Emil Pagliarulo knows that riveting stories beat at the heart of captivating videogames. The Bethesda Softworks designer backs his point with Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic adventure in which each player starts out as a youth searching for a scientist father and makes moral choices shaping his or her destiny. Online chat forums reveal players are devoting scores of hours to Fallout 3, taking on quests such as freeing slaves, rescuing hostages, and integrating an elitist survivor settlement. Conversations players have with in-world characters affect directions stories take, with choices regarding whether to do good or evil determining their reputations, opportunities and allies.

Videogame makers began evolving into modern-day storytellers in the early 1980s, and the list of blockbuster role-playing, story-driven videogames is growing. Halo 3 is credited with being so coveted that it boosted sales of Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame consoles for which it is exclusively tailored. A new KillZone 2 science fiction action videogame featuring a contemplative Sergeant Tomas Sevchenko and “Hollywood realism” is expected to be among this year’s stellar titles for Sony PlayStation 3 consoles. Powerhouse French videogame maker Ubisoft last year bought a Canadian film animation company and said it intended to more intimately combine the worlds of movies and videogames.

Pagliarulo recalls a Game Developers Conference a few years ago at which he was chagrined by colleagues that argued stories weren’t needed in videogames. ”I thought that was ludicrous then, and I think it’s ludicrous now,” Pagliarulo said. “The past few years have shown just how important story can be. Games have turned an important corner.”

Source: AFP