Non-linear story telling in open world games Options

[Licentia Per Ori...]

Ok so this is something that i have been thinking about quite a lot recently.

now in yer "traditional" game - the story can and probably should be linear - the writer is in direct control of what players will discover, when, and how.

but in open world games, this is not the case.

Personally I have yet to see an open world game - that has a genuinely "open world story".

Even in games with open worlds, it appears the story is very much written in a linear way.

which makes me wonder - is it even possible to really write a truly open world story?

to compare to a book - a standard game would have a story where you start at page 1 - then read till page 100.

an open world story - would be a book where you read the first 3 pages in order, but can then read pages 3 to 97 in ANY order you chose but still have the story make perfect sense, be immersive and engaging.

is this even possible?

for the variables alone will surely become exponentially complex.

In open world games - the world is open, but the story is not.
you can for example go to the super secret hideout where the final battle takes place - but it will probably be a deserted, empty, shell

we don't see this as immersion breaking per-se because we have it as an established flaw in open world games, we accept it.

is it possible for me to kill the final boss at the start of the game (no doubt on 2nd playthru ) and still be able to enjoy the rest of the story?
The story / game world would have to adapt to this.
It's an extreme example - about as extreme as it could get,
what would the rest of the story even be?

[Kaust]

Well, simply put, yes it is possible.

The story of the character and the story of the game are very different aspects. You seem to consider the game's story as the main story, and understandably so; the game is started and ended by it. Without a game there is no character to continue the individual story.

However, consider the ending of Fallout 3. Just an announcer recapping everything that the character had accomplished in his journey; what he did here, what he did there, and the consequences of these choices. These were not solely the events that moved the game's story along (such as visiting Galaxy Radio or the decision to purify/poison the water), but were also sidequests and sometimes just the outcomes of events in certain areas, sometimes even acknowledging that the character had failed to go there and have an impact on that particular story. In this case the character's choices regarding the main story are overwhelmed by their other choices throughout the game.

I doubt this is exactly what you were looking for as this is more a collection of self-contained stories that are forcibly interwoven, and yet thats all any story is. Just like every person every NPC has their own story, they just happen to be sidelined by whoever the camera follows, its how we interact with them that influences theirs and our own stories.

Btw,

an open world story - would be a book where you read the first 3 pages in order, but can then read pages 3 to 97 in ANY order you chose but still have the story make perfect sense, be immersive and engaging.

is this even possible?

Look into the works of B. S. Johnson