Writing in games is hard (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, February 17, 2016, 00:39 (2999 days ago) @ Kahzgul

So I'm the last person who would ever defend the quality of the in-game story in Destiny 1... I think it was a complete train-wreck. However, I would also hesitate to lay the blame for D1's story at the feet of the writers, crazy as that sounds.

Writing stories for videogames is like trying to paint the side of a moving car while leaning out the window of another moving car... and the 2 cars are never going the same speed... and people keep changing their minds about which colors they want, and whether they want it air-brushed or rolled... you get my point ;)

The problem videogame writers face is that the scope and scale of the game can shift on a dime, at almost any point in development. More often than not, the writer needs to work around the missions and scenarios the designers are already creating and attempt to give the player some sort of reason to do the things they are doing. Writers rarely get to create a complete story and then have the game made to fit that story. They might get 8 months from launch when the team suddenly decides to cut 1/3 of the missions from the campaign.

Writer: "But... those missions were crucial to the story!"
Writer's boss: "Not anymore, make it work."

In the case of Destiny, by all accounts the original story was completely gutted a year before launch. The team didn't have time to create new cutscenes, record new dialog... any of the stuff you need to tell a story. So they had to take what they already had, cut it up, and try to make something serviceable out of it. In my opinion, they failed. And the original writers may very well be at fault, but I could just as easily chalk it up to the game being so completely restructured that no story could possibly survive intact.