Help I Want To Create A Video Game And I Want A Good Plot And Storyline.

Is creative writing a good major if you want to make stories for video games and movies?

I hope one of those classes is practical application of probability and statistics toward game development. I like shooters, but they're starting to get old for me.Probably not creative writing as RPGs these days have terrible characterizations (Skyrim, Oblivion) and cliche' stories (Zombie games and more zombie games, please). Few games have a really great story behind them, enough to drive the game itself:Baulder's Gate Series (pre-2000) - You could create any character within the AD&D system and play it out. You could even play evil characters. I think what added to this was well done romance stories along side the questing. Each romance was individual. The story could end in one of three ways. They don't make them like this anymore. Planescape: Torment - Surreal, lots of mystery as to what the outcome would be along with somehat sandbox style play. Also, you could really shape this character's path. Though it was always going to end the same, the means could have taken any shape/alignment. Another one they don't make them like this anymore.Bioshock - Ayn Randian idea gone wrong. Good art in that game.Bioshock Infinite - Again, good art, but didn't care for the infodump toward the end, especially since it was another time travel story and you can poke all sorts of holes in a TT story. However, it was a good mystery to the end.Myst - Great visuals, music and sometimes really hard puzzles. anti-climactic ending though. You uncovered the full truth of the story as you played it out.This is from 32 years of playing games.  Those stories went well above the norm.I just don't think the majority of game companies look for depth of story so much. They push the visual and auditory appeal.An alternate possible degree might be a mass media major with a creative writing minor. Or if you like to draw, a graphic artist with creative writing minor.

What is the importance of a good storyline in video games for gamers?

For me (someone who feels that the main campaign storyline is the most important aspect of a video game), the main story provide purpose for the actions that you are doing over the course of the game.The story also drives character development. I am clearly not hunting for treasure or fighting aliens, or looking for the elder blood destined to save the world from the apocalypse (I’m sitting on my couch). So who is? why do I care about them? Why do I care about their problems?That’s all part of the story.For certain genres it’s different. For MMO’s an explicit story line isn’t needed, however, an implicit one is very much needed. This is because in an MMO you are supposed to be your character so you are supposed to develop your own story (regardless of if you want to create an alternate persona or not, I don’t bother with that). An implicit story is needed because it increases depth to the environment you are developing your character in.Granted, I’m not all gamers and I would say that for the majority of gamers story isn’t too important and they are playing for a variety of other things (socialization, competition, etc). This is also why multiplayer has been included in pretty much every AAA title in recent years (to promote these features). Things like graphics and framerate improve the experience in these areas which is why that is also a focus.I do think that for certain games no story is needed. This would be for historical games like WW1 and WW2 based FPS. There is a story involved which gives the gamer purpose to the actions or goals they are progressing to but that particular story should already be known so there is no need to repeat it.

Are video games better at telling stories than films?

When you say better, you may want to put up some criteria. If you wanted to tell an epic to every miniscule detail, games can do this easily as players can potentially log hundreds of hours of gameplay chunks at a time. Imagine how long one Harry Potter movie would be if they included every detail in the book; they would have had to film it like they did The Hobbit!On the flip side unless the game is made to be like an interactive movie (Heavy Rain, The Order: 1886), there are some things you can do with film that are hard to pull off in a game. An example would be a scene of foreshadow where the camera focuses on a brief moment of action. If this was done in a game during a non scenimatic scene with a free camera, you could easily miss this moment. As well, if a game focuses on a task required to progress the story that's mundane, that can really take the player out of the story whereas a movie could handle this with a montage or cut away to some other characters to give the idea that time is passing.Immersion can really carry a story along, though, and give huge emotional impact. There's a game with a cutscene that won't progress until you pull the trigger of your gun. You as the player don't want to do it, and it gives you empathy for the character you're playing. But you have to. It's emotionally gripping.

Should I make my scifi story a comic or video game series, noting that i have no skills in anything and understand how hard games are to make?

The two are completely different forms of art. Comic books are not immersive and are experienced passively. Video games are interactive, and it gets frustrating when you cannot do something because the story doesn’t allow. Great stories can’t be turned into great games, because of the way the plot limits the game experience. Most games that are rich in storytelling (like the Final Fantasy series) are, in my opinion, terribly boring. If you have a really great story, I suggest a novel. draft a novel, edit the draft yourself a couple times, start it over a couple times, then submit it to a professional in the field of literature to let you know how good it is, and then ask them for ideas on how to improve, and the write the final draft for the novel and publish it.