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[jaydub]

The caustic version: Video game writing is crap.  It's terrible.  Why do they use the spoken word at all?  Wouldn't it be better if developers just forgot they ever took creative writing as a middle school elective and stick to making pretty things that explode when you shoot them?
...
So I says, if your game has a story, make it unbelieva-brilliant, and then never let it get in the player's way.  Make sure they're experiencing the story, and not reading/listening to it as much as possible.

So much truth.  Clicking (or space-barring) through reams of C-grade exposition in the middle of a game is almost unbearable.  On the other hand, last night I played 6 hours of Civilization IV with the sound off so my gestating wife wouldn't make me turn off the laptop.  It was alright though, I could still hear Leonard Nimoy's voice intoning, "And them that take the sword shall perish by the sword." from memory.

[CortJstr]

Pedro, have you ever tried the IF "game" Galetea? It has no goal, you just have a conversation with what may or may not be a statue that came to life. There are like 15 endings and I couldn't get to any of them without a walkthrough, but then I suck.

Also, Portal the Flash Version is awesome and has basically no plot whatsoever.

[Golfhaus]

Certainly don't mention the phrase "president's daughter" twelve times during one conversation.  The phrase isn't magical.

It will be if Hillary takes the White House. Chelsea's pretty hot. She had the misfortune of living the awkward teenage years in the most famous house in all the world, but if she'd spent the last few years tracking down every TV camera and saying, "You see this? Fuck you, world!" I'd be cool with it.

[theinevitable]

in the most famous house in all the world

She grew up in Santa's House?

[Golfhaus]

She grew up in Santa's House?

Cinderella's Castle at Disney World, actually.

[Lister]

Writing in video games sucks for a lot of reasons.

Reason 1: They keep giving the writing job to "the guy who can spell."

Reason 2: People forget that games are a series of interactions, and dialog isn't interactive.  Not even dialog trees are interactive, sorry.  The game is the interactions, and making the player stop interacting in order to experience your story is doing a disservice to the game and to the story.

The best game writing is the stuff you discover as part of the game, because you want to find out more.  The most recent experience I can think of came in the game Psychonauts, where I found a hidden door in the mind of a generally happy lady (Her theme is a dance party!) that contained a memory of the past -- and her nightmares.  Suddenly I was able to discover my own context for her and come to a new understanding of the character, and it was done just through my poking around in a hidden part of the level.  Not only did it enhance the story, it felt like something I did on my own.  That's the cool thing.

Incidentally, Erik Wolpaw (who wrote most of Portal) was a writer on the excellent game Psychonauts.  Every American has a duty to go purchase this excellent game from the XBox Live Marketplace.

[theinevitable]

I'm really enjoying this vibe I get from Twilight Princess where... the crazy Japanese mythology type stuff is a lot more prevalent in this game. I know it is stereotypical to be all "those Japanese, they are so crazy, look at the crazy stuff they come up with!"
But really, visually, this game is just not something that could have come out of my mind. A lot of it kind of reminds me of Hiyao Miyazaki's stuff, with all the cool nature-spirits with horns and translucent snakes made out of light and monsters whose faces are masks that look like faces upside down or right-side-up....

yeah, I guess it is the visuals I'm talking about, not the story. Oh well.

[Pedro Picasso]

yeah, I guess it is the visuals I'm talking about, not the story. Oh well.

The visuals in that game are really neat.  Two story things are also good.  You get to know the kids in a happy-times setting before they're kidnapped, providing you an emotional need to rescue them.  Also -- like HalfLife's Gordon Freeman -- Link has no dialogue.  The mute protagonist helps the player project their own feelings about the character onto the game which intensifies your emotional connection. 

[theinevitable]

on the other hand, it's frequently really confusing.

NOW YOU NEED THE TWILIGHT MIRROR, NOT THE LIGHT MIRROR! GO GET THAT MIRROR, BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO BE A WOLF!
Maybe it's because I sometimes only skim the dialog, though.

[Pedro Picasso]

on the other hand, it's frequently really confusing.

NOW YOU NEED THE TWILIGHT MIRROR, NOT THE LIGHT MIRROR! GO GET THAT MIRROR, BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO BE A WOLF!
Maybe it's because I sometimes only skim the dialog, though.

Hey, if you don't like jumping through hoops to collect the jingle-janglies, maybe you should find another genre.  Me, I've dropped into "let's pretend-you're playing music" games.

[CortJstr]

Hey, if you don't like jumping through hoops to collect the jingle-janglies, maybe you should find another genre.  Me, I've dropped into "let's pretend-you're playing music" games.

Lately I'm into the "whatever one have badges on Kongregate" games. But I'm pretty bad so most of the Hard and Impossible ones will forever elude me. Hell, I just recently found out that "Why don't you try the harder difficulty level" isn't the "good" ending to Street Fighter 2.

[jay-ell]

Hey, if you don't like jumping through hoops to collect the jingle-janglies, maybe you should find another genre.  Me, I've dropped into "let's pretend-you're playing music" games.

I got a hoop for your jingley-janglies right here. 

[jaydub]

Sounds like the episiotomy has healed.

[jay-ell]

Sounds like the episiotomy has healed.

Epesiotomies are for wimps.