What Is In A Good Story?

What Is In A Good Story?

      If you know me long enough you will find that I am a rather conflicted individual who hates reading, yet loves all different kinds of stories. Well how the hell could you find stories other than books? You guessed it, games and movies. Story-driven games especially. It is becoming more and more mainstream and being recognised for another great way to tell a story.

      But what makes a good story GOOD? Well, welcome to the rumblings of me shitting on some of the horrible traits in stories that I have seen in recent years.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a literature major student nor an author nor a screenwriter nor a game designer nor anything (yet). I'm just someone who has passion for good stories that I want to talk about what I have summarised.

Driving Force

      Any kind of stories needs a connection. A driving force for the characters and events. Why are the characters doing this? What or who are the characters doing this for? What I found about most of the stories today all have this problem. There is no driving force for a character. It's like you walk into a movie and see a guy just kills for... what exactly? Even some story tellers try to force a reason for their characters, it always seems to be so un-relatable.

      How the hell can you make a story that catches everyone's attention when no-one really understand why the character is doing what they are doing? Not everyone can be superman for no reason, okay? Even superman himself does his shits for justice or for Lane. There should always be a clear and appropriate driving force that pushes both the characters and the story around. Without it, you are making the story, especially the characters in it, like a zombie without a brain doing whatever it's doing.

Characters

      Speaking of characters, let's talk about characters. A good character design needs to have reasons too. Not only reasons to drive them forward, but also reasons for details that show more characteristics of them. But do not take it wrong! Not every single god damn human being has to have a pocket watch that means a lot to them. Yes, using symbols such as pocket watches is a good way to present your character with more depth, but why do they care about it? Your audience needs reasons, well designed reasons, to know more about your character.

     Another important trait about your character is, again, being relatable. Audiences don't need perfect protagonists because there is nothing, especially for humans, that is perfect. Characters in a good story feels. They grief and anger when facing loss. Even add in a few evil traits to a character can make him or her much deeper than before. Let your character be selfish sometimes, make him cruel when he needs to be cruel.

      Take The Last of Us for an example, at the last part of the game where Joel interrogates an enemy by shooting him in the dick, many players were shocked: What a terrible thing to do (translate: that fucking hurts)! Yet they feel the awesomeness of this scene because the story had already hook them up. They know that Joel would sacrifice saving the world to save Ellie, they understand the reasons behind Joel's cruelty and why he couldn't afford to lose another daughter figure. 

      When a story teller put all these together, the character seems like a real human being who the audience understand. We all know Joel isn't the perfect guy, and what he did might be something that we will do when facing his situation. All relatable in this sense, isn't it? Then why are there still stupid stories where the character saves the fucking world again and again like it's a piece of cake and they don't even give a shit when they do so?

The rage will continue...

Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia

Just watched the 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia in Blue-ray version. I started to watch it because of its connection to Uncharted 3. But after watching it, I totally understood why it is one of the greatest films in history.

Here is a few quotes that I found awesome:

*The film is based on T.E. Lawrence's autobiography, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom".

"All men dream, but not equally. Thoe who dream by night, wake in the day to find that it was vanity... But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." ---- T.E. Lawrence, from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

"Nothing is written, for those who writes." ---- T.E. Lawrence, from the film

Uncharted 4 Review

Uncharted 4 Review

    In May 10th, one of the greatest games on PS4 came out. As the last chapter of the well-known series Uncharted (By Naughty Dog), the journey of Nathan Drake finally comes to an end. After the last scene cuts to black, there is so many things that I want to talk about.

Story

    For starters, the story takes place three years after Uncharted 3 ends, while Nathan and Elena got married and they have decided to quit the life that they were living before. Until one day, Nathan's long lost brother shows up and brings up about a treasure hunt that they have started years ago.

    Once again Nathan embarked on another journey, to seek not only his, but also his brother's fortune. What will this time's treasure be? Will they find the treasure and go back to a normal life again? All these will be answered when the last scene of the game cuts to black.

Characters

    Once again, designers of Naughty Dog presented us such awesome and interesting characters. Every single one of these characters feels alive to us. It feels natural just to watch their movements, or listen to their dialogues.

    And the best part of the game, is that both the Drake family and many other main characters has a really funny personality of making jokes and sarcasm. Even some times in the game, players might find something interesting or just simply want to joke about it, the characters are always one step ahead and steals your lines.

Environment

   The developers of the Uncharted series never fail to create impressive and memorable environment throughout both the trilogy and this new game. Even more, players can interact with the environment more in A Thief's End. The developers really took what they learned from The Last of Us and put it into Uncharted. Which is a better way and increased the emotion of the game.

    From top Italian Ball rooms, to Panamanian Jails. From Snowy Scotland, to the desert of Madagascar. Here are some best environment set pieces.

Levels, Details, and Trophies

    Naughty Dog is known for awesome story-telling games. The level designs and the pace of the game always catch players' attention. It gives players a feeling of they want to keep playing. 

    Another great feature in Uncharted 4 is that they added a lot more checkpoints throughout the entire game. Which made the levels slightly easier for some players. Also, the trophy designs in this game is better, in a super fun way. There are even a trophy for bringing back the awkward demonstration failure at last year's E3 show.

    One last thing that impresses the players the most is that the game's cutscenes. The switch between gameplay and cutscenes are perfectly swift. Sometimes even players can barely tell the difference between actual gameplay and generated cutscenes. Which makes the game feels like an actual movie, and lets players to blend in with the situation and emotion that characters are experiencing.

Verdict

    Uncharted 4 presents a beautiful, interesting, and emotional closure to the journey of Nathan Drake and people around him. This game definitely deserves a 10/10.

2016.5.19

British Pub in Saint Petersburg, Florida

British Pub in Saint Petersburg, Florida

    Last November, during spring break. School took us all to Saint Petersburg in South Florida, near Orlando. When at a mall at Tampa, on the balcony walkway, we found this little British style pub. Right next to a French restaurant. Here is the spot I found on the google map.

Quick Reviews

    Quite a nice joint to spend the afternoon in, we thought to ourselves. So we walked in. The entire pub is made to look like old London style with yellow wood and a bar in the middle. This pub has two stories, we sat down on the seat left to the front door. Here is a quick look of the entire first floor.

    The wall on the front has some quotes about drinking on it. And to the left you can see the flags of the English Kingdoms. All pretty welly blend in with the environment of the pub. Sun shines through the window and all felt warm and cozy. 

 Left is a shot of my friend Kevin grabbing his headphones.

    We ordered two basic cheese burger meals and a dish of fish stick. All three of them came out right on time. Kevin said he enjoyed the ginger in there especially because it took him back to his trip to London last year. We had a really great time in that little pub during that afternoon.

    An old saying in China goes: Good dishes' smell won't be afraid of deep alleys. That means if a good restaurant is hidden in somewhere deep within the noise of the cities, if it is good enough, it will eventually be found and the words will spread.

    I will not regret finding that pub on that day. And I hope life can give me more surprises, just like finding that little pub~