Pen And Pixels: Game Writing Is Like Being An Umpire

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Red Storm's Richard Danksy is the Tom Clancy game guy. Since joining the Ubisoft-owned developer, he's been the company's Clancy "writing resource" and has the official office title of Central Clancy Writer, and Manager of Design for Red Storm Entertainment. He's written a ton of games. No, he's written a ton of really good games. So, how does he describe gaming writing?

That being said, for a lot of games, narrative works like an umpire in baseball — if you notice it, it's doing something wrong. In a lot of games, all the story needs to do is to ease you into the fantasy and provide immersion in the scenario. At that point, the fact that the action takes over is a good thing, story-wise — it means the player isn't sitting there thinking "Wait a minute, that character's motivation is totally unrealistic" or "Wouldn't international banking laws have rendered that mission objective impossible?" or, well, you get the idea.
If the narrative — as manifested in the dialogue and the objectives — does nothing except help keep the player in the game and moving forward of their own volition, to create their own experiences, it's doing exactly what it needs to.
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Well said. Game writing should be more about the game and less about the writing. Who wants to play a book? Brian Ashcraft
Tom Clancy Writer [Gamasutra]
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