Hello Everyone
Something reminded me of the 1980s movie Dirty Dancing today. And it struck me that even a random movie like Dirty Dancing reflects something about Storytelling that no game maker can afford to ignore.
XXX
What is a Story?
Stories come in many forms, and it is beyond the scope of my current post to discuss all possible Story formats. But one of the most popular kinds of Story is Growth. It can be summed up as:
1) Hero starts out a weak, bullied weakling called Zero.
2) Circumstances force Zero to go exploring or leave his comfort zone. He is often pursued by enemies or persecuted by those who dislike him.
3) Zero goes through many experiences
4) Zero gets stronger
5) Zero is finally able to face down a challenge he never thought he could take on.
6) Having succeeded in his challenge, Zero returns home and is acclaimed a Hero.
This kind of story is particularly popular with young people. For that reason, many fantasy novels, martial arts novels, etc. offer such a story. We generally start out as Zeroes in life and try to become Heroes.
JRR Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings was regarded as successful partly because it offered many Stories. One of the most memorable, one that surely we all know, is how four weak little Halflings became the Saviors of the Story. Frodo Baggins basically overcame the toughest psychological/ emotional challenges to become a towering hero.
Heroes of Might and Magic is a game that is very, very dependent on this Zero to Hero Growth story. Very few scenarios or official campaigns or independent mapmakers are capable of keeping your interest if they ignore this story. If you want gamers to enjoy the campaigns, you really need to make sure you have a suitable story and it is well integrated with the campaign scenarios.
XXX
Those familiar with Heroes IV will remember that Emilia’s Tale ‘A Glassblower’s Daughter’ and Gauldoth Half-Dead’s story. Both are exemplary Hero-tales in this vein.
A Glassblower’s Daughter is really one of the most memorable Hero-tales ever told in the Heroes franchise. I’m sure we all experienced the incredible frustration of Map 1, where Emilia was a really, really weak Zero leading nothing but tiny Halflings and Dwarves that she towered over. A single misplaced punch from a level 2 stack was guaranteed death for Emilia. Yet we needed Emilia to stand in front and take at least a few shots for the Halflings, because you couldn’t afford to lose any. When playing on Championship, there is really no way to take your first castle without risking Emilia’s death because she needs to go in front and punch down the door.
3DO did a good job on Emilia’s campaign planning. Whether on Champion or Easy, her story was tightly linked with the game map. Do you recall how poor she was and how difficult it was to get enough resources for second tier golems? Do you remember how dangerous was Emilia’s first hero opponent, the barbarian hero? (He was typically level 6-9 but Emilia could build a level 3 mage guild at max so beating him was tough.)
By the end of Emilia’s first map, I’m sure we were all hooked. We wanted this girl to go far!
I’m sure we also experienced the pure pleasure of Hero Victory for Emilia on the final map. When a Glassblower’s daughter takes on a madman bent on eternal tyranny. Most of us should have crushed Gavin Magnus with nothing but Emilia, Solmyr and at most a few ‘bait’ or ‘distraction’ stacks. Watching Emilia smash and cast her way through Gavin Magnus’ Dragon Golems was a fantastic experience. A good story, integrated into a well-planned campaign!
XXX
How does this tie in with Dirty Dancing? Well, for those who don’t know, Dirty Dancing is a 1980s movie staring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. It was a hit.
Sure, most of us are male and not all that interested in Patrick Swayze or dancing. I don’t find Jennifer Grey interesting to look at either. I only watched Dirty Dancing 20 years ago because there was absolutely nothing else on TV. I thought it was an OK movie and that was that.
Years later, as a professional writer trying to get a novel published, I started studying how to write plots. Then I came across Dirty Dancing again (again the only offering on late night TV, you know how reruns are). When I watched it, it struck me that YES! This movie is a guaranteed hit!
You see, even if Dirty Dancing is largely a movie that caters to women, it tells the Zero to Hero Growth story perfectly. And Jennifer Grey acted fantastically well. I didn’t appreciate it when I watched it as a teenager, but as a grown man, I appreciated how she started out a clumsy, awkward teen and blossomed into a woman in this movie. This standard of acting and directing is rare!
I don’t find her physically attractive and I don’t care for her hairstyle or the dance moves, but I was captivated by the story. I watched this movie a second time because I was cheering for her. I wanted to see Jennifer Grey go somewhere, become somebody, win something!
Even though Dirty Dancing was set in the 1960s (I think), it featured a culture and country very far from mine, it involves a woman, it was made in the 1980s, it had dated music and dance styles - none of that mattered because the Story was good and the acting/directing supported the story perfectly.
That’s how you keep people interested. You gotta keep them cheering for your character.
XXX
The main challenge for any maker of fantasy games, especially one with a title like Heroes, is that they must focus on the hero, his story and his progression through life. It is absolutely important that gamers find the hero interesting and want to keep him going; it is also important to plan the campaigns such that the hero develops appropriately. The choices that a hero makes should also have a real impact on the storyline.
Heroes VI has failed spectacularly so far in the first 2 maps of their demo. It is a common sentiment that these first two maps are boring. The characters are wishy-washy and you don’t really care for them. Their quests (e.g. explore family mausoleum, put uncle’s ghost back to rest) are highly pedestrian. Their challenges are remarkably mundane - it’s largely about amassing troops and beating down the Wolf Duchy’s forts while your enemy sleeps indoors.
When I played Roland’s Wizard Campaign in Heroes II, people were betraying him and there was a sense of menace/ challenge on every map. When I played Lamentia’s campaign in Heroes IV, I was intrigued by her partly dark and interesting past. When I played Freyda’s campaign in Heroes V, I was cheering her on, hoping to find closure and justice for her.
When I play Duke Pavel (or is it Slava? I can’t remember the name anymore)’s campaign on Heroes VI, I actually fell asleep in the second map and woke up 15 minutes later. This happened TWICE!
Not a good sign.
XXX
Ubihole has made some big blunders in the game. These prevent the creation of good stories that keep you invested in and interested in your heroes.
1) Many high level heroes from all factions are available in your Hall of Heroes. This makes Hero-leveling meaningless. It means that if you hired a secondary hero and spent time leveling him, you’ve wasted your time because you can just pay for a better hero in late game. In fact, that’s what any smart player should do - everytime he captures a new castle he should get a new high level hero to scout and defend.
2) Unlike in Heroes V, mentoring is easily available. Just choose from the list of things you can spend your skill points on! This means that even if you have selected ‘no strong secondary heroes’, you can still speed level up your secondary heroes.
2) Making nearly all of the same spells and skills available to all factions is a joke. Why should certain factions have access to dark magic? The worst is making MORE spells available to barbarians than other factions. This is utterly moronic. I was casting Life Drain on my barbarian troops! (Computer also likes to do that.)
Stories are interesting because not everyone is the same. Different factions need to win using their racial abilities, rather than using the same skills as the ‘evil’ guys! Barbarians should be brute-force and magic-resistant!
3) You are encouraged to convert all towns and forts to your own side, yet to increase damage you have to get units or spells that are outside your faction. (EG the Sanctuary’s Soaked/ Chilled ability isn’t that great unless you have air-type attacks or air magic, or fire magic which you cannot get.) How does that make for a coherent and united side?
4) Why should Blind (and many other good skills) be only available at level 15? Doesn’t that make a level 14 much, much weaker? In Heroes IV, a well built and well-played level 8 or 10 hero could crush a level 15 or 20 opponent.
Now that hero-leveling is very hard, it makes players reluctant to spend an entire skill point on a spell that they know is limited by mana, cooldown and may even be useless if the opponent has a countering strategy.
For instance, I don’t think anyone is likely to use puppet master. It is only available at level 15, charges you 45 mana a pop, works for only 2 turns and is dispelled very easily.
5) The blood or tears path is ridiculous. Heroes of Might and Magic has traditionally been open-ended, offering enormous variety to us gamers. As a guy who likes playing Wizards and employing versatile strategies, I hate being pressured to follow a narrowly defined path. Yet this game now pressures you to focus on either blood or tears. If you employ different strategies versus different kinds of opponents, you may wind up with reputation points on both sides which prevents you from attaining the Ultimates quickly. That’s extremely dangerous because a level 9 hero can be beaten by a level 5 hero with Tsunami or Death is Not The End.
Nowadays, a hero Ultimate such as Armageddon or Curse of the Netherworld is available by level 5 providing you shed enough tears (or bled enough). This means that even a level 5 hero can be extremely, extremely annoying. He can show up, cast his ultimate spell, wipe out lots of troops (including his own), get a free TP back to his own castle. And while you’ve won the battle, you get Zero experience!
Ubihole has not learned from the abuses in Heroes IV!
Hero Progression, Storytelling and Dirty Dancing.
Well there's an interesting topic.
As a professional writer apparently, you're expected to already realise that what you regard as the essential mould for a compelling plot is no new insight, and has been analysed to death for over fifty years; it's not commonly known as Zero to Hero, it's named the monomyth. So it's not that nobody can afford to ignore it, it's that nobody can ignore it. Everyone already knows of it. I bet GreatEmerald can find the appropriate TVTrope for you, and a hundred subtemplates to go with it. The majority of the canon protagonists in HoMM are cookie-cutter characters for this trope, slotting into it like jigsaw pieces. Morglin Ironfist, Roland Ironfist, Catherine, everybody in H4, and a few H5 characters.
Since HoMM is fundamentally a series of wars and quests, that's the unavoidable nature of many of its stories really. There are also a few "downfall campaigns" like with Sandro, Gelu and Tarnum, but Rise of the Necromancer definitely falls into the same monomyth category. Armageddon's Blade was a bit more sinister and original with the whole explosion of the world problem, subverting step 6 a little. But somebody on this forum once claimed that Heroes' plots thrive on unoriginality, and should be graded on the quality of the narrative/thickness of the plot rather than its uniqueness or complexity. Tropes and cliches are/were no problem in Heroes, because the RPGs were already doing an excellent job of screwing with convention by using the sci-fi backstory. So, among the subsect of people who actually give a damn about the storyline in the first place, Heroes has been more answerable to judgment on its storytelling and atmosphere than its plot structure.
I think we will agree that one of the most compelling official campaigns ever released is Half-Dead, which follows the very same structure you outline but is interspersed with lots of philosophy, character development and strong narrative. Gauldoth may be an anti-hero, but his journey is a cookie-cutter one nonetheless. The Price of Peace (you call it A Glassblower's Daughter) actually had more of an original structure with two protagonists and very ambiguous villainy in Magnus compared to other characters, but I am much more interested in replaying Half-Dead when given the choice.
Now as you know, I'll be the last to defend Ubisoft's writers when they screw up catastrophically, but I think there is some imbalance in your criticism:
1) you're comparing entire, full-length campaigns from the previous games to the two-mission prologue in H6 - Shakesperian levels of drama are traditionally inappropriate at this stage in Heroes. Roland's first mission also involved mundanely subjugating some barons, as did Emilia's.
2) the kinks in the gameplay should, at least somewhat, be clearly distinguished from the quality of the storyline (or otherwise H4 must have the crappiest storyline in the series because I managed to kill the almighty immortal king Gavin Magnus in two turns, the stuff of parody, which is by definition not climactic or interesting in the least).
I'm actually stunned that you reference Freyda/Hammers of Fate as a positive example of a well-told Heroes tale, because to me H5 and both of its expansions were treading rock-bottom as far as the integrity of plot was concerned - dreadful voice acting, plotholes galore and sparse narrative combined to leave me facepalming myself into the dirt. That goes for the entirety of HoF, and particularly the character of Biara, who made use of the primary characters' sheer idiocy as a plot device. Nothing was compelling about it.
Now as for Heroes VI? I don't know that it's up-to-scratch with Heroes IV, considering that sharp limitations have required some elements to be changed or to go unrealised. But avoiding comment on the five big blunders you mention, which unlike the plot can be patched and modded at will, I think there's way more merit in its plot than I would ever be prepared to give H5 (I've seen more of it than you have).
The narrative is less dependent on terrible jokes (Kraal aside) and low IQ. Voice acting is back at a solid standard. There are some demons in disguise, but there is no insulting anagram crap (Agraelag) or awkward, naive insipidity ("what was done to me… the thing that came out…I couldn't face it [...]"). And more relevantly, most of the campaigns do follow the monomyth, so if you are looking to demand this then demand no further. The main heroes do have character arcs and mature progressions to give a damn about, very much unlike Isabel, and even if I might have changed a few things, you can take to the bank that - for once, with Ubisoft - I'm quite happy to say the game's plot is part of the Heroes series.
tl;dr
As a professional writer apparently, you're expected to already realise that what you regard as the essential mould for a compelling plot is no new insight, and has been analysed to death for over fifty years; it's not commonly known as Zero to Hero, it's named the monomyth. So it's not that nobody can afford to ignore it, it's that nobody can ignore it. Everyone already knows of it. I bet GreatEmerald can find the appropriate TVTrope for you, and a hundred subtemplates to go with it. The majority of the canon protagonists in HoMM are cookie-cutter characters for this trope, slotting into it like jigsaw pieces. Morglin Ironfist, Roland Ironfist, Catherine, everybody in H4, and a few H5 characters.
Since HoMM is fundamentally a series of wars and quests, that's the unavoidable nature of many of its stories really. There are also a few "downfall campaigns" like with Sandro, Gelu and Tarnum, but Rise of the Necromancer definitely falls into the same monomyth category. Armageddon's Blade was a bit more sinister and original with the whole explosion of the world problem, subverting step 6 a little. But somebody on this forum once claimed that Heroes' plots thrive on unoriginality, and should be graded on the quality of the narrative/thickness of the plot rather than its uniqueness or complexity. Tropes and cliches are/were no problem in Heroes, because the RPGs were already doing an excellent job of screwing with convention by using the sci-fi backstory. So, among the subsect of people who actually give a damn about the storyline in the first place, Heroes has been more answerable to judgment on its storytelling and atmosphere than its plot structure.
I think we will agree that one of the most compelling official campaigns ever released is Half-Dead, which follows the very same structure you outline but is interspersed with lots of philosophy, character development and strong narrative. Gauldoth may be an anti-hero, but his journey is a cookie-cutter one nonetheless. The Price of Peace (you call it A Glassblower's Daughter) actually had more of an original structure with two protagonists and very ambiguous villainy in Magnus compared to other characters, but I am much more interested in replaying Half-Dead when given the choice.
Now as you know, I'll be the last to defend Ubisoft's writers when they screw up catastrophically, but I think there is some imbalance in your criticism:
1) you're comparing entire, full-length campaigns from the previous games to the two-mission prologue in H6 - Shakesperian levels of drama are traditionally inappropriate at this stage in Heroes. Roland's first mission also involved mundanely subjugating some barons, as did Emilia's.
2) the kinks in the gameplay should, at least somewhat, be clearly distinguished from the quality of the storyline (or otherwise H4 must have the crappiest storyline in the series because I managed to kill the almighty immortal king Gavin Magnus in two turns, the stuff of parody, which is by definition not climactic or interesting in the least).
I'm actually stunned that you reference Freyda/Hammers of Fate as a positive example of a well-told Heroes tale, because to me H5 and both of its expansions were treading rock-bottom as far as the integrity of plot was concerned - dreadful voice acting, plotholes galore and sparse narrative combined to leave me facepalming myself into the dirt. That goes for the entirety of HoF, and particularly the character of Biara, who made use of the primary characters' sheer idiocy as a plot device. Nothing was compelling about it.
Now as for Heroes VI? I don't know that it's up-to-scratch with Heroes IV, considering that sharp limitations have required some elements to be changed or to go unrealised. But avoiding comment on the five big blunders you mention, which unlike the plot can be patched and modded at will, I think there's way more merit in its plot than I would ever be prepared to give H5 (I've seen more of it than you have).
The narrative is less dependent on terrible jokes (Kraal aside) and low IQ. Voice acting is back at a solid standard. There are some demons in disguise, but there is no insulting anagram crap (Agraelag) or awkward, naive insipidity ("what was done to me… the thing that came out…I couldn't face it [...]"). And more relevantly, most of the campaigns do follow the monomyth, so if you are looking to demand this then demand no further. The main heroes do have character arcs and mature progressions to give a damn about, very much unlike Isabel, and even if I might have changed a few things, you can take to the bank that - for once, with Ubisoft - I'm quite happy to say the game's plot is part of the Heroes series.
tl;dr
As a professional non-fiction writer (who studied and worked on fiction to try and get fiction published, since non-fiction is merely a way to pay bills), I spend a lot of time fighting with clients over the kind of language that gets into their websites and advertisements.
A technical term like monomyth (which also sounds monotonous) belongs in lit class and with professionals in the field talking to other professionals. I suppose that would include English teachers.
If you're talking to a very general audience (e.g. on this website), some of who do not speak English well and some others who haven't even been to high school, one should use accessible language and draw on simpler examples. From Zero to Hero is the kind of slogan a commercial writer should use.
I once read a very interesting academic critique that proffered the thesis that Salman Rushdie was popular because he used alliteration. I think the argument was somewhat forced, but rather amusing.
XXX
Of course I certainly don't think Heroes V was good storytelling in general. But there are moderately compelling stories inside. The Freyda campaign gave me the impression of a kung-fu tale: with its tragic start, the moral dilemmas and conflict with authority, confrontation with an enemy who later becomes a lover, betrayal and flight from an evil nemesis, final confrontation and victory.
XXX
I'm not comparing one map with one campaign. Just two maps put me to sleep more than once. If you say the overall product is good, well I'm open to that. The first 150 pages of War and Peace and Lord of the Rings were also both extremely boring.
A technical term like monomyth (which also sounds monotonous) belongs in lit class and with professionals in the field talking to other professionals. I suppose that would include English teachers.
If you're talking to a very general audience (e.g. on this website), some of who do not speak English well and some others who haven't even been to high school, one should use accessible language and draw on simpler examples. From Zero to Hero is the kind of slogan a commercial writer should use.
I once read a very interesting academic critique that proffered the thesis that Salman Rushdie was popular because he used alliteration. I think the argument was somewhat forced, but rather amusing.
XXX
Of course I certainly don't think Heroes V was good storytelling in general. But there are moderately compelling stories inside. The Freyda campaign gave me the impression of a kung-fu tale: with its tragic start, the moral dilemmas and conflict with authority, confrontation with an enemy who later becomes a lover, betrayal and flight from an evil nemesis, final confrontation and victory.
XXX
I'm not comparing one map with one campaign. Just two maps put me to sleep more than once. If you say the overall product is good, well I'm open to that. The first 150 pages of War and Peace and Lord of the Rings were also both extremely boring.
It's deliberate, but I don't know who it's insulting. A big deal has been made about it, but then again other tweaked monikers such as Fafner and Sephinroth floated by unnoticed in 1999, and I didn't take offence. Better-quality names were among the least of my worries about the plot after Heroes V.Pitsu wrote:Aren't the Anal Sweat anagrams this time more insulting to actual people? H5 was only lame.
Thanks, but I'm no professional nor teacher. There are no dimwits here at Celestial Heavens in my experience, but evidently there are many TVTropes regulars, so I don't encourage you to hold back based on preconceptions of your audience if making a pedagogical argument on storytelling.cjlee wrote:A technical term like monomyth (which also sounds monotonous) belongs in lit class and with professionals in the field talking to other professionals. I suppose that would include English teachers.
Is your real name really Fafnir Sephiroth? Did not know that and for me they associated with fictional characters. At the same time there is at least 1 million real people who have Svetlana as their passport name. I am not sure I get the point you tried to make. Call me a dimwit for that if you want.Corlagon wrote: A big deal has been made about it, but then again other tweaked monikers such as Fafner and Sephinroth floated by unnoticed in 1999, and I didn't take offence.
*Imagines his oncles wife reaction if he accidentially calls her Sveltana or somesuch*
I'd evaluate it closer to 5-10 millions range in Eastern Europe and Russia.Pitsu wrote:At the same time there is at least 1 million real people who have Svetlana as their passport name.
BTW, in one of the first videos about H6 released by Ubihole (I have it saved by the name MMM_Making_Of_UK_HD_940x529.flv) on 5:58 an actress who is the voice of Sveltana introduces herself. She says "Sveltana", but subtitles say "Svetlana".
"Not a shred of evidence exists in favour of the idea that life is serious." Brendan Gill
The campaign is written in such a way that it seems like there's a chapter or two that's missing.
The whole thing starts with an Orc who had his village destroyed by Duke Pavel. He makes a deal with demons to get revenge on Pavel. Then the mission starts with you controlling Duke Slava. There's nothing telling you how much time has passed since the Orc made the deal with the demons so I assumed that the mission takes place right after that. However, later it turns out that Slava is Pavel's son and the Orc has already been defeated but his spirit is back to haunt the Griffin duchy. Wouldn't it have made sense to show us what happened with the Orc and Pavel? If there was never a plan to show us what happened then why show the Orc selling his soul to demons at all? Why not just have someone tell us about it during the campaign?
The whole thing starts with an Orc who had his village destroyed by Duke Pavel. He makes a deal with demons to get revenge on Pavel. Then the mission starts with you controlling Duke Slava. There's nothing telling you how much time has passed since the Orc made the deal with the demons so I assumed that the mission takes place right after that. However, later it turns out that Slava is Pavel's son and the Orc has already been defeated but his spirit is back to haunt the Griffin duchy. Wouldn't it have made sense to show us what happened with the Orc and Pavel? If there was never a plan to show us what happened then why show the Orc selling his soul to demons at all? Why not just have someone tell us about it during the campaign?
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 13 guests