MTV News' Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up's N'Gai Croal on Portal. Round 2--Fight!

re: MTV News' Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up's N'Gai Croal on Portal. Round 2--Fight!

tilt3daxis — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:38:35 GMT

I'm slightly confused, N'Gai, about your distinction between story and narrative. Is it simply a matter of semantics or is there something deeper that I'm missing?

Cheers to another great entry :) I'm looking forward to Round 3!

>>Bryant

re: MTV News' Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up's N'Gai Croal on Portal. Round 2--Fight!

Anton P. Nym — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:13:08 GMT

With respect, you're both forgetting one crucial character in Portal, even though she(?) is never seen, met, or heard; Chell's anonymous, and probably insane, benefactor and fellow test subject. Her scribbled notes on the wall do tell a story though I've yet to piece it all together, and without her I doubt very many players would be able to complete the game.

I'd also argue that, through the contrast between her "dialog" and GLaDOS's, you do get to see some story in Portal.

(I'm trying to fight the temptation to consider the Weighted Companion Cube another character, though in-game dialog develop it(?) much better than many games' NPCs, or even Chell for that matter. I especially like the ironic twist that GLaDOS's warning about how test subjects tend to anthropomorphise inanimate objects sets players up to do exactly that with their WCC.)

-- Steve

re: MTV News' Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up's N'Gai Croal on Portal. Round 2--Fight!

MattDWilson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:30:37 GMT

The main thing I think developers will (or should) end up taking from Portal, and N'Gai hints at this, is the importance of economy in both gameplay and story.

The criticism of the game that I have most often heard is that it is too short -- this is often a criticism for games, and I find it baffling. Would I rather play a 4-hour game that is unyieldingly inventive and that constantly holds my interest or slog through 20+ hours of what essentially amounts to busywork?

Not to say that longer games are bad. Bioshock is quite lengthy and never lags. But often reviewers and armchair critics seem interested in stretching out games simply for the sake of more playing time. When was the last time you read a movie review saying the playing time should have been half an hour longer? Or a book could have used a couple more chapters? The key in storytelling is doing all that's required to tell the story and nothing more. So why arbitrarily extend the story and the experience of a game?

Since when was leaving the player/viewer/reader wanting more a bad thing?

re: MTV News' Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up's N'Gai Croal on Portal. Round 2--Fight!

KirbyKid — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:50:17 GMT

I consider Chell to be one of the main characters in Portal. Pinpointing and using the same definition of "story" or "narrative" can be the trickiest part of such a discussion.

I wrote a blog entry about the story in Portal. Totilo couldn't convince you, but perhaps I can help.

http://critical-gaming.blogspot.com/2007/11/portal-narrative.html

>>Richard