, and the first one is the camera. If you’ve watched any movie or TV show, you know that the camera never stays perfectly still. The reason is that it’s very awkward to just stay on a few preset viewpoints for an entire conversation.

Cinematography is such an underrated part of good storytelling when it comes to any visual storytelling medium. Hideo Kojima was one of the first developers to explore the use of cinematography with the Metal Gear series. Granted, it was basic 3D at the time, but we had the camera actually try to engage the audience with what’s going on.

Effective cinematography can also be seen in the horror genre. The best horror movies manage to give the viewer omniscient views, while still framing the scenes in a way to surprise them.

Too often, we see developers have a static camera that simply cuts between the people talking. In fact, we could call this the “Bioware Problem,” as every one of their games has had this. For first person games, the camera simply hangs on the person talking who then remains still for the entire conversation (or they may have some preset animations that repeat).

You can have interesting things happen in first person: Show the character moving around, have the camera move like the character is reacting or looking at something.

Spiderman Shattered Dimensions did cutscenes in first person and had the characters in motion to keep the player engaged.

As a contrast, in Bioshock Infinite, Booker rarely reacted or moved during cutscenes; the game focused on the person on screen.

Naughty Dog has gotten good at using cinematography in their games, with both Uncharted and the Last of Us having the camera keep the audience engaged along with their actors, but more on that in a minute.

I also liked the work that went into Telltale Game’s adventure titles like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.

Another part of the visual side of storytelling is the characters themselves, and is where a lot of games tend to struggle.

Being Animated:

If there’s one thing that we all know with having a conversation is that people aren’t static. We tend to move around, go through mannerisms and react to what’s going on. Video games have really suffered in this regard; with characters who generally don’t move at all while they’re talking.

The reason for this one is simple: Animating characters is expensive. This is the reason why so many animated shows use stock animations or recycle work; look at Anime as a big example. But when we’re talking about big budget games, this should not be an area where you scrimp.

Going back to Naughty Dog, their use of motion capturing the actors while they were reading their lines helped to make their scenes a lot more realistic. Or in Telltale’s case, the characters tend to move around and do something while they’re talking.

And yet so many big budget games tend to use wooden characters that are simply there to spouse exposition and not move at all. Look at the Elder Scrolls games as examples of wooden characters or Bioware once again, and this has been going on for years.

Now, I can deal with a bad camera or wooden characters to some extent, but this last one kills me every time and has me reaching for the skip key.

“Realistic” Conversations:

I don’t know about you, but hearing people talk in video games has gotten more and more boring as the years go on. This isn’t me going after the voice actors, but the direction and editing that continues to frustrate me. When people talk for real, conversations aren’t so back-and-forth.

People tend to interrupt each other, slightly comment on the conversation, acknowledge things, etc. The point is that a real conversation has a flow to it, something that video games suffer from.

If you watch a vocal cutscene in a video game, the conversation tends to go like this: Person A talks, then Person B, then back to Person A and repeat until done. To make matters worse, there is usually a pause between each person, making it appear that the conversation was stitched together from two separate reads, which it could have been. I can’t think of anyone having a conversation where one person stays quiet and still while the other one talks for two minutes straight through.

Just like with animation, there is a reason for these conversations to be like that. Many video games reveal crucial information that the player needs to know in order to proceed. If the people were interrupting each other or making it sound realistic, then the player could miss important details. However, you can’t have it both ways: If you want to tell an engaging story, then the conversation has to be engaging.

As a quick aside, I also find lore readings to be very boring as well. The reason is that now it’s really a one-way conversation, with the player simply listening to a book on tape. Most of the time, I finish reading the whole thing before the person is even done with paragraph one.

Breaking the Stigma:

As I said at the start, video game storytelling has always been a boring part of the experience for me. I can’t count the number of games I’ve skipped entire cutscenes over.

If you want to look at a show that got it right, that would be Breaking Bad. From the camerawork, to the acting and direction, everything pulls the player into the world and situation. There are too many examples to point out here, but the show constantly kept elevating itself and made it so engaging to watch.

I know that it’s going to be a long time before we have the video game equivalent of Breaking Bad, but if video games want to continue to evolve as a storytelling medium, then it has to start improving at these three areas. As I said, many games are usually good in one or two, but I’ve yet to see a game get all three correct.(source:Gamasutra

 


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