Video Games as Narratives

Video games has grown in the past 50 years. The consumers are now into the story aspect of the game. Video games may not work as traditional narratives, but they incorporate all the basic elements of storytelling. However not all game can have a story due to the extensive amount of different genres of games out there. Video games are a new form of make believe that can be seen with the eye. What a book lacks a video game has. It can give you a world that you can react in and the best part you don'w have to move. But I don’t think it is the most effective medium to tell stories. The creators of the hottest games are trying to think outside the boxes when it comes to the theme/story. How to make games more interactive? Combining both story and game play in their development. This is important due to the nature us human are. We as players must become completely absorbed in the fate and lives of the fictional characters on screen.

            Literature is a big part of human civilization it is a way to help instructed inform and you can even feel the tone or mood by just reading text. Applying this form of intelligent to a video game isn’t so easy. The standard model for storytelling in video games is based upon having the player complete a set of goals and then playing a cutscene which advances the plot. This has to be carefully thought out. Take the game Bioshock for example offers a different, more interesting solution. The game features very few cutscenes, and those that are present take place at points in the narrative at which the player would not be in control anyway. The most notable comes perhaps two thirds into the game, when the protagonist meets Andrew Ryan. It is here that the player learns that he is a genetically engineered puppet programmed to obey any command given Ryan orders the player to kill him. There are also different task to do that involves reading.

            I’m not saying that in the future video games will come close in replacing literature. It’s just evolving into a new type of narrative that the developers of these new games will need to approach their narratives differently.