Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
methods is a time-tested approach from traditional storytelling media that
can also work very well in games.
The advantage of doing so is that you can grab the audience's attention
with intense, dramatic action right off the bat and immediately hook them
into the main conflict. A caveat, however, is that when you introduce the
main conflict so early audience members might not yet care about the
characters or understand what's at stake, since they lack full context.
Act I truncation aside, the rest of the Three-Act Structure matches up
very well to the narrative structures that can and do work well in many
games.
Other Game Formats
I'm often asked if the Three-Act Structure applies to narrative-rich games
that don't adhere to the traditional story-based, single-player campaign
that is seen in most console games and many PC titles. For example, what
about MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) such as
World of War-
craft
or
Star Wars: The Old Republic
?
If you've ever played an MMO for any length of time, you know there are
some fundamental differences between that game genre and traditional
video games. MMOs feature persistent worlds that don't stop or “pause”
when you decide to suspend or end your play session. In an MMO you
don't play as the main character; you are one of thousands of players sim-
ultaneously interacting with the virtual space. And there is no main conflict
that you try to resolve to end the game. The game doesn't even
have
an
ending—it theoretically goes on forever (or at least as long as it's profitable
or feasible).
In an MMO, you're just another adventurer among many. There might be
world-altering “events” that are staged by the game designers from time to
time in which you can participate in some small way, but you will never be
the central character of that world, nor the individual who resolves that
world's singular conflict. So how can you be the Hero?
Looking at the entirety of a traditional, story-based video game, one can
almost always see the touchstones of the Three-Act Structure: setup, con-
frontation, and resolution of a central conflict. But when you look at the
enormous, endless sweep of an MMO, you won't readily see the Three-Act
Structure, because you need to look more closely.
