Not scripted–Respond to Emergent Storytelling

I think emergent storytelling is what makes a game so likable and popular. Of course there will be a lot that don’t fit in this statement, but I think it is the trend because it opens up the real game interaction mechanics. It’s not that hard to understand how it works, but it will take time to create a true immersive game environment.

The core feature is that it’s not scripted, and that what makes emergent storytelling only be seen in game development, for obvious reasons. Each of the unique experiences is a story of its own, and the player will gain control more than ever, creating their own story within the game world by their own decisions. It’s more and more like what actual life is like. 

And so we arrived at the greatest pitfall of emergent narratives. We’ve seen that games can generate story events endlessly. But this doesn’t constitute a proper story. It requires effort from the player. Without the act of collecting these events and constructing a narrative theme, the story events are hollow. If you want a story to be created, you need to filter the story events on relevance. You could tell a story about an exploration expedition in Minecraft, so you’d need to (re)collect all the story events that fit the exploration theme: leaving your base, finding out where to go, defend against enemies, find shelter when night suddenly falls, return to base.