Weekend Confirmed Episode 44

I've been thinking about Ryan's question regarding the possibility of any game without combat achieving success on the level of COD. While my gut reaction is to say "Yes, there will be a story driven game that hits a similar level of popularity", I'm starting to have doubts the more I think about it.

When I think about the reason for the widespread success of games like COD, Halo, or Gears of War, I think the gamechanger is the competitive multiplayer. Yes, these franchises also feature extremely well made and popular single-player campaigns, but that is not as a rule what keeps players coming back to those games for literally YEARS. There is a massive demographic of players who might only buy a couple shooters per year, and spend every day after school online with their friends.

I think there is also a big difference in the play-styles of people who play games for action, vs people who play games for story. Namely, people who play games for story are far less likely to re-play games.

Jeff's statements a couple weeks back perfectly illustrate my point: he says he constantly wants new experiences. He would rather play a new game than replay one he loved. What this means is that Jeff, and a lot of gamers like him, will purchase and play dozens of games over the course of a year. The action/shooter market doesn't work that way. Because so many shooter fans get hooked on one or two games at a time, it creates a wider gulf in sales between the top level shooters and everything else. The top level shooters hit a point where so many kids are spending all their free time playing online, that they suck their friends into buying the game as well. It's like a perpetual motion machine for game sales.

I think that it will be very difficult for any single story-driven game to create such a gulf between themselves and the rest of the story driven games out there.

Another thought: In my experience, the games that get me the most invested in their stories ALSO feature excellent action and gameplay. I think Videogame's main advantage as a story telling medium is their potential to make the player feel immersed to a greater level than film or novels, and a big part of that is by sucking the player into the game world through direct, visceral, and tactile connections. The final mission of Mass Effect 2 or the last level of Halo Reach strike me as 2 incredible examples of story and gameplay combining in ways that made me feel completely consumed by what I was playing. I don't think a pure action or a pure story game could ever strike such a strong emotional chord.