Utilizing modifications to telll a unique story

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the utilization of modifications in order to tell a unique story.

A ‚Let’s Play‘ video (LP) [1] documents the progression of a player through a video game and adds an additional narration to the gameplay as the player comments on the own actions and the game’s story. Depending on the type of the game being played, the resulting video can have many forms. An LP of a story based game mostly documents the player’s progression through the game, whereas an LP of an open world game can also be used in order to tell a unique story.

A story based game already features a story and does not allow the players to deviate from the story in order to experience something unique. In contrast to those games, open world games do not offer a pre-determined story, thus providing an empty canvas to the players [2]. During their gameplay, players can explore those virtual worlds and experience a unique story no one else has experienced before. Using open world games for the purpose of creating an LP series is especially rewarding as each LP tells a different story and, as a result of this, differentiates LP series about the same game.

Although each LP of an open world game tells a unique story, all the LPs do have one thing in common: they are based on the same game, hence the environment and characters mostly look the same. This minor flaw, however, can be deminished by utilizing some modifications [3] that allow a greater customization of the game world and, as a result of this, allow the creators to create a completely unique story. Additionally, some modifications allow the implementation of custom textures, thus giving the game world and the characters a new appearance. Vested content creators even can create personalized textures in order to emphasize their narrations.

The emergence of open world games that allow the utilzation of modifications resulted in the phenomenon that one game can tell an endless amount of stories. Moreover, vested content creators can utilize these games as an empty canvas to create a unique narration.