Story lines we give to games without them

I sometimes like to use my imagination when it comes to games: a game with an Excuse Plot or no plot, I come up with one. Does anyone else do this? If so, poat your stories. (On a related note, I actually gave Arkanoid a plot and relized years later that it had a plot... and it was the plot I actually gave it.)

edited 20th Feb '11 6:24:53 PM by ProfessorMetallica

You mean like how we make up characterizations, interactions, and backstories for our party members in Etrian Odyssey?.....I can't be the only one who did that.

Well...for me, my Arbalest chick is obsessed with "big" things. Her Big Fucking Crossbow, her chest, and her massive damage output compared to all other members...while my monk and hoplite are lamenting at the fact that they look a bit feminine compared to other men, the monk is also angsting over the fact that he's forced to learn healing skills just to keep everyone alive despite being a front line attacker, while my princess is starting to wonder if it's such a good idea to learn nothing but passive skills and a single level of a defence buff just to use up some of her TP. While the gladiator on my team is lamenting the fact that she was hired in her team because of her Under Boobs.

edited 20th Feb '11 6:41:54 PM by Signed

I do that for Pokemon games sometimes. Of course, they technically have a plot, but you know.

edited 20th Feb '11 6:43:04 PM by CAPSLOCK

...I made a little Character Arc for my most-used alts in City Of Heroes, although I never went to full-on RP them. Does that count?

In Dragon Quest IX, my party included a sociopathic healer, a berserker martial artist, a backstabbing thief, and the Main Character, a nice guy who is desperately trying to guide the other 3 along in his quest.

It's fun.

Most of my characters in City of Heroes have fairly elaborate back-stories, even if their profiles don't state them.

In Cladun, I had two sets of characters with linked stories, plus one with his own separate story:

Doc Miijhal and the Intern: The former is a psychotic mad scientist who came in search of data and power. The latter is her unwilling meatshield, who only wants to escape but can't because of a bomb strapped to his neck.

Mihri and Asmicca: See my profile.

Eddy Marshal: A sociopathic 'hero' who only cares for himself, and wants all the attention, fame, and power he can get.

edited 20th Feb '11 7:13:37 PM by Miijhal

Does this count?

Or this?

Of course I didn't come up with them. But the people who did had done so well I just had to post it.

edited 20th Feb '11 7:25:03 PM by PsychoFreaX

SimCity 3000: My city has a long-standing rivalry with (the example city) Metropolis, which everyone in the city hates for being so perfect. As the mayor, I am determined to make my city the more attractive place.

Okay, that's more of an Excuse Plot detailing my motivation for playing the game, but it works.

Spore seems to lend itself pretty well to this. From a non-legged species seeking dominion over the galaxy to a maw creature species evolving into shrewd capitalists, the creators have lent themselves well to imagination despite the gameplay being somewhat lacking.

Tangentially related, Bit Trip does have a plot, but it's told through abstract visuals so it comes off more as an atmosphere to be absorbed along with the muscially based gameplay rather than a narrative that distracts from it.

edited 20th Feb '11 7:40:28 PM by Cliche

LONG POST AHEAD:

Need For Speed:

• 1st game: Road & Track Magazine decides to put together the best racers to help get the magazine's name out there and to inform the public a little better about the more exclusive sports cars.
• II: An unnamed automotive magazine decides to do the same thing, except instead doing it to enhance a piece they're writing about the future of automotive engineering and racing using various concept cars and other rare cars driven on tracks that are supposed to represent the countries they're located in.
• Hot Pursuit: An underground syndicate teams up with an unnamed magazine, steals a bunch of sports cars and concept cars and races them on traffic-filled streets while outrunning cops who also use sports cars.
• High Stakes: The next year, they do it again, except with even more cars and in more places.
• Porsche Unleashed: A Porsche-centric magazine decides to celebrate many years of Porsche's history in a Very Special Issue by driving various models.
• Hot Pursuit 2: An underground syndicate steals various sports cars and outruns the police. The police respond by also using sports cars along with other speeder countermeasures.
• Shift: You are a professional racer starting out on your career. Do whatever it takes to win.
• Hot Pursuit (2010): Seacrest County is home to an underground syndicate that's in league with a bunch of car companies who want to advertise as cheaply as possible. The cops decide to respond in kind.
• Shift 2: Unleashed: You are another professional racer who wants to follow in the footsteps of the other professional racer.

edited 21st Feb '11 12:14:14 AM by RocketDude

Marvel Vs Capcom 3... Marvel Vs Capcom 3 so fucking much.

The actual ingame storyline is: Galactus appears and makes Wesker/Akuma/Doctor Doom/Dormammu his bitch, defeat the bad guys before the world is eaten! Then come the endings. There's a comic book that adds how it got to this, but not much else.

So of course, like any insane fan, I've come up with multiple theories and epileptic trees. For example, the reason Doom wanted Wesker's help was so he could attract a bunch of heroes to stop them, and those same heroes would help Doom beat Galactus to steal his power.

edited 21st Feb '11 12:07:18 AM by Scardoll

Electrical Beast did one for Super Mario 64, and also Minecraft.

I've adopted the whole "Scribblenauts are like Psychonauts kinda, and Maxwell is going through a Scribblenaut training course" storyline from the WMG on Scribblenauts.

Tetris the Movie

I tend to fantasize party interactions into games that don't have them. Wasteland was fun with that, with the disobedient NPC team members that would frequently not follow the player's orders and being able to dabble in cloning team members. I blame it on the awesomeness of Jagged Alliance.

How about The Sims?

Again, not mine. But you get the point.

Any game with a Heroic Mime gets this treatment from me. As of now, I applied it to Neverwinter Nights, Etrian Odyssey, Harvest Moon, Valkyrie Profile, Pokemon, Golden Sun and Dragon Quest IX. Among many others.

I think it's sorta the point of the Heroic Mime.

@Scardoll: Damm fucking straight. I've made my own theories too. For example, the reason Dormammu and Shuma-Gorath are so weak is because they're actually mere avatars of their true selves. the real ones are currently locked in a pocket dimension, along with Dr Strange and the Fantastic Four to keep them away from earth. Now the avatars are searching for ways to set their real selves free without letting the other out.

Of course, all this ruckus cause the crossover aspect of the game, and Galactus realises if he eats earth, the resulting space-time disdortions will lock away Dormammu and Shuma-Gorath forever, so he prepares to go Blood Knight on everyone's asses.

Oh, and the reason for people teaming up with their greatest enemies or fighting their best friends is that they've been brainwashed by Doom/Wesker/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath.

Or they're alternate-reality clones, as the various previous Marvel games toyed with - Marvel Ultimate Alliance and X Men Legends first and foremost.

Heroic Mime RP Gs which give you lines but which are not voiced (f.e. Kot OR) also have me providing the voice-over for myself =) I'm weird like that =)

edited 21st Feb '11 6:44:35 AM by Noelemahc

Aw, but that's no fun! It's more exciting to have crossovers to use some kind of canon instead of just giving up and shouting "LOL AU WE DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN SHIT", you know?

Well, MUA stuck with time-travelling to explain how you could have Dr. Doom in your party while trying to stop Dr. Doom from becoming a god, so...

Civilization. I always think of what the history books say as I change the timeline to my will.

I haven't gone so far as to create a whole backstory for them, but I have taken to acting as though my generic units in Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 have more personality and history than they do.

Which is good, because I love my Generics far more than the actual main characters.

In Pokemon Soul Silver version I am having a gay affair with Jasmine who is also dating Bugsy who happens to be a transsexual. I am Jasmine's bitch who goes and finds her pokemon to raise. We have a fight and break up, but I get a badge because I kicked her ass in the gym. And then I start dating Bugsy who is in love with Jasmine, but Bugsy starts cheating on me even though she (remember he's an Mt F here) feels bad about it. Jasmine's just a whore and wants to make me feel bad. I pimp slap her ass after I become the league champ.

In Animal Crossing my character Ted (female) was in love with Sable, but Mable was in love with Ted. And Sable was oblivious to all this because she was too busy sewing. Bob (also female) had a thing for Rod and would go on wondrous bug hunting and fish hunting adventures with her best pals. And then Rod moved away. Yuka was Ted's best friend and emotional confidant in regards to her wanting to bone Sable. Sadly Yuka was a dumb bitch whose responses tended to read "I have no fucking clue what you're talking about and I am not sure why you think I care". Tortimere was coming down with a terminal illness...so some said...

I can't quite recall how either of these unfolded sadly...They were sprawling soap operas of plots!

edited 21st Feb '11 9:35:49 AM by Aondeug

Super Smash Bros. is definitely my favorite vicims for this, I like to pair together different fighters and imagine why they are fighting and not just jump into it.

EX: Olimar and Samus landed on a Distant Planet and are fighing to gain control over it.

Plotline of Tetris, right here.