Do Video Games Tell Stories?

Do video games tell stories?

It is safe to say that most modern video games have some form of narrative structure, some more developed than others. This could because there are fewer limitations on interactivity because of improved consoles. This wasn't the case when video games started out with games such as 'Pong'. It was meant for the arcade and the only way you could tell a story then was to have writing on the side of the arcade machine. Since then graphics, sound and game play have vastly improved as well as story telling. Gaming has gone from art to industry with most people having some sort of gaming platform in their house now. So, naturally with more money and time, the narrative in video games have improved and since the popularity of Donkey Kong, the first real story telling game, gaming industries knew that they had to work on storylines in games. Video games now tell stories with recognizable characters, events, and conflict and beginning-middle-end structures. These improvements show that video games have a massive potential as a narrative medium. However can it be compared to such media as film and television? It has great audio and visual effects yet being unique because of its ability to be interactive but this can also be seen as a drawback because narrative flow depends on the player, which means that it must lack in character development. This will make game industries only concentrate on other aspects of gaming such as graphics and visual effects. The underlying aspect of storytelling however is that as games have progressed through time so to have storytelling in video games.

With continuing improvement of video games everything has had the chance to improve because of continuing popularity and investment into the gaming industry. Games with high-quality and developing storylines are being made more, from originally just being critically acclaimed to now having mainstream success. They are being given a chance and having a strong narrative doesn't mean other aspects of the game have to suffer. Writers are getting on board from the start of making the game as the industry now knows their importance. For example 'BioShock' the character jack who has to explore an alternate 1960 underwater city. This game had both critical and mainstream success showing that games with a unique and complex storyline can do well. (Laughlin: 2011) Levine (Creator of BioShock) feels that 'BioShock' excelled by adopting a "novelistic" approach to its storytelling. This is clear that this approach in making 'BioShock'. Wolf (93: 2001) explains how the medium is becoming increasingly narrative based. With characters in conflict within an onscreen or 'diagetic' world and that the nature of video games places it alongside other media such as film and television. This is a game with enacted and embedded narrative as explained by Jenkins (2004) is where story is structured around characters movement through space and the game space is a memory that must be deciphered by the player and the player has to try to reconstruct plot. It is clear that this type of narrative is a strong in the game industry at the moment and has been successful in telling stories using various aspects of the game to tell it. Using not just one-dimensional characters but now numerous characters with different sub-stories to keep the player interested until completing the game. However this isn't the case for all games, some still leave the narrative under developed showing that 'BioShock' is a rare case but still showing the potential of story telling in video games.

Two types of media that tell stories are film and television. They have a structured narrative, and follow a linear pattern. This media compared to video games has cinematic similarities and improved audio and visual style. They're able to tell stories similar to films however obviously it still isn't up to the standard of cinema. Also it can be argued that some Hollywood blockbusters don't particular tell much of a story it is just visual effects e.g. Avatar. Dovey (88: 2006) explains how mainstream video games now participate in 'intermedial representational strategy' where they use techniques of film, graphic and text to reference existing forms of representation like cinema, television, sport and literature, Increasingly the game industries are putting more time and effort into making games similar to other Medias. This can be shown with film techniques such as 'mise-en-scene' the on-screen 'diegetic' world can help to tell the story therefore making the player interested in the story and more importantly to the industry. Levine (2007) "So much of the story of BioShock is told by what we call mise-en-scene." expressing the importance of the environment telling a story as well as dialogue. Another example is 'Assassins Creed Brotherhood' set in Rome in 1499, the buildings, clothes and scenery really captures the era and sets the scene for the story. This shows that games are telling stories in the same way that films do they even have similar adverts to film an, usually having a cut scene and not the gameplay. Also famous actors are now commonly in games such as Samuel L. Jackson in 'GTA: San Andreas' and Liam Neeson in 'Fallout 3'. Games need good actors to bring out the emotions of the characters to try to convince and connect with the player. However it still isn't as convincing as film, it is still young in comparison but it still has a long way to go be as good as other Medias at telling stories.

However they only tell stories to a certain extent. The narrative can be undeveloped; there is no real emotional attachment to the characters or the game. Some stories are too complex and the interactivity part of the game puts limits on

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