What Video Games Taught Me About Flashbacks

When I was a teenager, I was a nerd.  I'm talking computer programming, networking, comic book reading, video game playing uber nerd.  Not a lot has changed over the years--I'm still a nerd at heart--but I don't have time to geek out the way I used to.  At seventeen, I poured hours into games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, and a hundred others I can't even remember anymore.  Flash forward ten years and the most video game action I see in a month is when my son begs me to jump Robin over to the high platform in Lego Batman.  So once in a while I like to grab a new game at the store and veg out.

Friday was just such a night.  My husband was out of town, my kids were in bed, my house was clean (ish.)  Best of all, I'd read a great review on a game and had finally talked myself into buying it.  Like most things though, reviews are subjective.  As soon as the game play began, I was smack dab in the middle of a cut scene that I can only describe as a prologue.  Worse, the character dialogue went something like this:

"Well, as you know Geralt, the people will kill you if you don't tell me what I want to know."



I'm paraphrasing there.  I think there were some colorful threats about beatings and ripping out my character's guts.  You get the idea, though.  Of course my character didn't want to die, so he began to spill the story of what happened...in a flashback.

The first real game play for this game doesn't even happen in present day.  You know what's more annoying than reading a flashback at the beginning of a story?  Playing one.  Every item I pick up is essentially useless.  All the herbs and potions and swords I come across won't do me an ounce of good when I jump back into the present day (six years later.)

The whole thing was more confusing this way, too.  There are all these characters I don't know.  There are whole conversations that mean nothing to me.  I almost feel like I've been intentionally left out of the loop and that annoys me to no end.

Someone once told me that flashbacks are a clever way to show important events that will have an impact on things occurring in the present day.  I say clever my foot.  It's nothing more than the game developers (or author) scrambling to dump info on the player (or reader) because they are either too lazy to develop the plot in its own time, or they simply don't know how.  Excuse me Polish Studios, but you've got two disks worth of playable content and you're telling me you couldn't structure the plot a little better?  Shame on you.

If you're going to employ a flashback in your writing (or video game) here's a few tips to keep in mind:

Don't put a flashback in the very beginning of your story.  It should never be the first, or second, or probably even third scene.  Flashbacks are weak from the onset because they have already occurred and therefore cannot create a realistic tension.  Frame stories work, yes, but only as a novelty.  It's nice once in a while, but not as an everyday thing.  I certainly don't want to play this setup very often. (I'm talking to you, Dragon Age II!)

It's also a matter of getting acclimated to the story at hand.  Let your reader get a sense of what's going on, what this world has to offer, and who your characters are.  Then, when the time is right, feed them some of the important information that led up to the present day.

If the memory or flashback is essential and there's just no way to get around it, make it as brief as possible.  Sometimes this can be accomplished with internal dialogue, or in a conversation with another character, while other times you need a full-blown chapter devoted to the event that occurred.  Use your best judgment, but remember, the more time you spend in the past, the less connection your reader feels.

Lastly (and this is just my personal opinion,) keep it relevant.  Maybe the flashback in this game really is critical at this point in the game (I doubt it.)  For the sake of argument, I'll go ahead and give the developers that.  If that's the case, then you'd think the flashback would start at the most important moment.  Not so.  It opened with a slightly graphic sexual encounter with a chick I don't even know yet.  (I've got a whole separate rant for game ratings that I won't get into right now.)  I realize I'm not exactly the target audience for this game, but in terms of story, I fail to see how this scene was relevant.  If I'm going to suffer through a flashback, I want it to be pertinent information only.

Flashbacks can be great literary devices, if done correctly.  There are plenty of books, movies, and even the odd game or two that do the technique justice.  There are a lot more, however that give the flashback a bad name.  Don't fall into that category.  Make sure your flashbacks are not your opening scene, keep them brief and on topic, and don't confuse your reader by throwing a dozen new characters in them (unless you want your reader to be confused.)

And if you ever find yourself on the development team of a video game, don't make your first level a prologue with a flashback full of items the player can't keep.  That's just mean.