Video Games and Bad Writing

I recently watch this short video published in the online magazine, 'The Escapist' on video games and bad writing and thought I would share it. I've summarised below a few interesting points from the video, but it would be worthwhile to take the time and watch the video yourself :

• When writing for video games, you are writing for an interactive medium, and this medium is fundamentally different to all other mass media to date.
• No-one wants to read huge blocks of text in a video game.
• In 1 hour of game play, there may be 10 minutes of dialogue compare to 20 minutes of dialogue in a 1 hour high action TV show.
• Games can't tell their story through disconnected segments of gameplay strung together by cut scenes.
• Games need to tell their story through gameplay. Narrative should drip from every texture and be integrated in every facet of the world. It should come through in the menus and the interface and in every loading scene. But, most importantly of all, it should come through in the mechanics of the game. The mechanics should teach us about the story and reinforce the plot line.