Did games used to have better stories?

So, I was on the internet. You know, where everything is true? Well I heard that back then games where better. You know? Pre-2006? This is all bias by the way. Not my word.

Well anyway, they claim games had better gameplay, no lootbox/microtansactions, and story as opposed today where games are just about good visuals and scams.

But better story? I don't know if games had better story than they do now. I'm certain that games tell their stories much better after 7th gen consoles arrived. Like there where more ram and data have flashy scripted events, cutscenes. A CoD game would have more to it's story today than it did before 4. I'm sorry, I'm old. I don't really pay attention to NEW games. If you play a FPS campaign it just feels so alive. There was less animation back then.

I know that recent CODs have been devoid of campaign. But old games, like in the NES era have been devoid of story. Many gamers in their 40's will tell you "BACK IN MY DAY GAMES DIDN'T HAVE A STORY AND THEY WHERE GREAT!" Literally they only played some Mario game or racer.

People like that never played a point and click adventure game. And those games are so good and epic. Everyone knows Point and click adventure game have the best stories because they barely quantify as games. More like interactive story books where you solve a puzzle and riddle.

But the question begs, what's wrong with modern game story telling? Is there too much? Is there too little. Is there a socio political reason why modern stories aren't good? You know like "MUH SJWS" Will always complain about waman in their games.

I think games these days have great stories. The thing is, I don't have time for them. I don't have much time to watch cringey cutscenes. But games like God of War reboot have such amazing stories. Where it's not trying to be a summer Blockbuster or LOTR. Where I can relate to the characters.

I think this issue is non-specific but maybe they are just traumatized by Metal Gear's inspiration. I don't think things have ever changed.

Game stories mostly suck and they always have, but that's okay. Since the player has some agency in the goings on, you get immersed in it more easily than other mediums. The only game I ever felt had writing good enough to be a book was Planescape: Torment, and that was mostly done in prose to begin with.

I think the best way to present stories in games is simple naratives coveyed mostly through the environment. Something like Journey or Super Metroid.

@judaspete: Well honestly. In all honesty. I would love having incentive in my action games. Something memorable.

Not just a game where you go through the motions killing people. Where your role is Good guy and you must kill the bad guys because reasons.

Let me tell you something I tried to write a game story where you a generic "Boy kid dude" who must kill the henchmen of the evil bad guy doppleganger and it's so damn dry and derivative. This lead to some lame linear level designs.

At least SOME titles have some charm. Most games have the most impotent resolution.

I think its harder to create storys now days because a lot of it has already been told.

There are a lot of games, and I can think of older games and newer games that had pretty good stories, as well as the opposite.

I think for me, gameplay matters more than actual story to be quite frank. If I am having fun playing a game that is number one.

Story can also be told in different ways depending on the game. Some like Braid or Journey have unique ways of depicting a story without actually saying anything. Then you have a game like WoW which, for all intents and purposes usually doesn't have a big plot when you're playing it, but if you pay close attention to certain quests or the lore of the world, then it's actually quite deep.

I think OP is right, and for the most part telling a story has gotten easier in modern games. But to say there were no good stories told before then isn't true. Anyone who grew up with point-and-click adventure games or certain RPGs know that well before voice-acting and cinema-inspired storytelling there were epics.

I dunno, probably not. Admittedly it's been a long time since I've been into "story driven" games. Even the games I do enjoy that happen to be story heavy, usually just check out on that aspect. I wouldn't be the best judge.

I can say without a doubt that I enjoyed video game stories a whole shit load more way back when. But I was also more easily impressed as a child and had far less exposure to other storytelling mediums at the time. Would get my mind blown by stories in 16 bit JRPGs lol.

Game stories got a lot more complex if anything.

This could be to the detriment when constant storytelling got in the way of the action.

But overall, storytelling is a lot less black and white these days. Protagonists tend to be more flawed, villains might have redeeming features. Worldbuilding is given a lot more attention, which is good, since video games do worldbuilding better than they do characterization and plot.

To me there's only a handful of games that have good stories most of them are Silent Hill games.

If i want sum good story i read sum friggin book, watch a tv-soap-opera or a blu-ray movie.

If i want to play sum friggin game, i wanna play it.

The latter means i don´t really like sittin there while watching hours-long boring cut-scenes to bring me sum story that ain´t new at all coz every kind of story has been told already.

In other words....who da fu** really needs a story these days anyway?

No they always sucked we just have so much more to compare than we did in decades past.

Honestly I don't really think they did. The difference is that over the years since graphics have gotten much better, games have gotten longer, and cutscenes have grown in frequency and size that it takes some of the immersion out since you don't use as much of your imagination to build the world around you as you see fit. Perhaps that's just me though...

Either way I feel that at this point in time we have been in a game slump (recession if you will) for the past 3-5 years. It is looking as though 2023 will be the year to start us back in the right direction for the next couple/few years though.. hopefully.

Overall I feel things can and should have been a lot better in the gaming world over the past few years.

@judaspete: I’m with judaspete on this topic. They’ve always been a gimmick. But tbf they draw you into the story. It’s always how emotionally invested you are in a franchise, how your level of interest and passions go.

I'm going to come across as an ass-hat, so warnings in advance.

Depends on ones definition of story 'quality'. If (Example) Marvel's End Game is a masterpiece to someone? sure games 'can' have good stories.

Compare a video game story to (Example) Jane Eyre it becomes apparent writing, setting and character development is usually poor in a video game.

Games rarely have a half-baked story to begin with. Let alone good in my view. Most praise Mass Effect for story and while I find the games fun, the story is messy and stupid. Horribly inconsistent, characters are all over the place and change on a whim, and plain nonsensical in a lot of other areas. It's popcorn flick fluff with uncut scenes. And that can be entertaining.

Onto another game don't even get me started about Soul Fans diving on the deep end for DkS Lore. . remember when the lore junkies spread far and wide Solaire was Gwyn's son? based on asset ass-pulls.

If one finds a game with a great story it's rare if even true.

Yoko Taro san does some passable stories in games if I gave an example, because he goes against the norm/ expectations and gives characters actual depth, with a believable and dark side to human nature. Even then I wouldn't call them great story telling, just good.

I know someone is going to think my standards are too high, but I would imagine they don't read many books either. Enjoy what you enjoy I guess, but my standards are different from people who believe Final Fantasy VII was a masterclass of storytelling, that's all I'm putting forward.

I think it cuts both ways. The game development web series Extra Credits did a video that basically addressed the same question but in regards to video game music with the idea that there was a general perception that game music from early games was way better/more memorable than modern game music. Something they pointed out was that when dealing with the tools of the early console gaming, they had less to work with. Games from that era only had a few channels of midi synthesizer music to work with so the writing was more focused on the melody than anything else. Songs with strong melodies tend to be memorable, or at least you remember the melody. Everyone remembers the music from games like Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania. Compare that to an overloaded orchestral score from something like a modern COD game that suits the action at the time but leaves your brain the second you aren't listening to it anymore.

Same early games had strong stories and/or writing because the story was most of what you had to work with. Hell, text adventures were literally just words. The flipside of that is true as well, though. Modern games have all kinds of ways that they can deliver story woven into the gameplay other than long cutscenes of exposition dump. The Last of Us had amazing writing, characters, delivery, etc but it wasn't known for grinding the game to a halt for 20-minute cutscenes like MGS4 or Quantum Break. Games can have as much or as little story these days as they want because there's so much more "game" that can be included, or they can use all of the tools available to them to deliver a great story through the modern mechanics themselves.

Maybe I’m just cheesy but I enjoyed the old Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior 8/16 bit stories way better than I do todays… I will say though mostly not the greatest stories in video games, it would help incentivize me to play a modern JRPG cause I sure as hell not playing for the graphics.

@wladolfputler: Wait you guys actually read books?

@Alexander2cents: You see that "Quote"-Button? Use it on the part of text where you think i clearly said something like "I read books."