Heavy Rain director encourages more 'personal' stories

What I liked about Heavy Rain was the fact that the whole story was very personal but, to me, it never felt like I was watching a movie. That might seem weird to some people. I could not get into some games because they really...really felt like I was just watching a movie but with Heavy Rain man...I was sucked it. I called in sick to work when I got it in the mail (trial Gamefly...which i hate, btw) and I played it 12 hrs straight and just loved it. Some might say it is a movie but to me it really felt more of a game to me. If that makes sense...

I think he has some really good ideas, but I think some of the existing story types can still work, albeit from a different viewpoint. Personally I would be very interested by a game set in WWII, if it was from the point of view of an average citizen, one who has personal problems and potentially little to no military training. Playing as a character like that who is thrust into crazy and dangerous situations would be very intriguing to me.

Sort of like how in Metro 2033, Artyom was not not really a tough and burly stereotypical soldier... but maybe to take it even further and make a character that is truly an everyman. For example, what if you were trapped in the world of Resistance, and you WEREN'T some super soldier like Nathan Hale? If you were an average guy, you story would be all about survival... hell, it could even be mostly guerrilla tactics and stealth gameplay. I would definitely be down with that.

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAASON

Am I the only one who was underwhelmed by the writing in Heavy Rain? Most of the dialog was fine, if not a bit stilted and forced at times, but the plot made no freaking sense. They touted the game as having all these different endings, but only the "good" endings even come close to maintaining continuity, and none of them explain the fact that the protagonist blacks out and miraculously knows how to make origami - something that the writers have expressed several times they don't see a problem with.

Seems like Cage should have taken his own advice and written just about the relationship with the son, rather than tying in a murder mystery, because he clearly doesn't "have a clue what that's like".

I'm surprised at the positive comments towards Cage. It was my impression that most people were more than happy to mock him for his hyperbole about how Heavy Rain was the "future of gaming" or some such BS.

He doesn't seem as self-delusional as Molyneux, but why do people think games have to be "deep"? Seriously, we didn't need an ethical dilemma over why we were stomping Goombas or shooting the forces of Red Falcon. We just DID IT.

The answer would be: enough to unlock the 50 cal.

He should have talk about how to do better voice acting... wait, nevermind

Good writers dont have to live a tale to tell one.

Ok, why does this man talk? Does he realize that there are some who actually talk to ww2 vets? Besides, Is he a cop? Is he a girl? Is he someone who chain sawed someone up the bullocks? No? Then shut it Cage. I swear, just because he makes a couple of ok games, he thinks he owns the industry.

Could not agree more.

Heavy Rain, no matter what you may have thought of the gameplay mechanics, was a breath of fresh air to the single-player market. Innovation in gaming is far from dead but a lot of recent innovation has been around how we control or look at a concept that's already been flogged numerous times, or is simply too shallow and forgettable.

As a writer myself (I could be dangerously biased) but I find the games with an imaginative concept, characters or themes that I actually care about are amongst the most impressive expressions of video-gaming as an art form. The ability to interact under another guise, under different rules, or in a world different to our own is what ultimately drives modern gaming as a viable media.

Gaming requires player input (QTE included :P ) but that input is often a generic expectation (e.g. shoot anything that moves) rather than an action that takes anything from you as a person and adds it to the mix. Games have the ability to deliver experiences that are as adaptable as they are beautiful, and right now, save for a few titles, I don't believe that capacity for grabbing players at the personal level has ever been truly achieved.

What was the last game you played through, not for achievements, trophies or xp, but because you genuinely cared what happened? When was the last time you finished a game with the sense that what you had experienced would have been different to everyone else?

No big secrets here... the plot has a few holes. Some of the actors have strange accents. What else? Oh, the controls are non-traditional and require a little extra time to learn. And the character models are that kind of near-reality that approaches the "uncanny valley".
So, how is it, given all these apparent drawbacks, does the game go on to succeed at completely enveloping the player in its world and making him/her actually care about the fate of these characters?
I don't know the answer... I just really look forward to seeing another completely different game that refines this secret ingredient and maybe filters out some of the chaff the tinged the taste of Heavy Rain.

(My post will contain spoilers for Homefront)

I don't see why both can't find a common ground. I would love to see more war stories that incorporate the personal aspects he's talking about. Soldiers are people too, so chances are they do have something worth fighting for. This is why I felt games like Homefront and Medal of Honor failed me. I just didn't feel attached to the world around me. When you find Boone dead in like, the second chapter it didn't really resonate with me because I didn't get enough time to get to know him as a character. He just felt like another AI. And even then, as a Candaian, I couldn't really be outraged that the North Koreans had invaded because well, I'm not American. It's totally possible for FPS games to be emotional, the problem is most developers seem more concerned on making a good mutiplayer game these days, which is very saddening.

Guh, Joystiq ate my attempt to reply twice, so in response to what the people said in reply to me...

I don't really need a deeper experience in my games. Sure, there are cases where I really enjoy the interactions between the characters and how they respond to what you do and the world they live in -- in games such as Red Dead Redemption -- but I don't need what I feel is some people's attempts to validate or qualify the existence and purpose of games.

Also, it veers dangerously close to the "games are art" argument, which I will never, ever buy. I don't need "art"; I can read a history book or go to a museum for that. I want fun, which has always been and should still always be the primary purpose of playing a game, plot or whatever be damned.

Guys, IGN wrote a pseudo-intellectual piece on whether Homefront could happen in real life. Joystiq boiled it down to running through unusually corridor-like streets and being bombarded by ads for sub-par fast food chains.

I like Joystiq's interpretation better.

Oh David, will you ever stop spewing your idiotic bile about games? You clearly don't want to make actual games, and talk as if Heavy Rain is the best thing since sliced bread. Stop. We get it already, you'd rather make films or something.

Protip: Games can be art, but don't HAVE TO BE. Same with movies. Awful movies can still be fun, look at GI Joe.

If you have any interest in writing professionally, try not to take advice from David Cage. Heavy Rain was a complete mess from a writer's perspective. There are some powerful scenes, but a few good scenes does not make a story.

Cage makes some good points when he talks about writing, as does anyone who has taken a few writing classes. But make no mistake. Cage is a hack, and his writing chops aren't fit for anything more serious than the game industry.

He's pointed out a very obvious problem with FPS shooters which have made them quite pedestrian since COD4: there's no emotional attachment whatsoever to any of these characters so it's hard to care if they even get killed.

Mw2...you feel sad for the guy with the skull-mask instead of any of the primary protagonists, mainly b/c he looks so badass. Not exactly a great characterization set-up.

I hope they announce their next game at E3. Even though their games have flaws, I have loved Omikron, Indigo Prophecy, and Heavy Rain. I just hope that they improve the voice acting from Heavy Rain. I was shocked that the voice acting wasn't really well done in Heavy Rain since it was very good in Omikron and Indigo Prophecy.

Can one of these developers please encourage not having game shame? You know, lets simply let video games be what they are instead of being ashamed of that and trying to turn them into movies?

Also, how about Quantic Dream make a new Omikron game instead of a new Heavy Rain game? You know, something that's actually interesting? Like something that isn't another boring ass gritty realistic game that attempts to whittle away all interactivity in favour of being more like a movie? Is that too much to ask?

Just make sure you don't have NEARLY has many plot holes in your writing as Cage, himself.

Then, maybe video game stories will be taken more seriously.

Also I want to ad that storytelling is not about establishing bullet point theme phrases like "how far would you go to save a loved one." Stories are all about characters, not metaphors or catch phrases. A good story focuses on fully establishing what the characters are like and then putting them through scenarios, letting you see how those characters react to different situations and challenges. Truly great stories are all about character dynamics, not themes or background mythos. Video games can do that in ways that are entirely different from films or literature.

Take Planescape Torment for example. Its a game that gives you a limited far up god's eye view of the world while filling in all the close up "on the ground" detailed with rich text. The game has limited graphics and a limited visual perspective but it elaborates and gives great attention to characters and scenery by using text. Its a fusion that doesn't really exist elsewhere. What does Heavy Rain do? It just tosses around film techniques and staples on some button prompts.

Its a series of showy in engine cutscenes you slightly influence with quick time events. It sort of shows what the characters are like, but the hideous uncanny valley technology and out of control emphasis on the "how far would you go" codephrase drowns it out. Old point and click adventure games like Broken Sword do what Heavy Rain tries to do far better by using more appealing graphics and more genuine interactivity. You at least solve puzzles and try to figure things out in most adventure games instead of engaging in meaningless quick time events.

At the same time, narratives in video games are at a crossroads.

You have linear stories that don't change despite repeated playthroughs, which arguably gives the writers a chance to flesh the characters out more.

(This rarely happens, though. Look at how dull Master Chief is -- despite his admitted nature as nothing but a player proxy -- and how obnoxious it gets when Kratos' personality for God of War III boils down to yelling "ZEUS!" for the whole game.)

You also have more open-world games, a concept modernized by Rockstar and other companies. But in those cases, the narrative is often disjointed because of the nature of how players can take on story missions in any order.

(Do the characters in games like Mass Effect REALLY have deep development? No, not beyond side missions. And since those don't impact the main story, you won't see any personal development a character went through in the main game scenario where it counts.)

Basically, game narratives are at an unenviable junction in terms of storytelling and some companies try to have it both ways and fail miserably.

"Don't write about being a rookie soldier in WWII, because you don't have a clue what that's like."

Well don't write about FBI agents and murders, since we all know David Cage wasn't a murder or ever in the FBI, so I'm sure he doesn't have clue about how it's to be one of those two things. Such a contradiction.

I'm a fan of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit but I think Cage is a bit too big headed.

If it's a FPS game I probably don't give that much of a toss about the story at the end of the day, so why the hang up David Cage?