“A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.”
– Jane McGonigal
Introduction
I am not what you would call a gamer. I hardly played video games growing up (besides Super Smash Bros. and some Minecraft). And I don’t play games now (because I really don’t have time to…) So when I decided to write an article about the strengths to video games as a storytelling medium, I found myself having to do a bit more research than usual.
Intuitively I knew that video games have unique potential for storytelling, but I wanted to see what people were saying. I knew that “narrative” style video games have a lot in common with cinema in terms of storytelling strengths. This meant I had to delve a bit deeper in my research to find out what strengths video games have that cinema doesn’t. Upon research, there are definitely some unique strengths I found.
Let’s delve into video games and their strengths for storytelling.
The Evolution of Video Games
Video Games are arguably the youngest form of storytelling media there is. Podcasts are younger, but they mimic radio very much. Video games are a unique entity.
The goal of the video game has always been to be interactive with its audience. The earliest games were rudimentary. They were focused on having the player hit a ball, jump over an obstacle, or solve a puzzle. Then the characters you would complete these challenges through become more complex. World building became more intricate. And the objectives in the games themselves became even more involved. Slowly, stories emerged. They started as simple stories, but stories to be sure. Then the stories became more nuanced and the characters more relatable. And that’s the way they continue to develop. Games are focused on winning certain objectives. But more of them have become centered on telling a narrative that the audience can relate to while accomplishing said objective.
Because video games are so young, they are a very experimental medium. With how much they have evolved in their rather short life span, this is evident. There is a lot of diversity in what a video game can be compared to books or movies, but their potential for storytelling is really only just becoming unlocked. So far, their storytelling method most resembles cinema. They progress a story forward with visual and audio queues. The biggest difference is that you are moving through the story at your own pace as the protagonist.
Perhaps storytelling in video games will always represent cinema, due to their visual and digital storytelling nature. However, instead of presenting a single, straightforward narrative like a movie, the interactiveness of video games can allow the narrative to change. A lot of them have experimented with handing more power of the story over to the player through choices they have to make. Alternative endings have become an increasing feature, along with different narrative beats. I think we will only see more of this in games as time progresses. It is very interesting to give agency of the story over to the player and have them make choices. Most other storytelling mediums can’t do that. The story has already been set in stone from start to finish, even though we as the audience may be unsuspecting of what is to come.
Video Games AS A Storytelling Medium
Perhaps the greatest strengths video games for storytelling is “environmental storytelling.”. What’s that, you may ask? It’s storytelling through the scenery. Because most narrative style video games require you to explore the world of the game to complete your objective, you encounter more detail in the environment than a movie or a book could allow. Each detail provides more context for the story and world itself. Some of these details may seem insignificant, but they create a sense of realism for the game. They ground it. The environment makes the world in which you inhabit more believable. Video games can pull off these environmental details better than any medium because they’re creating a world that you have to actively move through.
Next to environmental storytelling is world-building. Video games have some of the best and fleshed out worlds of any medium. In order for your character to move through the world, it has to be fully realized. There have to be laws to the world itself that are concrete in order for you to move through the story logically. This is not to say that other story formats can’t have incredible world-building… However, the amount of detail that has to go into a video game’s world is higher because it can’t omit anything. Otherwise, your character can’t interact appropriately with it.
Another advantage that video games have to offer is long-form storytelling. Other mediums that excel in longer form storytelling are TV shows and books. Because video game stories and world building tend to be so expansive, there is permission for the player to take their time exploring it. This draws out the story, but helps the player connect to the character and world better. And the longer you play a character, the more you connect with them. The story itself can easily be a slow burn that focuses on world building and the environment to lead you through it, creating a longer narrative, This moves us onto our next points…
Uniqueness to Video Games
It’s already been established, but video games are the most interactive form of storytelling media there is. There is no doubt about it. What other mediums allow the player to actively take control of the story and move the character through it by their own hand? None. Other storytelling formats do require some level of engagement from the audience, but not their interaction. While playing through a video game, you are solving puzzles, thinking of how to overcome obstacles, experiencing frustration or fear through the character you are playing. You are doing your part to move the story along. There’s no other format that requires the audience’s participation to move the story along. That’s pretty unique.
I discussed it a bit earlier on, but alternate endings are a unique format that video games have to offer. Some movies have tried having alternate endings and surprising the audience by giving them no hint as to what ending they’re going to get, but this is by random chance, not player agency. A video game with alternative endings or storylines puts control into the player’s hands. The player may or may not know what decision will lead to what storytelling beat, but they are moving the story along through choices. That’s how real life works, right? You make a choice, something happens, and only in hindsight do we connect the dots.
Stories are trying to get us to relate to the character through experiences. They recognize attributes about human behavior and play with our emotions to have us sympathize. Hopefully this leads to us walking away being more thoughtful about our lives. Video games use this tactic too, but once again, because it relies on the player to move the story forward, it interacts with us a bit differently.
We relate to the story directly because we are playing the character. The feeling of frustration when the character fails is at ourselves because we failed as the player. We feel fear not knowing what lies around the dark corner, because we are projecting ourselves to be walking around the corner. Triumph radiates through us when overcoming obstacles because we solved it. And while the video game may have exaggerated scenarios our characters work through, we can still relate. We’ve all experienced some smaller version of these scenarios before and now get to project our feelings of relatability onto the character we are controlling.
Conclusion
Video games are only going to become interactive with the evolution of technology. This is fine but it also begs the question of how they will potentially interfere with the real world. If we prefer the virtual world that we have control over because the outcome will always be for us to win, how much will that take people away from a world where they feel like they have no control or can’t overcome some obstacles? These are good questions to ponder.
The potential for storytelling through video games is sure to only grow as well. They already are proving to be able to tell stories in a powerful way, so we must ask ourselves how we will balance allowing their enticing power to take us away from reality with using their storytellings strengths to help us become better people. I don’t have an answer, other than we just need to be intentional about telling good stories through video games. Like a good book, movie, or theater production, we have to use the format of video games to tell stories that will challenge people’s perspectives and leave them with things to think about.
Let’s be thoughtful of the video games we play and make sure we are enriching our lives and thoughts through the stories they are offering..
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