Exposition - Video Game: Storytelling - page 67

teractive sequences for fear of missing something she will absolutely need
to know in order to succeed in gameplay. She's almost forced to endure
the entire sequence, while trying to parse the many, many facts and at-
tempting to figure out which are the ones she needs to remember.
For every unit of exposition, a storyteller must determine when the right
moment is to present it to the audience. In turn, each bit of information
should be weighed with regard to its importance, so that the least-urgent
facts can be deprioritized, tucked away, or even eliminated in favor of
more important ones.
“Need to know” is a good metric you can apply when deciding what ex-
position to convey and when. For each expository item you're about to in-
clude, ask yourself this simple yes/no question: does the audience need to
know this right now in order to be entertained? Not to understand, mind
you—to be entertained.
Because when it comes to stories, audiences do appreciate a bit of mys-
tery. They enjoy guessing. They relish being surprised. And they don't like
being able to easily predict what's about to happen next. Withholding im-
portant exposition can provide alignment with all these audience prefer-
ences, increasing tension and drama.
I generally organize expository facts into three categories:
▪ Need to Know : As you'd expect, this is a fact that the audience
needs to know right now, before they can be satisfyingly enter-
tained by what they are about to experience.
▪ Could Wait: A fact that, while potentially very important, is not ne-
cessary for the audience to understand at the current time. It can
(and in many cases should) wait, until it becomes a Need to Know.
▪ Incidental : A fact that is relatively unimportant and will remain so
throughout the story. While it may add color or characterization, its
removal would have little to no harmful effect on the audience's
enjoyment of the experience. Therefore it's a candidate for being
cut if necessary.
Here is a chart laying out units of expository information communicated
before the player is allowed to play Metal Gear Solid 2 , which I've classified
into the three categories. Gameplay-related information and hints are dis-
played in italic .