Level Up.pdf

The Triangle of Weirdness
47
Speaking of surprises, there is a trend in game stories that I blame squarely
on Hollywood: the twist/surprise ending. While it is fun to be taken by
surprise, I believe there is merit to a predictable ending. Remember that
wish fulfillment I said players want? People like it when the good guys win
and the bad guy lose, and yet that ’ s the oldest story in the book.
Take, for example, the James Bond movies of the 1980s. When I was
growing up, I loved to go see those films. Even before I saw them, I knew
that Bond was going to use a cool new gadget and drive an awesome car,
defeat the villain ’ s scheme, save the world, and end up with the hot girl. So,
if I knew all of these things, why did I bother watching the movie? For me,
the fun was the twists and turns the story took. I knew the WHO, the WHAT
and the WHY, but I didn ’ t know the HOW.
There is a delight in predicting how things will turn out. It makes the player
feel smart, like they “ called it ” in an election or solved a mystery. Besides,
life is unpredictable enough as it is, why not give your audience a little
predictability? The point I am making is you don ’ t have to be especially
clever when writing your story, just entertaining.
Conversely, something that I don ’ t find very clever is a video game story
where the main character has amnesia. Amnesia ranks as the number one
video game clich é of all time, but I understand why game writers do this. It ’ s
an attempt to approximate the lack of information about the characters and
the world as a player begins the game. However, it ultimately becomes an
excuse for the writer to be an “ unreliable narrative ” and intentionally omit
information to the player in order to create a “ shock ending. ” It just feels
forced and frankly, isn ’ t fair to the player.
Instead, here is a great theory about the value of surprise vs suspense from
classic director Alfred Hitchcock. Imagine that there are two men sitting at a
table talking about baseball. The conversation lasts for about five minutes,
when suddenly, there is a huge explosion! This shocks the audience but
that surprise only lasts about 15 seconds.